The Luxury Collection Hotels in Agios Nikolaos

My husband and I had an absolutely amazing stay at the Phae Blue Palace soon after it's re-opening as a luxury boutique hotel. We didn't know the previous version of this hotel to compare to but we loved the ”new” version, with all the thoughtful gestures towards sustainability and efforts to integrate with Cretan culture & foods, etc - whilst still maintaining the quality and personalised service you expect from a 5-star place. Yes, it's a smaller ”boutique” property and OK, it hasn't got 18 restaurants and 6 pools and golf course and helipad and watersports centre with giant slide - blah-blah-blah - but that doesn't mean that the experience is any less luxurious. If anything, the smaller size means you feel like the staff really treat you as individuals (even friends!) rather than just another dollar sign with a room number attached. The location is sublime with the views to Spinalonga Island; sunset dinners at the Blue Door Taverna on the beach are just magical and lots of local attractions are within easy driving or boating distance. You can also do daytrips to several other parts of Crete easily. We made a daytrip to the Omalos Plateau & Diktamos (Zeus) cave one day and climbed to the top of the mountains (high enough that everything was covered in a freezing mist!) and were back in time for a lovely dinner in the main restaurant. (Yes, there were roadworks/building work for the sister site going on while we were there but it honestly wasn't that much of a hassle. You just had to look more than once each way before driving out of the hotel property onto the road and we weren't disturbed by the noise at all.) The thing that really set the Phae Blue Palace apart for us was the staff, who were all wonderful. They really embodied the Greek value of ”philoxenia” - all the smiles felt genuine and they really seemed delighted to help you enjoy Crete as much as possible. In particular, I need to mention Lina Stratsiou (Front Office Manager) who was INCREDIBLE - even months before we arrived in Crete, the level of effort & attention to detail she showed as we corresponded via email was just unbelievable. She was so patient with my endless questions and itinerary changes, and her messages felt heartfelt and genuine, not just slick, stock responses. When we finally arrived at the hotel, we received such a warm personal welcome from her - it felt like meeting a lovely penpal at last or something! But all the staff were amazing. We have stayed in a lot of luxury hotels in many countries and while they all have perfectly trained staff, this is one of the few places where it felt authentic and not sycophantic. Unfortunately, I can't remember the names of all the lovely people who made us feel so welcome but in addition to Lina, I'd like to say a special thank you to Stavroula, Maria & her team in the main restarant Anthos and the charming Haris (manager of the Blue Door Taverna), who took great pride in providing top service but in a way that felt (a