Elounda: Fishing Village Manners, Five Star Address

On paper, Elounda should be insufferable. This small village on the Gulf of Mirabello holds the densest concentration of luxury hotels in Greece, the kind with private islands of villa pools where a summer week costs more than a small car. Yet the village itself never got the memo: fishing boats still land their catch by the square, the kafenio crowd still argues over backgammon, and the most expensive thing on the harbour front is a decent lobster pasta. That double life is exactly why people return.

The village and the lagoon

Elounda sits on an almost enclosed lagoon, sheltered by the long Kolokytha peninsula. A narrow causeway crosses to the peninsula past abandoned windmills and old salt pans where flamingos pause in spring, and beside the bridge you can make out walls of the sunken city of Olous beneath the surface, an ancient town that subsided into the sea. Snorkelling over 2,000-year-old masonry before lunch is a reasonable Elounda morning. The village beach is modest; the better swimming hides on the peninsula's far side at Kolokytha beach, a sandy cove reached by boat or a 20 minute walk.

Plaka and Spinalonga

Ten minutes north, the hamlet of Plaka faces the fortress island of Spinalonga across a few hundred metres of water. Once the supply point for the leper colony, Plaka is now a row of excellent fish tavernas and a pebble beach with some of the clearest water on the coast. Boats shuttle to Spinalonga from both Plaka and Elounda all day in season; the crossing from Plaka takes minutes, and going at opening time beats the midday surge. The island's Venetian, Ottoman and medical history deserves the full telling in our Spinalonga guide.

Do you need the five stars?

The famous resorts occupy their own coves south of the village and are destinations in themselves, with spas, sea-water pools and restaurants that import their own chefs. But Elounda rewards mortals too: guesthouses and mid-range hotels in and above the village share the same gulf views, and everyone eats at the same waterfront in the end. Whatever the budget, book early; this corner of Crete sells out before most of the island wakes up.

The logistics

Elounda lies just over an hour from Heraklion's airport, the last ten minutes a corniche above the gulf that makes a strong first impression. A transfer from Heraklion Airport to Elounda is the standard arrival; the short hop from Agios Nikolaos takes about 15 minutes if you are basing in town and visiting for the day. Agios Nikolaos itself, with its lake and harbour life, sits close enough that you can treat the two as one destination and let the evening decide which one gets you.