White Swan
White Swan is a 19-room hotel on 28is Oktovriou in Rethymno, close to the beach and a short walk from the old town. White Swan scores 9.7 on Booking.com across 747 reviews and 5.0 on Tripadvisor across 50, and that Tripadvisor figure is not a rounding: 48 of the 50 reviews rate the stay Excellent and none sits at Average, Poor or Terrible. It is the cleanest rating pair in this batch, and the hotel is small enough to explain why.
Crete Locals has no commercial relationship with this hotel. We earn a commission if you book through the availability links on this page, at no cost to you and with no bearing on what we write; both ratings were read on the date in the table.
Hotel information
| Hotel | White Swan |
|---|---|
| Address | 28is Oktovriou 5 |
| Type | Air conditioning · Airport shuttle |
| Style | Small owner-run hotel on 28is Oktovriou in Rethymno, near the beach |
| Signature | Free sunbeds and umbrella on the beach, with food and drink brought down to them |
| Keys | 19 rooms, up to an executive suite with a jacuzzi |
| Review record | 48 of 50 Tripadvisor reviews at Excellent, none below Very Good |
| Evidence | 9.7 on Booking.com across 747 reviews, a large sample for 19 rooms |
| Rooms | Spacious, with balconies guests use for their own breakfast |
| Not here | No spa, no pool complex, no children's programme |
| Airports | Chania (CHQ) about 60 km west, Heraklion (HER) about 80 km east |
| Booking.com rating | 9.7/10 (747 reviews) |
| Tripadvisor rating | 5.0/5 (50 reviews) |
| CreteLocals score | 8.9/10 · read the verdict |
Booking.com and Tripadvisor scores checked on September 25, 2026.
Location
White Swan is located at 28is Oktovriou 5, in Rethymno Town. The map below shows the exact spot; Google Maps and Waze give turn-by-turn directions.
Who White Swan suits, and who should skip it
White Swan suits couples who want a small, personally run hotel where the beach and the old town are both a walk away. It suits guests who like a balcony big enough to eat breakfast on. Families needing several rooms, and anyone wanting resort facilities, should book along the coast instead.
Advantages
- 48 of 50 Tripadvisor reviews rate the stay Excellent, with none below Very Good
- 9.7 on Booking.com across 747 reviews, a large sample for 19 rooms
- Sunbeds and an umbrella provided free, with food and drink brought to them
- Spacious rooms with balconies guests use for their own breakfast
- An executive suite with a jacuzzi that reviewers recommend by name
- Owners on site, which guests say is what makes the place
Disadvantages
- Only 50 Tripadvisor reviews, so that 5.0 rests on a small sample
- 19 rooms means peak dates are gone months ahead
- No spa, no children’s club and no resort facilities
- Rethymno’s beachfront road is busy in high summer
- Little flexibility if your room does not suit, since there is nowhere to move you
- Old town is a walk rather than immediately outside
The rooms: 19 keys, and the balcony matters
White Swan runs 19 rooms up to an executive suite with a jacuzzi, and the detail guests raise most is the balcony. Rooms are described as spacious and clean with balconies large enough to sit out and eat breakfast on, which in a town hotel is the difference between a room you sleep in and one you use.
Reviewers recommend the executive suite specifically. At a 19-room hotel the categories are few and the gap between them is real, so if you are here for four nights rather than ten, paying up is straightforward advice.
The beach service, and the owners
The hotel provides sunbeds and an umbrella at no charge, with staff bringing food and drink down to them. That combination, free loungers plus service, is rare enough on the Rethymno front that guests mention it before anything else, and it removes the daily cost that quietly adds up elsewhere on this coast.
The second theme is the owners. Guests describe a small-scale hotel with lovely owners where you feel genuinely welcome, which is the sort of sentence that explains a perfect rating better than any facility list. With 19 rooms the people running it meet every guest, and the review record shows what that produces.
How to get there
Fly into Chania airport (CHQ), about 60 km west, or Heraklion airport (HER), about 80 km east. Rethymno sits between the two on the north coast national road, and the hotel is in the town itself.
Pre-book a transfer if you are arriving in the evening; the operators and fares are in our guide to taxi and transfer services in Crete. Hire a car for Preveli, Arkadi or the Amari valley, and check the deposit and insurance terms in our car hire guide for Crete. Inside Rethymno you will walk: the beach is close and the Venetian old town is a short stroll.
The Crete Locals review
White Swan earns 8.9 from us. A 5.0 average is eye-catching and, on 50 reviews, not by itself conclusive; what makes the case is the 9.7 across 747 Booking.com reviews sitting beside it. That is a large sample for a 19-room hotel, and two platforms agreeing at the top of their scales is about as strong as the evidence gets.
The model is simple and well executed. Nineteen rooms, owners on the premises, spacious rooms with usable balconies, free sunbeds with service on the beach, and a position from which both the sea and a Venetian old town are walkable. Nothing here is expensive to provide; it is the result of a small operation doing each part properly, which is exactly what large hotels struggle to match.
The limitations are the ones any 19-room hotel has. There is no spa, no pool complex and no children’s programme, and if the room you are given does not suit there is nowhere else to put you. Availability is the practical problem: hotels with these numbers fill early, and Rethymno in July is not the moment to start looking.
Book White Swan for a couple’s stay in Rethymno where the beach, the old town and a balcony are the requirements, and book months ahead. Book a resort along the coast if you want facilities, and a larger town hotel if you need more than one room.
