Elounda Beach Hotel & Villas, Elounda, Greece

It’s safe to say that Apollo, the Greek god who urged moderation in all things, never stayed at Crete luxury hotel Elounda Beach. The unabashed opulence of Greece’s leading island resort is the stuff of legend and continues to be celebrated today by latter-day deities from the sports and entertainment worlds, the royalty of various states, and a fair helping of lesser mortals.

What lures people to Elounda Beach is the combination of an idyllic natural setting, prompt and attentive service, and understated confidence that there is no request the staff can’t accommodate. Indeed, the luxury hotel resort prides itself on its sensitivity to its guests’ needs, whether this might involve simply changing the furniture or having fresh Maine lobster flown in from America. Elounda Beach thus promises a tailor-made holiday. However, it should be said that since nothing comes without a price, its most dramatic overtures (rebuilding rooms on demand, sending divers to pluck specific sea urchins from undersea rocks, etc.) tend to be made on behalf of guests for whom money is no object.

Elounda Beach is located just below the coastal road connecting Agios Nikolaos (9 km to the south) and Elounda (2 km to the north). Beyond the nightlife and other attractions offered by these tourist towns, untouched Cretan countryside villages and numerous antiquities lie within a close drive and the international airport in Heraklio, Crete’s capital city, is only an hour to the west.

The facilities

Elounda Beach offers all of the amenities one would expect from a five-star resort including a whopping nine restaurants and bars, and a wine cellar with over 8,500 bottles. The luxury hotel's conference facilities are superb and a visit to the spa or fitness centre at the Aphrodite Wellness Center will leave guests feeling like Greek Gods. With numerous activities including water sports, tennis and mini-golf, guests always have something to do. And for true relaxation, lounge on the luxury hotel's private beaches or pools.

Although it is indisputably a luxury resort, Elounda Beach does enjoy touches of intimacy in its secluded seaside bungalows, spacious sloping lawns and gardens and meandering stone pathways, framed by palms and redolent of jasmine, hibiscus, bougainvilla and rose.

But it must be said that the luxury hotel's best amenity is its remarkable staff, which has experience in dealing with everyone from pouty Russian heiress children to the most demanding British connoisseurs and excels in providing prompt and attentive service. In fact, the staff seems to relish the challenge of satisfying vacationers’ most complex requests; Cypriot sommelier Giorgos Hatjistylianou recalls one mission to track down for a guest a rare and expensive 1957 bottle of Chateau d’ Yquem Sauternes within 5 days, something which required hundreds of phone calls and ultimately ended up successfully at an auction in Paris, as “the kind of challenge we live for.”

The rooms

There are not one or two but 27 sub-classes of rooms at the luxury hotel, which depend on factors like size, view, location and pool, ranging from the standard doubles to suites and villas, and climaxing in the Imperial Suite, with its indoor heated swimming pool, grand piano, sauna, hamam, gym, billiards and cinema.

Common to all rooms is the range of high-tech gadgetry (indeed, even finding the desired light switch can be arduous) as well as the prevailing maritime design theme, which highlights the hotel’s Greek island location. Whitewashed exteriors with blue painted doors contain spacious interiors featuring rich polished wood floors bathed in deep green or blue marble. Rooms are all quite clean and well-maintained.

Although it is not the biggest category of room size wise, the unique seaside bungalow – constructed at a time when Greece still allowed rooms to be built close to the water – is a favorite with many (indeed, Bono once deliberately ‘downgraded’ himself here from the Imperial Suite precisely for this feature). These rooms follow a simple straight-on entry design, with bathroom (containing sunken Jacuzzi and hamam/steam shower as well as fitness equipment and internal speakers) located behind a large, high-ceilinged bedroom with views of the sea through enormous ceiling-to-floor windows. Open the door and it’s only a ten-second walk from one’s private enclosed veranda down to the bay and small ladder leading into it.