Completed a 2 night stay at Royal Senses in September. Weather still great...Hilton Diamond, upgraded to the same room as others have noted in the past. 1121-1126 on the diagram. A suite with a little lawn, no pool upgrade despite request in advance. I was a little disappointed in that (Thinking back to my plunge pool at the Conrad Punta de Mita), but over my 2 days I realized having a nice little green lawn was actually pretty nice. Besides, I drove to another beach and enjoyed that - except for Preveli - where I started to walk down then realized I didn't want to deal with the horde of people.
After Royal Senses, I stayed elsewhere and went to Balos and Elafonissi among others. One was great, other over-rated. Balos is great, but only if you get there early like I did - like 8am early. Assuming you don't like crowds. Elafonissi is maybe better...if you arrive early - which realistically would require you to stay overnight in the town there. But view of Elafonissi is not as nice / dramatic as Balos.
Didn't much care for the Royal Senses hotel beach -- though I see why they built it.
Had an end room, so pretty good view. Having a ground / 1st floor room is better in that you don't see anyone below you -- where as a 2nd floor / balcony room gives you a better view, but in many of those rooms you would see a pool below that you couldn't use. The room decor / color scheme is beautiful. I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the size of the suite as well. So it's definitely an upgrade from the standard room - which I'm guessing are mostly 2nd floor balcony rooms. About half the rooms on the property have their own pool by my reckoning.
Quite a few people...not sure what the occupancy was, it wasn't full...but meal time - dinner, it was quite busy by all appearances, though I only had breakfast there, and usually earlier.
The pools CLOSE EARLY which I thought was a little odd...and then "everyone" eats dinner with a silent pool area. I recall swimming at night at the Conrad and liked that. Though now that I think about it, a stay in Turkey last year at the LXR Bodrum - the pool also closed early, but it didn't bother me. Practically no one when I went there...due to COVID. Helped that I had a great Jr Suite.
The Royal Senses pool is relatively narrow, but very long, so easy to find your own space as I did. Had late check out. Staff is great...nice welcome dish of treats when you arrive and a towel to wash your face. No early check-in though. but they do have a changing room downstairs if you elect to go into the pool before your room is ready, I did not, as I went out and drove to Preveli and Plakias.
Pool closing at 6:30 PM.
Inviting looking at night, but no swimming. Of course, you can sit by the pool. Of course, if you had your own room pool...you could use that anytime.
Lots of people at Preveli...with many more on the way down. Parking lot was nearly full. Ok..it's not as jam packed as a Rio or UK beach might be on a sunny warm day, but still way too many folks for me.
