Gennadi Grand Resort review – Rhodes with kids

It’s fair to say that the combination of Greek island and five-star luxury is going to tempt most parents – but as I checked in for my Gennadi Grand Resort review in Rhodes, the big question was how well it worked for kids.

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We were staying just weeks after the wildfires which devastated parts of the island in summer 2023, from which – thankfully – Gennadi Grand Resort had escaped without any major damage.

And with four outdoor pools, its own private sand and pebble beach and 11 restaurants and bars, not to mention suites and swim-up rooms among the accommodation, this five-star hotel sounded like the perfect start to a holiday in Rhodes with kids.

Gennadi Grand Resort, Rhodes: Vital Statistics

The hotel is on the south-east coast around half an hour south of Lindos and just over an hour from Rhodes airport in the north of the island, one of five hotels in the Lindos Hotels group.

There is a total of 288 rooms and suites, including swim-up rooms as well as double rooms, Junior suites with a sofa bed and two bedroom suites sleeping up to five people.

As well as the small private beach, there are three outdoor freshwater pools and one smaller children’s pool, suitable for toddlers and younger kids, near the kids’ club.

Facilities include a spa with its own indoor heated pool, fitness centre, a yoga pavilion, tennis courts, watersports and a variety of other activities to enjoy – some with a surcharge, some included.

The 11 restaurants and bars include the main buffet restaurant Philoxenia, as well as pool bar and beach bar. There are also a string of a la carte restaurants, including Greek specialities at Ouzo, fine dining at Edesma and a steak restaurant.

If you stay on an all-inclusive package, you can eat at three different theme restaurants per week as part of the Dine Around programme. Otherwise you can book in to any of the restaurants, but there will be a surcharge. There are limited restaurants nearby outside the resort.

Rooms at Gennadi Grand Resort cost from around £200. You can also book via booking.com or as part of a package with Jet2Holidays and TUI.

Gennadi Grand Resort review – a stay with kids

Arriving at the resort, we were presented with a small map to help us get our bearings – and it quickly became apparently that this was going to be very useful. There are signs dotted around too, but I turned the wrong way more than once as we tried to find out way between our room and the main hotel buildings.

In the end, it worked in our favour – taking a wrong turning led us to one of the smaller pools, which most guests seemed to overlook. Not only was it usually quieter than the others, that meant there was a much better chance of getting a lounger. Win win.

Our own room was a Junior Suite, with a double bed and double sofa bed, plus a balcony looking out across the gardens towards the sea.

The whole room is relatively open plan which was fine with an 11-year-old, but might be less useful if you’ve got younger kids and want to be able to close a door after their bedtime – there are two-bed suites though as well.

At one end, the balcony leading into the living area, with that sofa, a small table, a gigantic Nespresso machine (about double the size of the one I have at home) and plenty of space to strew our belongings.

The bed itself was super comfortable, with USB chargers by the bedside table and low lighting if you wanted to read.

Behind that sits the bathroom and hanging area plus drawers. The sinks and cupboards, including one with a small fridge, act as a sort of barrier between the bathroom and bedroom, but they are all part of an open-plan room.

With two sinks, robes and some gorgeous Korres toiletries to use in the powerful rainhead shower (behind a door, thankfully) and a separate toilet (also behind a door), it’s all very well designed though.

One place the design was let down is the hanging rail. I’m convinced hotel room designers are all 6ft men – while I could reach the hangers (perhaps occasionally on tiptoe), it was a stretch even at 5ft 3 and a bit. There’s no way my 11-year-old could have got anything down (although if you have a toddler, having things out of arms’ reach is a bonus).

With two of us in the room, we weren’t short of space for our clothes, although it might have felt a bit more limited with four.

But with plenty to explore in the resort, as well as some easy excursions nearby, we preferred to spend time relaxing on the pool loungers rather than in the room most of the time, lovely though it was.

My daughter was distinctly envious of the swim-up rooms, which did look very tempting (though the pool is more for splashing in than lengths), so I can imagine she’d have taken more persuading to leave those!

In fact, it’s very easy to let yourself drift off in this five-star bubble and enjoy doing very very little for days on end. Bliss. There’s even an app which lets you order food and drink to your lounger, as well as to book restaurants as well as with various other pieces of useful information, even order room service.

We made the most of it a couple of times, having settled ourselves down happily on a lounger and deciding we’d rather snack by the pool than make our way to Philoxenia.

You certainly won’t be short of food choices though. We ate in Philoxenia one evening as well as for breakfast, with a huge array of hot and cold dishes at both – traditional Greek, traditional British, continental and a whole lot else.

