Stella Palace Resort & Spa

Stella Palace is an ideal vacation destination for both families and couples. It’s beautiful landscaping and placement of mature palms around its two 1000 m2 plus lagoon-style swimming pools contributes to its ambience of restful tropicality. There are tons of activities on offer for children, including an animation team and the brand new Stella Water Park.

5-star Stella Palace, Hersonissos, Crete, was first opened in 2008 and completely renovated in 2016. It’s a massive complex of buildings, pools and palm trees. It has its own beach, its own water park, and its own spa. It’s just 20km from Iraklion International Airport and is an ideal vacation destination for both families and couples. It’s beautiful landscaping and placement of mature palms around its two 1000 m² plus lagoon-style swimming pools contributes to its ambience of restful tropicality, minus the humidity and the mosquitoes. There are tons of activities on offer for children, including an animation team, the Stella Water Park, group activities, and water sports. In addition, Stella Palace has a high-end, luxurious Spa for those wishing to restore their bodies and faces to their pristine peak.

Guests are particularly impressed with the cleanliness of the resort and the friendly, approachable, accommodating staff.

Stretch out in a hammock under the shade of the palms, close your eyes and listen to the sounds of moving water whether at the beach, the water park, or the pools, and feel yourself slip off into long periods of profound relaxation which will re-charge you for your return to the workaday world, rested and eager for life’s challenges.

Rooms

Stella Palace boasts 240 spacious, contemporary rooms and suites designed with comfort, elegance, and efficiency in mind. Rooms are set within an environment of swaying palms and landscaped grounds. Earth tones predominant the décor of the rooms and suites, which are elegant, spare, and the last word in class. Rooms with a private pool are the ultimate choice for couples’ getaways, whilst family rooms are designed to comfortably accommodate the younger set. Rooms and suites are equipped with comfortable beds, large living spaces and balconies. For sleeping, blackout curtains shut out ambient light.

Standard Room with Pool View

Elegant rooms with high quality amenities and views overlooking the lagoon-style pool, the stunning gardens, and the blue Sea of Crete in the distance. A good economical choice.

30m² SLEEPS UP TO 3

Deluxe Sharing Pool

Comfortable rooms with modern furnishings and panoramic view at the sharing pool. A secluded deck leading directly to the refreshing pool waters is the idyllic setting for intimate moments and precious time together.

Superior Room with Sea View and Sharing Pool

These luxurious rooms give you a view of both the sharing pool, and the nearby beauty of the Sea of Crete, both visible just outside your floor to ceiling sliding glass door. Rooms come with spacious, furnished balconies, bath amenities, coffee and tea facilities, and the opportunities to soak up as much Cretan sun as your heart desires.

Family Rooms

There are three categories of Family Rooms, Open Plan with Pool View (38m²), Two Bedrooms with Pool View (40m²), Two Bedrooms with Hot Tub (40m²).

All Family Rooms have modern interior, luxury amenities, a private balcony or a terrace with panoramic views, and accommodate up to 4 persons.

Family Suites

There are two categories of Family Suites. The first one is located just a few meters from the sharing pool, while the second one has direct access to the Sharing Pool. Both have two modern bedrooms, that can perfectly accommodate families with up to five persons. Family suites are bi-level with sun loungers on the pool’s edge. Terraces are separated by low dividing walls for privacy. The pool itself has two oval concrete island planters, out of which grow palms and tropical plants.

Double Room with Hot Tub

Ideal for couples, this room features designer furnishings and earth tones colour schemes. Room is flooded with natural light during the daytime, and charming, indirect lighting after sunset. The private balcony gives guests wonderful panoramic views of the sea and the surrounding topography. Then there’s that hot tub for a relaxing time in the evening.

Suite with Private Pool

The ultimate in luxury and privacy, this suite makes you feel at home the second you close the door behind you and find yourselves in your own little world. The comfortable bedroom area has direct access to a furnished terrace with wooden deck and a private freshwater pool.

40m² SLEEPS 2. POOL 20m²

Villa Maisonette with Private Pool

A beautiful two-storey villa with Jacuzzi, two marble-clad bathrooms, separate sitting area, top-rated hotel services, and high-end amenities. The best choice for discriminating guests.

70m² SLEEPS UP TO 5. PRIVATE POOL 30m²

Grand Villa Maisonette Private Pool

This largest villa Stella Palace offers has two floors, four bedrooms, and a full-sized pool. Villa is enclosed by dressed stone walls on either side for privacy. Barrel-tile roof, shaded second floor balcony, and triple stone arches on the ground floor leading to the pool and garden. Views from the balcony are unforgettable, and the garden is decorated with semi-tropical, blooming plants. There’s a backyard barbeque, a fridge, and individually-controlled air conditioning. This is the place for you if you’re seeking a fun-filled, private holiday with friends and family.

