Crete - Elounda Mare Hotel
 

Our 2005 travel plans will take us to the Dalmatian Coast and Greece. The Dalmatian Coast portion will be on tour, but I will be arranging the details of our trip from Athens thru Mykonos, Santorini and Crete. As to Crete, we will be there 3 nights (9/6 - 9/8), and for our accommodations I have focused on the Elounda Mare Hotel. The pricing which I have seen seems acceptable. Our principal interests on Crete are the Palace of Knossos, followed by the Samaria Gorge and the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion. Is the Elounda Mare Hotel well-located for visits to those sites? Are there other accommodations on Crete which are so "special" that they merit a recommendation over the Elounda Mare Hotel?

I agree with what the other poster told you yesterday; I much prefer the western part of Crete to the eastern. I would recommend staying in either Hania or Rethymnon, for a more "pure Crete" experience. As I explain it: radio stations, clubs, on western side play Cretan music; on the eastern side you hear American rock and roll blasting from cafes and boom boxes. At least, that was our experience as we traveled from Chania to Agios Nicholaos (sp?), which is a mile or two away from Elounda.

That said, the Elounda Mare (drove by it in our rental car) by all accounts is a wonderful, luxury place to stay and probably the most upscale on the island.

Have fun;you will love Crete!

Thank you for your input. I'm certain that Crete is filled with many acceptable hotels, and if there is a good reason to stay in one area as opposed to another, that was exactly the kind of response that I sought. I'm sorry to say that I did not see the other responsive posting.

A thought about the Samaria Gorge: The most dramatic part of the hike is at the end that is closest to the water and relatively flat. I didn't learn until after I had walked it that it is possible to take a boat to that end of the hike and walk the direction that is reverse to what almost everyone does. Once the hike becomes less dramatic, you can turn around and walk back to the water to get on a departing boat. Doing that would give you a lot more time to do other things.

However, depending upon the amount of hiking you do and how you like to spend your time, you might prefer to walk the entire hike downhill in the traditional manner that ends at the water.

hi there - another hotel in elounda that is lovely is the elounda bay palace hotel. elounda is around 25-30 minutes to iraklio (heraklion) by car. if you don't want to hire a car then i can suggest a taxi man we use all the time on our visits to crete. he always has a new mercedes which of course has gloriously cool air conditioning - a must in crete. his name is manoli and his number is: 0030-2841-071000 (i amaze myself that i can remember this!). he is totally trustworthy and always well presented and pleasant.

at the palace of knossos i would definately recommend you employ a guide. the outing in my view is wasted without one. you will learn so much more than if you wander around on your own. the guides are inside the gate and they speak english. go early in the day if possible as it can get extremely warm walking around later in the day (not to mention, crowded). don't bother to eat or drink at the 'restaurant' on site. we found the food awful, plastic, and highly priced. instead walk across the road and enjoy a typical greek meal in one of the roadside tavernas.

you can take a taxi or a bus into iraklio from knossos palace - it's only a few kilometres.

the museum is highly recommended and you should also try to go into some of the churches around the city - there are even teeny little ones about the size of a small living room.

also in the city you can do lots of shopping. shoes for women and men are excellent value. makadrakis is one shop (for ladies shoes) which is great and an even better one for mens and womens shoes is bournazos - very good quality shoes and a good selection.

when in the city i would highly recommend a restaurant called loukoulos. it is set in the centre and the place is excellent: comfy padded seats, good tablecloths, napkins, etc. excellent menu - the carpaccio is wonderful. the service is excellent, attentive without being annoying. the setting is an old town house with a greenery covered area where you can dine outside. they have great seafood too (and perfectly chilled chablis!). they have good coffee to follow but sometimes we wander out from the restaurant and enjoy a coffee in one of the many surrounding cafe bars which are just hopping with business and where all the local city folk enjoy a drink and their favourite hobby, people watching.

there are a couple of little greek restaurants right down on the port. they will often have a huge variety of fish - but the menu is in greek in one of them but it doesn't matter, we just take pot luck and it's always fine.

samaria gorge. hmmmm ... unless you are ultra fit i'd give it a miss. it's supposed to be horrendously tiring and wouldn't appeal to those of us who prefer the gentler life, but each to their own and if you are bouncing with beans just go for it. but do wear really strong, flat shoes as the terrain (i am told) is rough and stoney. YUK!

also, you should take a trip to the town of ayios nikolaos. it is about 20-30 km east of elounda. there is a lovely restaurant (cafe migomis) set up on the hill and the view of the bottomless lake below in the centre of the town, with all the cafe and restaurant lights twinkling on it at night, is beautiful. ayios nikoloas also has the second finest archaelogical museum on crete. from this town you can take a boat to spinalonga (the old leper colony) but when we visited spinalonga we found a local man with a tiny little boat at the harbour in elounda - far better than the tourist boats.

i hope you have a wonderful time in crete!

Interesting posts about the Samaria Gorge. I found the first part to be the most "exciting" which is where you start high up in the mountains and take lots and lots of steps and switchbacks down into the valley. I found it hard not to keep stopping to take in the views. I sure would have been disappointed if I had only entered the bottom part of the gorge from the water and missed most of the hike. That part is essentially just a rocky creek bed like thousands of others I've hiked. I'm not sure why that would be the most spectacular.

Tiring? Well, yes, but it was certainly a highlight of my six weeks in Greece. It would have been nicer had it not been very, very hot that day.