A Spinalonga tour is a boat trip to the Venetian sea fortress and former leper colony off Plaka in east Crete. It is one of the Greece tours on Crete.
What is a Spinalonga tour?
A Spinalonga tour is a boat visit to Spinalonga, an island in the Gulf of Elounda. The island lies off the north-eastern coast of Crete. Administratively, it belongs to Agios Nikolaos municipality in Lasithi. Visitors cross the gulf to reach it.
The island at the centre of a Spinalonga tour is a small piece of land. It is a barren, rocky islet. Its area measures 85,000 square metres. The islet stands at the mouth of the natural harbour of Elounda. In other words, it sits at the entrance to that harbour.
The name has its own story. Venetian documents link it to “stin Elounda”, Greek words for “to Elounda”. The phrase puzzled the Venetians. They renamed the island spina, meaning thorn, and longa, meaning long. Local people kept the new name. So every Spinalonga tour carries a name born from a misunderstanding.
The island carries a second name as well. Kalydon is the historic alternate name for these islands. Modern Greek naming has re-established this older name. Even so, the public prefers to say Spinalonga. In daily speech, Kalydon remains the less familiar of the two names.
- Protected site: The island was designated an archaeological site in the year 1976.
- UNESCO status: Greece added the Fortress of Spinalonga to its UNESCO Tentative List in 2014.
- Wider area: The Kalydon area takes in Spinalonga island, the Spinalonga Peninsula, Kolokythas island and smaller islets.
Today Spinalonga is an organised archaeological site. Hundreds of thousands of visitors come to it each year. That makes a Spinalonga tour a popular trip in this part of Crete. Each traveller joins a large yearly flow of people.
From which harbours does a Spinalonga tour set off?
A Spinalonga tour sets off from one of three harbour towns: Plaka, Elounda or Agios Nikolaos. Spinalonga is easy to reach from all three. Travellers pick the start point that sits closest to their hotel or fits their route along the coast.
The fishing village of Plaka overlooks Spinalonga from across the water. It sits 5 km away, north of the main Elounda square. Plaka is a handy base for a Spinalonga tour. Travellers can look out at their goal from the village shore before the trip begins.
Among major towns, Elounda lies closest to Spinalonga, the former leper colony. Travellers who stay here start their Spinalonga tour from a town, not a village. The calm, sheltered stretch of sea from Elounda to the Spinalonga peninsula has a name of its own. It is known as Mirabella Harbour, and it sits beside the town.
Agios Nikolaos is the third start point. The road from this town to Elounda is about 12 km long and follows the shore. A Spinalonga tour from here can use that coastal road. Inside the town, a channel links Lake Voulismeni to the harbour. French soldiers dug it in 1907.
- Daily boats: Every day of the week, tourist boats cross from Plaka to Spinalonga.
- Water gap: Plaka lies about 750 m west of Spinalonga, across open water.
- Main road: Greek National Road 90 links Kissamos with Sitia and passes Heraklion and Agios Nikolaos.
Travellers who arrive by ferry begin further away. Heraklion has daily ferry services and lies 64 kilometres from Agios Nikolaos. That ride comes first, before any boat to Spinalonga. On arrival, the choice of start point comes down to taste and plans.
What does a Spinalonga tour show of the Venetian fortress?
A Spinalonga tour shows the Venetian defence plan laid out across the island. Engineer Genese Bressani placed blockhouses on the highest northern and southern points. He also set a ring of coastal walls against enemy landings from the sea.
The fortress story begins with salt. In the mid-15th century, the Venetians built salt pans in the gulf. The waters there were shallow and salty. After 1453, the Turkish threat hung over the area, and pirate raids never stopped. Both forced the Venetians to fortify the island.
In 1578, the Venetians hired an engineer named Genese Bressani. His task was to plan the fortifications of the island. His name is worth knowing before a Spinalonga tour begins. The layout of the defences started with his work. Visitors who know this can read the walls with fresh eyes.
Building began a year later. In 1579, Provveditore generale Luca Michiel laid the foundation stone. He set it on the ruins of an acropolis. So the Venetian fortress grew on top of older remains. This mix of old and new is part of the story a Spinalonga tour explains.
- Founding inscriptions: One sits on the main gate’s transom, and another sits at the foot of the north rampart.
- The demilunes: The Michel and Moceniga, or Barbariga, demilunes stand at strategic points of the fortress.
- Walls and terrain: UNESCO notes that the walled circuit adapts well to land with great changes in height.
