Galaxy Iraklio Hotel
Galaxy Hotel Iraklio is a 127-room city hotel on Dimokratias Avenue, opened in 1978 and relaunched after extensive renovation in the winter of 2007 to 2008, with a 225 sqm freshwater pool that is the largest in Heraklion and conference space for up to 1,000. It is third of 47 hotels in the city on Tripadvisor at 4.6 across 2,270 reviews, with 8.9 out of 10 on Booking.com across 1,849, where staff score 9.6. Our verdict lands at 8.3 out of 10: the business and family choice rather than the sightseeing one, and the pool is the reason to pick it. We earn a commission if you book through the links on this page, which never decides what we write.
Hotel information
| Hotel | Galaxy Iraklio Hotel |
|---|---|
| Address | 75 Dimocratias Avenue |
| Type | Air conditioning · Airport shuttle |
| Style | Five-star city hotel, family owned since 1978, strong on business and conferences |
| Signature | A 225 sqm freshwater pool, the largest in Heraklion, open all year and to non-guests |
| Keys | 127 rooms from about 21 sqm; pool view or city view, no sea view |
| Dining | Vetri restaurant, Per Se lounge, the Pool Deck; live music Fridays May to October |
| Business | 9 conference halls up to 1,000 guests; 24 hour wellness club with marble steam room |
| Nearest airport | Heraklion (HER), about 6.8 km, roughly 8 minutes |
| Booking.com rating | 8.9/10 (1,849 reviews) |
| Tripadvisor rating | 4.6/5 (2,270 reviews) |
| CreteLocals score | 8.3/10 · read the verdict |
Booking.com and Tripadvisor scores checked on September 22, 2026.
Location
Galaxy Iraklio Hotel is located at 75 Dimocratias Avenue, in Heraklion Town. The map below shows the exact spot; Google Maps and Waze give turn-by-turn directions.
Who Galaxy suits, and who should skip it
Galaxy suits business travellers, conference delegates and families who want a real pool, free parking and a quiet street, and who are happy to walk 15 to 20 minutes or take a taxi into the old town. Skip it if you want to step out of the door into the Venetian centre, or if a sea view matters, because there is not one. The lists below come from recurring themes across its 2,270 Tripadvisor reviews and 1,849 Booking.com reviews.
Advantages
- Breakfast is the single most praised feature, with 151 mentions on Booking.com and a Great Food badge
- Staff score 9.6, the highest of Heraklion’s three best-rated city hotels
- A 225 sqm freshwater pool, the largest in the city, at ground level in gardens, the only one open all year, and open to non-guests as well
- Cleanliness 4.8 on Tripadvisor and 9.3 on Booking.com
- The strongest business setup in the city: purpose-built business rooms with large desks and laptop safes, plus 9 conference halls for up to 1,000
- Free parking on site, a 24 hour wellness club with a marble steam room, and live music every Friday from May to October
Disadvantages
- Room size and storage is Booking.com’s only listed complaint, with 69 mentions
- Location scores 4.3, the lowest of its subratings: the old town is a 16 to 22 minute walk, not the few minutes some listings imply
- Traffic noise from Dimokratias Avenue on the street side, with reviewers advising a pool-view or rear room
- Parking is free but capacity-limited and subject to availability
- No sea view and no old-town view: rooms face the pool or the city
- Bathroom fit and finish lags the rest, including a bath behind a shower curtain rather than a screen
The rooms: 127 keys, pool view or city view
Galaxy runs 127 rooms from about 21 sqm Superior doubles with balconies through Executive categories and suites to family rooms sleeping four or five, and the only view decision is pool or city, because the hotel sits inland from the walls.
Ask for a pool-view or rear-facing room. The traffic on Dimokratias Avenue is the one recurring noise complaint and it only affects the street side. Superior Business rooms are worth the few euros extra if you are working, with large desks, laptop-sized safes, extra sockets and faster wi-fi. Our records showed 120 rooms; the hotel and its owner both say 127.
The pool, the conference halls and Friday nights
The pool is the argument for this hotel: 225 sqm of freshwater at ground level in gardens with a pool deck and bar, which the hotel calls the largest and most stylish in Heraklion and which stays open all year, though it is not heated, so winter swimming depends on the weather. Unusually, the hotel invites non-guests to use it, so it doubles as a city meeting place.
Dining runs through Vetri for the buffet breakfast and Cretan cooking, Per Se for casual meals and cocktails, and the pool deck for light lunches, with live music every Friday between May and October. Behind that sits the real business: 9 conference halls with a combined capacity of 1,000, a business centre, and a wellness club open 24 hours with a gym and an all-marble steam room that costs guests nothing. It is the least scenic of the city’s top three and the most useful if you are here to work.
How to get there
Galaxy sits at 75 Dimokratias Avenue, about 6.8 km from Heraklion airport (HER), roughly 8 minutes by road, with Knossos 4.6 km away, the closest of the city hotels to the palace.
Three transport options cover the trip, and each fits a different stay. A taxi or transfer handles the 8 minute airport run; our guide to taxi and airport transfer services in Crete lists the operators and typical prices. A hire car makes most sense here of any city hotel, because parking is free on site and Knossos is 6 minutes away, and our car rental in Crete page compares local rates. On foot, allow 16 minutes to the Archaeological Museum and 22 to the Venetian harbour, which is the trade-off for the pool and the quiet.
The Crete Locals review
Galaxy earns an 8.3 by being honest about what it is. Third of 47 hotels in Heraklion, 4.6 across 2,270 reviews, staff at 9.6 and cleanliness at 9.3, with breakfast the single most mentioned strength. Open since 1978 and rebuilt internally over the winter of 2007 to 2008, it is a family-owned city hotel whose best features are a proper pool, free parking, a quiet street and conference space nothing else in the city matches.
The cost of that is distance. Location is its lowest subrating at 4.3, and our own routing agrees with the guests rather than the listings: 16 minutes on foot to the museum, 22 to the harbour. Anyone booking a Heraklion hotel to walk out into the Venetian centre should book GDM Megaron or Aquila Atlantis instead and pay the same money. Rooms are also the smallest-feeling of the three, which is Booking’s only recorded complaint, and the bathrooms have not kept pace with the rest.
Where it wins outright is the water and the work. A large freshwater pool open all year in a city of rooftop plunge pools is a real distinction, and if you are travelling with children or staying a week rather than two nights, that matters more than a seven minute walk. The Friday live music and the 24 hour wellness club are the sort of detail that earns repeat guests.
Book Galaxy for a business trip or a longer family stay, with a pool-view room away from the avenue, breakfast taken slowly, and a hire car for Knossos before the coaches arrive. Entry rates run about 161 to 164 euros a night in July and August, level with the two hotels in the centre, so choose on pool and parking rather than price.
