Holidays in Elounda - Crete, GREECE
Elounda is a holiday resort on the east coast of Crete, 6 miles north of Aghios Nikolaos. Elounda is set on a bay facing the Sinalonga Peninsula, which is connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway. The small island of Spinalonga sits in the entrance of the bay and has a Venetian fortress. Elounda is really a combination of several villages which have effectively merged. The whole area is a particularly scenic setting for holidays and although this former fishing village has grown to become an established favourite Crete holiday destination, it still possesses a certain relaxed charm and an attractive mix of facilities, old and modern areas, and a vibrant square and busy appealing harbour.
Visit the island of Spinalonga and its 16th century Venetian fortress, which is reached by regular boats leaving from the harbour. Popular holiday excursion is to the lively fishing town of Aghios Nikolaos, reached by regular buses and just 6 miles down the coast. Longer holiday excursions include Knossos with its Minoan palace, Samaria Gorge, Fiesta with its Crete mountain village charm, and Sitia with its splendid Vai beach.
The Tourist Information kiosk is located next to the church tower and there are numerous companies offering car-hire, excursions and other travel and tourism related services. The height of the season in
Elounda Crete, like most places on the island, is in the months of July and August, when the weather is at its hottest with temperatures frequently passing 40 degrees. May, June, September and October are slightly cooler, although it is not uncommon on
Crete to find oneself only needing to wear short sleeves even in December! Winter as such could be regarded as falling in the months following Christmas, when the air can be damp and temperatures low.
Information about Elounda beaches
The visitor can enjoy the delights of the sea by bathing in the crystal clear waters of Elounda’s beaches, nine of which are awarded the Blue Flag by the EU annually. The municipal beach is located just next to the port. It is a fully organized facility, ideal for water sports, with restaurants and cafes nearby, where thousands of visitors gather every year. Eight hundred metres beyond Shima are the award-winning blue flag beaches of
shiona and
Poros. Another beach ideal for swimming is that located at the hotel Driros, which is planted all over with reed, and there are also the two pebble beaches of Plaka with their pristine waters:
Aghias Marinas beach and
Plaka beach, the latter located at the northern edge of the village. If you have a little patience, you could take your car to the canal, and taking the dirt road to the right, leave it there and you will find yourself at the church of Aghios Lucas. From here you descend the track on foot to reach
Kolokithas beach with its blue-green waters.
Shopping in Elounda resort
Elounda is a moderate sized village resort, a far cry from the the large towns of Heraklion, Rethymnon and Chania and the big tourist resorts such as Malia and Hersonissos. It is large enough, however, to offer all necessary amenities such as banks and ATMs, numerous shops selling most things including groceries and provisions, books and newspapers, fishing tackle and chandlery, gold and jewellery, clothing, souvenirs and toys. There are also pharmacies in the village, should you need to visit. A market predominantly selling food and clothing is held every Friday morning on the road running in front of the church
Getting to Elounda - Crete
The closest airport to Elounda is at Heraklion. During the season many flights depart from a wide variety of European airports directly for Heraklion, although independent winter visitors may need to be a little more creative regarding routes and airlines in order to find the best deals. Elounda is less than 80km from the airport by road and a direct taxi journey takes less than one hour. Tourist coaches timings will vary according to the number of other drop off points that they need to visit en-route.
Elounda Crete holiday Reviews
Ann and Chris Gladding. Date of travel: Apr 2005
We visit Elounda a few times a year. it was our first island on our trips around the islands. We love it, we stay up in Elounda Hill Apartments, at the foot of mount Oxa. We have stayed in far more luxurious places but we love the spot Elounda Hill is in. Elounda Heights is further up the hill with the usual, pool,bar etc. that is too far up the hill for me, I have slight mobility problems. We have stayed there a couple of times and couldn't fault it but I must depend on others to ferry me around if I stay there. each day we start off in Friends Cafe Bar in the village centre for breakfast and never plan a day. In January we ended up picking horta near to Heraklion oneday, another,visiting an olive processing plant and an eight-thundred year old church in the centre of Zeros village (45 mins away)which displays the skulls of men of the village slaughtered by invaders who were aided by the village priest. When he went for his money, the enemy invited him to dinner, he accepted and was boiled to death. I think they may have objected to his disloyalty..I may be wrong. The tourist sites don't end at Knossos, the whole island is steeped in history you can feel it. I would love to do some of the walks, all within half an hour of Elounda but I can't. I can go over to Spinalonga, originally a fortress but it ended up a leper colony until the early 50's. The trip accross the bay is worth it even if you are not interested in the history of Spinalonga, or known now as Scabby Island, I re-named it one night after sniffing rakki, couldn't say Spinalonga, my mouth wouldn't work. We find Elounda big enough to be interesting and small enough to keep its identity. it is well worth a look see. The locals are great and treat us like one of their own. Mary from Elounda Hill feeds us up, we love the smells from her kitchen they are fantastic, just like my nan's house. We walk her dog Lucy,theres nothing like it, it's the most relaxing place we have ever stayed: mainly because we don't have to move off the balcony to get a view of the bay. It's on the edge of a country lane and you rarely see anyone. It can get a bit breezy but as they bake down in the village, we have god's own air conditioning. Sitting on the balcony, the sun beating down with a breeze gently fanning your face is ahhh..... Sunday mornings are great, the sounds from the church service drift up and it takes me back to the days when I was dragged to church, happy memories now. We do have our mad moments in FRienDS Cafe Bar, they have often waved us off at 4 in the morning, after sampling Dimitris Svendilakis ( A.K.A King of Cocktails) inventions and believe me they are all tail, (a bit like scorpians) how he makes a profit I don't know. After one of his nights we can't move off the balcony....they have to talk to us slowly. It's nice to know the young'ns enjoy our company. wise old woman/man of the hills thats us.at least they know there is life after forty. We used to go all over the island, looking for another resort we think we would like but there's something about Elounda. There are really up market places, but we could only go back once a year if we stayed in them and to be honest, I can't be bothered with the effort you must put in to dine. We have our posh spot (Thea )if we want a dressy night, the food is great. Plaka (a village close to Elounda) has some really good fish restaurants,right next to the sea,informal, but top class food. Paragalia being superb. Theres lots of activities diving schools, fishing. and beach activities, the sunsets are glorious especially from Michalis, Hope taverna in Mavrakiana, this is a real Greek taverna, no one knows how old Michalis is, the local ex pats. always go up there for the sunsets. The beach is small but vey clean and never crowded when I have visited Apr, May, June and Sep and Oct ...July and August must be. We pay less(pp) per night for a one bedroomed apartment than my son does to stay in 4-6 bed hostel accomodation when he travels here. so we get true value for money with the accomodation. There is a site
www.elounda-crete.net it has loads of information on it if anyone is thinking of taking a trip to Elounda. If you do we hope you find it as good a stay as we do. Elounda village square is where the tourist area is, centred. Some of the accomadation can be quite away from the square, especially the posh places but the views are stunning and there is no real need to go into Elounda village, they are self contained but they are not for me. I stay a few minutes (300metres) away from the village and love it.
