Hotel Blue Palace Elounda

, Crete, Greece
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Hotel Blue Palace Elounda

, Crete
5 star

Rooms: 207

Plaka - Crete - 720 53 - Greece Hotel Website | | 2841-065500
447 Traveller

Reviews - Hotel Blue Palace Elounda

Historical Traveller Reviews of Hotel Blue Palace Elounda

The Jewel of Crete

from ub42
On the way from the airport, our taxi driver told us that the Blue Palace is the new Jewel of Crete.... I would have to agree with this.
The hotel is beautiful. Staff is very friendly and tries very hard to please.
Food was excellent but as other reviewer's mentioned not a bargain.
There is a small town within walking distance with many lovely restaurants overlooking the sea where you can get a decent dinner for a good price.

The rooms are really nice. We had a maisonette room and a luxury suite next to each other. Both had pools and a GREAT view. Our rooms were all the way on top. It was quite a hike to get there but we had absolute privacy. Be careful, there are lower rooms where everybody can see you from the lift to the beach. I would recommend to avoid these rooms.

The bar area , which you see on every picture, is absolutely beautiful.

This hotel gives you what you paid for. Total ***** experience.

Blue Palace = paradise!

from Spinalonga
Blue Palace Hotel is one of the best luxury summer resorts I have ever visited. The location of the resort is a quiet land around 60km East from Heraklion airport. The resort is situated within walking distance to a quiet fishing village called Plaka. There is also another town which is close to it called Elounda which is around 3km.

One of the most unique features of this resort is it's proximity and view to a famous tiny island called Spinalonga. Daily boat trips are available from the resort to the island. You can also rent a peddle boat to get there. The views from the resort are very special: further to having this unique island, you are surrounded by mountain views on all sides.

There are 2 main pools available (only one has a children's section). I strongly recommend a room with private pool if you can afford the extra charge. The private pools are designed in a way that makes you feel that you are in the sea. All pools are filled with sea water but also contain small quantities of chlorine. Unfortunately, the beach is pebble based but you get used to it quickly and does not affect the overall experience. Swimming in the sea is really nice as the resort is inside a quiet bay. There are a variety of boat trips available from the resort each week. The trips include fishing, swimming in secluded areas and journeys to other towns. The trips start around 10am and last for 3-5 hours and cost between 15-50 Euro per person. There are also two private hire boats available, one is a one cabine speedboat and the other is a larger boat that can accomodate events such as private lunch/dinners. The cost of hiring a private boat is expensive: the speedboat costs around 500 Euro for 3 hours, pricing for the larger boat is only available on request as it dependend on your requirements.

The rooms are modern, spacious and very well designed overall. Since the resort is only a couple of years old, everything feels new. One small flaw is the room design is the soundproofing: you are likely to hear your neighbours if they have children. There are some rooms which should be avoided when placing your booking and the ones situated next to the lift that transports guests from the main lobby to the beach. These rooms lack privacy (especially if you have a private pool) and you are likely to experience some mechanical noises. Other rooms to avoid are the ones situated on the top floor as these are far and only reachable by stairs after a point.

There are 5 restaurants inside the resort. A fanstastic breakfast buffet is served at the Olea. (make sure not to miss the fresh pancakes and the waffles!) Having lunch and dinner each night at the hotel can get a bit expensive and repetative. The Isola Grill restaurant is situated just by one of the pools and is a perfect place to have lunch if you prefer to stay at the resort during the day. The pricing is very reasonable and the food quality is excellent value for money. For example, you can have a greek salad for around 8 Euro's. A great alternate place to have lunch is in the town of Plaka which you can get to in a 5 minute walk from the resort. There is even a special route from the beach which takes you straight into the heart of Plaka. The three places you can have dinner within the resort are: L'Orangerie which is the highest grade restaurant inside; Blue Door which is restaurant by the beach with nice views; Asia Blue which has 4 seperate mini-menus which include Chinese, Japanese, Mongolege and Thai food. Apart from the Sushi, I did not find the Asia Blue restaurant appealing overall. Finally just a quick note on room service, the food quality is excellent and so is their ultra fast response times.

Here are the best restaurants outside the resort I experienced during my stay: Palaria Taverna in Plaka was my favorite, this is great place for both lunch and dinner; the attention to detail on each of their dishes makes this place very special (make sure to try to Lobster pasta). Delphini Taverna in Plaka was another good place, they have a nice selection of fresh fish each day. If you feel like having traditional greek cuisine, the best place around is called Bokos in Agios Nikolos; Bokos is about a 15 minute cab drive from the hotel but is certainly worth visiting; they have live music during the weekends and it is recommended that you book in advance, the number to call for reservations is ---.

