Chania, Greece

Azade Chania

Price per night from$123.59

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR114.69), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Pasha’s pad

Setting

Little Venice

Once the home of the American poet Charles Henri Ford and an Ottoman pasha that nobody can remember the name of, Azade Chania is a Venetian villa in the heart of the old harbour. It’s within the city’s original Venetian walls and right in front of the landmark lighthouse, though there’s not much need for staying vigil today (the Ottomans packed up in 1913). There are just nine suites, some with terracotta terraces for harbour appreciation. Ottoman relics include odas (or traditional second bedrooms, with wooden sofa-beds) in some of the suites and the vrisi fountain in the courtyard. 

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A platter of fruit or confections, a bottle of Cretan wine and a free minibar of soft drinks and some local treats; guests staying four nights or more also get free transfers to and from Chania Airport

Facilities

Photos Azade Chania facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Nine, including seven suites.

Check–Out

11am. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £111.05 (€130), including tax at 13 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional government tax of €10.00 per room per night on check-out.

More details

Rates usually include breakfast.

Also

There’s no spa, but treatments can be arranged in your room (or on your terrace if you’re feeling showy).

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout, yoga, courtyard. In rooms: Smart TV, Nespresso coffee machine and kettle, wine cooler, air-conditioning and Myrro bath products.

Our favourite rooms

The One-Bedroom Suites have USPs ranging from a restored 19th-century ceiling to an authentic Ottoman attic – take your pick.

Packing tips

The sight of the lighthouse may bring out your inner Captain Bird’s Eye, but draw the line at epaulettes.

Also

The Two-Bedroom Suite has an accessible bathroom, and there’s a lift in the building.

Children

Extra beds cost €50 a night.

Food and Drink

Photos Azade Chania food and drink

Top Table

Keeping watch for invaders (while pretending it’s several centuries ago) out on the terrace.

Dress Code

Walk like an Egyptian (or Venetian, or Ottoman).

Hotel restaurant

Breakfasts of hyper-fresh, homemade Cretan dishes can be served in the dining room, courtyard or your room – these include morning-appropriate salads, cheese and honey pies, and the island’s answer to Cornish pasties (kalitsounia). After breakfast, guests can order snacks, salads and Crete’s famous cheese rusks for adults, as well as drinks and a dessert of the day. 

Last orders

Breakfast hours are between 8am and 10.30am.

Room service

The room-service menu can be ordered from between 8am and 11pm.

Location

Photos Azade Chania location
Address
Azade Chania
Zampeliou 69
Chania
731 00
Greece

As the name suggests, Azade Chania is in the capital city of Crete, Chania, close to the old port and its Venetian lighthouse.

Planes

The drive time from Chania Airport is half an hour; hotel-arranged transfers cost from €30 each way.

Automobiles

You won’t need wheels to get around town, but if you’re hoping to see more of the island, a set will come in handy. There’s a public car park 300 metres away from the hotel.

Other

Ferries dock at Chania from all over Greece, including Athens and the island of Milos.

Worth getting out of bed for

Chania’s Venetian lighthouse is the old town’s most iconic sight and you’ll barely have to leave the hotel to see it. Along with the 14th-century harbour, the city has narrow streets, restaurants at the water’s edge and various Venetian, Egyptian and Ottoman influences to uncover. For more antiquity, head to the 13th-century cathedral. Other activities on the island include minotaur-hunting day-trips to the Palace of Knossos and visits to Eleutherna, but don’t expect the drive times to be swift – Crete is the fifth-biggest island in the Mediterranean. The concierge can arrange outings to olive-oil mills, monasteries, wineries and sleepy villages. 

Local restaurants

Classic Cretan dishes, excellent seafood and seasonal local produce await at Salis by the harbour; all of the above comes regularly soundtracked by live music at Chalkina. In a quieter corner of the harbour, Glossitses specialises in all things Greek and grilled.

Local bars

For your nightly ambrosial nectar, look no further than Boheme, in a Venetian building and now the old town’s best cocktail bar.

Reviews

Photos Azade Chania reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this boutique hotel in Greece and unpacked their bottles of olive oil and rakomelo, a full account of their island break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Azade Chania in Crete…

Azade Chania is a historic harbourside villa, built all the way back in 1640AD (this is Greece, so the anno domini is needed). There’s nothing formal about this regal residence, though: the ceilings may be high and the creamy interiors mostly cavernous, but the very meaning of the word ‘azade’ is free and, more importantly, free-spirited. The noble mansion, once owned by the American poet and artist Charles Henri Ford, and an anonymous Ottoman statesman, is right by Chania’s much-invaded harbour, and within the city’s Venetian walls; some of the rooms have terracotta terraces where you can keep watch. The location of the art-adorned house could not be better for old-town explorations: the narrow mediaeval streets, now helpfully lined with cafés and shops, are next-door. You’ll be grateful to Mr Ford (the other one) and the patrician pasha (even if no-one knows his name).

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Price per night from $123.59