exper expert ASK THE “Greece has always been a
favourite with our customers, and we expect it to be one of the standout destinations this summer. Villa Hislop appeals mostly to multigenerational families. All the bedrooms are en suite, so if you have multiple families or a group of friends, they’ll get equal rooms. Another selling point is that the villa is 10 minutes’ walk from Plaka, so clients could easily come without a car.” Jo Grimwood, product manager, Oliver’s Travels
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Villa Hislop; yoga session led by instructor Christos; local chef Ioannis PICTURES: Alice Barnes-Brown
fast act
Oliver’s Travels has created a £5,000 referral incentive, after seeing trade bookings rise 22% year on year and a
49% increase in its agent database
BOOK IT
Oliver’s Travels offers weekly rates at Villa Hislop from £8,961 in total, sleeping up to 20 guests. The price excludes flights, luggage and transfers.
oliverstravels.com/travel-partners
30 25 JUNE 2026 ast fact
through a vinyasa yoga session with local instructor Christos. “Bring your awareness to the sounds around us, both near and far,” he says, but I hear only the waves and the distant bleating of a goat. Christos moves slowly and deliberately, determined to help us work our stresses away. “Breathe in more energy, and breathe out anxiety, tension – all that you don’t need,” he sighs in a melodic Cretan accent. I exhale, feeling immensely grateful that I am at last seeing this ethereal place with my own eyes. If clients would prefer to relax on the water, suggest they book a half-day catamaran cruise around Mirabello Bay with Ocean Spirit (costing from €900 for 10 passengers). Steered by captain George and his wife Georgia, we stop first at the secluded coves of Kolokythia island to paddleboard and snorkel in bright blue seas, then munch on some meze as we sail over to our next swimming spot. But the best is yet to come: returning to Plaka, we approach Spinalonga in awestruck silence.
SPINALONGA SAILING This little island has lived many lives – first as an ancient fortress, then a Venetian bastion, a Muslim village during the Ottoman period and, most notoriously, as Greece’s largest leper colony from 1904 to 1957. Hislop’s bestselling novel brought its history to life for a new generation, and Spinalonga has now become the second-most popular attraction in Crete.
The only way to access the island’s interior is through a long, dark tunnel – you can almost imagine how patients with leprosy might have felt, trudging through with their belongings after being cast out from their families. But the darkness belies what sits beyond the end of the tunnel, as I emerge into a sunny, picturesque square with a plane tree at its heart. Doors of the old Ottoman workshops and homes are brightly painted in primary colours, and inside there are fascinating exhibits about different parts of the island’s history – such as the games lepers used to play and the thriving trade Spinalonga had with the rest of Crete. I pore over silver rings with rubies still sparkling, enamel tableware and more, displayed next to harrowing medical tools from the leprosarium.
I spend an hour walking the perimeter of the island, dipping into Orthodox chapels with gilded chandeliers and incense-scented icons. I pause to wonder how the lepers took comfort in their faith, before stepping outside for a breath of calming sea air and to admire the symmetrical Venetian fortifications. Before I board the boat back to Plaka, Spinalonga’s
cemetery beckons. The graves of the Muslim villagers neatly face the direction of Mecca, but the leper plots are decidedly messier. A plaque carries a stark reminder of the devastation wrought on so many lives by the disease: “In this martyrs’ place, hundreds of our fellow human beings, struck by leprosy, buried all their hopes for life. From their lives, we learn lessons.”
travelweekly.co.uk
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