Blue Palace Resort and Spa

katie plakas

Our stay at Blue Palace was wonderful for everyone from our toddler to my parents. The hotel is perfectly situated just a few minutes walk to Plaka and a few minutes drive to Elounda. The hotel has multiple amazing restaurants, all of which I would highly recommend. If given the chance, definitely visit the Phaea Farmers Feast Pop Up - it was a truly unforgettable experience. The pool and beach are lovely and well equipped. The entire staff is super friendly and helpful with anything that you might need during your stay. We would definitely recommend staying at Blue Palace.

Tony Black

Great rooms, great service, great breakfast and awesome beach! Bring snorkel masks, lots of cool fish to see right off the beach and a convenient dock to get in and out of the water. The water sports guru next door is awesome too!

Lindsay Cilia

5 star service, but not a 5 star hotel. We wanted to love Phea Blue Palace but unfortunately were quite disappointed by our stay. We were unaware that the rebranding of the hotel (the hotel used to be a part of the luxury Marriott brand) also meant separating out the hotel into 2 separate properties. The old property boasted a beautiful archway entrance, stunning pools and many more options of restaurants and luxury. The archway part of the property has been sold to the Rosewood brand (which was well under construction during our stay and since the properties are still fairly connected there was constant construction noise). The Blue Palace converted property is now the smaller part of the old hotel and clearly is a bit of an impromptu set up. The concierge desks are set up in what used to be a Spa area. The rooms are quite outdated (they look like Marriott rooms and our bathroom leaked from the shower into the toilet area) and our private pool clearly needed some updates. The grand pool area is similarly small and disappointing as it is clearly the "smaller" of what used to be 2 pools from the old hotel. The beach while quite pretty needs updated chairs (most of them were stained and dirty). This all said the service is impeccable everyone we spoke to was beyond kind, helpful and available. They went out of the way to set up reservations, give advice and be readily available for anything we needed during our stay. This hotel is currently the most expensive of hotels in the area and I just don't think it is currently living up to the expectations until they do some rework and renovations. We wanted to love it but were just disappointed by the offerings at this time.

Fernando de Faria

My wife and I stayed here for 5 days for our honeymoon back in May. I give it 5 stars with a very important caveat. To start, the people are amazing. Konstantinos (the general manager), the front desk manager (whose name I forgot), María (the Anthos restaurant manager), and Giannis (the head chef). They were all so genuinely inviting and went well above the expectation to ensure we had a great stay. We had a change in schedule due to a cancelled ferry into Crete and they were able to refund us one night. They also made a few other accommodations for us which we greatly appreciated. I cannot stress enough how hospitable these people are. As another reviewer pointed out, you should do your research about this property before you book because they are going through a transition period where the full amenities from the past will no longer be available to you. All of this information is available on their website but at a glance, it can be misleading if you don’t do proper research. Other than that, nothing but high praise for this resort. Take advantage of the water sports and cooking lesson, and spend time in downtown Elounda!

Jihee Kang

Oh, Elounda, what an amazing way to end our Crete trip. Check-in went smoothly, we got a corner room with a private pool. Although it’s heated, it felt kind of cold at night. The room looked clean overall. Room service was quick and delicious. My only complaint is that the service provided by the beach was too slow. There was only one girl working under the sun, and I could tell she was getting frustrated. You might have to come out early and reserve seats. Had a weird encounter with a family that’s been away for 2hrs come back to tell us that those were their seats and asked for us to move (weird and privileged to say the least). Second day we rode the water taxi from the hotel to Spinalonga island, and this experience was so much cooler in person! It was worth every penny. Also bring your own water, the island has one convenience store and the price is pretty hefty. Breakfast is free, and I recommend asking for seating by the balcony so you can enjoy the view. We also had a couple of drinks on the outdoor balcony in front of the hotel; the bartender was super friendly. Then, on our last night, we had a lovely dinner overlooking the island, and oh my goodness, the service, food, ambience was a top notch (Please book in advance for dinner and ask for outdoor seating). This hotel was purely magical; it really elevated the experience of Crete. I would love to come back again. Thank you for such a memorable stay.