Terracotta suites cascading to the water, a Michelin-starred restaurant, a Vilebrequin beach club and Spinalonga sitting directly across the water, closer than anywhere else you can stay.
By Eleni Stasinopoulou
Domes of Elounda sits amphitheatrically above Elounda Bay, with Spinalonga directly across the water. I came with high expectations. It surpassed them.
Some weekends announce themselves early. This one did. The company was right, the destination was right, and the resort had a reputation that preceded it by several years and several conversations. Domes of Elounda, Elounda Bay, Crete. One of those places I consider quietly blessed, the kind of geography that makes you understand why people have been fighting over this part of the Mediterranean for centuries.
It was better than expected. Which, given the expectations, is saying something.
First Impressions: Arriving at Domes of Elounda
We walked into the lobby and through a glass door that opened directly onto Spinalonga. Not a view of Spinalonga – Spinalonga. The Venetian fortress, the former leper colony, the mythical island sitting right there across the water as if it had been waiting. As we were told, this is the closest point anyone can get to the island without actually being on it. I remembered, standing there, just how emblematic this view is. You think you know it from photographs. You don’t. It requires you to be in front of it.
In the next days, every afternoon I made my way back up to the lobby terrace, ordered something, and sat watching Spinalonga. Just watching. It doesn’t get old. I’m not sure it could.
The resort unfolds amphitheatrically down the hillside with suites and villas cascading toward the water, that specific green-turquoise of Elounda Bay catching the light between them.
The domes themselves, in their deep terracotta, create an unlikely but perfect chromatic dialogue with the colours of the sea.
The Suites at Core: Private Pools and Local Details
Our suites were in Core complex, featuring private pools, stone as the dominant material, local details everywhere. Embroidered Cretan cushions, ceramics, small gestures that know where they are. There was a book in the room about the history of Elounda, its tourism development from the 1960s and 70s onward, a tourism fairytale actually with political cameos and considerable glamour and with Panagiotis Spanos of Domes Resorts among the pioneers – protagonists. His son Giorgos continues the work today.
My suite had a lovely spacious private terrace and pool looking out over the back bay. Quieter than the front-facing rooms, different light, a view I could have stayed in for days.
The property also has Chora, the adults-only complex slightly further down, sitting almost directly across from Spinalonga. A newer addition that has its own devoted following, and I understand why. If I come back, and I will, I’m trying it
An Unexpected Highlight: The Greek Monsters Exhibition
Before dinner, the Beetroot Studio – designed Greek Monsters exhibition stopped us. Born in 2011 during the Greek crisis as a way to reframe Greece’s image abroad through humour and design, the exhibition has since travelled the world.
Here in Elounda, for the second consecutive year, the monsters inhabit a beautiful outdoor space alongside small shops. The Cyclops greets you first. He sets the tone perfectly — and prepares you, without knowing it, for everything that follows.
Dinner at Makris: Michelin-Starred Fine Dining with a View
Dinner at Makris was the kind of meal that extends itself without asking permission. Chef Petros Dimas, Michelin-starred, brings his Athens degustation sensibility to Elounda in a comfort fine dining format that feels exactly right for this setting.
We were deep into the meal when someone mentioned that at 21:04, the lights illuminate Spinalonga. We had been told. We had almost forgotten. And then it happened, the island lit up across the water, and dinner became something else entirely. You reach out your hand, they said. You almost touch it. We did.
A Private Boat to Spinalonga: The Excursion Worth Booking
The next morning, Michalis Klontzas, dentist, passionate local guide, owner of his own vessel, took us to Spinalonga by private boat. This is the way to do it. Arriving by sea to a 16th century Venetian fortress, with a guide who tells the story the way it deserves to be told. The history of Spinalonga is staggering in the most human way: the leper colony that became a functioning community, the last active one in Europe, until 1957. We walked it quietly. We were quiet afterward too.
Then the boat took us around Kolokytha tiny island and its caves. This was the kind of Cretan sea that makes early May swimming feel not just possible but necessary. Both days, in fact. I am not someone who gets in the water easily, especially in May. Here I didn’t hesitate.
The water does something to you and you simply have to swim in it to understand its particular perfection.
Vilebrequin La Plage: The Beach Club That Stole the Trip
Lunch was the revelation of the trip. Vilebrequin La Plage has taken over the beach at Domes of Elounda, and it has done so with complete conviction. Three acres of secluded beach framed by olive groves, striped umbrellas, hand-painted plates, fresh fish on a wooden pier with Spinalonga across the water. The French Riviera spirit of the 1970s, transplanted to Mirabello Bay and entirely at home.
I didn’t want to leave. That’s the most honest thing I can say about it. The olive tree shadows on the turquoise water, the light on the bay, the unhurried pace of a lunch that becomes an afternoon… I stayed as long as I could justify, and then a little longer.
Antonino’s: Italian Comfort by the Pool
Dinner that evening at Antonino’s, the Italian restaurant by the main pool, was the other kind of meal, generous and uncomplicated, exactly what you want after a day in the sun and sea. Hand-rolled gnocchi, pizza cut with scissors, the kind of Italian comfort that knows its lineage. Greek soul and Italian warmth, arguing pleasantly over olive oil.
Domes of Elounda understands its location and builds around it rather than competing with it. Spinalonga is everywhere: from the lobby, from Makris, from the beach. Some places make you relax without trying. This is one of them.
DOMES OF ELOUNDA AT A GLANCE
Location: Elounda Bay, Crete, Greece. The closest point to Spinalonga island you can stay without setting foot on it.
Stars: Five-star resort
Accommodation: Suites and villas cascading amphitheatrically down to the bay, including the new Core villas and suites with private pools and stone interiors, and the adults-only Chora complex with direct views of Spinalonga
Dining: Makris (Chef Petros Dimas, Michelin-starred), Antonino’s Italian restaurant, Vilebrequin La Plage beach club
Beach: Vilebrequin La Plage with three acres of secluded beach framed by olive groves, striped kiosks, wooden pier
Culture: Greek Monsters exhibition by Beetroot Design (outdoor space, annual summer presence)
Activities: Private boat excursions to Spinalonga and Kolokytha caves, swimming, watersports
Best For: Couples, design lovers, families and anyone who wants a luxury Cretan stay where history is part of the experience
Website: domesresorts.com
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