A perfect place to unwind

One-time shoestring traveller Kate Johnson heads to Crete to learn the joys of a full-body massage - and a private turquoise pool.

When I was a stroppy teenager longing for adventure, I went around the Greek islands for two weeks with my friend Vanessa. We visited Los, Santorini and Mykonos.

It was our first time travelling without our parents: we used ferries when we found them, stayed in those immaculate white rooms you're offered as soon as you step off the boat, or on hotel roofs, and moved on when we felt like it. We did it all on a shoestring and had a ball, screaming with laughter and making friends.

I've been plenty of times since, to different islands, and always on a shoestring. I've always had a fabulous time in Greece.

But this is my first time in Crete, and my first experience of five-star Greece. Driving to the St Nicolas Bay Resort Hotel, we pass one or two small towns with plenty of souvenir shops, open-air tavernas, bars and hotels; all familiar sights. But when we reach the hotel, just a five-minute drive from Agios Nikolaos, we're suddenly miles away from everything.

We're welcomed and shown to our suite by a bellboy who is so proud of the suite, you'd think he'd built it himself. He points out the huge slate-tiled shower, bleached wood Jacuzzi bath, and flat-screen television. I ask if there's a DVD player too, and he says no, (but by the time I return from the bar, one has been installed.) Then he swooshes back the thick cream curtains and opens the patio doors to reveal a private terrace and illuminated, heated, turquoise pool. There's a table and chairs, sun-loungers, tea lights in lanterns, and huge limestone tiles. It just couldn't be more inviting.

We retire for a drink at the bar, which is big enough for you to have a secluded corner to yourself, yet small enough for it to be easy to get the staff's attention.

So begins a week of absolute bliss. Breakfast is scrambled eggs and fresh orange juice, then sunbathing in the beautiful 'meltemi' Cretan wind.

Lunch - moussaka or omelettes with feta cheese, Greek yoghurt with honey and kiwi fruit - is followed by a swim in the warm water of Mirabello Bay, a full body massage at the fabulous Elemis Spa Poseidon, a nap, dinner and drinks in the bar. Exhausting.

There are two fantastic restaurants for dinner; one overlooks the peninsula, where you order homemade tsatziki and choose your own fresh fish from the ice. Next to the tables is a tiny Orthodox chapel. The other restaurant is just as impressive and overlooks the illuminated pool. You eat lobster cappuccino, while a band plays Frank Sinatra covers.

What sets this place apart from other five-star hotels is that it is informal. You can pad around barefoot, and lunch runs till 6.30pm; why don't more places do that?

The service is flawless, and without that five-star flourish where waiters call you madam so often you wonder if they're making fun of you. I have an Indian head massage one evening and mention to the receptionist that it wasn't as firm as I'd imagined it would be. Walking to dinner that night, I meet the manager, who says: 'I'm so sorry we disappointed you, please try again tomorrow.'

The family atmosphere is all down to the manager, Costas Zarbalas, a fifty-something with Omar Sharif-style charm who came to Crete in 1970 from Athens. The hotel is owned by his architect friend, George Alexandrakis, and this is their only hotel. They've invested time, ambition, love and money in it - and it shows. It has 54 rooms and 53 suites, but it's spread out in enough lush acres of gardens full of carob, lemon, orange, palm and olive trees, that you rarely bump into anyone.

Before I left for Crete, my mother had presumed I'd be visiting the Minoan palace at Knossos, the Byzantine churches and the monasteries. She'd wondered if I'd have time for Spinalonga itself. And for hiking the Samaria Gorge.

Shamefully, I didn't see or do anything. I'm a philistine, of course, and don't deserve to travel, but, did I mention the private pool?

For more information visit www.stnicolasbay.gr