Abandoned Aptera Beach

Our house is near to a beach known as Golden Beach, but before you reach that there is another more secluded less developed stretch of beach with no name. Not that it wasn't developed at one time. The sea front is taken up with the abandoned ruins of the Aptera Beach resort.

It is difficult to judge how long it has been abandoned - maybe three or four years. The strangest thing though is that it looks like a lot of the mini-apartments have been deliberately half-demolished.

I wonder why it went out of business - it seems to have a perfect location.

Now, though, it just makes a rather eerie backdrop to an otherwise gorgeous looking beach.

Comments

[Stephen Sollid]

I didn't really expect to find anything when I googled Aptera Beach, but here I am! We just returned from Crete after staying two weeks at Triton on Chrissi Akti and I couldn't help wondering about this abandoned hotel, Aptera Beach, when I stumbeled on it. It looks almost like something from a war zone, left in a hurry, demolished and looted. Judging from the interior (and choice of coulors) I would guess it's even older than you suggest Martin. My tip would be sometime during the 80's. Maybee the location wasn't optimal after all? The tourists have moved westwards from Chania over the years and maybe Aptera just got lost in a dead zone?
There are more "ruins" in the area suggesting this might be the reason ...

[Kasper]

I visited the Aptera Hotel in 1988. It was a little remote, nice and quite hotel at that time. I actually met my Swedish wife here in those days! We finally went on honeymoon 2001 - to Crete - deciding to check out the 'romantic' hotel the way we remembered it and we almost paralysed when we saw this nonromantic "warzone". Some things you should never go back to. The memory of this place was better than presence... (in 2001 at the time for our visit the locals told us, Aptera was abandonned 3-4 years earlier)
:-)
KAsper Sønderby, Copenhagen, Denmark

[Patrick Weber, Kürten, Germany]

My wife and I spend our first holliday at Aptera Beach in 1991. Since then we allways took a look at "our" hotel, everytime we were in Creta. In 1995 it still was in perfect condition and everything looked well. This year, we saw what happend to the Hotel and couldn´t believe it! We felt very sorry about that. Hope everything is ok with the former owners!

[Sandra]

I really can´t believe my eyes! Me and my family where visiting Crete in -96...and we "found" the hotel Aptera Beach as we walked along the beach...At first we thought that is was just another hotel, but it was wery fine. Until we saw the pool...it was disgusting...and we realize that it was abandonned. The rooms were i pefect condition, it looked like a housekeeper just have cleaned it...we wondered what happend to this nice hotel...then an old guy come and told us to leave....In this years who have passed since we last saw it, I have wondered many times if somebody are taking care of it. But now I know...I feel sorry when i see this pictures =(

[Daniel, Sweden, Malmö 2008]

Hi everybody! I just arrived home from a week at hotel Forum which is located some 100 meters from the ruins of Aptera Beach Resort. I was of course curious what had happened to the hotel which, in my opinion (and some others i read) is perfectly located close to a beautiful beach.

And as I searched for answers I came across an answer not so shocking in these days when it comes to people. Money!

The two male owners of the hotel resort had secretly stolen money from the profits, without either one knowing the other one also did so.

Of course this couldn't go on forever and somehow they were exposed. The fighting between them resulted in more disappearance of cash and finally they both left the resort.

The staff struggled against the authorities to run the place and kept the resort going for another 4-5 months after the disappearance of the owners.

But they couldn't afford to pay rent for none of these months. If you have something on the beach a monthly beach-license-fee must also be paid and they couldn't afford this either.

Finally the Police had to throw them out! A deadline was given for the staff and guests and then the place was left quiet and empty.

But the contract for the resort, rent paid or not, stretched over 10 years and in Greek law this means the resort cannot be demolished. The spooky empty resort must stand its ground for the entire period of its contract!

Only after a couple of days of emptiness people started to loot and trash whatever was left and the place slowly turned into the ruins they are today.

A very sad story I must say and I visuallized myself starting it up again. A very costly and risky business to get oneself into, but as the contract period expires, which was any time now, I'm sure someone with solid finances will start something again. Hopefully something as beautiful as you describe Aptera was in its time of glory.

This information I gathered from locals living there and it seem logical, but of course one can't be sure its 100 % true.

Still I hope this answers some of your questions regarding the, nowadays, legendary ruins of Aptera Beach.

[Marina Kåretun]

Våran familj var i cryssi akti 1996 och fann dettahelt enorma hotell och enastående plats,vi blev naturligtvis väldigt nyfikna VARFÖR står detta öde och döm om våran förvåning dukade bord imatsalen,bäddade sängar i rummen,stekpannan stod på det enorma stekbordet. Vi frågade en tjej på hotellet vi bodde och hon hade hört att det hade blivit någon osämja mellan dessa två herrar som drev hotellet varav den ena plötligt försvann med de små summor som då fanns kvar. Vi var tillbaka nu 1/8 och man blev bara så ledsen att det ej är något gjort vi sa att ifall någon med stark ekonomi kunde ta tag idetta fantastiska ställe,man gick där ifrån med tårar, hoppas någon tar tag idetta.

[Felicia]

Jag var i creta med min familj den 6 juni 2008. på ett hotell nära aptera beach vi gick alltid vår strandpromenad då vi markte detta vackra övergivna hotell vi gick in på själva området och gick där ett tag sedan passa vi på att ta några foton man undra varför ingen som vill fixa det och varför det srår där helt rivet och så det kändes bara så lesamt att gå där för jag tror ju att det är en hel del som undrar vad som hände med det men jag ska inte ge upp en ska försöka lista ut vad som värckligen hände med aptera beach.Det är ju allt lite spännande att pfå veta den riktiga historian.

[Sandra]

Smart att skriva att man vill veta vad som hände...är väl bara att läsa hela historien. I augusti nästa år bär det av till Grekland igen, och då blir det en liten utflykt till Aptera för att se vad som hänt under de 13 år som förflutit, förhoppningsvis kanske någon tagit sig ann det (som en gång var) fina hotellet. Orkar inte skriva på engelska denna gång.

[Georgios M]

Strange to see there are others who have memories from Aptera Beach. I'll tell you mine (sad story indeed):

Aptera Beach - believe it or not- was during WWII a storage area for ammunition. During the 60s it was transformed to a hotel.

All of you who have been there during the 70s-80s should know that behind that hill at the back of the bungalows was a small factory making explosives...

I spent the best years of my childhood in Aptera Beach. Every summer dad took us there for a month. As a teenager I fell in love with the daughter of the businessman who was renting the place...

I returned back many years later when the place was abandoned, wondering in between the empty bungalows. A rude guy came to kick me out. I insisted asking him a few questions...

The business man had run away with a woman leaving his wife. His daughter (my teenage love) was in jail for drug trafficking, so was her husband and her sister...

I last went there last year. The bungalows were half demolished.

[Sonja]

I was a guest in Aptera in 1989 or 1990 for 3 weeks and i thought it was the most nicest place I'd visited...I met there a person, he worked there as a head waiter, I think..Although I went back there the next year and we met again. We fell in love. I had a shock when I saw these pictures of Aptera !It was like something broke inside me, sad.I hope somebody would fix it soon!
Sonja, from Finland