4 BEDROOMS. SLEEPS UP TO 8. POOL 119m²

Food and Drink

Stella Palace is in the business of making memories, and some of the best memories can be found with food as their centerpiece. These memory-making meals await you as you indulge and imbibe in one of Stella Palace’s five restaurant, four of which are a la carte. Bars and snack bars are placed at strategic locations throughout the resort. If you pony up for the All Inclusive package, you’ll be able to enjoy a complementary dinner in each of the a la carte restaurants with a more than seven-night stay.

Food and Drink

Poseidon, the main restaurant, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. Poseidon specializes in Mediterranean and international cuisine served buffet style. Breakfast options include homemade breads, traditional pitas and organic products, as well as nutritious, inventive, and satisfying meals for kids. For lunch and dinner, the menu includes international favourites and Greek specialties such as grilled kebabs and feta cheese salads. There are regular themed nights, such as seafood or Asian cuisine.

La Veranda “The Italian job” has some of the finest Italian cuisine in Crete, as well as a great wine list, wonderful cocktail choices, and great service in a location that takes full advantage of the sun of Crete and its remarkable seascape as seen through the restaurant’s glass wall looking seaward.

Cretan cuisine is perfected at the al fresco Elia Restaurant, where you’ll sample the best-prepared local dishes in the area, starting with delicious “meze” appetizers and progressing to main dishes with side orders of Cretan veggies and herbs and fresh from the oven bread, all accompanied by Cretan wine aged to perfection.

Enso Asian Restaurant

The sun-shaded, open-air Enso Asian Restaurant offers delicious, expertly prepared Asian food which you, the customer, can observe the chefs cooking and maybe pick up a few tricks of the trade. Menu choices include sweet and sour chicken and bao buns, combined with exotic cocktails. The elegant outdoor setting has an easy ambience, which complements this exotic culinary experience.

Newly-opened Abrazo Mexican Restaurant offers Mexican cuisine so authentic you’ll think you’re dining in Acapulco. With chairs color-schemed to match the red, green and white of the Mexican flag, and a wide variety of authentic Mexican menu choices, you’ll love this taste of Mexico whilst vacationing in Crete.

Bars

Main Bar offers refreshing drinks as well as impressive and fabulous cocktails inspired by the Greek and Mediterranean products.

Kohili Pool Bar softly serenades you with contemporary music whilst you relax in the plush comfort of its poolside sofas as the warm Cretan sun lulls you into a dreamy state and you indulge it its fine drink offerings, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. The bar becomes more lively after sunset as the soft sea breeze caresses your cheek and the stars come out in all their glittering glory in counterpoint to the brilliant blue of the illuminated pool waters. Parties are sometimes thrown for guests, as well as live music events to bring the spice of variety we often crave.

Thalassa Pool Bar derives its name from the Greek for “sea,” and is located next to one of Stella’s three pools. This is where you come with your family to enjoy fruit drinks for the little ones, whilst you indulge in something a little more bracing. There are all kinds of snacks on offer. You can work on your tan, supervise the little ones, and watch the sun set as another perfect day comes to a close.

The Mediterra All Day Bar by the sea is where you want to be when what you want is to mellow out and watch the ever-changing waters of the sea. Sip your beer or cocktail, feel the warm summer breeze, listen to the relaxing background music which sets the tone and atmosphere for the fading light of sunset and, as night comes on, relax and dream and enjoy the beauty of the Cretan night until the wee hours.

The Palms Bar is one of the more popular places in the resort. Relax in the open air in the bar’s comfortable canvas director’s chairs, quench your thirst, and choose amongst a wide variety of snacks both sweet and savory.

The Street food Bar can be found near the water park. Street food on offer runs the gamut from hot dogs to pizza to hamburgers to fish and chips and fresh salads. For your sweet tooth there’s frozen yogurt, refreshing granites, and ice cream, amongst others. No matter what your craving, there’s something for everyone as you watch the guests play on the colorful slides, games and pools of the water park.

