Elounda Bay Palace
Elounda Bay Palace is a Leading Hotels of the World member spreading more than 200 rooms, suites, and bungalows over 20 acres and 2 private Blue Flag sandy beaches on Mirabello Bay, beside its sister Elounda Beach. Guests score the setting among Elounda’s best at 4.7, and the hotel overall at 8.8 out of 10 on Booking.com and 4.2 out of 5 on Tripadvisor across 1,272 reviews. Our verdict lands at 7.7 out of 10: beaches and grounds worth the badge, rooms that outside the refurbished categories have fallen behind it.
Hotel information
| Hotel | Elounda Bay Palace |
|---|---|
| Address | Elounda 720 53 |
| Type | Resorts |
| Style | Classic grand resort, Leading Hotels of the World |
| Signature | 2 private Blue Flag sandy beaches on 20 acres |
| Keys | More than 200 rooms, suites, and bungalows |
| Dining | Aretoussa main restaurant, Thalassa waterfront seafood, Sail Bar |
| Sister | Adjoins Elounda Beach Hotel & Villas (separate grounds) |
| Nearest airport | Heraklion (HER), about 70 km by road |
| Booking.com rating | 8.8/10 (242 reviews) |
| Tripadvisor rating | 4.2/5 (1,272 reviews) |
| CreteLocals score | 7.7/10 · read the verdict |
Booking.com and Tripadvisor scores checked on September 19, 2026.
Location
Elounda Bay Palace is located at Elounda 720 53, in Elounda town. The map below shows the exact spot; Google Maps and Waze give turn-by-turn directions.
Who Elounda Bay Palace suits, and who should skip it
Elounda Bay Palace suits guests who live outdoors on holiday, beach mornings, garden walks, waterfront dinners, and it suits them at rates that respect the room lottery. The lists below come from recurring themes in the hotel’s 1,272 Tripadvisor reviews and 242 Booking.com reviews.
Advantages
- Location scored 4.7, with 2 private Blue Flag sandy beaches on the grounds
- Twenty acres of mature gardens running to the water
- Waterfront seafood at Thalassa and the Sail Bar’s front-row sunsets
- Beach staff named warmly and often in reviews
- Cleanliness and service both holding 4.5 despite the age
- Water sports, tennis, and indoor and outdoor pools on site
Disadvantages
- Rooms score 3.9, called tired and 3-star outside the refurbished stock
- Value scores 3.8, with drink and restaurant pricing the loudest complaint
- Half board runs repetitive, and Thalassa has closed without notice on guests
- Sunbed reserving goes unpoliced at the beach’s peak hours, and the sister hotel next door is off-limits to roam
The rooms: refurbished or nothing
Elounda Bay Palace spreads its 200-plus keys between main-building rooms, garden bungalows, and villas, and the refurbishment line running through them decides every stay.
The rule from the reviews is absolute: book a confirmed-refurbished room, in writing, or book elsewhere. New-refurb guests describe a different hotel from the tired-wing accounts that hold the 3.9 average down, and the bungalows nearest the beaches remain the property’s classic format when they carry the new interiors.
The beaches, Thalassa and the Sail Bar
The beaches are the argument: 2 private, sandy, Blue Flag coves inside the grounds, with beach staff whose names recur in reviews, and swimming that stays sheltered when the bay winds run. Arrive early in peak weeks, since towel-reserving goes unchallenged.
Dinner divides between Aretoussa’s main service and Thalassa on the waterfront, the seafood table that defines the hotel at its best and frustrates when it closes unannounced, with the Sail Bar holding the sunset hour. Drinks price at palace levels, and Elounda village’s tavernas, minutes away, are the guests’ standing workaround.
How to get there
Elounda Bay Palace is about 70 km from Heraklion airport (HER) by road, roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes via Agios Nikolaos, on the shore just south of Elounda village.
Three transport options cover the trip, and each fits a different stay. A pre-booked transfer is the standard arrival; our guide to taxi and airport transfer services in Crete lists the operators and typical prices. A hire car adds Agios Nikolaos, Plaka, and the east, and our car rental in Crete page compares local rates. The Elounda bus plus a short taxi is the budget route.
The Crete Locals review
Elounda Bay Palace is the hardest Elounda verdict to write, because everything the ground offers is genuinely first-rank and everything built on it needs its turn under the drill. The 4.7 location score is no illusion: 2 real sandy beaches inside one estate is a holding even the palaces next door envy, the gardens have half a century’s maturity, and the beach team’s named-in-review warmth is the old school at its best.
The room record reads like a renovation schedule argued in public. Refurbished-room guests file contented reviews; the rest supply the tired, 3-star-at-best quotes that put rooms at 3.9, the lowest we have recorded at a Leading Hotels member. Value at 3.8 compounds it, because drinks and the extra restaurants price as if every wing were new, and the half-board rotation wears thin across a week.
Two structural notes belong in expectations. The sister Elounda Beach next door shares owners, not grounds, so booking Bay does not buy the flagship’s facilities or the right to wander them. And the LHW badge describes the service framework, which at 4.5 still delivers, rather than the room stock, which is where the money should go next.
Book Elounda Bay Palace like its returning guests do: refurbished bungalow near the beaches, shoulder-season rate, dinners split between Thalassa nights and the village’s tavernas. On those terms the beaches carry the week, and the 7.7 climbs the moment the refurbishment finishes what it started.
