Maison MeltemAgia Pelagia · Crete
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The journal

Journal

The things we would tell you at the table, written down here: our hosts, Cretan cooking, the corners of the island we send people to and the habits of the house. A notebook rather than a news feed — we only write when there is something to say.

Maison Meltem is a guest house, not a hotel, and that changes what there is to tell. The meals have an author: Giannis, host and chef, makes breakfast every morning and cooks a single Cretan set menu in the evening on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, by reservation. The tips for a day out do not come from a rack of leaflets: they come from a Cretan who knows his coves, his ancient sites and his tavernas, and who shares them at the table.

The rest of the house is lived in rather than described — eight rooms turned towards the Aegean, an infinity pool and its bar, a Finnish sauna, a hot tub on the lower terrace, a yoga space and a gym. This journal is where the things that will not fit on a fact sheet go: how your hosts got here, what is served at the table and why, and what is worth knowing before you come to Crete.

  • Aerial view of the infinity pool lined with parasols and sun loungers, and of the sunken lounge around the brazier, Maison Meltem, Agia Pelagia

    Maison Meltem on TF1’s 50′ Inside

    On 29 August 2026, TF1’s magazine 50′ Inside devoted a report to Maison Meltem: the house above Agia Pelagia, Giannis’s table and both hosts on screen.

  • Giannis, host and chef of the house, in an embroidered chef’s jacket, smiling as flames rise from his pans in the summer kitchen set against the stone wall, Maison Meltem, Agia Pelagia

    A portrait: Giannis Manios’s table

    Born in Heraklion and trained in Greece before working in Lyon, Giannis Manios cooks every meal at Maison Meltem, from breakfast to the Cretan dinner menu.

Meanwhile, in the house

An article is something you read before you come; the rest of the answers live in the pages of the site. The table page says what is included, which evenings dinner is served and why there is no lunch service. The rooms page sets out the three ways of sleeping above the bay, from the suites with their own pool to the garden-level studio. And the Agia Pelagia page gathers the beaches, the ancient sites and the driving times, so a day can be planned without losing the morning to it.

See the table

See the rooms and suites

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