Lovely and very spacious apartment ideally located near to the lovely old town quarter of Chania. Nice back garden with a few cats for company, one being very friendly. Aircon in all rooms was essential. 3 big bedrooms, 2 with double beds and one with a single bed (very hard if you like it like that) and it’s own lounge area. Plus there is a big living room at the back, all nicely appointed. Kitchen was good and reasonably well equipped (no chefs knife and.rubber spatula but everything else) no doubt they will be provided soon. We loved this place overall and would recommend it whole heartedly. Valia is a super host for sure and was very responsive and helped us with the local information (she also gave us some of the best orange cake we’ve ever had!)
We did not have a hire car and quite glad we didn’t as the city roads are quite busy. We walked to Nea Chora beach via the coast road turning left out of the old town, nice walk and takes about 15/20mins. We found this much better than the town beach. However, the best beaches were Apostoli and Yannis beach using the City Bus number 21 from the 1866 Square. Very regular and cheap. You need two tickets per person to get you there and back (1.5 € each) which you can get from the simple ticket machines which accept coins, notes and contactless, so just get a bunch.
There are loads of restaurants, bars and cafes in town, never seen so many. We liked the Italian just round the corner from the apartment, easy and really good value and quality. Souvlakis from the main road just 5mins walk were superb. Best Greek restaurant we visited (most were good) was Faka just set back from the port, simple traditional food, pricing very good and the best taste and quality in our opinion.
If you like your oldy worldly artefacts visit the new Archaelogical museum just 20 mins walk up the stadium road.
Also the botanical gardens via the central bus station (5€ on the bus and 7€ entry) if you’re into plants, it’s ok I would say but not spectacular. Nice food in the restaurant while you wait for the bus back.
Explore the little old streets of the old town, very picturesque and lot of shops and eateries.
Lastly if you’re into your exercise then use the athletics stadium just round the corner, it has open air gym equipment and a 400m running track all free, just walse up there and do a session (early to avoid the heat). I went running a few times through town and along the coast road past Nea Chora beach (the far end) again the earlier the better to avoid people, heat and car fumes is my advice)
We had a great time and Valia and her wonderful apartment were perfect for the type of holiday we planned. A big thank you again