Wellness and Spa

The state of the art Stella Spa has a treatment menu that the whole family can benefit from, including your kids. The treatment menu revolves around holistic methods and extensive use of essential oils to bring your body back into harmony with itself and with nature. Treatments result in restoring the balance between spirit, body and emotions and will leave you feeling in tip-top condition. Oriental-style massage sessions, specialized aromatherapy, and a variety of body peelings and wraps await your pleasure. Shea butter body peelings, Dead Sea detoxifying mud wraps, traditional Cretan peeling remove the top layer of dead skin cells and clear the skin of impurities, restoring its smoothness and elasticity.

Stella Spa

There is a Sauna, a whirlpool hot tub, a steam bath and an indoor pool, the use of which lead to an ultimate experience in relaxation.

Mental and physical balance is perfected when spa treatments are augmented by exercise. Stella Palace offers a state of the art gym facility, enabling you to stay toned and fit even as you relax during your vacation experience.

Activities

Water has always been considered a source of relief of tension and elemental to the basic enjoyment of life and nature. If you love water in all its forms- moving and still, salt and fresh, sea and pool, Stella Palace is the place for you.

There are two large freshwater pools at Stella Palace, 1000 m² and 1350m², a spanking new water park, and two kids’ pools with slides. You can stretch out and relax on poolside sunbeds, imbibe in all kinds of creatively prepared mixed drinks, and enjoy the romantic and exotic atmosphere of the resort between refreshing dips in the pools.

Relaxing around the pool at Stella Palace

Stella Palace has its own private sandy beach with upholstered sunbeds, towels, and umbrellas free of charge for guests. A short walk away are two other, larger public beaches. To the east, Analipsi Beach has decent beach bars and a water sports center, and Aposelemi Beach, to the west, has a small nature reserve.

Nightly entertainment includes shows, dance performances, and circus acts in the amphitheatre, whilst live music can be found at the pool bars.

For sports, you can choose from tennis, with its three courts, badminton volleyball, football, basketball, mini-golf, petanque (similar to lawn bowling), and water polo. There is fitness room and fitness classes in yoga and aerobics are also on offer.

To round off Stella Palace’s features there is a jewelry shop, a mini market and a souvenirs shop at the hotel’s grounds.

Waterpark

The Stella Water Park (new in 2019), provides the ultimate entertainment experience for the whole family. It has been built according to the highest standards for your safety and enjoyment. It has water slides, splash pools, circular tubes, aqua towers and activity stations. In short, everything required to keep your kids safe, busy, and thoroughly entertained. It’s so much fun that you might want to throw on a swim suit and join them. The water park is a fan favorite, with parents reporting that their kids want to spend the whole day there.

Stella Water Park

Slides include the Aqua Tube &Tunnel Body Slide, Speed Slide, Free Fall, Multi Slide, the Extreme Black Hole Slide, and the Rafting Slide. There are also multi-passenger circular inflatable rafts which carry you at top speed through the twists, turns and drops of the complex.

Guests love the variety of snacks at the snack bar, and the larger pools, which have plenty of shallow areas for kids. The shared pool has a separate kids’ wading pool area.

There is a spray area with water fountains and kids-favourite AquaLand pool with tipping buckets, slides, net climbs, water cannons and water all around.

In addition, there is an adults only pool, and a pool and snacks bar with a selection of delicious street food goodies and refreshments available all day long.

Fun for Kids

Family vacations at Stella Palace are focused on relaxation for parents and entertainment options for youngsters. “I’m bored!” is an all-too common complaint of kids whilst on vacation, when often, for adults, it’s important to relax and “do nothing. “ The “I’m bored!” complaint is guaranteed to go unheard at Stella Palace Hotel because of the wide variety of entertainment options for kids.

Fun for Kids

In addition to the already-mentioned two kids’ pools and mini waterpark with slides, splash pools, and a tipping bucket at the shared area with neighboring sister hotel Stella Village, there is a Kids Club for 4-12 year-olds, a mini disco, a kids animation program, and amphitheater with movies and plays. Parents love watching their kids dance to their hearts content with other kids at the mini disco, the way the animation team keeps their kids entertained with projects, and the nightly entertainment, including the shows at the amphitheatre.

Water park and sports facilities for teenagers, as well as water sports and horseback riding are also available.

In the area

The lively town of Hersonissos (Limenas Chersonisou) is 4 km away (a 5-min taxi ride), with lots of restaurants, bars, amusement parks, and boat cruise options.The city of Heraklion is 25 min drive away, which is a good trip for a whole day sightseeing. Other popular attractions in the region include the Cretaquarium (10-min drive) and the ruins of ancient Knossos(30 min).

Guests love the proximity to Hersonissos with its bar strip and availability via a land train which stops in front of the hotel. They also liked the option of a day trip to Santorini, a short plane ride away.