Grecotel Creta Palace
Creta Palace, A Resort to Live, long known as Grecotel Creta Palace, is a family beach resort of about 335 rooms, bungalows, and maisonettes at Missiria, 4 km east of Rethymno old town. Creta Palace is where Grecotel’s story began, relaunched under the group’s Resort to Live banner with reimagined rooms and a new poolscape, and guests score it 8.7 out of 10 on Booking.com and 4.5 out of 5 on Tripadvisor across 2,201 reviews. Our verdict lands at 8.5 out of 10: Rethymno’s most polished family beachfront, with extras pricing the honest caveat.
Hotel information
| Hotel | Grecotel Creta Palace |
|---|---|
| Address | Missiria |
| Type | Air conditioning · Airport shuttle |
| Style | Family beach resort, Grecotel's origin property |
| Signature | Bungalow settlements in gardens; new poolscape; Agreco Farm link |
| Keys | About 335 rooms, suites, bungalows, and maisonettes |
| Dining | 7 restaurants plus bars, from the Sky Bar to the kids' Tasty Corner |
| Kids | Kids club, kids pool, climbing wall, and children's buffet |
| Nearest airport | Chania (CHQ) about 71 km; Heraklion (HER) about 76 km |
| Booking.com rating | 8.7/10 (464 reviews) |
| Tripadvisor rating | 4.5/5 (2,201 reviews) |
| CreteLocals score | 8.5/10 · read the verdict |
Booking.com and Tripadvisor scores checked on September 19, 2026.
Location
Grecotel Creta Palace is located at Missiria, in Rethymno Town. The map below shows the exact spot; Google Maps and Waze give turn-by-turn directions.
Who Creta Palace suits, and who should skip it
Creta Palace suits families who want resort depth with a real town 10 minutes away, and it suits them because the children’s programme runs from the kids club and climbing wall to the Tasty Corner buffet while the adults keep the Sky Bar and the Elixir Spa. The lists below come from recurring themes in the resort’s 2,201 Tripadvisor reviews and 464 Booking.com reviews.
Advantages
- Staff scored 9.2 on Booking.com, with service at 4.7 the Tripadvisor echo
- Sandy beachfront with a private area, 500 feet from the farthest room
- Bungalow settlements in mature gardens, refreshed in the relaunch
- Dining across 7 restaurants plus bars, with the Sky Bar the sunset fixture
- Agreco Farm connection bringing Grecotel’s estate produce and farm visits
- Rethymno old town 4 km away, the best resort-to-town ratio on this coast
Disadvantages
- Value scores 4.3, with extras priced far above town, a 5.80-euro small beer the review example
- Billing and extra-charge disputes appear in a small but sharp minority of reviews
- Pre-relaunch reviews still colour the average, so read dates when comparing
- Peak-season demand makes the a la carte inclusion of all-inclusive plans book out
The rooms: settlements under the araucarias
Creta Palace arranges its keys between the main building and garden bungalow settlements, from doubles through family bungalows and maisonettes, refreshed in the Resort to Live relaunch.
The bungalows are the resort’s character purchase, low buildings under old araucaria trees a short walk from the sand, and the family bungalows are the category the returning families book. Ask for relaunch-renovated stock by name, and garden-view rooms buy quiet at a friendlier rate than the front line.
The beach, the poolscape and the Agreco table
The beach is a long sandy stretch with the resort’s private area organised on it, and the new poolscape behind it runs from the main pool through the seawater pool to the kids pool, with the Elixir Spa’s black-mosaic indoor pool for the off-hours.
Food is where Grecotel flexes. Seven restaurants plus bars rotate the week, the Tasty Corner feeds children on their own schedule, and the Agreco Farm connection puts the group’s estate produce on the tables and offers the farm visit that reviewers call the stay’s surprise highlight. The Sky Bar owns the golden hour.
How to get there
Creta Palace sits at Missiria, 4 km east of Rethymno, roughly 71 km from Chania airport (CHQ) and 76 km from Heraklion (HER), about an hour and a quarter from either. The old town is a 10-minute drive or a flat seaside cycle.
Three transport options cover the trip, and each fits a different stay. A pre-booked transfer or taxi from either airport is the smooth arrival; our guide to taxi and airport transfer services in Crete lists the operators and typical prices. A hire car adds Chania, the Amari valley, and the south coast, and our car rental in Crete page compares local rates. The city bus into Rethymno passes the gate.
The Crete Locals review
Creta Palace is the resort we recommend when someone wants the big-Grecotel experience with a real city attached, because the relaunch solved the property’s one aging problem while the location was never a problem at all. This is the group’s origin story, the hotel Grecotel built its name on, and the Resort to Live reinvention reads as a founder’s renovation: new rooms and poolscape, the same mature gardens and beach, and the service culture that scores 9.2 for staff.
For families it is quietly one of the most complete setups on the island. The children’s world, club, pool, climbing wall, own buffet, runs parallel to the adults’ rather than through it, the Agreco Farm link gives the food story a genuine Cretan spine, and Rethymno’s old town turns evenings into actual outings instead of resort loops.
The caveat is the bill after the room. Value at 4.3 and Booking’s 8.2 for value both track the same theme: extras priced at multiples of town, which guests feel hardest on drinks, and a thin but real seam of billing-dispute reviews that says check the folio before checkout. Older reviews describing dated corners predate the relaunch, so filter by date when researching.
Book Creta Palace as the Rethymno family base: a renovated bungalow, the farm visit booked early, and the old town bus for the taverna nights that halve the extras problem. May, June, and September give the gardens and beach their best light, and the reborn flagship earns its half-century.