So if you fancied Shakshuka for breakfast, you could have it. The same goes for toast, cereal, some amazing Greek yoghurt, plenty of fruit, pancakes, actual cake and a full English, as well as cold meat, cheese, fish and probably quite a lot more than I haven’t listed.

For dinner, we booked in to the grill restaurant for some fabulous steak overlooking the swimming pool as the sun set, and then to Ouzo, which had a modern twist on a lot of Greek classics – a bruschetta style platter had toasted pitta and feta crumbled over it for example, followed by some fabulous seafood.

Be warned, if you’re thinking of skipping dessert, I was talked into having one with the promise it wasn’t too big – I could only eat half of it! But I seriously regretted not having more room.

In between eating, we could have tried watersports on the blue flag beach or outdoor yoga (I was tempted by the early morning session but failed to get out of the super comfy bed) just for starters.

Needless to say, the fitness centre wasn’t particularly high on my list – you will need to go in at least once to get pool towels: one of the few downsides was this slightly complicated system, which involved exchanging cards for towels which you had to keep for a specific amount of time, and which you had to return before you left otherwise you’d be charged.

I’m sure people walking off with towels is a problem, but it seemed surprising at a five-star resort. The pools themselves were gorgeous, but you also had to be prepared to get up early and bag a lounger (except, thankfully, at the quiet pool we found).

Officially it wasn’t allowed and staff would remove belongings from unoccupied loungers, but in practice, by 9am, practically every lounger at the main pool had something left on, despite there being about half a dozen people around… which meant we never actually went in that pool.

As well as the three larger ones, there’s a little splash pool for younger kids as well as the kids’ club – if you can persuade your kids to go, the spa looked very tempting. These days, my daughter is just as happy relaxing on a lounger next to me with her own book or phone!

We did manage to drag ourselves away for another little taste of Greek culture though. The resort runs weekly ceramic and cooking classes, where you can paint a tile to take home as a souvenir, or learn a traditional Greek recipe, such as melekouni, a sweet made with honey and sesame seeds, or gemista, vegetables stuffed with herby rice.

Our stay sadly didn’t coincide with the ceramic classes, which sounded great, but we did sign up for the (free) cooking class. Realistically, you don’t do that much cooking as the hotel isn’t set up for that – instead, we watched one of the hotel’s chefs do most of the hard work, creating the tomato rice stuffing which we then spooned into pre-scooped peppers and tomatoes.

Nice and easy even for younger kids though, and it was fun to hear him conjure up images of how village grandmothers would sit together, gossiping away as they prepared this – it’s also best eaten the following day, if you decide to make it at home.

With each day leaving you ever more chilled-out, it’s tempting to spend your whole time in the resort, but if you have your own car (and there’s also an option to rent one on site), it’s easy to explore the southern half of the island in particular.

The Acropolis of Lindos isn’t far away, so it’s very easy to get there early and beat the crowds. If you fancy heading over to the opposite coast, the Castle of Monolithos is around half an hour away too.

For more ideas of the best things to do in Rhodes with kids, check out my top picks

There are also a string of golden sand beaches along this coast, including some of the best beaches on Rhodes for families.

If you do want to head to Faliraki or Rhodes Town, it’s at least an hour’s drive though, so do factor that in if you’re planning to visit, as well as considering how you’ll travel from the airport and back.

We split our trip between our stay at Gennadi Grand Resort, and time in a villa on the opposite coast, closer to the attractions in the north, which also meant I could indulge in several days of sheer relaxation, knowing I would still have chance to to explore later.

Because if you weren’t relaxed when you checked in here, by lunchtime of the first day, I can guarantee you will be!

Rooms at Gennadi Grand Resort cost from around £200. You can also book via booking.com or as part of a package with Jet2Holidays and TUI.

Gennadi Grand review: my verdict

If you’re looking for family-friendly luxury in Rhodes, Gennadi Grand Resort has to be on your list – there were lots of families there during our stay, with everything from toddlers to teens, and there was never anywhere we felt unwelcome or on edge.

The buffet is fabulous with younger kids too, as is the ease of ordering through the app, while even my slightly particular 11-year-old found plenty she loved at the a la carte restaurants too.

While there were a few minor niggles around the pool loungers and towels, there’s plenty to love – the string of pools themselves and the beach, the welcoming atmosphere, the various activities, and the lovely extras like the fact the hotel group plant a tree for every booking, especially important after the wildfires.

And for the sheer indulgent ability to relax, it’s hard to beat.

For more tips on exploring the Greek islands, check out my guide to Greece with kids

Disclosure: My stay was free for the purposes of review – all opinions in this Gennadi Grand Resort review are my own. This post contains affiliate links – any purchases you make are unaffected but I may receive a small commission

Images copyright MummyTravels

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