Candia Park Village
Candia Park Village is a family aparthotel built as a Cretan village: 222 self-catering units in 65,000 square metres of gardens on its own sandy seafront at Havania, between Agios Nikolaos and Elounda. Run by bluegr, the group behind Minos Beach next door in Agios Nikolaos, it ranks 2nd of 82 hotels in the area on Tripadvisor at 4.7 across 1,734 reviews, with 8.5 out of 10 on Booking.com. Our verdict lands at 8.4 out of 10: the coast’s most complete young-family formula, with simple interiors and the between-towns location the honest trade-offs.
Hotel information
| Hotel | Candia Park Village |
|---|---|
| Address | Havania |
| Type | Air conditioning · Airport shuttle |
| Style | Family aparthotel village (bluegr Hotels & Resorts) |
| Signature | Village square with clock tower and kafenio; own sandy beach |
| Keys | 222 self-catering units in 65,000 square metres of gardens |
| Dining | Agapi Restaurant by the pool; To Fili taverna by the sea |
| Setting | Havania, between Agios Nikolaos (3.5 km) and Elounda (5 km) |
| Nearest airport | Heraklion (HER), about 60 km by road |
| Booking.com rating | 8.5/10 (677 reviews) |
| Tripadvisor rating | 4.7/5 (1,734 reviews) |
| CreteLocals score | 8.4/10 · read the verdict |
Booking.com and Tripadvisor scores checked on September 19, 2026.
Location
Candia Park Village is located at Havania, in Agios Nikolaos. The map below shows the exact spot; Google Maps and Waze give turn-by-turn directions.
Who Candia Park suits, and who should skip it
Candia Park suits families with young children more precisely than any hotel format can, and it suits them because the village was designed around their actual day: kitchenettes for the picky eater, a mini club, a paddling-depth beach, and a square where evenings happen at stroller pace. The lists below come from recurring themes in the resort’s 1,734 Tripadvisor reviews and 677 Booking.com reviews.
Advantages
- Service scored 4.7, the bluegr house standard at family volume
- Own sandy beach on Mirabello Bay, beautifully sandy in the guests’ words
- Village square with the clock tower, kafenio, and the Sohoro market shop
- Self-catering built in, with kitchenettes and fridges in all 222 units
- Kids infrastructure from mini club to playground to watersports for the older ones
- Cretan nights and To Fili’s seaside taverna keeping the food local
Disadvantages
- Isolated between towns, since Agios Nikolaos is 3.5 km and Elounda 5, so the bus or a car is part of the plan
- Units run simple and some read dated, with rooms and sleep quality the lowest subratings at 4.4
- Extras and hidden costs draw complaints in the sharper recent reviews
- Four-star product, so book it as the village it is rather than a resort it is not
The units: apartments first, Serenity for the parents
Candia Park spreads 222 units from studios to one-bedroom family apartments, every one with light-cooking facilities, and the Serenity Suites adding a quieter sea-view tier at the adult end.
Families should book the one-bedroom apartments for the door between bedtime and the terrace, and ask for a refreshed unit, since the stock varies and basic-but-clean is the honest average. Couples borrowing the village’s calm do best in the Serenity Suites toward the water.
The beach, the square and the pine gardens
The beach is the village’s own sandy frontage on Mirabello Bay, shallow, sheltered, and walked to under pine trees, with watersports and windsurf at the active end and the pools behind for the wind days.
The square is the format’s genius: a clock tower, a kafenio pouring Greek coffee, the Sohoro shop for the forgotten milk, and the Agapi restaurant by the pool with To Fili doing Cretan plates by the sea. Evenings run on Cretan nights and the mini disco rather than resort spectacle, which is exactly the pitch.
How to get there
Candia Park sits at Havania on the Agios Nikolaos-Elounda road, about 60 km from Heraklion airport (HER), roughly 1 hour by road, with Agios Nikolaos 3.5 km south and Elounda 5 km north; a frequent local bus links all 3.
Three transport options cover the trip, and each fits a different stay. A pre-booked transfer or taxi is the family-simple arrival; our guide to taxi and airport transfer services in Crete lists the operators and typical prices. A hire car turns the between-towns position into an advantage, and our car rental in Crete page compares local rates. The Agios Nikolaos-Elounda bus stops at the gate for the cheap version.
The Crete Locals review
Candia Park is the property we recommend to parents who read resort brochures with suspicion, because its promise is concrete: a village where children can roam between square, pool, and sand while the apartment holds the naps, the snacks, and the washing machine of real family life. Ranked 2nd of 82 in Agios Nikolaos across 1,734 reviews, it outpolls five-stars triple its price, and the bluegr service culture, the same family that runs Minos Beach, is the reason reviews name staff rather than facilities.
The format asks for honest expectations. These are self-catering apartments in gardens, simple by design and in places dated in practice, which the 4.4 rooms score prices in; the village sits between towns rather than in one, so evenings out need the bus, a taxi, or the hire car most guests bring anyway; and the extras column, from paid services to the shop, adds up the way aparthotel weeks do.
What the file keeps confirming is the fit. The same complaints that would sink a honeymoon, simple rooms, quiet nights, self-catering, are the reasons the family reviews run warm, and Mirabello Bay’s calm water plus the pine shade do the rest. This is a 4-star village scoring like a 5-star because it never pretends to be one.
Book Candia Park for the young-family fortnight: a one-bedroom apartment near the square, the Cretan night on the calendar, Spinalonga by boat from Elounda one morning and Agios Nikolaos’s lake another. May, June, and September give the gardens their best light and the beach its calmest water.
