If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR124.89), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Taking its name from the Latin meaning ‘in mind’, Aménte Mindful Stay is an adults-only boutique hotel on Crete’s lesser-trodden southern coast where mental batteries can be fully recharged. Like a Greek goddess, the Mediterranean- or pool-facing rooms are dressed simply yet stylishly in a creamy palette of floaty fabrics and billowing bed linens, creating a soporific space to rest your head. From your laidback launchpad in the island’s arcadian south, you’re just a mountain trail or sandy track away from deserted beaches, rugged gorges, and hidden coves.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
Local delicacies and a bottle of Cretan wine. Stays of seven nights or more also include a ‘Fully Cretan’ breakfast
11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 2pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £120.13 (€142), including tax at 13.5 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional government tax of €1.50 per room per night on check-in.
More details
Rates exclude breakfast, but a locally sourced Continental spread with à la carte options is available for €10 (a guest). There's a standard minimum stay of two nights, which can vary, subject to availability.
Also
The five ground-floor rooms are suitable for guests with reduced mobility, though if you’re a wheelchair user, there are no specially-adapted features.
Hotel closed
The hotel is open between 1 April and 10 November each year.
At the hotel
Charged laundry service, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: air-conditioning, TV, minibar, Nespresso coffee machine, pool and beach towels, and Olive Era bath products.
Our favourite rooms
For glittering glimpses of the Mediterranean, opt for one of the Deluxe Sea View Double Rooms. If regular dips are top of your island agenda, the Swim-Up Double Rooms are a few barefoot steps away from the hotel’s pool – with your own loungers to bask on (no towels-at-dawn disputes here).
Poolside
The outdoor saltwater pool (open from 10am to 10pm) is a central chill-out zone with stylish sunloungers and oversized boho-patterned cushions to flop on.
Packing tips
A land of legends (birthplace of Zeus and the Minotaur spring to mind), Crete is a divinely-inspired place to read up on Greek literature – stock up on copies of Natalie Haynes’ modern takes on the myths.
Also
Plakias can experience high winds across its crescent bay – head west to Souda for a more sheltered sandy stretch.
Children
Aménte Mindful Stay is for over-12s only.
Sustainability efforts
Aménte Mindful Stay runs on solar energy, and stocks its water-conserving bathrooms with Olive Era – an eco-friendly beauty brand which uses Greek herbs and extra virgin olive oil from Cretan groves for its all-natural products.
On your private terrace or balcony; or switch things up by dining in the poolside garden.
Dress Code
No need to change out of your dressing gown or pool cover-up, or bother with shoes for that matter.
Hotel restaurant
There’s no restaurant at Aménte Mindful Stay, but you can order an in-room breakfast tray of seasonal fruit, locally baked pastries, Greek cheeses and honey, and fresh juices to enjoy each morning.
Hotel bar
Rest assured – the absence of a bar doesn’t mean a refreshing ouzo lemonade or honey-infused rakomelo cocktail won’t make an appearance around the pool…
Room service
Light snacks are available between 8.30am and 8pm.
Tucked along Crete’s quieter southern shores, Aménte Mindful Stay lies on the outskirts of Plakias, a coastal village just south of Rethymno.
Planes
The hotel is roughly 90 minutes by car from both Heraklion and Chania airports, with private transfers starting from €125 (each way).
Automobiles
It’s well worth hiring a set of wheels to explore Greece’s largest island, especially with the bounty of beaches, olive groves, and mountain trails that surrounds Plakias (and there’s free parking at the hotel).
Other
Ferries serve the harbours along Crete’s south-west coast, stopping off at nearby Sfakion – though for more ambitious island hopping (to Santorini and beyond), you’ll need to weigh anchor from the port of Heraklion.
Worth getting out of bed for
Staying on Crete’s lesser explored south coast grants access to pristine beaches squeezed between the Mediterranean and tawny mountains, such as Preveli, Souda, Rodakino, and Katsouni. Once you’ve recharged your batteries with salty swims and sunbathing, more energetic pursuits beckon – including horse riding, hiking, and jeep safaris through dense pine forests and rugged gorges. Further along the coast you’ll stumble across archaeological ruins and history-steeped sites, such as the rock-clinging Chrysoskalitissa monastery and the Minoan Palace of Phaistos (once the royal seat of King Minos’ brother, Radamanthys). There’s also remote island-hopping aplenty if you can commandeer a boat (ask Aménte Mindful Stay’s concierge), with the uninhabited isles of Chrissi and Koufonisi just a day trip away.
Local restaurants
The small fishing village of Plakias is within walking distance of Aménte Mindful Stay, where tiny tavernas and seafood-serving beach shacks line the crescent bay. Gioma Taverna is a popular sunset spot which dishes out generous platters of grilled octopus and squid accompanied by zesty Greek salads. Save room for the homemade baklava and honey cakes. Medousa Restaurant offers a refined take on Greek classics, but it’s difficult not to fill up on the baskets of freshly baked carob bread. It’s also worth making the short drive up the hill to Mirthios (which overlooks Plakias) for dinner at Dionisos Taverna. Order lots of starters to share like fig and pomegranate salad, stuffed courgette flowers, and a big bowl of tzatziki to dunk everything in.
Local bars
Buzzy Armiriki Bar is right on Plakias’ seafront, and Paligremnos is a rustic beach bar delivering frozen cocktails straight to your lounger or deckchair.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this windswept Hellenic hideaway near Plakias and unpacked their olive oil and thyme-infused honey, a full account of their island break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Aménte Mindful Stay in Crete…
Shielded from Crete’s more touristed northern coast by a rocky landscape of myth-spun mountains and Greek hero-defying cliffs, Aménte Mindful Stay is a serene springboard from which to explore the island’s ‘other side’. Larger resorts are only just starting to rear their heads along this secluded stretch, while Aménte’s 10 bedrooms offer a more intimate and low-key sojourn (just 300 metres away from Plakias’ horseshoe-shaped beach). You could quite happily be lulled into a barefoot routine of pool dips and spells at the beach, but the real magic reveals itself on boat trips to desert islands, sampling olive oil in shaded groves, dabbling in the art of making Cretan ceramics, and trekking along ancient trails shared with the occasional goat (or forest-dwelling nymph). From this budget boutique basecamp, Crete’s quieter side is yours to fall for.
