We have jujst returned from a fantastic stay here! I hope that you find the following information helpful! We received a wonderful warm welcome from a lady called Iokasti who met us at the villa and who is fluent in English so we bombarded her with questions from the start! So the villa is in a place called Plaka which is just past Elounda (we got lost thinking it was in Elounda as sat nav was not clear) We also thought Plaka meant beach so when instructed to head to plaka we thought we were driving past beaches! Quite funny after we realised Plaka was actually a place! You WILL need a car unless you are very fit as the villa is set on the side of a steep hill and we are a fit family however still struggled with the 'monster hill' as we called it! It worked off our glorious meals though! The Villa- the outside, view and bathrooms are exactly what you imagine them to be from seeing the online pics. The living area is smaller than anticipated and quite basic. We did spend our days outside but you are going to this villa for the outside/ pool/ views rather than the inside! Lovely welcome hamper and gifts were much appreciated! There is a pool cupboard outside- we found some pool inflatables in there which were put to good use! Plaka- great restaurants and brilliant shops!!! Not loads but far better than the shops in Elounda or Agios Nikolas. Plenty of Instgram worthy places in Plaka! The restaurants we rated highly were Ostria's. We also absolutely loved Paliria!! There was also a fantastic coffee shop/ ice cream place which is on the end and near the 'turquiose' shop (you will know when you get there. Lovely place and the ice creams are divine! At the end of every meal all restaurants in Plaka gave us a beautiful platter of fruit or cakes as well as the customary Raki so you do not need to order a dessert unless you really want one! Only one restaurant in Elounda was disappointing as they came out with four tiny bowls of ice cream - which we had not ordered but then we noticed they had charged us for them even though we did not ask for them! This was the ONLY negative dining experience we had and only because they implied they were complimentary and they were not cheap ice creams either (for two tiny scoops!) so avoid KALIDON restaurant in Elounda. People- the Cretans are so lovely! A warm welcome awaited us everywhere we went. It is normal for restaurants to take you into the kitchen to show you their 'fish catch of the day'. The fish was delicious by the way! The weather- something we were not aware of was that Crete is rather breezy! Also because this villa is set against the side of a mountain the clouds seemed to linger for longer and the breeze was...