Elounda Bay Palace

"Highly disappointed with this holiday. The hotel on arrival looked impressive but the atmosphere was non existent. The restaurant looks old and tried and the food and service was extremely poor. The rooms need a little love but the maids did a great job with what they had to work with. The beach area is lovely and the sail bar could be very nice, but staff were not overly friendly. Maybe because its the end of the season who knows. Outside the hotel there is little to do without walking 20 minutes to the local town. Some nice restaurants there though. Overall it was Highly disappointing and we will not return to this part of Crete again."

"The hotel is generally well-organized, with professional service, spacious common areas, and beautiful gardens that feel almost like a park. The location is good, slightly isolated from the surrounding area, offering a generally peaceful atmosphere. The hotel itself tends to be calm. However, the value for money is disappointing. The rooms are small, outdated, visibly worn, and lack basic comfort features such as a sofa. In particular, our room on the mountain-view side was in this condition, and the overall standard may not apply equally to all room categories. Looking more closely, maintenance throughout the property could be significantly better, with many facilities showing their age. On arrival, our room was cold, and heating was unavailable. Even on colder days, the corridors continued to be cooled by the air conditioning, making the environment uncomfortable. Another disappointment was the lack of clarity regarding advertised amenities. When asking about facilities such as office workspaces, computer desks, or the hammam, reception staff sometimes seemed unaware of services the hotel supposedly offers. Despite advertising a hammam, no proper steam bath or warm-water spa facility was available. What stood out most negatively was the excessive pricing and constant additional charges. A bottle of water (1L) costs €5, a small Coca-Cola (250ml) €5.50, and even certain tea bags for the room cost extra. Obtaining additional tea bags was surprisingly difficult. The ATM also charges 15% plus a €5 base fee. The hotel's mini-market is also extremely overpriced and doesn't even sell bottled water, leaving guests with limited alternatives to the expensive hotel drinks. Extra charges must be taken into consideration to enjoy the stay."

"We were excited to be returning to Elounda Bay Palace, to be honest our last experience there was about 4 years ago and that was not a good experience. So why go again? We love the location, the beach, the town of Elounda and the people who work in the hotel, so we decided to give it one more chance. In many ways we were pleased that we visited again. There was a good welcoming experience, the room was what we wanted and in a better condition than we remembered. Service throughout was excellent, cleaning of rooms done immaculately and breakfast good - although very busy and staff clearly working very hard to keep tables prepared and served. We were glad that the upstairs bar was open at night, we like to relax with a drink after dinner, indoors. Evening meals were ok, more repetitive than in past years but much appeared to be freshly prepared and replenished when needed. Main disappointment was the unavailability of the Thalassa restaurant which was closed all of our stay and used for parties This led to another disappointment as the night time noise from these groups was often so loud we could hear it when in bed. Disappointment also that the F restaurant was closed as we used to enjoy going for lunch there in previous years. We were not informed of any of these closures, either on the website, though our agents or even in the documents were were given on check-in which still described them as open. Consequently we went to eat in the town to make a change from the buffet (and the noise!) We want to visit again, time will tell! We will watch the reviews......"