Nice but needs some work

from miagringa
This hotel is gorgeous (especially the lobby/pool area & beach), has great views, and yet needs some work. Service in particular is a problem, in that the people working there are not very well-informed, are not the most professional, and sometimes exhibit "attitude" that you shouldn't get at a top resort (this was rare but did happen twice). Additionally, though the breakfast buffet is excellent, some of the other food is just above average & could be improved to put it in line with the architectural beauty of the hotel). Further, the hotel's prices for food/drink etc. seem a bit on the high side (we were charged 6 EUR when we requested ice in our room, which actually made us laugh!). The other small problem is the location of the hotel - very far away from most places of interest in Crete (though a very pretty area). I liked it but I think it could improve quite a bit.

Loved it!

from ruby_malone
My partner and I stayed recently at the Blue Palace at the Starwood employee rate (i.e making the hotel very little money!) yet we were upgraded to a room with our own pool, given complimentary bottles of wine, fruit and water and treated with every courtesy. The rooms themselves are light and airy with wonderfully comfortable beds and glorious bathrooms. The decor is elegant and stylish without sacrificing comfort in any way and all rooms have spectacular views of the island of Spinalonga, and although we had a room in full view of the funicular and its gawping occupants, this didn't bother us too much although I do think it is perhaps the one design fault of the hotel as it does invade your privacy to a degree.
The only other oversight we encountered which seemed unbelievable at the time was that the nearest ATM is in Elounda, and the hotel reception did not offer anykind of cashback service or allow us to charge some cash to our room bill. Luckily we just had enough change to get the bus to the cashpoint (5 miles away) but what we would have done otherwise I don't know!
We ate in the hotel (The Blue Door being our favourite for the sea views and wonderful Greek salad) where the quality was excellent. Yes it was pricey, but to echo another reviewer, certainly no more so than at any other 5 star hotel and equivelent to London restaurant prices. Breakfast on the deck of our room was a real treat and the service effecient, low key and friendly. If you want traditional Greek cooking, Plaka is a stroll away and has some nice tavernas where we had some good basic cheap meals and 'interesting' Cretan wine.
For those people on a tighter budget (the hotel's drivers will take you anywhere but it's expensive) there's a bus that goes from Plaka every hour or so to the nearby towns of Elounda and Agios Nicolaos for around 2 euros. These towns are far more 'touristy' but have the advantage of a wider selection of tavernas and bars, and for a holiday lasting longer than a week I thing a trip to one of the towns for a change of scenery is a must.
Overall we had a fantastic, restful holiday and I would unhesitatingly recommend the Blue Palace to anyone!

What a great place!

from A TripAdvisor Member
Really a beautiful hotel. We stayed 5 nights in a villa with private pool, jacuzzi, dvd player etc. Excellent roomservice, a very good greek tavern with "the catch of the day" and a eastern restaurant with sushi etc. A lot of couples between 30-45, a wide mix of nationalities, from russian to american. Friendly staff. Not a hotel for a holiday with little children.

Luxury?... I think NOT!!

from lmr009
My boyfriend and I stayed at this hotel for five nights. We just flew back to New York City yesterday. Overall, the hotel was nice; however, if you want a true greek experience do not stay at this hotel.

Unfortunately, we encountered a number of difficulties and problems with this hotel. Upon arrival, we received the wrong bed configuration. We had asked for a king bed, but received two singles. We arrived late at night (around midnight) and were exhausted, and then had to wait for staff to fix it up.

Additionally, staff was cold and lacking information and efficiency. On a number of occasions we were misquoted taxi prices to the city of Elounda, and also were provided with no transportation accomodations when the taxi cabs went on strike and would not serve the Blue Palace.

All in all, the food was more italian and asian than greek, the staff was unpleasant, misinformed and cold. I would not stay here again, and I would not recommend anyone else to stay here. There are many other more beautiful and amazing places to spend your time and money.

Loved this hotel but . . .

from A TripAdvisor Member
My wife and I would echo most of the superlatives from your other reviewers, especially the position, views, rooms, standard of service, excellent pool, good breakfast brought to your room for a small charge, very good room service dinner etc.
A few criticisms remain. Disabled or elderly may find the uphill trek to distant rooms tiring, and entry into the pool from skimpy ladders difficult. We also agree with the comments from your Austrian reviewers. The better restaurants are expensive eg the Orangerie where the quality was erratic - one starter being superb followed by an indifferent main course, overloud 'music'. Food from the Blue Door (seafood) was usually very good but if full standards fell, eg cooling meat on cold plates. We warmly agree the recommendation to take a 10 minute walk to the next village Plaka for excellent clean tavernas with superbly cooked lobsters etc at very low prices, and a useful mini-market.
To sum up a magnificent hotel with a few flaws.

