Opening 2027

Rosewood

Rosewood Blue Palace

Name: Rosewood Blue Palace
Address: Elounda, Crete, Greece

Rosewood's Greece debut

Elounda, Crete, Greece

Get notified when it opens

The day it opens + our first honest verdict. No paid placements. Joins the Fat Voyage list — leave any time.

First look

Rosewood is planting its first Greek flag here. The Blue Palace has sat above the Gulf of Mirabello in Elounda for years; Rosewood has taken it over and reworked it from the ground up, with Athens architects K-Studio leading the redesign and London-based Afroditi Krassa shaping three of the six restaurants and bars. On paper it's a properly Cretan project rather than a brand parachuted in.

The numbers are substantial: 154 rooms and suites, 85 of them with private pools, plus an Asaya spa and pools looking across the water to Spinalonga, the old Venetian-fortress island. An all-day restaurant is meant to pull produce from an on-site organic garden and local growers.

Not yet scored. We publish a Fat Score only once a hotel is open and real guests have stayed and written about it — this is a first look, not a verdict.

What we'll be watching

We haven't stayed yet — here's what will decide whether it lands when we do.

Whether the dining lands. Rosewood resorts can lean on the setting and let the restaurants slide — but six venues, three of them shaped by Afroditi Krassa, is a real swing. We'll be watching whether it's ambition delivered or names on a menu.
Whether 154 rooms feels like a resort or a village. That's a large count for the intimacy Rosewood trades on; the keys to want are the 85 with private pools. We'll be watching whether the rest feel like an afterthought.
Whether the rebuild feels Cretan. The Blue Palace had years of character; K-Studio's ground-up rework can root itself in the place or come out generic-Mediterranean. The materials and detail are the tell.
Whether it's actually ready. The opening has already slipped more than once — from 2025, then 2026, now a 2027 reopening — and first-season resorts on this scale often need a summer to settle. We'd want the date to hold before booking the early weeks.

What's changed

We track this opening and log every change. Newest first — dates are when we confirmed it, not necessarily when it happened.

26 Jun 2026Now expecting 2027 (was 2026).

First look · gallery

Renderings & press imagery, courtesy of the hotel — details may change before opening.

Sofie, who runs the Fat Voyage booking desk with Nicolas

Want us to get you in when it opens?

Nothing to book yet — rates usually load a few months out. We're Sofie and Nicolas; tell us roughly what you're after and we'll come back the moment Rosewood Blue Palace is bookable, with rates, what the rooms are actually like, and whether we'd go in the first season.

You'll be dealing with the two of us the whole way through, which is why we only take on a handful of trips at a time — if we're full, we'll say so. We reply by email, usually within one working day. The hotel pays us, not you: your rate is the same as booking direct, and the perks come on top.

Before it opens

When does Rosewood Blue Palace open?

Rosewood's own site now points to a 2027 reopening. The debut has slipped more than once — originally targeted for 2025, then 2026 — so treat any date as reported rather than final.

Where is Rosewood Blue Palace located?

In Elounda, Crete, set above the Gulf of Mirabello and looking across the water to Spinalonga, the old Venetian-fortress island.

Is this Rosewood's first hotel in Greece?

Yes. Rosewood has taken over the long-running Blue Palace and reworked it from the ground up — its first property in Greece, with Athens-based K-Studio leading the redesign.

How many rooms will Rosewood Blue Palace have?

154 rooms and suites, of which 85 will have private pools.

What restaurants and facilities will it have?

Six restaurants and bars — three shaped by London-based Afroditi Krassa — an all-day restaurant drawing on an on-site organic garden and local growers, an Asaya spa, and pools over the Gulf of Mirabello.

Will Fat Voyage score Rosewood Blue Palace?

We publish a Fat Score only once a hotel is open and real guests have stayed and written about it — drawn from luxury travel communities, editorial publications, and verified guests, never paid placements. This is a first look, not a verdict; we'll score it once there's enough independent signal to be fair.

Open now

What you can book today

Rosewood Blue Palace is still under wraps. Here's what's already open and scored in our collection — more from Rosewood, and nearby in Greece.

Fat Legend

Rosewood

Hôtel de Crillon, A Rosewood Hotel

Paris, France

The case for the Crillon is made by named people. The managing director, Vincent Billiard, works the breakfast room himself. A doorman named Michael remembered a returning couple's dinner plans and had the car arranged before they asked. Concierge staff have talked their way into a fully-booked Hermès leather appointment. Guests who write these down are telling you something a five-star average can't. The Karl Lagerfeld suites remain the most distinctive rooms in Paris, the courtyard is a genuine pocket of quiet in the middle of the city, and Les Ambassadeurs is one of the few grand hotel bars where you still hear French at the next table. The catch is priced clearly enough. Base Deluxe rooms run small for the rate, and anyone arriving from Le Bristol or the Ritz feels the square-footage gap even as the staff feel like an upgrade. Place de la Concorde is the address everyone wants and also the noise nobody quite avoids; some regulars say they'd trade it for a quieter Saint-Germain or 8th-arrondissement spot if calm mattered more than the view. Les Ambassadeurs has a real consistency problem with non-residents: one longtime local patron describes standing outside for half an hour while reserved tables sat empty, then getting a rude waiter once finally seated, and points to how rarely the same bartenders are still there the next time she visits. None of that undoes what the suites and the staff deliver; it just means the entry-level room isn't where this hotel makes its case. Book it for the address, the Lagerfeld suites, and a service culture where the managing director still greets people by name at breakfast.

