Elounda Bay Palace

Hotel is nice and staff are friendly.Problem is the Russians like to come down before 8 o’clock in the morning and put all their belongings on the Beach lounges and then go away for hours, some over 4 hours .It’s not what you expect from a five star hotel which is a member of LEADING HOTELS OF THE WORLD ,absolute disgraceful, shame on you.

Well summer has given way to autumn and we can’t wait to book our return to the Elounda Bay Palace next year. This year we returned not once but twice and think that will be the pattern of years ahead. This is a hotel where you return year after year and like old wine it matures and gets better ok there are things that are not perfect, the beds could be more comfortable, the air conditioning is noisy, water has to be paid for at every meal, rooms need updating, BUT the real reason we return is the warm sense of returning to a second home, not only the welcome from the staff, the wonderful location but also meeting up with people who you may only see once a year but who are all captured by the magic when gazing out across the sea on a balmy evening or swimming in the clear waters, dining in all the restaurants between the Elounda Beach and the Bay, or a cocktail before dinner well it’s just In the words of one of my favourite films Magic

We were amazed and surprised when we arrived to find ourselves upgraded to the most amazing suit, with a fabulous view! But only 4 stars because of very loud music at night (see end of review). This is a lovely hotel with a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere. The beds are very comfortable - something we always look for. The food is delicious, and the atmosphere at breakfast and dinner is lovely. Listening to the pianist play live music was wonderful when she arrived. Unfortunately because we got to dinner at 7pm we only heard 2 songs the whole week as by the time the pianist arrived 8:30 (?) we were about to leave. What we like most about this place is the relaxed atmosphere and the fact that the hotel has its own private beach. This makes it really nice and easy to keep an eye on children as they play in the pool and the sea without having to move your sunbed! There is a poolboy who sorts out your sunbed (if he happens to be there) for you, and the staff are all very helpful. The nearly village of Elounda is a short walk away. Agios Nikolaus is only a short bus ride away, and the waterpark is about 45minutes in a car. We had the most wonderful stay, and I desperately wanted to give the hotel 5 stars. The reason I didn’t is because: We go to bed very early (9am!) and were woken on one night at 10pm for a few hours because there was the loudest booming music coming from (what we now know was) a wedding party. Our room was a long way away from the wedding party. Not in the same building but we could hear the music very loudly in our room. It was like nightclub underneath us. It startled us all awake, and we could ear every word of every song like it was on a radio in your room. There was no chance of sleep even with earbuds in. It was totally unacceptable and we had not been warned. We contacted reception and they told us it was a wedding until 11pm. It went on until 11:30. I contacted the manager by email (who responded a week later) and he said that Weddings are very important and it was in accordance with their noise policy. Which i am sure it can’t have been - i don’t think they realise how really really loud it was. There have been musicians other nights that we would never hear from our room. They haven’t recognised how loud it was, but have accepted that they should have told us in advance that we would be awoken by a wedding party. To be honest we wouldn’t have booked had we known we would be woken up, and it will probably stop us going again. Which is such a shame because we do like it there. I spent the rest of the week wondering if I was going to be woken up randomly at night! So what I would say is, if you do decide to book make sure there aren’t any events going on like a wedding as you won’t sleep. Or go to bed after 11:30! I know weddings make hotels a lot of money, but I know for sure they could have still had loud music at the party without it being so loud that we could hear it so loudly in our room. If I hadn’t had a child I would have gone down to the wedding and joined in the party because you could not get away from it! You decide!