Daniel's and my first anniversary celebrations were planned long in advance.

To start with, at the end of last year, Aerosmith announced that they were coming to Israel for their final tour as a band {!!}, and the date for their concert was set exactly on our wedding anniversary. Of course, we were the first to order tickets, but it was clear to both of us that this was going to be the beginning of the festivities – because neither of us was willing to give up on a pampering vacation abroad 😉 We wanted to fly to a relatively close place, but still feel like we’re abroad and not just go on one of those sunbathing, full-board deals – the kind that makes you stay in a hotel and skip everything around it, as we’ve done till now… Honestly, we didn’t have to think too much. We knew that although we had both been to Greek tourist resorts several times, we never really experienced the true Greece properly and this was a great opportunity to complete everything we had missed the last time we had been in Crete almost two years ago.

We started the trip in Crete with three nights at the Blue Palace Resort & Spa on the northwestern coast of Crete in front of the wonderful view of Spinalonga, the famous leper island. After all, if the resort is good enough for Rihanna and Lady Gaga – we assumed it would be good enough for us too 😉

During our stay at the hotel we visited the small fishing village of Plaka and the town of Elounda, which are within walking distance of the resort, and we drove to the picturesque town of Agios Nikolaos and sailed to Spinalonga Island. In the next post, I’ll talk about each of the places and of course I’ll make sure you get to see tons of pictures 🙂

{It's recommended to watch at the best quality – after pressing the “play” button, click on the small gear on the right-hand side of the screen and then click Quality}

Let's Cut To The Chase – All The Things You Should Know About The Resort

LOCATION

The Blue Palace Resort & Spa is located on the northeast side of the island of Crete by the Elounda Bay and is an hour from the main airport of the island – Heraklion. If you're booking the hotel from Israel you have 2 options : First, as part of a vacation package through WTC, the international luxury tourism center in Greece and around the world. As part of the package, the company books the hotel, the flights and the transfers to the hotel for you without unnecessary headaches. if you're planning to book a vacation during the Jewish holidays {Rosh Hashana and Sukkot} through WTC you'll also get free dinners at the hotel. The second way is to put together your vacation independently – book the hotel, the flights and the rental car / taxi / transfer service from the hotel individually.

We booked our previous vacation in Crete through WTC, and the service was excellent and very professional so I highly recommend. This time, we preferred to assemble the trip ourselves because we wanted to travel the two parts of the island and to stay in two different hotels, so we decided to rent a car and drive independently to the hotel.

Until this trip I have always traveled to Greece with a package deal that includes transfers and I never really noticed the way. The very fact that this time we rented a car and drove to the hotel independently made the travel experience much more exciting! Unlike the previous times that I was just waiting to get to the hotel, this time I really felt like we were going out on a road trip in a wonderful and unfamiliar place. We bought drinks and snacks for the way, turned on the radio, which was apparently tuned to authentic Greek music, and just enjoyed the wonderful way that passes between olive groves, various kinds of thick natural vegetation and high mountains that rise in front of the deep blue sea.

Nearby points of interest are the small fishing village of Plaka, Spinalonga {the famous leper island}, the town of Elounda and the town of Agios Nikolaos. In the next post, I’ll tell you a lot more about each of these places 🙂

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DESIGN

The design line of the hotel is luxurious and yet minimal with Greek influences in shades of blue – light blue, white and a motif of light wood and natural straw. The hotel's public spaces are very large and full of floor-to-ceiling windows that reveal the magnificent view of the sea and the thick vegetation. All these create the feeling that the Mediterranean nature fits in with the structure of the resort in a natural way.

The hotel's outdoor areas are also very well maintained and are equipped with wide seating areas, tons of flowers, large and welcoming swimming pools and a private beach designed in a way that blends well with the local landscape.

SERVICE AND ATMOSPHERE

The atmosphere at the Blue Palace Resort & Spa is as sleepy and relaxed as I would expect from this kind of resort. This is exactly the place that will make you leave all the worries of your day behind and indulge in the serenity that this Greek island has to offer.

From the moment we arrived at the hotel the pleasant and professional staff greeted us with a very warm reception, which included chilled tea, and made sure to park our car in the hotel parking lot. Immediately afterwards, we were escorted to our suite by Hellene, one of the hotel staff members, who was charming and always smiled and explained everything we needed to know about the hotel, its facilities and the immediate surroundings. In addition, the receptionists and the room service were available at all times and made sure our vacation was perfect. For example, at 11 PM we remembered that we forgot our toothbrushes at home and they immediately sent us 2 sets of toothbrushes and toothpaste directly to our suite 🙂

THE SUITE

There are 11 types of rooms suitable for couples and families – from the 40-square-meter Superior Bungalows Sea View room to The Royal Blue Villa room, which can accommodate up to 8 people and reaches almost 3,000 square meters!

We stayed in the Santorini Suite, which belongs to the Island Luxury Suites category, which was nothing short of spectacular!

The suite had recently been renovated and looked as if it had been pulled out of a design magazine. The suite is divided into a large bedroom and a balcony, two bathrooms and a living room with an exit to the wide patio, which has the largest private pool I’ve ever seen in a suite this size.

The bedroom, which is equipped with a huge, comfortable bed and a pillow menu, is covered in light wood flooring and decorated in a blue and white color scheme, with a balcony overlooking the Spinalonga Island. There was also a large TV room, a sitting area and a small, charming office.

