Samaria Hotel
Samaria Hotel is an 81-room four-star hotel in central Chania, a short walk from the old town and the Venetian harbour, and it is the strongest city-hotel record in this batch. Samaria scores 9.3 on Booking.com across 865 reviews and 4.8 on Tripadvisor across 1,068, where it ranks 7th of 122 hotels in Chania Town. With 904 of those Tripadvisor reviews at Excellent and 7 at Poor or Terrible, this is a hotel that very rarely has a bad week.
We have no commercial relationship with this hotel. Crete Locals earns a commission if you book through the availability links on this page, which costs you nothing and does not change what we write; both ratings were read on the date in the table.
Hotel information
| Hotel | Samaria Hotel |
|---|---|
| Address | 69, Kidonias Str., 1866 Square |
| Type | Air conditioning · Bicycle rental |
| Style | Four-star hotel in central Chania, a walk from the old town and the harbour |
| Signature | A pool in the middle of the city, which almost no old-town hotel has |
| Keys | 81 rooms up to junior suites, whose bathrooms draw the most detailed praise |
| Ranking | 7th of 122 hotels in Chania Town on Tripadvisor |
| Review record | 904 of 1,068 Tripadvisor reviews at Excellent; 7 at Poor or Terrible |
| Perks | Members club: 15 percent off the a la carte restaurant, welcome fruit and wine |
| Not here | No beach, and parking in central Chania is limited |
| Airport | Chania (CHQ) about 15 km, roughly 20 minutes |
| Booking.com rating | 9.3/10 (865 reviews) |
| Tripadvisor rating | 4.8/5 (1,068 reviews) |
| CreteLocals score | 8.8/10 · read the verdict |
Booking.com and Tripadvisor scores checked on September 25, 2026.
Location
Samaria Hotel is located at 69, Kidonias Str., 1866 Square, in Chania Town. The map below shows the exact spot; Google Maps and Waze give turn-by-turn directions.
Who Samaria suits, and who should skip it
Samaria suits travellers who want to walk into Chania old town but still have a pool to come back to in the afternoon. It suits couples and friends using the city as a base for western Crete. Anyone whose week is built around a beach should book on the coast at Agia Marina or Platanias, and anyone wanting a historic building should look inside the old town itself.
Advantages
- 7th of 122 hotels in Chania Town on Tripadvisor, at 4.8 across 1,068 reviews
- 904 of those reviews rate the stay Excellent, with 7 at Poor or Terrible
- Pool on site, which very few central Chania hotels have
- Walking distance to both the old town and the harbour
- Junior suites with bathrooms guests rank above any others they have used in Europe
- A members club with a 15 percent discount on the a la carte restaurant, and a welcome fruit basket and wine
Disadvantages
- No beach, since this is a city address a walk from the water
- Parking in central Chania is limited and adds cost to a hire car
- A modern four-star building rather than a Venetian conversion
- City noise reaches some rooms in summer
- At 81 rooms with this rating, high season books up early
- Little specifically for children beyond the pool
The rooms: 81 keys, and the junior suite is the one
Samaria runs 81 rooms up to junior suites, and the junior suites draw the most detailed praise. One guest, describing a five-night stay, singled out the bathroom as finer than any they had used in many years of travelling in Europe, which is a specific compliment rather than a general one and worth acting on when you choose a category.
Rooms are comfortable and well kept across the record, and breakfast is consistently called excellent. If you are a light sleeper, ask for a room away from the street side, because this is a central city hotel and Chania is busy until late in summer.
A pool in the middle of Chania, and the staff
The pool is the structural advantage. Almost every hotel inside Chania’s old town is a conversion with a courtyard at most, so afternoons in July mean walking back out into the heat or taking a bus to a beach. Samaria has a pool and a restaurant looking onto it, which turns the middle of the day into something usable and is the main reason to choose it over an old-town room.
The other reason is the staff. Guests name them, Theodora in particular, and describe the service as the thing that turned a good holiday into the one they talk about afterwards. A 4.8 average across more than a thousand reviews is not achieved by decor, and the reviews make clear where it comes from.
How to get there
Fly into Chania airport (CHQ), about 15 km away on the Akrotiri peninsula, roughly 20 minutes by road. The hotel sits in the modern centre of Chania, within walking distance of the old quarter.
Take a taxi or a pre-booked transfer from the airport, since parking in the centre is the difficult part; the operators are in our guide to taxi and transfer services in Crete. Hire a car for the days you go to Elafonissi, Balos or the Samaria gorge, and check the deposit and insurance terms in our car hire guide for Crete. Everything in the old town, including the harbour and the market, is a walk from the door.
The Crete Locals review
Samaria earns 8.8 from us. Seventh of 122 hotels in Chania Town, on 4.8 across 1,068 Tripadvisor reviews and 9.3 across 865 on Booking.com, is a genuinely strong position in the most competitive hotel market in western Crete, and both samples are large enough that neither is noise.
The hotel’s advantage is a practical one that visitors work out too late. Chania is a walking city with a magnificent old town and almost no hotels with pools inside it, so in July and August the middle of the day is the problem to solve. Samaria solves it: you walk out to the harbour in the morning, come back to a pool at two, and walk out again for dinner. That is a better rhythm than either an old-town room or a beach hotel 20 minutes away can offer.
Against that, this is a modern four-star building and not a Venetian house, and guests who want stone walls and a courtyard should pay more and stay in the old town. There is no beach. Parking is a nuisance. None of these are faults; they are the trade for the location and the pool, and the review record shows guests are happy with the deal.
Book Samaria for a Chania week where you want to walk everywhere and swim in the afternoon, and book a junior suite if the budget stretches. Book inside the old town if the building matters most, or on the coast if the holiday is really about the sea.
