Phāea Blue stands on the shore at Plaka, Elounda, Crete, between the fishing village of Plaka and the port of Elounda, with its own beach and the Venetian island of Spinalonga across the water. The house holds 47 bungalows and suites, and more than 20 years of trading stand behind it.
The property traded for two decades as the Blue Palace. The Sbokou family reopened it under the Phāea name in May 2024, smaller in scale and in intent: the sisters who run it set out to turn their family’s beachside hotel into a boutique house. A guest has two walks from the gate, the village one way and the port the other, and a beach in between.
The family and the architect
Yannis Sbokos bought the land in the late 1980s. His daughters run the house now, Agapi and Costantza Sbokou, co-chief executives, and the same family owns Malia Park on the same coast. They took the group’s leadership in 2017 and renamed it Phāea in 2019. Costantza Sbokou is an architect, and Phāea Blue was the first project she took on after finishing her studies in the United States.
What the drawings refer to
She took the principal reference from the Venetian centuries of Crete, the castles, arsenals and stonework still standing in the island’s cities. The second reference sits directly opposite. The Venetian settlement on Spinalonga sets a monumental building against houses at human scale, and the plan here holds the grand and the intimate together in the same way.
The lobby was curated in partnership with the Benaki Museum. Rooms carry Klismos chairs by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings among the furnishings brought in at the redesign, and more than 30 Greek artisan partners supplied the ceramics, textiles and marble through the rooms and the public spaces. The palette holds to local stone and earthy materials, kurasani among them, used in a modern idiom. On the shore, an old fisherman’s stone house found on the property became the Blue Door Taverna.
At the table
Anthós, menu curated by Athinagoras Kostakos, is the principal restaurant, and the menu works from seasonal produce and from Cretan recipes several generations old. The kitchen is led day to day by executive chef Giannis Kalivretakis, who takes guests through the organic garden at the Phāea Farmers Feast. The Blue Door Taverna, in the fisherman’s house, serves traditional Cretan cooking. The Phāea Farmers programme buys produce grown by staff and their families above market price.
How the house runs
Phāea Blue runs entirely on renewable energy, has taken fossil fuels out of its operation, and returns all of its treated wastewater to its gardens. Through a partnership with Bee for Planet it has taken on 25 beehives carrying more than 500,000 bees. More than 85 per cent of the staff is recruited locally.
The villa and the jetty
The Phāea Blue Villa sits at the top of the accommodation schedule: 290 sq m, sleeps 8, private heated pool, with an indoor gym, a butler and a private chef. Spinalonga, a National Heritage Monument, is reached from the house’s own jetty aboard its wooden caique. Closed November to April, Phāea Blue trades for the Cretan season alone.
Who is this for
The house suits a couple or a family who want a small property on a beach of its own, within reach of Heraklion airport, 64 km away. Rooms run from a 36 sq m signature room to suites sleeping four or five, many with a private heated pool. The spa gives massage, bodywork and facials, with yoga and Pilates outdoors. Votsalo pours Cretan wine before dinner, and there is a bar down on the beach. Pets are welcome.
