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Elounda is a coastal village and luxury resort close to Agios Nikolaos (distance 11 kilometers). It is set the a picturesque Bay of Mirabello and overlooks the (now connected to the mainland) island of Spinalonga, that shelters it from the sea. It is a pretty and touristic place, and it has a touch of chique. Most of the people that book a luxury hotel end up in or around Elounda. There are also quite some tourists that visit from nearby Agios Nikolaos to make use of the beaches, because there is a lack of good beaches inside Agios Nikolaos town. In Elounda you can choose from several beaches. All of them are organized and you can rent sunbeds and parasols on them.

The picturesque setting of Elounda in the Bay of Mirabello was probably one of the reasons for the BBC to choose the village as a setting for their series "Who Pays the Ferryman" in the seventies. There are many shops, kafenions and restaurants in Elounda and a lot of the people come to the village to make the boat trip to the island of Spinalonga to take a look at this former leper colony with its Venetian fortress.

There are two islands opposite Elounda, and they are both called Spinalonga. One beholds a Venetian fortress, and the other is nowadays connected to the mainland (so it has in fact become an peninsula). Officially the island with the Venetian fortress on it is named Kalidon, but on all excursion boats that go to the island it is announced as Spinalonga. On the Spinalonga peninsula directly opposite the village of Elounda you find windmills, a church, and the remains of an early Christian basilica, with well preserved mosaics of dolphins, fish and flowers. This old church used to be a part of the ancient town of Olous. In Elounda you can also see the walls from the old Venetian salt lakes just before the beach. The larger part of the old town of Olous has been claimed by the sea and has disappeared into the water. If you dive into the sea there are still remains to be seen.

Oulos was a Minoan city which had about 40,000 inhabitants. The eruption of the volcano on Santorini and the gradual lowering of the soil in the eastern part of Crete have caused that the city is now largely submerged under the sea. Olous was often in conflict with its neighbours of the city of Lato (near Kritsa). On the site statues, vases and coins with the name of Olous on it were found.

The first remains of this ancient city you will see along the small canal at the windmills when you go to the Spinalonga peninsula. Here there are some remnants of walls and a large stone with a function unknown to me. You can also see sunken walls still next to the small white church on your right hand side. If you take a look behind this church you will see more remains, including a large feeding bin, and many pieces of pottery that testify that people have lived here long ago. If you still want to see more of the city then you can go snorkeling. Directly behind the windmills, reachable over a path that leads from the taverne you will see here, you can find the remains of the early Christian basilica with its mosaic floors.

When you walk across the island you will encounter even more antiquities. After about half hour, after you have climbed over the hill and climbed back down to the shore again, you have reached the small beaches of Kolokytha on the other side of the peninsula. Here are remains of antique house and a lot of columns. The beaches are also a stop for the excursion boats that leave from Agios Nikolaos and Elounda to go to Spinalonga Island (the former leper colony with the Venetian fortress), so it can get crowded. You will have a beautiful view of another small island (Kolokytha) just off the coast.

We walked further to another church (the Agios Fokas church) that you can see on your left hand side. The walk from the beach to this church also takes about half an hour (1.5 km). Supposedly it is a Byzantine church but probably so well restored it looks almost new (but you could for instance see that the stones around the windows were really old).