Ecotourism Greece |   Eleonas Country Village
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • Destinations
    • Athens & Nearby Islands
      • Aegina Island
      • Agistri
      • Athens City
      • Hydra Island
      • Methana
      • Poros Island
      • Salamina
      • Spetses
    • Central Greece
      • Aitolo-Akarnania
      • Evrytania
      • Fokida
      • Fthiotida
      • Viotia
    • Crete
      • Chania
      • Heraklion
      • Lasithi (Sitia)
      • Rethymnon
    • Cyclades
      • Amorgos
      • Anafi
      • Andros
      • Dilos
      • Donousa
      • Folegandros
      • Ios
      • Irakleia
      • Kea (Tzia)
      • Kimolos
      • Koufonisi
      • Kythnos
      • Milos
      • Mykonos
      • Naxos
      • Paros & Antiparos
      • Santorini
      • Schinoussa
      • Serifos
      • Sifnos
      • Sikinos
      • Syros
      • Tinos
    • Dodecanese
      • Astypalea
      • Kalymnos
      • Karpathos
      • Kos
      • Leros
      • Patmos
      • Rhodes (Rodos)
    • Epirus
      • Arta
      • Ioannina
      • Preveza & Parga
      • Thesprotia
    • Evia
      • Central Evia
      • Northern Evia
      • Skyros
      • Southern Evia
    • Ionian Islands
      • Antikythera
      • Corfu (Kerkyra)
      • Ithaki
      • Kefalonia
      • Kythera
      • Lefkada
      • Zakynthos (Zante)
    • Macedonia & Thrace
      • Drama
      • Grevena
      • Florina
      • Halkidiki
      • Kastoria
      • Kavala
      • Kilkis
      • Kozani
      • Imathia
      • Pella
      • Pieria & Mount Olympus
      • Rodopi
      • Samothraki
      • Serres
      • Thassos
      • Thessaloniki (Salonica)
      • Xanthi
      • Evros
    • North Aegean
      • Chios
      • Ikaria
      • Lemnos
      • Lesvos
      • Samos
    • Peloponnese
      • Achaia
      • Argolida
      • Arkadia
      • Elafonisos
      • Ilia
      • Korinthia
      • Laconia
      • Messinia
    • Thessaly & Sporades
      • Alonnisos
      • Karditsa (Lake Plastira)
      • Lake Karla & Mavrovouni
      • Larissa
      • Magnesia (Pelion)
      • Skiathos
      • Skopelos
      • Trikala (Meteora, Pertouli)
  • Green Hotels
  • Activities
    • Archeology
    • Art, History, Culture
    • Canoeing Kayaking
    • Canyoning
    • Cultural sightseeing
    • Cycling
    • Diving
    • Gastronomy tours
    • Hiking tours
    • Mountain biking
    • Sailing
    • Urban walking tours
x Thank you for submitting an inquiry. We will get back to you as soon as we can.
x

Use the form below to contact us directly.

Please complete all required fields.

Cancel

Booking details

Accommodation name:

Room type:

Date from:

Date to:

People:

Adults:

Children:

Rooms:

Total:

Submit booking

Submit booking Go Back
x

Confirmation

Thank you! We will get back you with regards your booking within 24 hours.

Booking info

Accommodation name:

Room type:

Date from:

Date to:

People:

Adults:

Children:

Rooms:

Total price:

We wish you a pleasant trip
your Ecotourism Greece team

Back to website
  • local_libraryDescription
  • directions_bikeThings to do

Eleonas Country Village

Living in a cottage among olive trees in the Cretan countryside is a dream for many city dwellers. This dream comes alive at the Eleonas traditional stone and wood cottages surrounding a delicious 'taverna' with sumptuous Cretan food.

Welcome to Zaros, a gorgeous traditional village known for its natural spring water, lying not far from Lake Votamos. Eleonas, which lies on a green hillside just next to the village, will open up a world of heavenly attractions and activities that could well create within you a desire to move to this part of Crete permanently. Add to this the support, friendliness and attention by the owner, Manolis, and you're ready to enjoy a Cretan vacation that epitomizes the best that Greece has to offer.

Excellence in Cretan gastronomy and hospitality

To begin with, the cottages themselves have been carefully built in stone and wood, representing a perfect fit with the surrounding nature and environment. Despite borrowing on traditional building techniques and elements such as the fireplace, these little houses have all the modern comforts such as free Wi-Fi, satellite TV, coffee/tea facilities, safety box, refrigerators and air conditioning (if ever needed in this sublime climate).

As you walk among the olive trees, on stone paths with scented herbs, you'll fall in love with this place and all it has to offer. This includes a tasty local restaurant or 'taverna' called Elia (olive) that serves the most authentic local Cretan cuisine, famed for its freshness and health benefits.

