Porto Elounda, Crete: a family destination that's ideal off-season

While the Spinalonga Peninsula is for the mega-rich, Porto Elounda is a favourite with families, writes Chris Folley
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Chris Folley3 April 2017

On the steep drive down towards Elounda on the road from Agios Nikolaos, it's not hard to see why what was once a humble fishing village has developed into arguably the most high-end tourist destination in Crete. Ahead of you yachts bob in stunning azure waters, designer homes jut out from steep hills, all bracketed by the Spinalonga Peninsula.

Greek politicians and even Saudi royalty have been frequent visitors to Elounda down the years but Victoria Hislop's 2007 novel, The Island, has also helped keep the more regular traveller curious about this corner of north-east Crete, an hour’s drive from Heraklion airport.

Hislop’s book is mainly set on the island of Spinalonga, the former leper colony with its 16th century Venetian fortress which remains one of Crete's most enduring tourist destinations – to help ensure its protection you need to pay €8 upon entry. Incredibly, Spinalonga only stopped being a leper colony as recently as 1957.

Sea view room with shared pool
Porto Elounda

Architect Spyros Kokotos and his hotelier wife Eliana started the luxury-hotel ball rolling here with the creation of the honeymooner-friendly Elounda Mare hotel in 1988, now part of the Relais & Chateaux hotel group. They followed that with the Porto Elounda Golf and Spa Resort down the road in 1994, then the glitzier Peninsula 2011.

A quick peek inside the Peninsula suggests it’s very much aimed at the super-rich Russian market - one suspects your average working Londoner might struggle to cough up a mere £27,000 a week for a two-bedroom suite – while the Porto Elounda, where we stayed, is a favourite with families.

Children's play area at Porto Elounda
Porto Elounda

This is particularly true during October and April half-terms, when more affordable rates and still warm sun due to Crete's southerly location are a winning combination. Not surprisingly the Kids Ark, with its water slides and basketball court, is a hive of activity while parents relax on the private beach. Footballing youngsters can also benefit from coaching at a football programme run by Arsenal Soccer Schools.

Six Senses spa with seaside view
Porto Elounda

Porto Elounda's trump card for many years has been its award-winning Six Senses Spa, with 23 treatment rooms and views over the bay and the towering Sitia mountains in the distance from the indoor pool.

The only golf course on Crete, at Porto Elounda
Porto Elounda

The resort also makes great fanfare of having the only hotel golf course on Crete - its par three nine-holer might struggle to attract many serious golf tourists but it's cleverly designed, making full use of hilly terrain and limited space and including some challenging holes. It’s perfect for improving your short game as well as being a great place for kids to learn: my 7-year-old couldn’t wait to find his inner Rory.

All the aforementioned glitz seems rather at odds with the unremarkable town of Elounda, a 20-minute walk from the Porto Elounda resort. The scene is quite typically Greek – an orthodox church brackets the far corner of the main town square, which looks out over the bay and Spinalonga in the distance.

Cafes such as Alyggos - which also caters to a night-time crowd after 10pm, complete with DJ - and tavernas like Oceanis bustle with life while the harbour is full of fishing boats and ferries ready to take you across to Spinalonga – €20 will cover two adults and a child. Elounda’s best known restaurant is perhaps the Ferryman (00 30 28410 41230), named after the Seventies TV series Who Pays the Ferryman? which was filmed in the town.

Venturing on from Elounda, take the road around the Upper Mirabello to Plaka, still trading heavily on its connections with Hislop’s novel and the nearest access point to Spinalonga. For the best views as well as superb fresh fish (€55 a kilo is steep for sea bass but you do get a huge fish, and perfectly cooked) head to Giovanni’s (0030 2841041353, giorgos-plaka.gr) on the wharf, visited by among others Lady Gaga and fashion designer Stefano Gabbana.

Yacht at the Porto Elounda marina
Porto Elounda

Once you’ve finished in Plaka you can head a further 5kms to the village of Vrouhas, surrounded by olive groves and stone windmills dating to the early 1800s, before the walk to the Cape of St John with its lighthouse. Further along still is the village of Skinias, with its monastery. As for Mirabello Bay, yachties love it for its coves and many anchorages. Boats go to the village of Mohios with its ancient Minoan ruins and Glaronisi, otherwise known as Seagull Island. Yachts and sailing boats are available for hire from the Porto Elounda and Peninsula hotels.

Cycling enthusiasts are not forgotten either - there are day trips from Elounda to the Lasithi Plateau, 900m above sea level and scattered with the relics of old windmills, all under the gaze of the Dikti mountains. Cretan Sports Cycling (0030 2810360768) will take you the hour's drive to the plateau where you cycle along the flats before lunch in a taverna at Psichro – dishes include fava (split peas, onions in soup), ntolmadakia (grape leaves, mixed veg and rice) and gemista (stuffed tomatoes and pepper and zucchini). Here too you will find the Dikteon Cave, birthplace of Zeus and full of stalactites and stalagmites.

Details

Room with sea view at Porto Elounda ( Porto Elounda)
Porto Elounda

Half-board in a sea view room at Porto Elounda Golf and Spa Resort (portoelounda.com, 0030 2841 068000) via Sovereign Luxury Travel (sovereign.com).

EasyJet flies daily to Heraklion from London Gatwick from March 26, 2017, from £88 return. You can also fly on British Airways, Thomson and Aegean.

Sovereign (01293 765 003, sovereign.com) offers seven nights at Porto Elounda Golf & Spa Resort with an upgrade to half-board from £3,499 per family of four – saving up to £752. The offer includes a free stay for one child, one complimentary spa session per adult, UK airport security fast passes and access to No.1 Lounges (where available), private airport transfers and return flights to Heraklion from London Gatwick with easyJet. Based on departures from May 3.