Our Story
Kritsa Gastronomy Hotel is located in the central square of Portaria in beautiful Pelion, housed in a neoclassical three-storey building from 1915. It is surrounded by hydrangeas and the rooms overlook the age-old plane tree of the village. From 1915 to 1930 the place operated as a grocery store and inn by Nikolaos Tsachtiris. In its final form, the building was opened in 1939 under the name "Kentrikon" by the Kritsa family, who were successful cotton merchants from Pelion in Egypt. Since 2000, the Karaiskou family has been managing the hotel, naming it “Kritsa Gastronomy Hotel.
Today guests have the opportunity to enjoy their breakfast or meals in the square listening to the running water. In addition to the warm hospitality, gastronomy and local cuisine play an important role in our philosophy. Most of the seasonal vegetables come from the garden of our farm and in addition we work with many small local producers for the supply of our raw materials.
Kritsa Gastronomy Hotel is one of the first hotels to offer a Greek breakfast. With our famous and award-winning breakfast, our guests start their day with a feast of flavors. At our breakfast our guests can enjoy fresh vegetables and eggs from the coop, freshly baked bread with homemade jams, traditional pies with handmade puff pastry, pastries, local cheeses, cold cuts and sausages, donuts with honey and many other goodies. In the menu of our restaurant, either indoors by the lit fireplace or in the courtyard under the age-old plane tree, we use vegetables from our farm, local products of small producers and eclectic local meats.
Our guests should definitely try tsitsiravla, the Pelion spenzofai, the fried greens with eggs, mutton braised with handmade pasta, trachanosoup, beef with quinces and chestnuts and the famous Pelion pies that we make every day.
Portaria
One of the most popular villages of Pelion and the whole country, Portaria combines the atmosphere of the authentic Pelion settlement and the unsurpassed view of the city of Volos and the Pagasitikos with the intense tourist development.
Its picturesqueness, natural beauty and the close distance from the city of Volos, from the Ski Center of Pelion and from the sea make it an ideal destination and starting point for excursions throughout Pelion. Trees and flowers adorn the cobbled streets, traditional stone houses and squares, while throughout the village there are great mansions, ornate stone fountains, churches and monuments.
The village is a destination all year round, for coolness in the summer months with baths on the shores of the Aegean and the Pagasitic Gulf, for skiing in winter but also hiking and activities in the autumn or spring nature.
Pelion
Pelion, the mythical mountain
On the one hand the Pagasitic Gulf, on the other the Aegean. In the middle of a magical mountain to discover: Pelion.
Gargling water in the fountains. Plane trees, apple trees, chestnut trees, oaks, beeches, gardenias, hydrangeas, camellias ... In this fertile soil of Thessaly, nature rages. Paths, old churches, beaches with green waters.
Whether you visit Pelion in winter dressed in white, or in spring or summer, when the slopes are painted colorful by the dozens of wildflowers between the chestnut and beech, the tour of its traditional villages is a magical experience….
A weekend is not enough to satisfy it, but it is enough to love it forever
Volos
Ancient Iolkos, known from the Argonaut expedition, is the Volos of today. A hospitable, open, charming city, which stretches at the foot of Pelion embracing the Pagasitic Gulf. The feeling it will leave you will not be forgotten. The sea breeze that unites with the fresh air of Pelion ... All this gives Volos a special identity.
You will discover it in the industrial buildings that became multi-purpose spaces, museums, exhibition and shopping centers. You will feel it with a walk on the beach, which is full of people, tsipouro restaurants, patisseries, bars, historic buildings. Going up from Volos to Pelion, you will meet Portaria and Makrinitsa, the protagonist villages of the area.
A wonderful deep breath of beauty is Volos, which will fill you with freedom