The generous breakfast buffet will overwhelm you with its tasty choices, providing a great start for the day if you want to go hiking or exploring. For lunch and dinner, family-kept recipes and products from the estate (extra-virgin olive oil, vegetables in season, fresh farm eggs, etc.) will definitely please your palate. Milk and cheese from the farm, herbal mountain tea, sweet preserves, and home-baked pies such as cheese and herbs or honey-walnut will help convert you to a Cretan food lover.

Beyond the 'taverna' and the rooms, there is a lovely pool to relax by and look at the combination of blue skies and green mountains. It is worth mentioning that the Eleonas has rightfully earned excellent reviews online, a traveler's choice award, and accolades for its Greek cuisine.

Hiking, birdwatching, mountain biking, cooking and much more!

Without a doubt, hiking is a pleasure here and Manolis is ready to show you the sign-posted hiking paths in the vicinity. There is also a guide for those who want someone to tour them around. If you want to familiarize yourself with the fauna and flora, check out the books that the owner keeps in the little library. Birdwatchers will love the variety of birds in the area, while outdoor lovers might want to grab a couple of mountain bikes to go exploring. Horseback riding is also an option, so is swimming of course as this is an island after all and there are some gorgeous beaches a short drive away.

With a car you can easily visit amazing archeological sites such as the archeological sites of Phaestos and Gortyna, as well as Knossos which is just a little further in distance. Fishing trips, boat trips to small islands, visits to monasteries, and tasting sessions at a winery are other great activities to embark on once you're here. Closer to 'home' you can enjoy some archery, table tennis, billiards or football under blue skies and stay active throughout your vacation.

Autumn and winter are perfect for exploring the beauties of the island, and the Cretan weather is almost always mild during these times of year. The nature blooms in spring and it's not uncommon in fall to see budding flowers as well! Zaros is not troubled by mass tourism and offers an unparalleled holiday that combines nature, gastronomy and culture. In this respect Eleonas is a true gateway to heaven.

See and book

Heraklion

The region of Heraklion (Iraklio in Greek) lies between those of Rethymnon, to its west, and Lassithi, to its east. A wildly diverse area, where some of the most spectacular archaeological sites in the world can be found against a backdrop of sparkling seas, and the rugged mountain landscape, of the eastern side of the Psiloritis range (or Mount Ida). Resorts of all types are spread across the northern coastline, and there’s something for all tastes, here. Read more below...

Chersonissos (or Hersonissos) and Malia to the east of Herakleion city (along with Aghios Nikolaos in the province of Lassithi), are probably the best known tourist resorts on the island, though there are plenty of quieter spots too. Getting out and about in this region can be quite thrilling. There’s so much to see and do, that one would need months, if not years, to discover all that Herakleion has to offer.

Of palaces and castles

Of the six Minoan "palaces", so far unearthed on Crete, four are in this nomos: Knossos, Phaistos, Malia and Galatas. The latter of these has only recently been elevated to that status, and is practically unknown outside the archaeoligists’ world. The other three, however, are world famous, and are in settings of such disparate geography, that visiting all of them should be a must, for anybody interested in the wonderful world of these Bronze age Cretans. It doesn’t stop there, either. If anything the sites at Aghia Triadha and Gortyna are even more impressive than the "palaces"; add to these the three excavated sites in and around Archanes, that of Arkalochori in the foothills, and Phaistos’ port, Kommos, on the south coast and we’re still only scratching the surface.

Castles abound; villages nestle in the foothills which continue to climb, before reaching a crescendo just over the border of Rethymnon, where Psiloritis (Mount Ida) rises to 2,456 metres. On the Herakleion side of the border is the Kamares cave, where the eponymous Kamares-ware vases were found, with their beautiful design and egg-shell thin pottery. The city of Herakleion itself can hardly be described as beautiful, but there’s more than enough to see, to make it well-worth visiting. It has a vibrancy associated with a small modern city, which has been through many transitions throughout its turbulent past.

Arabs, Venetians, Ottomans and Germans

The city’s name is a modern rendering of the Roman port of ‘Heracleum’, and was called ’rabḍh el-Khandak’ ("fortress of the moat"), by the Saracens (who were here from 824 AD until their expulsion from the island by Nikiphoros Phokas - later, Byzantine Emperor - in 961. Phokas’ castle at Prophitis Ilias is well worth a visit (see castles). The Venetians, who acquired the the island from the Boniface de Monferat in 1204, were later to currupt the by-now-Hellenized version of the Saracen name "Chandax", to Candia, which also became the generic title for the whole island. Under Ottoman rule (1669-1898), the city was known Kandiye - though the Greeks tended to call it ‘Megalokastro’ (Big Castle) - before being renamed once more as ‘Herakleion’ during the island’s autonomous period (1898-1913).