In 1584, Venice added fortifications on the hilltop. The reason was simple. From nearby hills, attackers were in a position to take the coastal walls. A Spinalonga tour that reaches the top shows why height mattered so much to the defenders.
What centuries of history does a Spinalonga tour reveal?
A Spinalonga tour begins in ancient times. Back then, Spinalonga was fortified to protect the entrance to the port of Olous. From there, the story moves on to the Venetian and Ottoman eras on the island. It ends in the era of modern Greece.
Olous was an ancient Cretan city, and its remains now lie sunken. The city stood where the town of Elounda lies today. Much later, the Ottomans captured the rest of Crete between 1645 and 1669, but three forts held out. Spinalonga, Gramvousa and Souda all stayed in Venetian hands.
A Spinalonga tour also tells the story of refugees. Christians fled to these Venetian forts to escape persecution by the Ottoman Turks. In 1715, an agreement handed Spinalonga to the Ottomans. The deal came with one condition. Its people had to travel safely to Corfu.
Spinalonga was the last fortress Venice held on Crete. When it changed hands, Venice’s military presence on Crete came to an end. The island’s story then moved into the Ottoman era. A Spinalonga tour follows this new era through the people who lived inside its walls.
- 1830 community: By 1830, the island was home to 80 Muslim families.
- 1866 revolution: After the revolt, more Muslim families arrived from across the Mirabello region, fearing Christian reprisals.
- De facto union: In 1908, Crete joined Greece de facto, which means in practice rather than on paper.
Crete then joined Greece formally in 1913, after the First Balkan War. That formal union made Crete part of Greece on paper as well. A Spinalonga tour ends its story here, at the close of centuries of changing rulers.
What was the leper colony seen on a Spinalonga tour?
A Spinalonga tour leads to a former leper colony where people with leprosy lived apart from society. In 1903, the Cretan State ordered compulsory isolation for these patients on the island. The order gave them no choice about where to live.
The first 251 patients reached the island in October 1904. At first, the colony had no hospital to treat them. The residents had to cope without one. They turned to folk medicine to ease their symptoms. In those early days, home remedies took the place of hospital care.
Epaminondas Remoundakis arrived on Spinalonga in 1936. He was a young law student with leprosy. He founded the Brotherhood of the Sick of Spinalonga, Saint Panteleimon. Its aim was to improve living conditions for the residents. His story forms an important part of the history behind a Spinalonga tour.
From 1948, new leprosy treatments were offered on Spinalonga. The arrival of this care loosened the strict isolation rules. This period of change is a key chapter on a Spinalonga tour. In 1957, the patients were moved away from the island. Their new home was Agia Varvara in Attica, an anti-leprosy station.
- Last resident: The priest Chrysathos Katsouloyiannakis was the final person living on the island.
- Home monastery: He came from the Toplou monastery in Siteia before living on the island.
- Final duty: He stayed until 1962 to keep the Greek Orthodox memorials for the buried dead.
Spinalonga ranked among the last working leper colonies in Europe. That gives the island a lasting place in European history. A Spinalonga tour lets visitors learn about the people who lived there. Their lives deserve to be remembered with respect.
What does a Spinalonga tour show around Elounda and Mirabello Bay?
A Spinalonga tour frames the island against the wide waters of Mirabello Bay and the shore of Elounda. This bay ranks as the largest bay among the Greek islands. It also ranks fifth in size across the whole Mediterranean Sea.
A mountain and a group of islets mark the two ends of this huge bay. Mount Dikti rises at the head of Mirabello Bay. The Dionysades islets sit at its mouth, where the bay opens to the sea. Together they frame the bay from end to end.
The name Mirabello has roots in an old fortress. The Genoese built this stronghold and named it Mirabello. Over time, the name spread well beyond its walls. It came to label the whole province, not just the fort. So the name heard on a Spinalonga tour began with a single Genoese fort.
Another islet, Kolokytha, sits off the coast. Its position is about 850 metres to the east of the Spinalonga peninsula. Between the two shores, a bay takes shape. This pair of shores adds one more bay to the scene on a Spinalonga tour. The narrow gap keeps both shores in sight at once.
- Pseira: This islet in the Gulf of Mirabello holds remains from Minoan and Mycenaean times.
- Olous: Swimmers in Elounda Bay can visit this sunken city lying beneath the water.
- Basilica of Poros: This church near Elounda keeps a fine mosaic and stays open to visitors today.
