Knossos Beach Bungalows Suites Resort & Spa
Knossos Beach Bungalows Suites Resort & Spa is a beachfront bungalow resort at Kokkini Hani, about 13 km east of Heraklion and 9 km from the airport. Knossos Beach puts its bungalows and suites directly on a sandy, shallow north-coast beach, and guests score the resort 8.6 out of 10 on Booking.com and 4.2 out of 5 on Tripadvisor. Our verdict lands at 8.0 out of 10: one of the easiest beachfront arrivals on Crete thanks to the short transfer, with older rooms and value the honest weak points.
Hotel information
| Hotel | Knossos Beach Bungalows Suites Resort & Spa |
|---|---|
| Address | Main Street, Kokkini Hani 715 00 |
| Type | Resorts |
| Style | Beachfront bungalow resort, family-friendly |
| Signature | Bungalows and suites on the sand; Swell restaurant |
| Spa | KB Spa with Ayurvedic and Thai treatments |
| First opened | 1968; partial renovation reported for 2024 to 2025 |
| Nearest airport | Heraklion (HER), about 9 km |
| Booking.com rating | 8.6/10 (201 reviews) |
| Tripadvisor rating | 4.2/5 (1,528 reviews) |
| CreteLocals score | 8.0/10 · read the verdict |
Booking.com and Tripadvisor scores checked on September 19, 2026.
Location
Knossos Beach Bungalows Suites Resort & Spa is located at Main Street, Kokkini Hani 715 00. The map below shows the exact spot; Google Maps and Waze give turn-by-turn directions.
Who Knossos Beach suits, and who should skip it
Knossos Beach suits travellers who rank the beach and a short transfer above everything else, and it suits them because the sand, the beach bar, and the Swell restaurant all sit inside one seafront plot. The lists below come from recurring themes in the resort’s 1,528 Tripadvisor reviews and 201 Booking.com reviews.
Advantages
- Beachfront position with bungalows steps from the sand and a beach bar with sunbeds and towels
- Transfer time among the shortest on Crete, about 15 minutes from Heraklion airport
- Swell restaurant, the dining venue reviewers name most often
- Service scored 4.4 out of 5, with the guest relations manager named in reviews
- Housekeeping scored 4.4 out of 5 for cleanliness
- Bus stop by the resort for cheap trips into Heraklion
Disadvantages
- Value is the lowest guest score at 4.1, a recurring price-versus-product theme
- Rooms score 4.1, because the resort dates from 1968 and the older rooms lag the renovated areas
- Airport proximity cuts both ways: short transfer, but some guests note aircraft and road noise
- Kokkini Hani is a modest resort village rather than a destination town
The rooms: bungalows and suites, best on the beach row
Knossos Beach spreads its rooms across low-rise bungalows and suites, with the best units directly on the beachfront row. The category you book matters more here than at most resorts, because the 4.1 rooms score averages renovated seafront units against older garden-side ones.
Ask for a renovated or seafront unit when you book, and confirm what the partial renovation reported for 2024 to 2025 covered for your room class. A sea-view bungalow here delivers far above the resort’s average score; an unrenovated garden room explains most of the critical reviews.
The beach, the Swell restaurant and the spa
The beach is the reason this resort exists: a sandy, shallow stretch with cabanas, towels, and a beach bar reviewers mention constantly. Families rate the shallow entry, and the private-feeling frontage keeps the sunbed race calmer than the big Hersonissos strips.
Two more anchors complete the picture. Swell, the signature restaurant, draws the most praise in reviews for its seafront dinners, and the KB Spa runs Ayurvedic and Thai treatments for the days the meltemi wind takes the beach.
How to get there
Knossos Beach is about 9 km from Heraklion airport (HER), roughly a 15-minute drive, which makes it one of the shortest resort transfers on the island. The resort sits on the old coast road through Kokkini Hani, with a bus stop nearby for Heraklion.
Three transport options cover the trip, and each fits a different stay. A pre-booked airport transfer or taxi is the natural choice at this distance; our guide to taxi and airport transfer services in Crete lists the operators and typical prices. A hire car earns its keep if you plan trips to Knossos, Heraklion, or the Lasithi plateau, and our car rental in Crete page compares local rates. The public bus along the north coast is the budget route, with the stop close to the resort entrance.
The Crete Locals review
Knossos Beach is the resort we mention when someone wants the sea at their door without a long drive after landing, because no comparable beachfront property sits this close to Heraklion airport. Knossos Beach has run since 1968, and the age shows in both directions: the gardens and the seafront rows have a settled, planted maturity that new-builds cannot fake, while parts of the room stock trail the setting. The 4.2 Tripadvisor average is really 2 resorts in one score: seafront and renovated units reviewed warmly, older units reviewed hard.
The daily rhythm here belongs to the beach. Mornings fill the cabana rows, afternoons drift between the beach bar and the shallow water, and evenings move to Swell, whose seafront tables are the resort’s best asset after the sand itself. Reviewers repeatedly name individual staff, and the 4.4 service score reads honest rather than inflated for a resort at this price point.
The trade-offs are equally clear. Value sits at 4.1 because rates price the beachfront rather than the room, and the airport that makes the transfer short also puts occasional aircraft noise over the sunbeds. Kokkini Hani itself offers tavernas and a bus stop rather than nightlife, so guests wanting a town walk after dinner should look at Hersonissos or Heraklion instead.
Book Knossos Beach with the room category as your main decision. A renovated seafront bungalow at a shoulder-season rate is one of the north coast’s most pleasant easy stays; the same money in an older garden room funds the complaints that hold the average down. May, June, September, and October give the resort its best light, calmer sunbed rows, and the shortest queue at Swell.
