Elounda Palm Hotel

We booked this hotel for our honeymoon, largely based on the Elounda Palm website (fantastic work from whoever built the website!) and followed up by other customer reviews. As this was our honeymoon we booked the shared pool junior suite as a little luxury. To put our review in context we had expected that the hotel, based on its rating, website, and more importantly the amount of money we had paid, would be something a bit special, unfortunately however we found the room to be little more than a nice standard 3 star studio.
Room (junior suite) - As above, the room is small 3 star studio quality room. It is nicely decorated and kept clean but was not what we had expected. The bathroom is very small, with no bath. There is one small in-built wardrobe, with two small drawers (not really adequate if you are staying for two weeks), the fridge in the room is very small. Overall we did not find the room to be particularly bad but lacks any aspects that would set this apart from any other hotel.
We asked to upgrade our room to the Senior Pool Villa on arrival, given that this was free for the 2 weeks we were there. Half hoping that the Hotel might have been generous given that we had told them it was our honeymoon, we were again disappointed. 400 euros per night was the quoted rate, which even after some haggling we could only get them to reduce to a minimum of 150 euros per night. Having already paid over £2k, we felt that another £3k was a bit much! And so the Senior Pool Villa sat completely empty for the next two weeks.
The shared pool was nice (albeit pretty cold) and for most of the two weeks we had it completely to ourselves, with no-one in the suite next door. Again though the Hotel let themselves down, by having a number of problems with the water flow over the infinity edge, resulting in it get filled up by some friendly floating bugs. We complained to be told that it would be cleaned in half an hour (it was finally cleaned 3 hours later). We got the same excuse the following day, and by this point, a bit fed up, simply asked if we could get the pool net to clean out the bugs ourselves. When they said they could not find the net, and just wait until later (by which time the sun was setting) it almost ended up in the receptionist going in to clean out our pool by hand.
Hotel food - We booked bed and breakfast, so can't comment on the evening buffet. Breakfast was fine, again nothing special as we had maybe expected but generally ok.
Location - Elounda itself is a nice resort, albeit a little small for anymore than one week, so you will need to hire a car and see some of the island, if you intend to stay any longer.
The hotel location is a good 20-25 minute walk from the main square (which is where all the restaurants and shops are concentrated), again don't be fooled by the 1km from the resort centre description as this is the distance to the first bar and not the centre.
Restaurants - All restaurants we ate in were pretty good, no complaints about any of them. The ones that stood out though were definitely the Vritomatres (the main restaurant in the square), Leonidas (in the square) and the Tryst (one of the closest to the Hotel).
Other Tips - Spinalonga is defintely worth a visit, although if you have young kids or walking difficulties, I wouldn't make the trip. The lake in the centre of Agios Nikolaos is a must and the restaurants round about it were all very nice. Finally, if you do hire a car, do not miss the small town of Koutoulofari, in the hills about a kilometre above Hersonissos. This is where we are going to stay if we ever go back to Crete.
Overall then the hotel is average and if you were to pay £300 per week, you would come back thinking you had done quite well but when you are paying more than £1000, you will be a bit disappointed.

We are two thirty something women who saved for a classy girlie holiday. We arrived at the airport at 8pm, when we got on the bus the rep announced he would only be staying on for three drop offs then he was going home! We were left on the coach with a Cretian driver who dropped us at the side of the road with our suit cases and pointed down a hill, got in his coach and pulled away.
I would like to say it gets better BUT we were in for more!
The hotel itself was wonderful, stunning pool, lovely bedrooms with full size walk in shower and lovely views. The brochure advertised the hotel as 4 star half board but what they neglected to tell us that it was buffet style. The food had no labels on it and all smelled the same. It became a game between us and some other guests to guess what we were eating as it could have been anything it was so non discript. After a few nights we stopped eating in the restaurant and walked into Elounda.
The hotel was run on a skelton staff and areas of the hotel were closed. The only saving grace was an English girl who worked the evening pool bar and made you feel very welcomed. We found the rest of the staff quite uninterested and almost as if we were putting them out by being there.The beach was a 35 min walk away down a busy road with no footpaths and the public transport was as good as the food!
Its a good job we went with a gung ho lets enjoy it anyway attitude or it could have a been a disaster. Oh and to top it off I got a bug that had been going round the hotel and spent 24hrs attached to my nice bathroom, but don't worry the rep confirmed Olympic new about it and was investigating. Made me feel a whole lot better, not!

1 reader found this review helpful

This hotel is lovely in that the rooms are spacious and clean, the pool area is beautiful, and we had no problems finding a sun bed. We had clean towels every day, and the pool bar staff were very friendly, how ever it was let down by the food, booking half board we did not expect a buffett in the evening, with a lot of the food being not warm, and we did not always know what we were eating. There was not a lot to do in the evening therefore we usually ventured into the village.
The village was a 20 minute walk, and to get to the beach was a 35 minute walk.
I would highly reccomend the jeep safari trip, where you are taken up in to the mountains, and eat at a local taverna, however the boat and bbq trip was a nightmare, badly organised and far too many people.
Overall the hotel is idea for a pure relaxing away from everything break, but not for any one who needs entertaining or a lively nightlife.