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The Mamidakis family have made their mark on Crete’s northeastern coast. Their first property, Minos Beach Art Hotel, became the island’s first truly luxury stay when it opened in the ’60s, heralding a boom in upscale beachside resorts as Crete’s popularity skyrocketed in the decades to follow. Twenty years later, Minos Palace Resort opened, followed by the family-friendly Candia Park Village. And so completes the Mamidakis portfolio on Mirabello Bay: an art-filled sprawl of whitewashed bungalows; a mini Cretan village built for family holidays; and, at Minos Palace, an impressively slick adults-only sanctuary on its own private peninsula, where couples, singles and grown-up friends come to worship at the altar of wellness.
What’s the vibe?
A multi-year transformation, finalised this summer with the opening of the infinity lagoon suites (more on those later), has pulled Minos Palace out of the ’80s and transformed it into a sanctum of modern Mediterranean luxury. The focus is on creating a sense of flow, mastered through a seamless current of wide open space and curvilinear architecture. Arriving, you’ll breeze past the lobby’s abstract sculptures and bulbous reception desk and step out into the heart of the resort: a saltwater infinity pool, surrounded by beach cabanas, with huge beanbag-like beds floating in the water. Guests hazily drift from restaurant to pool to sunbed, white-gowned staff glide around and greet you. It all feels like a dream, and kind of like a cult. I’m here on a girls’ holiday, cold cranberry welcome drink in hand, and we’re ready to be recruited.
As the days go by, we get to know the layout of the place. The resort makes the most of the peninsula’s rugged natural landscape, with rocky promontories and staggered terraces surrounding a sheltered sandy cove, hidden hammocks and various vantage points, and herb gardens and flower gardens sloping gently toward the sea. While the real, certified ‘art hotel’ is down the road at Minos Beach, Minos Palace has plenty of creative credentials of its own, with commissioned pieces dotted over this landscape and adding abstract splashes to the long, monotone corridors inside. The showpiece is ‘Chronotopia’, an archway of over 1,000 hanging lenses facing the bay, each eyeglass winking in the sun and capturing its own version of this showstopping vista.
What are the rooms like at Minos Palace Resort?
Accommodation types run the gamut from standard double rooms with partial sea views to suites with private pools, with price points to match. The brand-new infinity lagoon suites are the crème de la crème, where your very own freshwater pool gives way to a curvaceous lagoon pool overlooking the sparkling Aegean Sea. Interiors are cool and minimal with lashes of cork and rattan, where you can meander between a generous lounge area, double vanity space, walk-in wardrobe and rainfall shower, out under the welcome shade of a bamboo awning and onto your sun-drenched daybed. There’s a well-stocked mini fridge with cold brews, Aperol spritz and Greek lemonade, and you can even order in a floating breakfast. Fancy.
What are the restaurants like at Minos Palace Resort?
Exceptional. The sunset dinner we had at Amar, the hotel’s lofty fine-dining restaurant overlooking the beach, was one of the best meals I have ever had; in part due to the impossibly romantic setting, with the sea and nearby islands turning a dusky red as the sun went down, but mostly because of the delicious, fresher-than-fresh dishes spread over our table: vine leaves stuffed with perfectly cooked shrimp, beautifully scorched wild greens mixed with salty feta, and freshly caught catch of the day, dutifully filleted. I returned the next day for lunch just to get another taste of my favourite dish: grilled octopus marinated in grape molasses, on a bed of smoothly mashed fava beans with lemon and olive oil.
Mom Restaurant is another stellar, and dare I say underutilised, pick for lunch. The breezy poolside space, with an indoor-outdoor terrace that wraps around two sides of the hotel, fills up at breakfast and dinner, when a buffet spread is laid out for guests. Breakfast is a feast of fermented and pickled things, various fruits, juices, smoothies and yoghurts, as well as an omelette station, your standard fry-up fodder and a selection of pastries, which did not see a whole lot of action from the wellness-loving crowd. At lunchtime, however, there’s barely anyone here; presumably because lunch isn’t included in all-inclusive packages. I urge anyone staying to try it, and to get the grilled halloumi, tuna tatami, wild mushrooms and the gorgeous Greek dip selection. Next door, Nama Pool Bar – all wavy dark walls and long purple sofas – serves up some seriously creative cocktails.
How’s the spa and longevity hub?
Nao Longevity Hub launched in 2025 and is already the hotel’s greatest draw, catapulting Minos Palace into the hall of fame for European wellness getaways. Head down the wave-like staircase and find a warren of underground wellness chambers: there’s cryotherapy, vibro-acoustics, infrared beds and massage rooms. Thanks to state-of-the-art equipment and a team of licensed therapists and nutritionists, you could even do a full-on HRV, body composition analysis and resting metabolic rate assessment, if that’s the sort of thing you like to do on holiday. I did find out that I have a high metabolism, according to actual science, which made gorging on all the exceptional food here even sweeter.
The spa circuit is similarly science-backed. There’s an infrared sauna, which warms you up gradually thanks to a panel of infrared light behind you as you bask in the orange glow of a Himalayan salt wall. There are hot and cold plunge pools and a larger, sinusoidal indoor pool. There’s an ‘emotional tunnel’, a multisensory walk-through experience where light, water, sound and smell are synchronised to regulate the nervous system. All in all, a very refreshing way to spend a few hours, particularly after a session with a massage therapist who described himself as the ‘angel of pain’.
What’s the area like around Minos Palace Resort?
Ágios Nikólaos is the perfect Cretan resort town; all hilly cobbled streets, souvenir shops and buzzy local restaurants. You’ll find the best places to eat and drink surrounding ‘bottomless’ Lake Voulismeni – our favourites were Skala for wine and dinner, and Gioma for meze and cocktails. There are a handful of small beaches in and around the town, but the biggest and prettiest is Voulisma, around 15 minutes away by car.
What else is there to do at Minos Palace Resort?
If lazing is off the table, you have your pick of wellness-based activities – sound baths, pilates, yoga, meditation, etcetera – along with bookable experiences including yacht trips, diving sessions and art tours. I recommend taking a cooking class with Chef Emmanuel, where you’ll learn how to make tzatziki, shrimp saganaki, mizithropita and fermented tomatoes, and enjoy it all with a nice glass of white.
DETAILS
Address: Thessi Nissi, Ágios Nikólaos, Lasithi, Greece 72100
Price per night: Rooms from €600
Closest transport: Heraklion International Airport (HER) is 55 minutes away by car; Ágios Nikólaos bus station is a 15-minute walk
Book now: Click here