I spent years in this area of Crete, the earliest being in 1969 and the last time I was there was 1992. Friends of ours had a villa where we would stay, in the small town of Plaka which is a few kilometers outside Elounda along the sea road. It was quiet, remote, and had a beach that no one knew about. There were several simple restaurants along the coast set among what was then only ancient olive groves....I knew this absolutely beautiful spot was ripe for developement and it was only time before the the tourism and resorts so prevelant in Elounda spread west along this short stretch of road. Interesting enough what the Blue Palace does not tell you is that the Island you see right off it's coastline is called Spinalonga and was used in early 1900's as a leper colony. It is considered haunted by the locals and in the early 1970's we couldn't even get anyone to take us out there.... when we finally did we found skeletons piled in a large room just abandoned... I was 13 at the time and the image still haunts me today. I bet they have "cleaned" up their island and it is now a tourist draw....

I must say I am curious about the hotel but disappointed that their is now a resort where once there were goats and olives......

On side note.... we actually, through a Greek lawyer, bought a few hectres of land in 1970 in Elounda that is now where the Elounda Beach Hotel is....the lawyer convinced my family to sell the land ( too cheaply) to him and then he in turn sold it to the Elounda Beach for a huge profit....we realized soon after that he had scammed us.