TOPLINE TRAVEL: Crete, the chic and the cheap

Empire line  

Once part of the ancient world (Knossos is often described as Europe’s oldest Bronze Age city), Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest in the Med. It was successively part of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Venetian Republic and the Ottoman Empire before becoming an autonomous state in 1898.

Storyline

Tourists have been flocking to Crete since the hippie era of the late 1960s and early 70s, when the likes of Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin and Cat Stevens turned the southern village of Matala into a peace and free-love community. The church and military eventually drove them out, but the attractions of the island’s food and clear blue seas remain.

Likewise the welcome – the Cretans have hospitality in their DNA. Over seven nights, we indulged in the extravagance of a Collection Suite at Daios Cove Luxury Resort & Villas (daioscovecrete.com, doubles from £525, half-board), followed by the budget charm of the Kitro Beach Hotel (kitrohotel.gr, doubles from £95, B&B) in nearby Agios Nikolaos.

Horizon line 

First, Daios Cove, with its 290 rooms, suites and villas. The view from the beach (if you mentally lose the buoys) remains unchanged since this island was created 20 million years ago: dark sand, a translucent aqua shoreline leading into the blue-black of the Med, here a deep inlet, and sky as pale as a much-loved T-shirt. Days became a carousel of swim, sunlounger, read, eat, repeat.

Tan line 

With on average 300 sunny days a year, Crete is ideal for teenagers with olive skin wanting a TikTok tan. Mothers with Irish complexions? Happily, parasols abound.

Waistline 

Keep your distance from the ice cream and you’re looking at just a few extra holiday pounds – the six places to eat at Daios Cove have remarkably delicious fare. The Beach House’s sea bass with local greens and herb oil? Could eat it every day. And food is almost all local: honey and oranges from Chania, meat from Rethymno, olive oil, veg and avos from down the road in Agios Nikolaos, and fish from everywhere.

A top Cretan lunch: grilled fish

Green line 

The perfect sustainable addition to any hotel room? A tiny alcove with an inbuilt tap, to top up your in-suite glass water bottle. What’s more, the new accommodations at Daios have starry bathrooms: creamy marble, corrugated glass walls in Crittall frames and black metal fixtures. Hairdryers by Dyson, natch.

Party line 

A rotation of hip DJs and bands can be found at the pool bar, up in the Crystal Box cocktail spot or down at the beach until 11pm. Expect laid back Ibiza vibes. 

IV line

Need some high-tech healing? The spa, Kepos by Goco, has curios including a vitamin IV infusion room, a hyperbaric oxygen capsule for two, a cryotherapy chamber (which, at minus 85 degrees for two and a half minutes, I found very refreshing) plus an enormous indoor and outdoor gym and umpteen beauty treatment rooms.

Breadline 

If you can’t compete with the well-heeled of Europe, head ten minutes west to the aforementioned Agios Nikolaos, a tourist destination of small coves, sandy beaches and a town centre that boasts a lake harbouring wooden fishing boats and a constellation of waterside restaurants.

Our favourite place to eat was Ofou To Lo, a few doors down from Kitro Beach Hotel, where we stayed. Expect delicious dolmades and greek salads for around £7 a plate. The local olive farm, a five-minute taxi ride away, is worth a visit (around £4 for a digital tour on a tablet; cretanoliveoilfarm.com). 

The beach, Kitroplatia, is like a 50s scene from the film The Talented Mr Ripley – old-fashioned loungers (around £8 a day for two) and pale yellow umbrellas. Heavenly swimming in deep, plastic-free water, too.

Buy line 

Head to Kera, a vintage shop by the harbour, packed with carpets, jewellery and icons. It’s run by the very chatty Sonia. We stayed so long, and spent so much, she even showed us her son’s wedding pictures, taken… underwater in the pool at Daios Cove!

Next week 

Topline travel: The secret beauty of Slovenia