We were a family of 3 and we found our stay at Georgio's villa in August to be really lovely. The villa was spacious, airy, well equipped and comfortable. The outside space by the pool is amazing and the pool is fabulous - we were in it every single day of our stay. Everything is clean and works well. Extra towels provided for the pool was an added bonus! You hear the insects a lot while out by the pool, but they are all over Crete and you quickly get used to them; most importantly - the house is double glazed, so at night you cannot hear anything from outside. With the windows shut, it is very peaceful. Television and dvd player work fine. Most satellite channels are German but we rarely used it anyway. Internet was more important and good enough for our son to spend the evening wind down on the sofa Youtube streaming with no problems. Aircon in the bedrooms is excellent. The beds and pillows were a little firmer than we are used to but we slept well each night.
The local area of Stavromenos is pleasant enough - two little supermarkets 300 meters down the road have everything you are likely to need - and the local beach is narrow but very long and sandy. You can always find a quiet spot. The real gem of this location is how easy it is to get to the excellent beaches on the south coast (no more than an hour to most of the best ones) and access to the lakes for paddle boating and the gorge for walking are about 25 minutes away and well worth doing. Rethmyno, about 15 minutes down the road, is a beautiful town to walk around and explore with intriguing shops and fabulous tavernas.
Georgio was a brilliant host: good communication and clear directions of how to pick up our hire car and drive to the meeting place just outside Stavromenos. He met us at about 1:30am after our flight was delayed and then came back round in the morning to make sure we had settled in okay and talked us through the local area. His son was also brilliant in offering us advice on which beaches to go to when we traveled to the South coast. We also organised our hire car through Gergio. It was easy, well priced and did the job perfectly with aircon. To give a further example of how good Georgio was: We had a problem with the electricity tripping at the villa and within 30 minutes Georgio had come round, organised an electrician and the problem was solved.
Overall, we had a fabulous stay and would definitely go back if we visit this area of Crete again. Thanks for everything Georgio.