Our review of the Grecotel Luxme White Palace hotel in Crete – a luxury five-star all-inclusive hotel, where we stayed for a week…
One type of holiday we haven’t done before is the relaxing, beach / pool all-inclusive hotel stay.
Our usual holidays are normally full of activities and excursions, with the accommodation generally being just somewhere for us to sleep and not overly-important to the experience of the holiday.
However after a few particularly activity-filled and hectic holidays, we decided to try a holiday of pure relaxation, just lazing around by a pool or beach in the sun, staying mainly at the hotel and enjoying unlimited food and drink being served to us whenever we wanted.
This holiday was one we did as a couple, without any of the children – so we were able to go at the start of July, outside of the school holidays.
As we knew we’d spend most of the time at the hotel, and really wanted to be able to properly relax, this time the nature of the hotel was important to us.
We wanted somewhere that we’d feel totally at home and relaxed in, knowing that the hotel was the main feature of the holiday experience (rather than just a place to sleep at the end of a long day out).
We actually already knew that the Grecotel Luxme White Palace would be good, because a friend of ours has been twice and had been urging us to visit for ages, so it was no surprise to us when we arrived to find exactly the type of hotel we’d had in mind.
The first impression on arriving at the hotel was very good.
It’s a beautiful building in a superb location right alongside its own private beach – and the reception staff were welcoming, with a very smooth check-in process where they sat us down on sofas overlooking the sea with glasses of wine rather than having to stand queuing and checking in at a reception desk.
We had a sea-view double room that was very spacious and comfortable – with a modern bathroom, large rainfall shower, comfortable furnishings and bed and a large balcony overlooking the bright blue sea, with stunning sunset views in the evenings.
The whole hotel is very well maintained and clean throughout.
There are numerous large swimming pools with comfortable sunbeds all around – and easy access down to the hotel’s own private sandy beach, also lined with loungers and parasols.
The pools and beach have staff patrolling around all day offering to bring you drinks or snacks – all of which are fully included in the price.
The Grecotel Luxme White Palace is “ultra all-inclusive” – virtually everything is included in the price – all drinks, all food – as much as you want of it at any time of day or night. The only things that weren’t included were treatments in the spa, the hotel laundry service and one specific special drinks menu of champagne.
The hotel was exactly what we wanted. We loved the atmosphere of the place, which was just calm and serene, wherever you are, in any of the outdoor or indoor spaces, it just has this ultra laid-back, tranquil atmosphere to it which makes you feel totally at home.
As mentioned, we were here outside of school holidays, so perhaps it’s busier and more hectic at peak summer holiday times.
There were people here with children when we stayed, but the hotel definitely has more of an adult feel to it than a typical family hotel, without a huge amount going on that’s aimed at children.
There is another Grecotel a few miles away with an aqua park that seems more geared towards families with children (and in fact if you’re staying at the Luxme White Palace, you get access to the other hotel’s water park too).
We don’t normally like to hang around at hotels on holiday and we’re much keener to go out and explore and do activities, but at Grecotel Luxme White Palace we were totally happy spending almost all our time here (aside from one day trip we did to the stunning nearby Kourtaliotiko Gorge).
A highlight of this hotel is the food, all of which, as mentioned, was totally unlimited and all included in the price.
They have five separate restaurants – a Greek, Asian, Italian and a fine dining restaurant plus a buffet restaurant.
You have to pre-book (using their app) for the four speciality restaurants and you can only visit one of each per week (you can use the buffet restaurant any time you like without the need to book).
We panicked a bit on day one when we tried to book up for the restaurants for the week, only to find all the restaurants already fully booked for the whole week.
However, all it took was a quick message on WhatsApp to the reception and they booked us in, so it seems the availability on the app isn’t totally rigid and reception can help out if the times you want aren’t available.
To be honest, even if we’d had to have eaten at the buffet every day it would’ve still been a superb experience, as the buffet food was extremely delicious and varied.
But the speciality restaurants are next-level, with superb food of a very high standard.
All the restaurants overlook the sea with views of the most amazing sunset each evening. They really do all provide superb, memorable dining experiences and we loved every meal we had here.
You can also get lunch, snacks and drinks throughout the day from various other bars, or just have them brought over to your lounger if you just want to sit around the pool or the beach.
In the evenings, before and after dinner, you can hang around on the Sunset Bar terrace – a beautiful terrace with a perfect view of the sunset, where the sky turns unbelievable colours of pink and gold.
They have a range of different entertainment going on each night.
A DJ on the first night had the whole bar up and dancing – then on other nights a violinist, cellist, saxophonist provided more relaxing pre- and after-dinner music.
Another thing that adds to the high quality experience of the hotel is the staff – every single one of which was friendly, helpful and just seemed to want to do anything they could to help and make our time here enjoyable.
We were very impressed with the way every member of staff took time to always greet us personally, made an effort to remember our preferences and were prepared to go out of their way to help with anything we might’ve wanted.
Grecotel Luxme White Palace is definitely one of the higher quality hotels we’ve ever stayed at and we couldn’t find one single fault with the entire week we stayed here.
Amazing surroundings, an incredible range of all-inclusive food and drink, superb staff – and a laid-back, chilled out atmosphere that we were very happy to spend six full days enjoying in some of the best weather we’ve had on any holiday anywhere.