A Stay at the Atlantica Caldera Palace Crete, Greece.

When planning a summer holiday, sometimes I want the most stress free experience where I can just relax and not have to plan every little detail of the trip. For our first holiday aboard since Covid, we knew we wanted to just getaway and relax in a place we knew we loved. We had a pretty stressful year which involved moving house only a couple of month prior, so really wanted that luxe 'by the beach' type of holiday. Greece is one of my favourite destinations to visit from the UK.  With so many islands to explore, and so much culture, history and amaaaazing food, it wasn't hard for us to choose our holiday destination. Plus the beautiful crete weather has never let us down! And with that, we booked a holiday to Greece at the Atlantica Caldera Palace on the Island of Crete.

Location / The Hotel

This 5 Star hotel is the height of luxury, and is located on the northern coastline of Crete on the sandy shores of Lyttos Beach! So you can step out of your room and straight onto the beach to relax in the sun. Along the main street you'll find plenty of shops, bars and taverns with the village of Analipsi only a 5 minute walk away. If you want to venture a little further out, you can take a trip to Hersonissos and historic Heraklion which is only 30 minutes away.

Now let's talk about the actual hotel. Let me tell you this is a biiiiig hotel. We often went for a morning stroll just around the resort after our breakfast! The Atlantica Caldera Palace features various different rooms and suites, with a range of private pools, swim up rooms and whirlpools as well as a children's splash zone. There's also six restaurants here as well as a couple of outdoor bars which I'll get onto later. As well as all of this, you'll find a lot of fantastic extras at this hotel such as a Hair Salon, Spa Treatment Rooms, Pharmacy, Gym, Games Room, and on site Store. And don't worry, there's plenty of sports and activities for you to enjoy here! Whilst we stayed here there was a lot of guest starting their mornings off with a yoga class whilst watching the sun rise. 

Our Room

As previously mentioned there is various room options to choose from at the Atlantica Caldera Palace. Our room was a Double Room with a Balcony and let me tell you our balcony was huge! Our view also included an overview of the main hotel area with one of the pools, but also a sea view which was gorgeous to wake up to! 

The rooms have all recently been updated so the decor was gorgeous and modern with a spacious bedroom which included a full stocked mini bar, desk area, and closet. The bathroom was so bright and open (usually I find bathroom lighting to be awful) and was complete with a whirlpool bath tub and walk in shower. Honestly we had no complaints with our room, the area we were located in was so peaceful and we had the most comfortable stay here. 

Dining & Bars

As previously mentioned there are six different restaurants to dine at in the Atlantica Caldera Palace. One thing that sometimes puts people off opting for all inclusive hotels is usually the meals can be a bit samey and not only do you get bored, but you also aren't experiencing the local cuisine. Well at the Atlantica Caldera Palace they've taken this into consideration! 

There is the main restaurant which servers breakfast, lunch and dinner. But if you do wish to change things up you can dine at the following restaurants - Tex Mex A la Carte, Aroma Stone Grill, Five Flavour Thai, Mediterraneo Restaurant, Basilico Italian Restaurant and the Oregano Greek Tavern. These restaurants are very popular amongst guests so make sure you book a table if you plan to dine at any of these restaurants one night! Alongside that, there is various bars and cafes located throughout the hotel such as the Guru Bar and the Kokumi Cafe so you can enjoy a freshly brewed Coffee or Pina Colada depending on your mood!

After nearly three years of no holidays or trips we had the best time in Greece and it was definitely what we needed. I was a little apprehensive about travelling again but all the hotel staff were so pleasant and helpful which made me feel so at ease and made the whole holiday as stress free as possible (minus the mini crete earthquake that we experienced).

You can find out more/book a stay at the Atlantica Caldera Palace here.

Have you ever visited Crete?