Amy Adejokun
Section editor
The Stella Palace opened as recently as 2008 and it claims to offer a high level of comfort, though the layout of its rooms and their amenities are not exactly luxurious. In fact, the highlight of this brand new hotel is its two huge lagoon pools.
Stella Palace - © Gutton / EASYVOYAGE
Stella Palace - © Gutton / EASYVOYAGE
The Stella Palace is located in the Anissaras region, some 2 and a half mi from the lively town of Hersonissos and 16 mi from Heraklion airport. A ten-minute walk takes you to the village of Analipsi, one of the rare seaside spots on the north coast where the traditional Cretan way of life can still be observed, unaffected by the tourist trade.
The large bay windows found in each of the hotel's 222 guest rooms let in plenty of natural light, and the rooms themselves come in four different categories, namely, standard or family rooms, jacuzzi or pool suites and the maisonette villas. The standard rooms are comfortable and have everything you could need, but they are certainly not as stylish as the rest of the facilities in the hotel. Amenities include a small plasma-screen television, a refrigerator, individual air-conditioning, a hair-dryer and a telephone, whilst the rather spacious bathrooms feature a bathtub, a pretty, stylish washbasin and a huge mirror which takes up an entire wall. The somewhat questionable ochre-coloured curtains and bedspreads in the suites, however, show a certain lack of distinction, but the nice, big terraces in these rooms make up for it, furnished with a single sunlounger and two armchairs, and some even have their own 161 sq ft pool!
The Stella Palace is an elegant hotel, as can be seen in the stylish furniture and many plants in the lobby, and water is a recurrent theme throughout, with small ornamental pools adorning the interior. The hotel's piece de resistance though, is undoubtedly its two main lagoon pools, bordered by palm trees, which cover areas of 10,764 sq ft and 13,993 sq ft respectively, complete with no fewer than three children's pools! Oddly enough, the hotel does not have a gym though.
The main restaurant serves good quality local and international-inspired cuisine, although the surroundings are a little disappointing in that the outdoor eating area is too small for the number of guests that the hotel can accommodate. The a la carte restaurant is also available twice a week for those wishing to enjoy authentic Greek cuisine, seated under a pergola.
The small and particularly narrow sand and pebble beach at the Stella Village (equipped with free deckchairs and straw parasols) is accessed by crossing the small road in front of the hotel. The water here is neither very deep nor very clear, so if you like to swim in the sea, head a little further along and you'll find a more appealing, vast public beach just 980 ft from the hotel. There is also an independent water sports club just 330 ft from the beach.
The Stella Palace is a five-star hotel built in 2008 and it stands alongside the Stella Village, a less upmarket establishment with which it shares its 15-man entertainment team. Shows and entertainment events thus take place in the amphitheatre shared by both hotels. The miniclub is also shared by both and is open to children of between 4 and 12 years of age, as well as teenagers between 13 and 17.
stretching, massage, Turkish bath
football, tennis, badminton, basketball, beach volley, volleyball, bums and tums, aerobics, aqua gym, dance, gym, water-polo
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