Fat Approved

Rosewood

Rosewood Beijing

Beijing, China

Rooms here start at 50 square meters, which in Beijing's CBD is close to unheard of, and the triple-height lobby with its ink paintings and calligraphy still reads as one of the best arrivals in the city more than a decade after opening. The rooms themselves lean library rather than hotel room: dark wood, art, shelves stacked with books and curios. One guest spent a whole afternoon just reading in the room and meant it as a compliment. The Manor Club lounge is the other reason people keep coming back, and Vincent and Joyce get named specifically for turning breakfast and evening cocktails into something worth paying the upgrade for. Country Kitchen's duck gets called some of the best in the city, not just the hotel. The ground floor doesn't match it. A guest asking about a beverage menu at breakfast was met with a raised eyebrow and told there wasn't one, no training visible behind it. Another was double-charged at checkout and needed several staff to sort out what turned out to be a backend error. A third guest was charged over 300 RMB for two bottles of sparkling water with no warning. None of this touches the lounge, which nobody complains about, but it does mean the regular restaurants and front desk are a bit of a coin flip depending who's on. The spa is a real gap too: no proper hot tub, no steam room, no resting area, which is a strange miss for a hotel at this level and more than one guest called it out as too basic. Book it for the room size, the lounge, and the duck: on those three, nothing else in the CBD is close. Keep an eye on the bill at checkout and don't expect the spa to be a highlight, but the Manor Club and Country Kitchen alone are worth the rate.

Fat Legend

Rosewood

Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco

Tuscany, Italy

Ask around about Tuscan estate hotels and Castiglion del Bosco comes up before anyone finishes the question. The reason is consistent across years of guests: golf staff who play holes with you and turn up at the villa with pizza that night, villa attendants who remember a family's order from a visit two years earlier, a restaurant team that has a highchair waiting at your usual table before you sit down. That's the pattern, repeated by strangers with no reason to coordinate their story. The restored medieval borgo itself, stacked stone above the Val d'Orcia, is the rare case where the photos undersell it, and the family programming (kids club, a Babbo Natale house at Christmas, in-room provisions for toddlers) is real luxury that doesn't quietly wish the children away. Price the two real catches in before you book. The spa and gym are undersized for what the estate charges, and the sauna and steam room need booking ahead or they're simply gone by the time you ask. More seriously, the €200-per-person fee for a missed dinner has genuinely angered guests, several of whom cite it as the one sour note in an otherwise flawless stay. Longtime guests who knew the property under the Ferragamo family also make a fair point: rates have climbed since Rosewood took over, and a few have shifted to Reschio or Como del Nero instead. Some travelers also find the whole place a little too polished, "westworld"-perfect rather than warm, and prefer Belmond's looser Chianti version. None of that changes the calculation for families or couples who want the countryside done at full five-star precision: this is still the one to book, book the villa if the budget allows, and just read the dinner policy twice.

Fat Approved

Rosewood

Rosewood Hong Kong

Hong Kong, China

The curved Kohn Pedersen Fox tower on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront is still the strongest argument in the whole pile of reviews: corner harbour suites and the Grand Harbour View rooms deliver a view and a room size nothing else in Hong Kong quite matches. On the 40th-floor Manor Club, staff keep track of the small things: a returning guest's tea order, ice already in the room by day two, a signature dish rotated in each evening from one of the restaurants downstairs. CHAAT comes up constantly as a favourite, and more than one traveller has called the taro cake at Butterfly Patisserie the best they've had anywhere. That's the case for booking it. Outside the Manor Club, the story gets uneven. Several recent guests describe arriving with no one to help with bags or open the car door; one family found their child's bed hadn't been set up on a late-night arrival. Housekeeping lapses show up too often for the price: stained towels, a room left completely unserviced for a full day. Breakfast turns chaotic on busy mornings, with slow tables and dropped orders. A few guests who booked because of "world's best" rankings said the day-to-day didn't match the billing and switched their loyalty to Four Seasons or Mandarin Oriental mid-trip. One traveller on a third stay this year says the front door has genuinely gotten better compared with a year ago: more people on hand, warmer check-ins, though the polish still isn't there every time. Book a Manor Club room or a suite and go for the food and the view, and this holds up as one of the better stays in the city. Go in on a base room expecting flawless service at every turn and you may end up writing the same complaint as everyone else. Either way, book it for the room and the harbour, not for the reputation.

Get notified

Be first when Rosewood Blue Palace opens

We'll email you the day it opens — and our first honest verdict once guests have actually stayed. No paid placements, ever.

Joins the Fat Voyage list — leave any time.

More anticipated openings

All openings

Mandarin Oriental

Europe

Mandarin Oriental Punta Negra, Mallorca

— Mandarin Oriental's first in Mallorca

Costa d'en Blanes, Calvià, Spain

The brand's Balearic debut, on a wooded peninsula between two coves near Puerto Portals — 131 rooms and suites across five buildings, with Matsuhisa and Leña by Dani García among the restaurants.

Opened

June 2026

First look →

Four Seasons

Europe

Danieli, Venezia, A Four Seasons Hotel

— the legendary Danieli reborn

Venice, Italy

Four Seasons has the keys to the Danieli, Venice's storied palazzo on the lagoon by the Doge's Palace — open with 120 rooms, rising to 176 in 2027.

Opened

July 2026

First look →

Mandarin Oriental

Europe

Mandarin Oriental, Rome

— ten restored villas in the Gardens of Sallust

Rome, Italy

An urban oasis in the Villini Sallustiani — 108 rooms spread across ten restored nineteenth-century villas above the ancient Gardens of Sallust.

Expected

Late 2026

First look →