When it comes to the island of Crete, what do you imagine?
Romantic sunsets, with the sunlight melting in the sea, smooth beaches, spectacular shores embroidered in turquoise waves, or sunny hills, covered with vineyards, olive groves, and oranges? The cave where Zeus was born, the ruins of the Palace of Knossos, and the amazing Minoan civilization from the Bronze Age, or the Byzantine churches with saints still alive in the frescoes and icons faded by the flow of time?
Maybe you think of Venetian fortresses surviving for centuries, along with the sober Ottoman mosques, and the testimonies of the historical times of the island? Or, maybe, to the towns with terraced architecture and narrow streets on which you simply get lost, stopping to chat with the locals in the rustic taverns with souvlaki and raki, aromatic cafes, or traditional souvenir boutiques, that you can hardly leave?…
Certainly, you recognize, from the first chords, Mikis Theodorakis' syrtaki and the exuberant dance of Anthony Quinn from "Zorba the Greek" movie (1964), which won the whole world's sympathy... The Cretan spirit is vibrant and transcendent, you feel it in people's hearts, through music, dance, traditions, and feasts...
Are you longing for a picturesque holiday in a country cottage, with white walls and blue carpentry, a cascade of flowers on the balcony, and bathed in the Mediterranean breeze? Or, do you prefer a luxurious all-inclusive resort and spa for a relaxing laid-back holiday?
Then come on! It's time to pack your stuff!
The Island of Sun and Wellbeing
Crete, the largest and richest island in Greece, is not just the land to dream of, to read about in some travel magazines, or to discover in the holiday photos of friends... Crete is a wild reservation in the heart of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, where the proud mountains gently embrace the waters of velvet and lace, under an infinite clear sky. A treasure of Mother-Nature in gold, turquoise, and emerald colors, a holistic retreat, where your soul awakens and your body vibrates with energy.
This beautiful island must be trampled barefoot, admired, tasted, smelled, listened to, touched, and embraced. It is where you breathe the aroma of wild herbs, eat the healthiest on earth, and enjoy over 250 sunny days a year. It is a lively, cheerful, and bright world, the playing ground for adventures and multisensory experiences of your innocent inner child. It is a game of contrasts that merge into a mosaic of impressions and emotions: antiquity and modernism, rustic and luxurious, minimalism and abundance, perfection and anarchy, peace and exuberance, majestic peaks, and smooth beaches, the eternal beauty of nature and the fragile greatness of people… Crete has it all.
It is the realm of inspiration for artists, the spiritual source from which the Renaissance painter El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos) extracted the essence for his famous saints and biblical scenes, and the homeland of one of the greatest romantic poets of modern Greece, Odysseas Elytis (Odysseus Alepoudelis), the 1979 Nobel Laureate in Literature.
Crete is the rebellious corner of the Universe where the great writer and philosopher Nikos Kazantzakis conceived his work and left it as a legacy to mankind, along with the famous confession of self-liberation from the worldly illusion, which is the epitaph written on his grave: “I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I'm free."
Crete is warm, authentic, and sprightly. The island of sun and wellbeing. And yes, Crete is our blessed nest and our endless love.
Welcome to Crete!
