CRETE PART 2/ELOUNDA GULF VILLAS
With our two nights at Elounda Bay Palace done, we were very ready to move on. Our next stop would be just up the road at the Eloudna Gulf Villas, a member of Small Luxury Hotels. I believe a taxi was arranged for 10e, and after breakfast we got moving.
It was instantly a better vibe at Elounda Gulf, much smaller, more private and much higher quality service. At check-in, we were told that we had been upgraded to a spa suite. The staff took us up to the room by buggy. Now, I don't want to look like all I do is complain about upgrades, but I don't know WHAT the hotel was thinking with this "spa suite" concept. The "Senior Suite" I had booked, was a 75 sq mt room with a living room, bedroom, large marble bathroom and generally lots of space and seating. The "spa suite" was a perhaps 30 sq mt room with just a bedroom and no seating area, lousy decor and a small bathroom with a shower and no tub. The perks of this room, were that it was perched on top of the hill with great views of the sea, and it had a private plunge pool. Unfortunately, the location of this plunge pool meant that the small lounging area was never in the sun, so it would be impossible to tan, AND the room was quite far from the hotel common pool. Beyond that, the hotel missed a huge opportunity here to create truly special rooms. The "spa suites" have gated entry to each room and a brief walkway to the cramped room up top attached to the plunge pool. There is an exterior stair that goes down below to a HUGE space that looks like an unfinished basement with a 1/2 bath, that is the "spa" area, where you can choose to have in-roomish massages. This is just an unforgivable waste of space, as the useless basement area is larger than the room itself. HAD the hotel made the staircase interior instead of exterior and made the "bedroom" area a living room attached the deck/plunge pool upstairs, with the bedroom and a proper bathroom downstairs instead of this useless "massage area" most people don't use, then this would be a truly exceptional duplex suite with great views and a plunge pool. They could charge 4x as much/night for it and people would pay.
Instead, they squandered their potential, and this room was so lousy, that I asked if it might be possible to see the lower category room we'd actually booked. They obliged, and after seeing the original room, we politely declined the upgraded and opted to stay in the room class we originally booked. They probably thought we were crazy
.
With the room situation settled, we unpacked our bags and went down to the hotel pool which was very close to our room. There were only two other people there and it was lovely and private, we swam for a bit, tanned then had the free mezze lunch that came bundled with our rate. We spent the balance of the day in the sun by the pool then took a cab to Plaka that evening and had another lovely dinner at a taverna called Maria's. The food wasn't quite as exceptional as To Pareaki but the proprietor was very friendly, the food was good and they had one of the most obese cats i've ever seen prowling from table to table eating whatever scraps could be found. The appropriately named named "fat cat" was a bit of a diva and if you weren't putting food in his face, he had very little interest in being social.
After dinner, we returned to the hotel. Our final day in Elounda would be a bit more eventful.
We took a taxi from Elounda Gulf to Elounda town and walked along the seaside from there to Plaka. Once in Plaka, we went down to the waterfront and used the free tickets the hotel had provided us with for the boat ride to Spinalonga. While the boat was free, entry to Spinalonga island is 8euro/person. Spinalonga was once a contiguous part of Crete, but during Venetian rule it had been cleaved off and made into an island fortress. After the Venetians it was a trading post for the Ottomans and most recently it was a leper colony. I believe that stretched into the late 1950's. After doing sufficient research to assure myself that there was no possibility of latent leprosy strains waiting for us on the island we set off climbing and exploring the surprisingly dangerous island. There are no "caution" signs or roped off areas in Greece, so it's really an explore at your own peril sort of situation. The island was quite neat, we had a lovely time there and spent a few hours before heading back to Plaka for a look at the town in daylight.
After exhausting the handful of streets in Plaka, we had the hotel show us their pitiful beach club. While Elounda Gulf was a vastly superior hotel overall, it was not right on the sea, and the beach club was not only lousy but a 15+ minute drive from the hotel. There's a free shuttle, but still. Better to stay by the pool. That night we returned to Agios Nikolaos and had dinner at To Pareaki again. After dinner we strolled the somewhat livelier streets of town for a bit before returning home to pack. We would have another early AM wakeup to get to Heraklion in time for our morning ferry to Santorini.
Final thoughts on Elounda Gulf Villas. The biggest negative is that the hotel isn't RIGHT on the sea. There's no beach. Driving 15+ minutes to a small and lousy beach club simply doesn't cut it. That being said, the pool was nice, quiet and fairly private. The grounds were in great shape, the rooms were all so much better than Elounda Bay Palace that it's not even worth comparing and the staff at Elounda Gulf were all very professional, polished, knowledgeable and friendly. It's insane that both hotels are classed the same as 5-stars when Elounda Bay Palace doesn't belong in the same league. I would not hesitate to return to Elounda Gulf, although as mentioned there are many 5-stars in the area, so I might be tempted to try a new hotel just to see what's out there. A very enjoyable stay, and I believe that Small Luxury Hotel members are affiliated with Hyatt, so you earn Hyatt nights/points.