Elounda Blue Bay Hotel - Elounda - Crete Holiday Truths reviews, reports and discussion

Holiday-Truth Readers Reports

Andrea from Addlestone, surrey travelled to Elounda Blue Bay Hotel with Mytravel on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2006

rated the Elounda Blue Bay Hotel as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

My husband and I have recently returned from a week’s stay at the Elounda Blue Bay Hotel – 06 June to 13 June 2006. Overall, we had a very enjoyable and restful holiday that fitted the bill for us – we really just wanted to ‘chill’ for a week and enjoy some R and R in pleasant surroundings .
I hope the following will be helpful to anyone considering staying at the Blue Bay.
We booked with MyTravel and I would describe their service as ‘fair’. The coach transfer from the airport was APPALLING – two and a half hours rather than the one and a half quoted in the brochure, with about 8 stops en route and a coach driver who seemed to have a constant need for directions from the travel rep.

Elounda was the last stop for the coach so we were not best pleased by the time we arrived to check in at the hotel. As has been previously mentioned, the hotel is up a steep slope (which we did not find too bad, but don’t try walking it in flip-flops) and the rooms are laid out on steep-to-access terraces with a number of steps. It was a bit of a haul up to our room but worth it for the splendid views across the bay. Hard luck if you were allocated a room number beginning with a ‘5’ – you would need an oxygen mask by the time you got up there! Although we had asked for a room in the main hotel building, having been forewarned about all the steps, this was not allocated, but I realised later that these rooms were given to the infirm or parents with pushchair age children, which is fair enough.

We stayed on a half board basis and found the food to be perfectly acceptable. Some evenings the dishes on offer were more appealing than others, but this is a personal observation, and we could always find something to keep the wolf from the door. Breakfast was excellent, particularly the lovely Greek yogurt and fruit.

There was a good mix of nationalities staying at the hotel, French, Belgian, Italian and German as well as Brits, and (bliss) very few young children – to be fair the hotel is not marketing itself as a family hotel and there are few facilities geared for the youngsters. The atmosphere was very friendly with no ‘sunbed bagging’ around the pool. The pool was very clean – but cold, being sea water. There is an oddity about the hotel, in that the only public toilets are situated in the hotel basement, and it is a bit of a pain if you are by the pool to have to trek through reception in your swimmies …

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Paul from Bridgend travelled to Elounda Blue Bay Hotel with Airtours/My Travel on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2006

rated the Elounda Blue Bay Hotel as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

Short;
Good: The views, the location, the staff.
Bad: The steps, the food, the rooms.

Long;
The hotel is situated on the side of a hill and is not for the faint-hearted, if you don’t like the idea of climbing steps and steep slopes then beware! The rooms are in separate blocks so each ‘floor’ is set above the other up the side of the hill, if you are in the main building or below the 3rd floor then there is a lift (but not to the rooms just to that level – you will still have to walk outside and up hill to your room). The upside is that the views, if you are sea facing, are superb and probably one of the nicest I’ve seen; the fact that several of the best hotels on the island (and Greece allegedly) are in the same area gives you some idea.

There was a small army of cleaners every morning around the pool and public areas which were modern and inviting; a sort of Greek meets chic (!). The rooms on the other hand were basic; we arrived at 01.30 and having dragged our cases up to the second floor (exhausting), couldn’t get into the room. After a frustrating few minutes I went all the way back down to the foyer and a charming night manager showed me how to do it – it didn’t get any better; we had to fight that door every time for the whole week. A couple we met gave up with theirs and got a different room, so it probably wasn’t isolated problem and may be due to the heat and wooden doors. As for the rooms, they were of typically Greek standard; simple and functional. The toilet seat & lid were loose as was the toilet roll holder (the roll kept sliding off!) and the hand towel hook . The TV didn’t work but as I didn’t find out until the fourth day you can see that it wasn’t much of an issue. What was, was that I discovered that it was the socket that was faulty and not the TV; wriggling the socket would turn on the set. I reported it twice at reception but it wasn’t fixed by the time we left. The beds were firm, which was ok for us but some may find them too hard, we had two singles that were just pushed together and therefore moved apart during the night! Though our friends did have a double bed and a sofa bed.