The living room was cleanly decorated and combined elegant, classic furnishings with garden furniture and straw baskets creating a living room that borders on an outdoor seating area. It seemed that the pavement in the living room was carefully selected and adapted to the {heated!} pool, which was only a few steps away – the floor felt pleasant and dried quickly. The living room was also equipped with a huge television, mini bar and coffee and tea corner with an elaborate Nespresso machine and a variety of glasses to suit every type of drink. On the coffee table in the living room, there was a large plate with seasonal fruits, two bottles of mineral water and a bottle of local honey-flavored Raki {the local drink!} along with 2 chaser glasses.

Next to the living room was a small bathroom, covered with stunning white marble, designed for use after the pool, and a few steps away from it was the central bathroom with a large shower and bath – both equipped with soap and creams by the Greek company APIVITA. In the main bathroom, they didn’t only give bottles of soap and small lotions, but made sure to equip us with original full sized bottles of each of the toiletries {which I couldn’t leave behind even when we left the hotel 😉 }.

Like other hotels in this standard, the Blue Palace Resort & Spa also makes sure that the rooms get cleaned twice a day.

We felt like we were living in a luxury apartment with all the services and facilities of a 5-star hotel – just a dream!!!

FACILITIES

As is expected from a luxury 5-star hotel, you can find almost everything in this hotel complex 🙂 :

 The Elevator –

Well, it's clear to you that I'm not just writing about an elevator here and that it has to be something special… The resort has a Funicular elevator {a kind of transparent cable car from which you can see the view}, which takes guests between the hotel levels. The idea is very cool, but since this elevator is relatively slow, and there was only one elevator like this in the entire resort, the wait was long and a bit annoying. In addition, it would have been good to take care of a functioning air conditioner inside the elevator…

The Pools –

Apart from the private pools you can find in most rooms, the hotel has 3 shared outdoor pools and indoor pools in the beautiful spa area. Even if you choose to stay in a room without a pool, you’ll be happy to discover that although this is a large resort, the shared pools are very relaxed and not crowded {precisely because most people are in their private pools 😉 }.

The Beach –

The hotel has an amazing private beach with white Greek-bohemian-style pebbles. At first glance there seems to be a road that separates the beach from the resort and that you have to cross the road to get to it, which could have really sucked… lucky that they thought about this, too, when they planned the hotel! 🙂 The Funicular elevator saves the hassle and took us straight from the room level to the coastline and back, without any unnecessary effort.

The large, wide beach was equipped with sun loungers under authentic straw umbrellas, set on a private wooden deck for each couple, and long thin wooden paths leading from the shore into the water so that the contact with the small stones will be minimal. You can also comfortably enter the depth of the sea through the floating pier in the center of the beach {or just sit there with your feet in the water 🙂 }. For guests in the suite rooms, the islands and villas have a private area {“The Haven”} at the edge of the beach where guests also receive straw bags filled with extra towels, magazines and facial sunscreen lotion.

On the beach, there’s a great small restaurant, the Isola Beach Club, which serves beers, cocktails, smoothies and great food right up to the comfortable chairs! We ordered the tabula salad and chickpeas salad which were excellent and are highly recommended.

The Spa –

I can describe the spa area in one word – wow! The design was simply perfect and it's just a few steps from the beach.

Inside the spa complex is the hotel's heated pool {don't expect the warmth of a Jacuzzi … it's only slightly heated…}, the dry sauna, the Turkish bath, the Jacuzzi, the treatment rooms and the resort's excellent gym which is open 24 hours a day.

I decided to pamper myself with a treatment of hot stones that was nothing short of amazing thanks to the charming masseuse Alma, which ended with tea served and dried fruit in the sitting area. The only drawback to my treatment experience was the treatment room I received, which was very small and without windows {I may have gotten too used to resorts in Thailand, though… 😉 }

Sports facilities –

Apart from the well-equipped gym in the spa complex, the resort also has 2 tennis courts, free sports classes, yoga classes {additional charge}, water sports and even a diving center.

WiFi –

Wireless internet is available throughout the hotel for free but it wasn't good enough. You can upgrade to Premium WiFi for an additional fee or simply purchase a local SIM on the way from the airport to the hotel as I did 🙂

FOOD

Breakfast –

The breakfast was served buffet style and it was wonderful and offered a wide range of everything – fruits, vegetables, cheese, sausages, eggs, breads, desserts and more… If you're a mimosa lover, like me, you'll be happy to hear that there's also champagne and fresh orange juice every morning 😉

Here too, the guests in the suite rooms of the islands and villas have a private area where, apart from the buffet offered, a breakfast menu is also served with a variety of salty and sweet dishes and healthy smoothies.

Dinner –

We stayed at the resort on a half-board stay and we ate the dinners in the hotel's main dining room, which operates on a world cuisine basis which varies by different cuisines every evening. In my opinion, the buffet wasn't good enough – it wasn't rich enough and frankly we were very disappointed that there wasn't a set corner with authentic Greek food every night. The buffet meal could have been upgraded to a meal in one of the hotel's restaurants, but the upgrade cost €26 per person, which seemed a little overpriced considering the prices of the restaurants outside the hotel. In general, I think buffet dinners at the hotel are more suitable for families with children who don't want to leave the hotel in the evening rather than couples.

Resort Restaurants –

Apart from the main restaurant serving breakfast and dinner, the resort has 5 other restaurants offering different cuisines from around the world.

PRICE

Blue Palace Resort & Spa is a luxury resort that's offered in both vacation packages and independent reservations. In both cases, the price isn't cheap but is reasonable considering the excellent hospitality, the hotel facilities and the amazing location opposite Spinalonga island. My recommendation is to book the hotel for bed and breakfast and to eat dinner in the nearby village of Plaka.

The price per night depends on the room, the time of the week {midweek or weekend} and of course, the season – click here to compare prices on different booking sites.

What do you think about the resort? Tell me in the comments 🙂
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Thank you Blue Palace Resort & Spa for the wonderful stay!