Elounda: Spinalonga Prof. Guided Boat Tour w/ BBQ + Swimming

We did not expect to enjoy this day so much. The staff was friendly, the beach was pretty and the food was good. I did not realize we would have a guide on the island. It was an unexpected treat. The price was more than fair. The only negative comment was that we left almost an hour after we were asked to arrive.

Nice excursion departing from Elounda. The time spent at the beach and at Spinalonga is sufficient. A special mention for the lunch on board, which was very tasty and exceeded my expectations. The boat is large and therefore suitable even for those who are a bit afraid. Be careful at the meeting point. If you do not receive an email or WhatsApp the day before, call Platanos to find out exactly where you need to go.

A magnificent boat ride, discovering a very beautiful beach. Just missing a guide in French for those who do not speak English

Everything it said it was it most certainly was. Good day out would definitely book shsin

We did this boat tour for the second time because we wanted to show it to our family. It was super great again! This time we first swam at the beach, then enjoyed the BBQ, and afterwards we went to Spinalonga. Upon arrival, we were told the story of Spinalonga, a small island off the northeast coast of Crete, in a presentation. Afterwards, there was time to explore the island and gather impressions. It was a truly successful trip and the weather was excellent.

Absolutely fabulous. Perfect amount of time to explore the sea, swim and tour Spinalonga. The boat is large and spacious, the crew super friendly and food delicious!! Prices on boat not too expensive either. Met all our expectations and more. Thanks team!

The information that Viator provided was confusing. We were told by the tour line to meet at Megaro but Viator suggests to meet at Elounda Marina, which is a 10 minutes walk away from Megaro. We suggest going to Megaro, ignore Viator’s advice. From there they will check tickets and guide you to the next stop. The boat trip itself consists of a short journey to a one hour swimming stop at Maribello Bay, which was lovely crystal clear water filled with fish. Then a bbq lunch of pork chop, salad, feta, bread and pickles with either a drink of Fanta or wine. The food was good and prepared and served well but there is limited space to sit to eat so I would suggest sitting in the dining area as soon as you board after the first swim to ensure you can eat easily. The second stop is Spinalonga Island. It costs €20 (in cash only) per adult to enter. We had Mary as our guide, who was well spoken and fluent in English. She helped us to understand the different era’s and infrastructure’s on the island and how this affected its citizens. She was fascinating and we thoroughly enjoyed her as guide. The island itself is a mish mash of Venetian, Turk, Arab and Greek building with a leper colony early in the 1900’s. Overall, Spinalonga is hot, dusty and mostly just very old bricks. You have to be really interested in history and architecture to enjoy the day and without a guide, it has very limited explanation as to what each area was. Also, if you choose not to go to Spinalonga there is a second swim location which we sadly missed out on. Now we have seen Spinalonga, we would recommend staying on the boat. Viator has advertised this as a whole day activity beginning at 9:50am and ending at 18:30pm. This is not true. We departed around 10:30am and were back at 14:00pm. Would I recommend? Yes for the boat, swimming and food. No for Spinalonga and the shortness of the day. The staff on the boat were fantastic. Super helpful and would definitely sail with them again but this tour could have been better.

Great trip, lovely food. Superb beach stop with amazing swimming experience off back of boat. Spinalonga was good also.

Was informed it was a tour totalling 6hours. However, the final part of the tour a trip to St. Nicholas and winery tour was only for people on buses. As we had drove to the boat we were left stranded even though we had paid the full amount for the tour. We had no problems on boat and swimming off boat at Mirabella but then to be told to pay 40 euros to get into Spinalonga which is rubbish and not worth it was a kick in the shins. Very disappointed with a tour that lasted 3 hours short of the 6 hours advertised.

For the price, it’s really a great excursion! Affordable drinks on board 2 euros the soft.....I recommend.