The pool was cleaned every day and was filled with salt water, strong enough that you wouldn’t want to get it in your eyes or mouth though most refreshing after a few hours on a sun lounger (no pads or towels). The pool surrounds are painted with a semi-gloss paint which, when wet, is treacherous; I saw at least two people slip every day. Several of the access covers around the pool were loose and kept falling away creating a serious trip hazard, how anyone wasn’t hurt as a result of either of these surprises me I can’t believe that it is anything but a matter time before someone does. As for the old problem of sun bed blocking - it was taken to new heights here; from day one some beds had towels on them all night (yes, all night!). The owners would show up at 11am swim and sun bathe for a few hours and then disappear until the following day! This then became the habit for a few couples. Many beds were ‘booked’ by 8am before they went for breakfast and on several days all the beds were taken by 9am. There were more down on the nearby beach (local charge) but we didn’t use them, mainly because of the thought of the 45deg climb back up to the hotel.

The staff were very attentive and ready to accommodate any reasonable request, even opening the on-site shop at 10pm so that I could buy a pack of cards (though one could wonder that they weren’t available in a 4* hotel – but more of that in a moment). The waiters were competent, efficient and humorous and made the mealtimes entertaining, talking of which; food. Breakfast; choice of cereal, fruit juice, breads and jams. The usual selection of continental meats and cheeses, two types of yoghurt, peaches and honey. Baked beans, boiled eggs or omelette and bacon. Tea and coffee. And that’s about it, with minor variations, the same every day. Dinner; Soup (very good), a choice of eight salads (very similar each evening), one pasta, one fish, three meat and three vegetable a total of eight choices. For desert; fresh fruit, baklava (superb) and ice creams. A very nice selection of Cretan wines; payable extra. As you can tell, it wasn’t the most exciting selection and most certainly not what I expected from a 4* hotel for quality or variety. The on site shop sold a selection of the usual stuff and if you want cigarettes they can get any quantity provided you give her some notice. For info you can bring back 3200 each and they cost €26 for 200 – the same price everywhere. Water was €0.80 for 1.5 litres which sounds cheap until you go the Spar where it was €0.40.

Entertainment consists of a bar, wide screen TV, pool table, computer (didn’t see it switched on), table tennis table (tatty bats and balls) and some books in a chest. I didn’t see any organised entertainment – which may have been a blessing in disguise! Our Rep seemed more interested in getting through the introduction and getting on to selling the organised tours. Talking of which, don’t bother with the Knossos tour for which they wanted €41 each for what amounted to little more that two hours of value. Pick up at 07.30 followed by over two hours of pickups, arriving at the excellent museum in Hiraklion where we had to pay an additional €10 per person for the entrance fees to the museum and Knossos, had a fascinating guided tour of both the museum and after a short trip, the palace of Knossos. We were then taken in land to a simple town on the pretext of further interesting buildings and left to out own devices to find lunch, followed by a further two hours retracing our steps dropping off everyone before arriving back at the hotel at about 17.30. I’m sure that I could have organised it myself, much cheaper and better value. Don’t bother with the organised hire car, the hotel can arrange one through Budget Cars (Airtours – Class B, €74. Budget – Class J; VW Golf €60), you choose.

Dani S from Derby travelled to Elounda Blue Bay Hotel with Med hotels on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 09 2005

rated the Elounda Blue Bay Hotel as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

The hotel is located on a very steep slope about a 15 minute walk from Elounda. There are loads of steps everywhere (inside the main building & out)so you need to be physically fit and able. The area is very quiet so if you are wanting tranquility you'll get it here.

The bar and pool areas are well designed with plenty of sun loungers available at the time we visited.The pool is unheated and for most people too cold to swim in for more than 5 or 10 minutes. The bar had a happy hour and a cretian night and the staff are really friendly & helpful.

Breakfast & dinner was buffet style and there was plenty of fresh fruit and salads available.

