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Diver’s Club Crete: An American in Paradise Part I

Phil Butler - July 2nd, 2018 12:06 pm

Cretan entrepreneur Dimitris Markakis (L) with Mike Parrish in Agia Pelagia, Crete

Cretan entrepreneur Dimitris Markakis (L) with Mike Parrish in Agia Pelagia, Crete

2018-07-02

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A few minutes from Crete’s capital in Heraklion there’s a great place for the vacationer to become a real adventurer, and to practice a laid back and luxurious island life at the same time. My staff at Argophilia and a group of old friends got to sample this dynamic of the island while visiting the quaint village of Agia Pelagia recently. So, for those interested in unique experiences on Crete, here’s a short story about cooling it with Diver’s Club Crete.

Here on Crete business, pleasure and friendship always seem to occupy the same geographic space. Chance introductions and meetings lead to new friends and new adventures. This happens on a daily basis for those of us fortunate enough to live and work here. For my best friend Mike Parrish visiting for ten days from North Carolina, this dynamic played a role in yet another perfect day in his quest for experiential travel. A meetup with my Minoan brother (best pal) Minas Liapakis, who’s head of EyeWide Digital Marketing, led to another friend, Cretan entrepreneur, Dimitris Markakis suggesting a SCUBA experience off Agia Pelagia. Parrish, an avid sportsman, ended up taking the advice of Markakis to enjoy a dive with the team at Diver’s Club Crete just around the corner from his new hospitality development, SeaScape Luxury Residences.

Diver's Club Crete

Diver Mike Parrish (L) discusses past dives with Diver’s Club Crete master divers Kasha (Center) and Dan (At Right) before suiting up for the offshore Agia Pelagia excursion

Like I suggested earlier, the lines in between friends, colleagues, and travelers blur here on Crete. In my experience, almost everyone I’ve been introduced to has since become a good friend. Some are even family now since the legend of Filoxenia has proven to be no myth for us. Filoxenia as a way of being for Cretans, it’s a subject I’ve covered before, but I’m happy to say Dimitris Drakos and his team gave up the aquatic love for my lifelong pal. What a great group of skilled and friendly professionals this team was.

Diver's Club

Mike Parrish (L), SeaScape Luxury Residences owner Dimitri Markakis (2nd from left), and the dive group get a last-minute briefing from Dan

Since I elected to stay ashore to enjoy the shade at Agia Pelagia’s beautiful Almyra beachside bar-restaurant, I had to ask Mike to compare the Diver’s Club Crete experience to dives off Belize and in the Carribean. Here is the gist of his comparison paraphrased:

“The staff at Diver’s Club Crete were as thorough as any of the dive centers I’ve experienced. Dan, the master diver leading our group gave the most informative and detailed pre-dive briefing I’ve ever been a part of. The equipment and facility are up-to-date and top notch, a bit of a departure from the norm.”

Dive Crete

Dimitri Markakis gears up just before the dive

To sum up, I’ll conduct the follow-up interviews with Diver’s Club Crete owner Dimitris Drakos and his team. And we’ll hopefully reveal something like a “diver’s week” coming up in August or September. For now, I hope you’ll enjoy seeing and learning about this new Crete potential if you’re not already familiar. Hopefully, the owners of these extraordinary businesses in one of Crete’s most fascinating seaside villages will put together more perfect days for new friends.

Dive Agia Pelagia

The group heads out early morning past the point at Agia Pelagia

Stay tuned.

Tags: Agia Pelagia, Almyra, Almyra Seaside Food & Cocktails, Dimitris Drakos, Diver's Club Crete, diving, EyeWide Digital Marketing, Mike Parrish, Minas Liapakis, SCUBA, scuba diving, SeaScape, SeaScape Luxury Residences

Phil Butler

About Phil Butler

Phil is a prolific technology, travel, and news journalist and editor. An engineer by trade, he is a partner in one of Europe’s leading PR and digital marketing firms, Pamil Visions PR. He’s also a Huffington Post contributor on many topics, a travel and tech writer for The Epoch Times in print and online, and for several magazines including Luxurious. Phil also contributes regularly to Travel Daily News, The official Visit Greece Blog, and is an analyst for Russia Today and other media. His firm has done all the content for Time Magazine’s top travel site Stay.com, as well as other online travel portals such as Vinivi out of France. He’s also a very influential evangelist of social media and new digital business, with a network of some of the most notable business people therein.

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Trackbacks

  1. A Crete Instagram Journey: Summer 2018 says:
    2018-07-20 at 6:31 pm

    […] is from a perfect day in Agia Pelagia when our editor-in-chief’s best friend Mike Parrish visited the island on vacation from North Carolina in the U.S. Here Parrish joined other divers with the […]

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