Pnoé Breathing Life is an adults-only house at Karteros Beach, 8.5km from Heraklion, where every suite has its own pool, the spa runs to hyperbaric oxygen, and the Cretan restaurant is built with Peskesi. Its first season was summer 2023, and the name means the breath of life.

A 1968 bungalow hotel stood here first, among the earliest in Heraklion to have a swimming pool of its own. Pnoé is a wholesale renovation of that building, with new ones added around it to hold the suites. There are 60, each with a private pool, in three categories: Breeze, Breathe, Signature. They stand around a courtyard whose central pool is cut in the shape of an almond. The house belongs to the Greek-owned MK Hotel Collection.

What the first hotel left behind

Greek Modernism shaped the original buildings, and the architecture that replaced them keeps two pieces of it on purpose: the round pillars and the marble wall that hold up the pergola. The pergola is wide and open, and it is the way in, looking over the common pool, with window panels running up to the roof to make the reception beside it. The work went to the Heraklion practice Cube Concept, lead architect Aria Lironi, and 3,500 square metres of building were completed in 2023. Rooms stand on the west, north and east sides of the site, which wraps around that one curved pool. The materials are mostly local and the colours earthy, and every piece of furniture and metalwork in the hotel was made by hand by Cretan craftsmen.

The suites

The entry category, the Breeze Double Deluxe, is 29 square metres for two adults. The Breathe Suite is 41 square metres for three, and its heated pool has a Jacuzzi set into it. The largest, the Signature, is 52 square metres, also for three, and it adds a private sauna in a courtyard garden of its own. All three are done in the same earthy tones, with open-plan bathrooms, a walk-in dressing room and showers indoors and out.

The spa and what it does

Four treatment rooms, sauna, hammam, ice fall and a wet area of waterfalls make up the circuit, with a relaxation room set about with Himalayan salt stones. A stepping-stone walkway links one part of the spa to the next, laid to slow the walker down. The treatment menu was drawn by the spa brands Germaine de Capuccini and Dr. Barbara Sturm, with a set of signature treatments built on local ingredients. The programmes include hyperbaric oxygen therapy, Zerobody and breathwork, and the hyperbaric chamber is a sealed pod that raises the oxygen the body takes in by half again, which speeds up healing. The spa also has a beauty salon. The fitness centre stands apart, with modern equipment, personal trainers and a wooden deck outside for sunrise yoga. About 120 staff run the house, two for every suite.

The table

The house has two restaurants and two bars. Anása serves breakfast and dinner, with organic produce from local growers, aged cuts out of dry-ageing cabinets and matured fish. The Cretan table is Thymises, with Peskesi, the Heraklion restaurant that has worked since 1998 on preserving and reviving the Cretan diet and treats cooking as an expression of the land it comes from. Peskesi’s creator and owner, Panagiotis Magganas, is the partner behind the room, and its kitchen takes ingredients from Peskesi’s own farm. Aeri, at the poolside, serves juices and light food through the day. On the roof, Uranos pours a cocktail list created by the mixologist Aris Antonakakis.

Who is this for

Two adults travelling without children, who want a private pool at the door and a short transfer at either end of the week. Karteros is a split shore: craggy countryside and a harvested hay field inland, a busy beach resort along the same sand. Dia Island lies 13 kilometres north across the water. Heraklion airport sits west on its own peninsula, so planes are part of the day here, and this coast has more than 300 days of sun a year.