The rooms are somewhat basic, certainly not what I expecting of a 4 star hotel. The beds were unforgiving, some rooms just have a concrete floor (not even tiled) and the bathroom was disappointing. They do have a fridge and are air conditioned and the view from the room was fantastic, looking across the bay towards Spinalonga island.

Simon J from Berkhamsted travelled to Elounda Blue Bay Hotel with First Choice on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 07 2005

rated the Elounda Blue Bay Hotel as follows:

Cleanliness
Location
Staff
Food
Entertainment

said:

The journey to the Hotel from Herakion Airport is about an hour to an hour and a half.
The Hotel is a series of varying size apartments set on a rather steep hillside. (If you get a room number above 200 then take your hiking boots, cramp-ons and spare rope - alternatively hire a car just to get you up the hill)!
We arrived at 2am and the guy at check in helped us with our bags to our room (116- phew).

The Hotel itself is very clean and well looked after and the staff are always willing to help.

The Hotel is visited by couples and families although there is not much to entertain the kids other than the pool, a table tennis table and a snooker table.
Fortunately, there is not much to entertain the slightly older 'children' either that you will doubtless travel over with on the plane - don't worry they are heading for Malia.

There is a small mini-mart/shop linked to the Hotel where you can get basic provisions (bottled water/sun lotion/papers etc) from 0830 to 1630 during the week and a bit later at the weekends. The lady that runs the shop is from Finland and is very pleasant.
The pool is salt water and impossible to sink in. (The new floor around the pool is very slippery).

There is a small 'beach' at the bottom of the drive to the Hotel which costs a couple of Euros for the day to hire the sunbeds and umbrellas.
The view from the Hotel into Elounda Bay is spectacular.

Breakfast in the restaurant is mainly fruit, toast, cheese etc - typical European. Don't expect eggs, bacon, sausages etc every day!
Evening meals are pretty good - lots of salads (Greek of course) and varying pork/fish dishes. The restaurant seems to be run by a guy called Manolis - nice guy.

Entertainment in the Hotel is limited - you will have one evening of visiting Cretan dancers and a Sunday visit from 'Theo Spartakus' (He will start with a cover version of Eric Claptons' Wonderful Tonight' which builds expectations and it will go downhill from there! (I guess you'll have to watch him once).
The bar is run by Nikos, who is a nice guy too(sic), unless you are an attractive woman and he takes a shine to you!!!

We hired a car for a couple of days (120 Euros) from the Hotel lobby (you can get it cheaper in town) and explored the NW mountains and onwards to Vai. This is about a two hour drive and you end up at a small picturesque, but rather commercialised beach where you have to pay for parking, toilets, sunbeds etc. It is apparently the only beach on the island with palm trees.

We also travelled south to Ierapetra and found some delightful small bays along the southern coast.
The walk into Elounda town takes about 20 mins along the coast road. It's an easy flat and pleasant walk in the evening although not well lit on the way back in the dark.

The town is a very typical Cretan harbour town - small fishing boats only.

You can get boat trips to the island of Spinalonga (an old leper colony in the middle of the bay), we didn't bother!

You can also arrange trips via the rep who visits the Hotel once or twice a week - for instance you could go to Santorini - if you are willing to get up about 4am, catch a coach to Agios Nikolios (15 mins) then come back past where you started to Heraklion, catch the cruise ship (with about 300 others - few of which will be British), spend 4 hours at sea, arrive at the beautiful island, get on a donkey to go up the steep hill, stay for two or three hours and then do all the above in reverse, arriving back at the Hotel about 11pm. We bought a postcard instead!

I really couldn't fault the whole place really and can recommend it if your intention is to get away from it all in extremely pleasant surroundings.

If you have any questions about anything specific, please drop a line here and I would be glad to help if I can.

Happy days.
Simon

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Don't Forget To Add your Own Report If You Have Visited This Hotel

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Elounda Blue Bay Hotel - Elounda - Crete
Hotel / Apartment Reviews And Reports

Can't find an answer?
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