Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Minos Beach art hotel Minos Beach art hotel Have you ever felt your entire body exhale? I did, for the first time, after 24 hours at Minos Beach art hotel. Yes, the magnificent property—its 135 rooms, bungalows, suites and villas effortlessly embedded in a seaside peninsula near Agios Nikolaos, Crete—is gorgeous. But this is Greece—gorgeousness is a dime a dozen. There is a special mythical magic at Minos Beach that makes it stand out from the rest, as the sort of place that lodges itself in your very being. During my divine week there, I dissected the hotel’s alchemy. Minos Beach art hotel Minos Beach art hotel LEGACY Minos Beach exudes a timeless, old Hollywood quality, no doubt due to its legacy, which goes back to the 1960s—it was the first luxury hotel to open in Crete and the third such property in all of Greece. Walt Disney even stayed here while filming on the island decades ago. Merge the hotel’s heritage with the legacy of Crete itself—Birthplace of Zeus, epicenter of Minoan civilization, seat of King Minos and the famous Knossos Palace, associated with two of the most famous Greek myths: the Labyrinth and the Minotaur and Daedalus and Icarus—and you have a recipe for an inimitably powerful energy. The property itself even feels a bit like a lovely labyrinth, laced with lemon trees. I kept getting lost while finding my bungalow—a very marvelous kind of lost. Minos Beach art hotel Minos Beach art hotel FOOD I can go on and on about the food at Minos Beach, its myriad eateries and their delectable offerings, overseen by chefs Poppy Kourkoutaki and Kyriakos Mylona. There’s Tarpsis, perched above the sea and serving up various catches of the day, baked feta with tomatoes, marinated anchovies and homemade coconut and lemongrass ice cream. There’s Bacchus, home to live-cooking-station buffets for breakfast and dinner—oh that breakfast buffet: stuffed zucchini flowers! gourmet egg creations! shakshouka! local fava bean stew! milk pie! and the list goes on—as well as an a la carte dinner menu with creative takes on Greek classics like octopus two ways and deconstructed moussaka. Adeste Traditional Kafenion is a mini Cretan village serving divine mezze, grilled delights and, to top off the night, some local raki with a side of marinated cherries—a combo that won my heart (as did the local music and Cretan dancing). And of course, there’s wine, wine everywhere: Greek and especially Cretan vintages served with pairings at waterfront bar La Cave or by the bonfire at Dionyssos Bar. MORE FOR YOU Apple s New iPhone Function When Your Battery Dies Beats Samsung And Google Anderson Silva Vs Chael Sonnen Results Scorecards And Reaction NYT Strands 105 Hints Spangram And Answers For Sunday June 16th But none of this is the point. The point is this: freshness. And that’s an understatement. The cuisine at Minos Beach is bills itself as farm-to-table cooking, with produce, meats, seafood and most wines sourced from local suppliers in and around Agios Nikolaos (the delectable Biorama products in your room and at the Aegeo Spa are local, too). But even “farm-to-table” does not begin to capture how the level of fresh food at Minos Beach will, alas, put other meals in your life to shame. After the grilled squid at Bacchus, for instance, I am forever ruined for all other squid. At La Bouillabaisse, the hotel’s flagship fine dining restaurant, there was some high-end deliciousness, yes—I still fantasize about the baby shrimp in lace-thin sweet and sour sauce—but the real treat was the simple catch of the day served with local greens and potatoes: a scandalously fresh plate surely plucked from the table of Zeus himself. Even the Ibiscus Poolside Bar serves up a heavenly crab salad with avocado and local dips with freshly baked pita bread—food that a mere pool bar ought have no business with. Minos Beach art hotel Minos Beach art hotel ART What, you might wonder, is an “art hotel”? This is what it is not: a hotel adorned with some pretty artwork. Minos Beach takes art so seriously that it might as well be an art collection with a hotel built around it. This legacy started when the hotel’s visionary owner, the inimitable Gina Mamidakis, founded The G&A Mamidakis Foundation to support and promote contemporary art, culture, and lifelong learning. The Foundation launched an annual residency program at Minos Beach, during which artists created site-specific installations that now make up the hotel’s magnificent sculpture garden. “Sculpture garden,” though, doesn’t quite capture it. I experienced the art on display at Minos Beach with childlike wonder—via the art of surprise and an almost fantastic delight: I turned a corner on property and—I swear that exquisite sculpture wasn’t there a moment ago! This is not your resort collection, either; pieces boldly take on serious, profound subjects about war, community, justice. There’s The Painful Pyramids (1993) by Magdalena Abakanowicz, massive structures on the beach made of barbed wire, representing duality and balance. There’s Don Quixote, a colossal, reformatted windmill in the hotel’s garden by Theodoros, or Come with the Wind, by Theodoros Zafeiropoulos and Yorgos Rimenidis, winners of the Foundation’s inaugural art prize in 2019, an audio installation that carries visitors to eight parts of the world via recordings activated by the wind and human presence. The Foundation still runs its annual art prize competition, now housed at neighboring Minos Palace Hotel—last year’s generated more than 700 Greek and international applications from—and its annual residency brings together interdisciplinary cultural practitioners from around the world. An educational component of the Foundation works in local schools; there’s a museum of contemporary art in the planning. Final takeaway: this is all much bigger than one immaculate hotel. Minos Beach art hotel Minos Beach art hotel MOUNTAINS & SEA Apologies to the masterpieces on display at Minos Beach Hotel. None can compete with the site’s real magnum opus: the mountains and the sea. The latter beckons with a perpetual soundtrack, as the waves dance on the cliffs and the shore. Two beaches and a myriad of clifftop nooks mean your day in the sun can vary in vibe from day to day. There’s a Pelagos diving and watersport center, but you don’t really need snorkeling gear; the water is so magnificently clear, I leaned over and “snorkeled” from my sunbed. Swimming in this glass-like water daily became a mystical, meditative act. Oh, and those mountains. Encircling the property like stolid watchmen, they take on different personalities depending on the time of day. Evenings are their moment in the sun—literally—as they go pink while the sun takes its leave: a grand finale to another mystical moment at Minos Beach. Follow me on Twitter. Baz Dreisinger Following Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions
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