79 Reviews
Phāea Blue Palace
Agios Nikolaos|1.18km from Nisida Spinalonga
This was our sixth visit to the Blue Palace as we have loved all our previous stays at the hotel. We paid a premium to stay here as we wanted a holiday somewhere special to mark some important life events and recover from the loss of some very special people in our lives. Very little had changed, which was reassuring. The standards of service are still very high. Everyone who works at the hotel is professional yet still warm and friendly. The standard of cleanliness at the hotel is very high and housekeeping is fantastic. Our Superior Bungalow room, whilst in a slightly different location to the ones we had occupied previously, was exactly the same with a fabulous view of Spinalonga. We did notice that some parts of the hotel are starting to show their age. Nothing too obvious, just little things like the odd wobbly cobble and wonky fixtures and fittings. My husband was quite taken aback by the men's toilets in the ****nli. He reported toilet cubicles not locking and one of the door handles fell off. These things aside, we still enjoyed the hotel facilities just as much as we had in our previous visits. The spa is fabulous and I had one of the best facials ever. The atmosphere in the ****nli picked up when the DJ was in residence. The most disappointing aspect of our visit this time was the food. If we had only eaten breakfast and not visited any of the hotel's restaurants we would most likely have given the hotel a 5 star rating. Breakfast is fantastic. The choice of food is immense. They have gone all out to try to cater to as many tastes and dietary requirements as possible. We were also pleased to learn that breakfast service had been extended to 11am, so we could enjoy a lie in and a lazy brunch. Unfortunately, our experience of two of the hotel's restaurants did not impress. I was very ill after a meal at Asia Deep Blue. We dined at this restaurant multiple times when we first stayed at the hotel in 2010. Back then the food was amazing and one of our favourites was the Tempura Prawns. On our return visits to the hotel this beautiful restaurant seemed to have fallen out of favour with hotel guests and was deserted, so it was lovely to see it full of life again, so much so we could only get an 8.30pm booking. We felt very rushed and we were instructed to choose from the menu on the app. Personally we hate this as it cheapens the whole dining experience. The Tempura Prawns were not the same standard as we remembered. They looked very uniform in appearance and the batter was not light and crispy. We suspected they'd been bought in. Our Teriyaki Salmon was a generous portion size and tasted OK. The wine wasn't our favourite and it was very strong. We were in and out of the restaurant within 45 minutes! Unfortunately something did not agree with me and I was unwell during the night whilst my husband also felt a bit 'off'. We also had an extremely disappointing experience at Anthos which I have reviewed separately. If ever we were to return t
Very Good
40 Reviews