Back on land, three former windmill towers guard the causeway road. Two of them carry very flat roofs shaped like cones. These quiet towers add a final piece of history to the setting of any Spinalonga tour.
Which buildings survive inside the walls on a Spinalonga tour?
A Spinalonga tour passes the leprosarium buildings, the only organised construction left from that era. The rest were demolished in the 1980s. The surviving rooms still show how the colony was run and where the patients spent their days.
The first patients made their homes in the lowlands of the island. They reused building material from wrecked Muslim homes of the Ottoman era. Late in the 19th century, the island held about 200 homes and 25 shops or workshops. On a Spinalonga tour, those figures help visitors picture a busy town.
Leprosy patients came ashore, as a rule, at the southern dock of the island. A popular tale calls the entrance Dante’s Gate and tells of an inscription there. No historical evidence exists for that inscription or for that name at the gate. The story is a legend, not a recorded fact.
In 1928 the old mosque was repaired and put to use as a medical unit for the colony. Paid staff used sulphur to sanitise items before they left the island. Both details show how medical care and caution shaped daily life for patients and staff alike.
- Pebble courtyards: Small yards paved with pebbles still carry the aura of former residents.
- Layered whitewash: Walls coated in layer upon layer of whitewash keep that same quiet presence.
- Doorstep games: Traces of games marked on doorsteps recall the leisure of past residents.
The Ministry of Culture is restoring the leprosarium dormitories and hospital as exhibition spaces. In 2013, after tourists desecrated graves, the bones went into an ossuary beside the cemetery. A Spinalonga tour that reaches the cemetery asks visitors for quiet respect.
Which season suits a Spinalonga tour?
A Spinalonga tour fits best in the dry months from summer into autumn. Weather records give Agios Nikolaos a hot-summer Mediterranean climate. Its summers bring heat and dry weather, while winters stay very mild but rainy. Dry days keep the boat crossing and island walk easy.
In Agios Nikolaos, August has the warmest days, with the average daily high reaching 31.6 °C. July and August each average just 2.0 mm of rain there. A Spinalonga tour in high summer faces heat far more than rain. Drinking water and shade matter in that heat.
Long, bright days add to the summer appeal. Heraklion averages 384.4 hours of sunshine in July. That amount of light gives photographers clear, sharp pictures from the boat and on shore. It also means strong rays at midday. Visitors who burn easily do better with long sleeves and shade breaks.
Warm water is another reason to go between summer and autumn. Off Heraklion, the sea averages 26.1 °C in August. By October, it still averages 23.3 °C. A Spinalonga tour with a swim stop keeps that pleasure well into autumn. October suits swimmers who dislike cold water.
- Wind: The meltemi winds blow from the northwest over the Cretan and Carpathian seas.
- Rain: January is the wettest month in Agios Nikolaos, with an average of 112.0 mm.
- Dry days: In July, Sitia averages only 0.1 days with any precipitation at all.
Heat can also reach Crete outside summer. Among WMO stations, the island holds Europe’s record highs in October, November, January and February. A light layer and sun protection belong on a Spinalonga tour in any month.
What questions come up about a Spinalonga tour?
A Spinalonga tour brings up common questions. Visitors ask about health, life on the island, a famous novel and swimming spots. The island in Crete was formally opened to the public in 2000. People now learn the story of the former leper colony and its patients.
Is leprosy still a risk for visitors on a Spinalonga tour?
In short, no. Leprosy does not spread through a handshake or by sitting next to a person who has it. The disease is curable with a mix of drugs called multidrug therapy. As of 2022, Europe stood close to declaring a full end to local spread of the disease.
Does anyone still live on the island seen on a Spinalonga tour?
No one lives there at all now. Spinalonga is uninhabited and ranks as a popular tourist attraction in Crete. After its last resident left for good, the island stood empty for decades. Thieves also looted the abandoned site during the years from 1967 to 1974.
Which book brought fame to the Spinalonga tour?
The book is Victoria Hislop’s 2005 novel The Island. It tells of a family’s ties to the leper colony. It reached readers in 25 languages and became a TV series. Sales ran into the millions of copies. A 2016 UNESCO study found that 22% of tourists came because of these media adaptations.
Are there beaches for a swim on or near a Spinalonga tour?
Yes, there are. Parts of the island coastline seen on a Spinalonga tour have pebble beaches that slope into shallow water. Plaka village has two pebble beaches with crystal-clear water for swimming. From near St Luke’s church, a walk downhill leads to Kolokytha beach and its blue-green water.