North-eastern Crete, 9 km from Agios Nikolaos, is where Elounda Beach Hotel & Villas was built in 1971. The estate it grew into runs along 40 acres on Mirabello Bay, and the whole of it is arranged on the waterline: suites, bungalows and villas a few paces from the sea, the best of them with a private heated pool and their own way down into the water.
Accommodation is tiered into named clubs, and the top of the ladder is a villa on the sea front. Alexandros Koutsodontis, the general manager, counts the posting a highlight of a career spent running five-star hotels, and credits much of that to the position on the bay.
The house that made Elounda
Konstantinos Mantonanakis was born in Chania, at the other end of the island. He started with a small commercial store in Heraklion, went on to build Kernos Beach, then bought Elounda Beach Hotel & Villas, built in 1971, and the neighbouring Elounda Bay Palace soon afterwards.
It was among the first five-star hotels in Greece, and it offered services then unseen outside Athens: a helipad, private swimming pools, sailing, water skiing and tennis. Heads of state, politicians, actors and athletes came to Crete for the first time. Mantonanakis died in 2021, at 95. Helios Hotels and Resorts, the company he created, still holds Elounda Beach, Elounda Bay Palace, Grand Resort Lagonissi and Nafplia Palace, and his son and daughter, Pantelis and Anna Mantonanakis, were at its helm when he died.
Elounda carries a dense row of five-star houses on the shore north of Agios Nikolaos, and Elounda Beach is the oldest of them.
Where you sleep
The keys run to 123, of which 96 are suites, divided between the main building, the bungalow lines along the water and the villas. Sizes start at 28 square metres for a classic sea-view room and climb through the clubs: 65 and 75 square metres for the island and hideaway villas, 115 for the executive villa on the sea front, 145 for the waterfront grand villa of the Platinum Club. The ladder ends with The Royal Villa, 270 sq m, indoor and outdoor heated pools, for two to four people. A helipad and a marina sit on the estate.
The tables
Nine restaurants serve the resort. Dionysos, the fine-dining room, sits among century-old olive trees and cooks modern Mediterranean. Argonaut is Italian, with the bay in front of it. Blue Lagoon is on the waterfront, an Asian kitchen with a sushi bar. All three serve dinner from 7pm to 11pm, and the dress code across them is smart casual to formal. Breakfast is at Artemis, beside the main pool. The wine cellar holds 1,100 local and international labels and opens by appointment. Two more tables sit outside the resort proper: Thalassa, at the Elounda Bay Palace next door, which cooks seafood, and Kafenion, in Elounda’s village square among centuries-old olive and carob trees.
The spa, the boats and the bar
The spa is the Elounda Beach Penthouse Spa, four departments wide: aesthetic, hydro-biontology, wellness and medical. The range runs from massages and facials to acupuncture, hydro-aromatherapy and bio-energetic treatments.
Private boat days go out from the resort to Agios Nikolaos and Spinalonga, or to a sunset cruise, or to a fishing trip worked with traditional techniques. The general manager’s own favourite place on the estate is the Veghera Jetty Bar, which serves classic and craft cocktails on a deck over the Sea of Crete.
The house works a zero-waste policy and buys from producers on the island. Two certifications stand behind that: Green Key; UNESCO Sustainable Travel Pledge.
Who is this for
Elounda Beach suits a traveller who wants water, quiet and little reason to get into a car. The estate is tiered into named accommodation clubs, from rooms in the main building up to the Platinum Club, so a couple and a family are housed differently on the same ground. Landscaped gardens and an olive grove hold the inland side. There is a programme for children, and a high proportion of guests come back, among them generations of the same families.