Blue Palace Resort - fantastic!!

from Love2TravelDWorld
If you can afford to stay in a place like the Blue Palace you should be ready to spend your money!! If you don't have money to spend - stay at a 3 star hotel. One of the things about staying at a 5 star resort is that the food is overpriced, so is the wine..the phone calls...and everything else. Hasn't this always been the case...and still is everywhere around the world...at every luxury hotel.
I stay at Luxury hotels 10-12 times a year...and have status at all the major hotel chains...but Starwood is my favorite. My wife and I stayed at the Blue Palace for 5 nights to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. I redeemed points for the stay...and they still upgraded us to a room with a private pool...probably 'cos I was Platinum status.
Things at the resort are expensive, but then that's how it is at every 5 star hotel in Europe. So we were not surprised. We'd just walk to Plaka and pick up some water, wine etc so we didn't have to buy it at the hotel. And most nights we did dinner in town..we spent all our time at the resort so it was nice to get out in the evenings and do dinner elsewhere.
On our anniversary night I had the hotel set up dinner on our balcony so we could sit by the pool and watch the sun set. I asked them to do this...and left the details to the hotel. They did a fantastic job. They even gave us a free cake with 'Happy anniversary' written on it...without my asking. They set up the dinner when we were at the bar as we had planned so my wife was shocked when we got back to the room to see the dinner set up so nicely on the balcony.
The service at this hotel is outstanding. The views from the room are great. The spa is awesome. And even though the private pools aren't heated, it's a minor inconvenience. Hotels in Europe ---- and have exceptionally bad service...so the Blue Palace was a very pleasant experience and one of the finest hotels we ever stayed in. We definitely plan on going back there if we go to Crete again.

Beautiful Hotel

from A TripAdvisor Member
We stayed at the Blue Palace for a week in July 04. From the minute we arrived we were delighted with hotel from the scenery to the service, wich was brilliant for our whole stay.

We had a room with our own pool which was lovely for sitting around to have lunch when you didn't want to be bothered by anyone else. The fact that it has two huge pools was brilliant as it means that generally children are down at the pool nearer the sea and its quieter at the top pool but it was still a child friendly hotel.

All in all our experience at the hotel was great, yes the food was a little expensive but if you didn't want to pay to eat at the hotel the town was only a cheap taxi ride away and there were a few good restaurants there.

Hotel is wonderful (we are not chavs!)

from msandars
My boyfriend and i stayed at the blue palace in september 2004 and have been meaning to write a review for ages, however, since reading some of the more recent postings we have been compelled to write now to rave about this wonderful hotel!

We had a room with a private pool (yes the pools are not heated but as they are not too deep we did not find this to be a problem) at the top of the hotel - with brilliant views of Spinalonga during the day and peaceful at night. Like other reviewers we were very glad not to have been allocated a room under the funicular lift. The room was extremely comfortable - we especially liked the huge bed and massive walk in shower. We were on b&b and as we realised it was only a few more euros each to have breakfast delivered to the room, and we dislike buffet style eating, we never actually ate at the main buffet restaurant. The room service for breakfast was fantastic in every way, including ordering (the staff obviously have a system of looking up guest names so they can answer the phone with your name).

We ate in the hotel most nights because we found the food and service to be excellent and we liked the peace and quiet throughout the hotel. The food was fantastically well presented too, especially in the oriental restuarant. We found the food to be fairly expensive but certainly no more than we expected for a hotel of this calibre. If we had wanted to eat pizza for 3 euros we certainly would not have stayed in this particular hotel - we are not chavs! We agree with another reviewer that the wine was overpriced but since we were only staying a week we felt spending 40 euros on a bottle of wine for a few nights when everything else at the hotel was so good was ok. Similarly, the kir royale cocktails at the main bar were pricey (10 euros each) but highly recommended. We did venture into Elounda at night a couple of times and ate in some reasonable sea front tavernas. Obviously these were cheaper than the hotel, however, we missed the tranquility of our hotel and didn't stay out too long. In the day the boat trip to spinalonga is a must - even if just to check out the view of the hotel from the island!

My boyfriend and i both work in the travel industry and go on at least 4 or 5 trips all over the world each year in luxury hotels and we both agree that this is the best hotel we have ever stayed in. Although the majority of other hotel guests during our stay were middle-aged (we are both mid-twenties), I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the blue palace to anyone who likes the finer things in life and doesn't mind paying the appropriate prices - we can't wait to go back again someday soon.

Top Local Tips for Crete

Best restaurant in Plaka Walk to Plaka it's only 5 minutes from the Blue Palace Hotel and go to Osteria - it's a Taverna at the back end of Plaka. The most amazing food, great value for money and wonderful staff. We discovered this place by accident and then recommended it to others, by the end of our trip we had 4 dinners and 1 lunch here and our friends did the same. The beach front tables, fresh food, great local wines and excellent service make this a magical place!

Food outside hotel Try Plaka, a small fishing village about 5 minutes walk from hotel Excellent choice of tavernas and much better value than th restaurants in the hotel

Great Finds There is a small bakery run by a woman on a side street of Elounda. The street is between the butcher shop and a jewelry shop. May be some of the best baklava I had in Greece. There is also a fairly new open air gyro spot frequented by locals on the right as you're driving into Elounda from Agios Nikolaos. Can't remember the name but it started with an 'A'.

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Other names for Hotel Blue Palace Elounda

  • blue palace resort spa
  • blue palace resort & spa
  • blue palace resort
  • blue palace hotel
  • blue palace
  • Address: Plaka - Crete - 720 53 - Greece
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