Creative Commons licensePhoto by flickr user bazylek100

If it's pampering you seek, look no further than Greece's largest island. Crete has the greatest concentration of ultra-luxurious hotels in Greece, most of them on and around the Elounda peninsula, about an hour east of the capital, Heraklion, and its airport. Almost 150 miles from east to west, the island has its own history, dialects and traditions, along with spectacular scenery, with rugged mountains that stay snow-capped as late as May, archaeological relics that span six millennia from the Minoans to the Ottomans (taking in Greeks, Romans, Venetians, Saracens and Turks on the way), superb beaches and reliably scorching sunshine for at least six months of the year. Don't miss: the ancient sites at Knossos and Gortys, the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, and the scenery of the White Mountains and the Amari valley.

The order by which the hotels are listed bears no reflection on our preference. They all close from November to Greek Easter.

 

Written by Robin Gauldie