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Elounda, Crete

Writer's picture: Paula HudsonPaula Hudson

I do love Autumn but I'm not quite ready to fully embrace it yet. I'm already missing the long days of summer and the nights where we can leave the windows and curtains wide open so we wake naturally to daybreak. The dark mornings have arrived far too quickly. So, forgive me, I'm going to indulge myself by reminiscing about this year's summer holiday in the blog this month.


The Salt Pans, Elounda Crete

For someone pretty organised, I'm not very good at planning our own annual holiday. No, that's a lie, I'm very good at the planning part, it's the deciding where to go that we have a problem with. Neither my husband nor myself are sun worshipers and a week sitting next to a pool would drive us insane, but the thought of fresh seafood, crystal clear blue waters and a week of just chilling out was just what we needed this year.


Crete has been on my Wanderlust list for a few years since I read The Island by Victoria Hislop, based around the island of Spinalonga, the fortress and ex-leper colony just off Crete's north eastern coastline. A friend of mine had just shared the most amazing photos of Elounda and I managed to book a last minute package holiday with Jet2 for the last week of August.

Paula Hudson VA enjoying a seafront Greek meal

Elounda can be found in the Heraklion region of Crete, it's about an hour's transfer from the airport but well worth the journey. It's often described as the swanky resort of Crete, with it's spa hotels nestled in the mountains and luxury yachts in the harbour. It doesn't have the vast water parks of the other towns such as Malia and, although we saw a few families, this resort has a far more adult feel about it. There are taverna after taverna lining the harbour, all offering traditional Greek dishes and amazing seafood. We ate at a different taverna each night, I even had a Shirley Valentine moment with a table on the sea shore and the meal was always finished off with a complimentary Raki.


Elounda has a blue flag, sandy beach just past the harbour with sunbeds and parasols however, as our hotel was at the other end of the village, we took a 20 minute walk each day to the Kalydon peninsula where we found Dianiskari beach. There is the more popular Kolokith beach further round the coast but Dianiskari ticked all the boxes for us with it's easy access to the sea from the small shingle beach or the rocks. I bought a snorkelling set from the village and spent so much time the next day marvelling at the wide variety of fish that my back got quite badly sunburnt despite wearing Factor 50 sun-cream. Lesson learnt: snorkelling requires a t-shirt!


Boats in the harbour at Elounda, Crete

I'd done a bit of research on Pinterest prior to our departure and we had a rough plan of activities that we wanted to do.


We caught the local bus to Plaka one day. This is a small fishing village just round the coast from Elounda (it takes 10 minutes on the bus and apparently 45 minutes on foot but some of this is on the road). Plaka is where the Leprosy sufferers would have started their journey to Spinalonga and you can jump on board one of the half hourly boat trips over to island from here and also from Elounda.


Later in the week we hopped on the bus in the opposite direction and visited the bigger town of Agios Nikolaos, with it's 'bottomless' lake that, according to mythology, the Goddess Athena bathed in. We were more interested in the fact it's the venue for for the annual Red Bull Cliff Diving Competition.


A boat in the lake at Agio Nikolaos

A boat trip to Spinalonga was of course a top priority. Wear sensible shoes if you want to explore the island fully, the ground is pretty uneven on the higher levels. The island has undergone some restoration over the last few years and the market street is brightly painted, as it would have been when the island was inhabited. Standing on the small quay there it shocked me how close it was to the mainland and we contemplated how hard it must have been to be banished to Spinalonga and watch your families carrying on as normal on the mainland.


Spinalonga, Elounda, Crete

The highlight of our week was our day out to Sarakina Gorge. We booked this excursion through Adventure Crete and spent the day with our guide Tomas and his friend David. We were picked up at 9am and dropped off at 6pm and spent the day learning about the history of Crete and visiting the village of Kritsa, up in the a mountains, passing row upon row of olive trees as we went. Higher in the mountains we passed hundreds of bee hives (and the beekeeper) before stopping for lunch at a Taverna tucked away off the beaten track. The food here was cooked by wood fire, the 'fridge' a cave and the fresh water was running from a spring high in the mountains.


A traditional Greek taverna in the mountains above Elounda, Crete.

The whole day was accompanied by a narration of, not only the history of Crete, but also Tomas' and David's history and stories of their lives and escapades and this really made the day one we'll remember for a long time!


We stayed at the Hotel Akti Olous, an adult only hotel with a roof top pool and bar. We chose the B&B option but you can stay half board and the restaurant menu looked fabulous. The breakfasts were plentiful with lots of choice and, with a seating area right next to the water with views of Spinalonga in the distance, it was definitely a great way to start the day!


So, to say it took us long enough to decide where to go, I'd say we made the right decision and I'd highly recommend Elounda for a authentic, relaxing Greek getaway.

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