Elounda Gulf Villas by Sandglass
Elounda Gulf Villas by Sandglass is a 33-key boutique hotel on the hillside above Schisma Elounda: 18 villas with private infinity pools and 15 suites, looking over the Gulf of Mirabello toward Spinalonga. A Small Luxury Hotels of the World member now run by Sandglass Experiences, it scores 9.1 out of 10 on Booking.com and 4.6 out of 5 on Tripadvisor across 713 reviews. Our verdict lands at 8.5 out of 10: Elounda’s warmest villa stay, with the hillside setting and slipping maintenance details the honest caveats.
Hotel information
| Hotel | Elounda Gulf Villas by Sandglass |
|---|---|
| Address | Elounda |
| Type | Air conditioning · Airport shuttle |
| Style | Boutique villa hotel, Small Luxury Hotels of the World |
| Signature | 18 villas with private infinity pools; Spa Villas with in-villa gyms |
| Keys | 33 in all: 18 villas plus 15 suites |
| Dining | Argo and Daphni restaurants, Argonauts Bar; Elixir Spa |
| Beach | Not beachfront; free shuttle to a beach club about 10 minutes away |
| Nearest airport | Heraklion (HER), about 70 km by road |
| Booking.com rating | 9.1/10 (284 reviews) |
| Tripadvisor rating | 4.6/5 (713 reviews) |
| CreteLocals score | 8.5/10 · read the verdict |
Booking.com and Tripadvisor scores checked on September 19, 2026.
Location
Elounda Gulf Villas by Sandglass is located at Elounda, in Elounda town. The map below shows the exact spot; Google Maps and Waze give turn-by-turn directions.
Who Elounda Gulf Villas suits, and who should skip it
Elounda Gulf Villas suits couples and families who want a private pool and a staff that knows them by day 2, and it suits them because 33 keys makes both structural: service scores 4.7, the batch’s best, and children are welcomed with their own club. The lists below come from recurring themes in the property’s 713 Tripadvisor reviews and 284 Booking.com reviews.
Advantages
- Service scored 4.7, with staff thanked by name through the reviews
- Private infinity pools on all 18 villas, with Spa Villas adding in-villa gyms, saunas, and steam rooms
- Spinalonga views from the hillside terraces
- Dining at Argo and Daphni with the Argonauts Bar between them
- Elixir Spa with complimentary gym, sauna, steam bath, and outdoor jacuzzi
- Kids club, rare at boutique-villa scale
Disadvantages
- Not a beachfront, since the sea needs the free shuttle to a beach club about 10 minutes away, where the entry is rocky and beach shoes help
- Maintenance details have slipped in recent reviews, from bathroom caulking to pool finishes
- Value scores 4.1, with a not-quite-SLH-polish theme at these rates
- Villa kitchens can arrive under-equipped, and the steep site leans on the buggies
The villas: 18 pools, and the Spa Villa trick
Elounda Gulf Villas splits its 33 keys between 18 private-pool villas and 15 suites, with the Spa Villas carrying their own gyms, saunas, and steam rooms indoors, a category almost nothing else on Crete offers.
Choose the villa tier for the full format and inspect the details at check-in, since recent reviews document wear the rates should not include; ask for a recently refreshed unit when booking. Families self-catering should also confirm the kitchen inventory in advance, the file’s oddly specific gap.
The hillside, the Elixir Spa and the Argo table
The hillside is the property’s character and its logistics: stunning-view terraces stacked above the gulf, with club cars shuttling guests between levels and the main pool holding the social centre.
The sea day runs on the free shuttle to the beach club 10 minutes away, with beach shoes advised for the rocky entry. Back up the hill, Argo carries the main table and Daphni the second, the Argonauts Bar pours the sunset, and the Elixir Spa’s complimentary circuit, gym, sauna, steam, outdoor jacuzzi, is a generosity bigger hotels bill for.
How to get there
Elounda Gulf Villas sits above Schisma Elounda, about 70 km from Heraklion airport (HER) by road, roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes via Agios Nikolaos, with Elounda village a few minutes down the hill.
Three transport options cover the trip, and each fits a different stay. A pre-booked transfer is the calm arrival; our guide to taxi and airport transfer services in Crete lists the operators and typical prices. A hire car suits the hillside location best, and our car rental in Crete page compares local rates. Without one, the hotel shuttle and Elounda’s taxis cover the gaps.
The Crete Locals review
Elounda Gulf Villas is the address we recommend when the palaces feel like institutions and the wish is a house with a staff, because 33 keys buys what no 200-room resort can print: the same waiter all week, the manager’s actual attention, children greeted as returning characters. The Sandglass takeover kept that culture, the reviews’ thank-you-by-name habit continued uninterrupted, and the SLH badge still fits the service if not always the caulking.
The format is quietly the widest on the coast: a proper private-pool villa, an in-villa gym and sauna in the Spa tier, a kids club, and a complimentary spa circuit, at rates below the estate resorts a bay away. For multigenerational stays and long weeks it is the practical pick of upper Elounda.
The caveats are physical and fixable. This is a hillside, so the sea is an excursion by shuttle and the site an exercise in buggies, which guests knew when booking; the maintenance slippage they did not, and the recent file’s moldy caulk, tired villa corners, and discoloured pool water are exactly what SLH rates promise against. Value at 4.1 is those details invoiced.
Book Elounda Gulf Villas for the hosted-villa week: a Spa Villa if the budget reaches, a freshly refreshed unit confirmed either way, the beach-club shuttle treated as the day trip it is. May, June, and September give the terraces their longest light, and the staff do the rest, as they visibly always have.