Looking at what remains of the Venetian fortifications (known then as ‘Rocca al Mare’, and now by its Turkish name, ‘Koules’), one should spare a thought for those who were caught within and without its walls, during the latter days of Venetian ownership. For here it was that the longest siege in European history took place. For over 21 years, between May, 1648, until a treaty was signed on September the 16th, 1669, the Greeks and Venetians living within, resisted Ottoman attempts to enter from without. The treaty allowed those within the city’s walls to escape the island, and Crete - with the exception of the three fortified islands of Spinalonga, Gramvoussa Isle and Souda Isle, which remained under Venetian ownership until 1715 - was in Ottoman hands, in which it would remain for the following 229 years. One could happily spend a fortnight in the city; the Venetian walls are still standing in parts, as are some of the arsenali, though like Rethymnon and Chania, Nazi bombing raids prior to the commencement of The Battle of Crete (20th May 1941), destroyed much, and in their inimitable and unspeakably brutal manner, the Nazis punished the people of Herakleion for their resistance during that battle by blitzing the city again, after they’d conquered the island. Ignore the modern architecture the best you can, and look out instead for some spectacular examples of Venetian, and to a lesser degree, Ottoman architecture.

The hidden vs. the not-so-hidden side

Mountain villages such as Zaros, Venerato, the twin village of Asites (Kato and Ano) and Kamares are wonderful places to escape the heat of high Summer. Archanes, southeast of the famous Mount Juktas (where Zeus is supposedly buried, much to the annoyance of the Greek poet Callimachus, who called all Cretans "liars" as a result of this assertion), is a lovely small town, and is a great place to stay. The north coast resort of Malia, the setting for the recent "boys-behaving-badly" film of the British TV series, ‘The Inbetweeners’, has a reputation for young people drinking far too much, but the old village, across the main road from the resort, is a delight. Chersonissos too, has more bars than one could reasonably be expected to visit during a fortnight’s holiday, but the atmosphere here is far more toned-down, and the holiday-makers generally a little more mature, in every sense. The Minoan "palace", of Malia, is a further three KMs to the east of the resort, and is an essential place to visit, whilst Chersonissos was a port of some import, through the Classical Greek to Byzantine eras, and there is a wonderful pyramid-shaped fountain, dating back to the Roman period, replete with fishing-themed mosaics on the seaside road, as well as an early basilica, with mosaic floors, perched on a hill behind the port.

To Herakleion’s west lies the tourist resort of Aghia Pelaghia, a modern development, set within a cove, which itself nestles within another cove. It’s a lovely place to have a beach-holiday, and is close enough to Herakleion (22 Kms from its centre), to allow one to enjoy the best of both worlds, and mix water-sports with culture. The south coast is relatively barren, compared to that of the north. The environs of Kommos have accommodation, and would suit those wanting to get away from it all on the spot where the port of Phaistos and Gortyna were situated in Minoan, Dorian and Archaic times (see archaeology). The busier southern tourist resorts, are just over the Rethymnon border, so places such as Aghia Galini and Plakias can easily be visited if you find yourself on Herakleion’s south coast.

Written by Stelios Jackson exclusively for Ecotourism-Greece.com


Read more
  • Eleonas Country Village

    From $
  • Follow us

  • Inspiring destinations to discover

    Unfortunately no locations were found.


  • For Partners
    • ABOUT US
    • FOR HOTEL OWNERS – ΓΙΑ ΞΕΝΟΔΟΧΟΥΣ
    • FOR TOUR PROVIDERS – ΓΙΑ ΠΑΡΟΧΟΥΣ ΔΡΑΣΤΗΡΙΟΤΗΤΩΝ
  • Top destinations
    • Central Greece

      View all
    • Methana

      A favorite ecotourism spot near Athens.

      View all
    • North Aegean

      View all
  • Travel inspiration
    • Unwind and Embrace Nature: A Weekend of Ecotourism in Santorini

      Santorini is a volcanic island located in the Cyclades, Greece. It offers stunning views of the Aegean Sea, steep cliffs, and white houses perched on slopes. As a tourist destination, Santorini is known for its black sand beaches, lively resorts, and nightlife. But there is also much to discover on this island in terms of ecotourism.
    • An eco-paradise in a forgotten part of Crete

      If you are looking for a unique and authentic experience in Crete, you should visit LIMNI, an eco-agro-tourism project that offers off-road holidays in a natural and sustainable way. LIMNI is not just a place to stay, but a way of living in harmony with yourself, others and the environment. You will enjoy the comfort […]
    • Agistri: the quiet island of the Saronic Gulf

      Agistri, known in ancient times as Kekrifalia, is one of the islands of the Saronic Gulf, along with Poros, Aegina, Spetses, and Hydra.
    • 12 hiking tours in Crete that will blow your mind

      Whether by sea or by the mountains, Crete overflows with magnificent landscapes that you will discover by venturing out on its hiking paths. Accessible to all types of profils, select the one that will fit you the most. 
    • 10 STUNNING HIKING SPOTS FOR JUNE

      Are you ready for an amazing adventure? Greece is a paradise for hikers, with its stunning landscapes, rich history and diverse culture. Here are ten of the best places to hike in Greece during June, when the weather is warm but not too hot, and the crowds are not too overwhelming (press on the link […]

Contact us: nature (at) ecotourism-greece.com

  • Home
  • Configure
x

Log in

Forgot your password?

x

Register