We are a family of four with two teenage daughters and we spent two weeks Villa Marina in early July. We feel we made an excellent choice and fully recommend the villa for people that like to spend their vacation in beautiful, peaceful surroundings but not too far from services.
Pérama is a large village about 10 mins drive from the sea. You will find basic grocery shopping opportunities there - we mainly used Supermarket Μαθιουδακης that is about 15 mins by foot or a couple of mins by car. The village also has a few restaurants, the closest one being a gyros restaurant with mainly grilled meat and french fries on the menu, 5 minutes walk from the villa. Restaurant Θράκα (Thraka) on the other side of the village provides more variety, and there are a couple of other restaurants too. Most of them have delivery service.
We visited the touristy seaside town of Rethymno a few times, it is roughly 25 mins by car and provides a good selection of restaurants, activities and shopping opportunities. A 10 minutes drive away from the villa is Panormo, a beautiful touristy seaside village with a few small beaches. The town is very pretty, has some nice restaurants too. Another nearby village is Bali, also worth a visit as well as Margarites village.
Villa Marina is a high quality in the middle of olive groves surrounding Pérama. The area are truly beautiful: mountains, rolling hills with endless olive groves and the Mediterranean Sea in the distance. Views to all directions are spectacular, both from the grounds and from inside the house & balconies. There are a lot of different kinds of fruit trees, grapevines, flowers, herb bushes and other plants in the villa grounds, all carefully taken care of. No neighbours or busy roads nearby, meaning full privacy. The only noise were the cicadas that kept giving their concertos. Noisy individuals can be easily shooed away though. Not far from paradise, really.
The main outdoors level has a beautiful stone patio and a pergola covered by fully grown grapevines providing nice shade. There is a large table with chairs in the pergola, making it an excellent location for outdoor meals. There is also a stone barbecue and oven for outdoor cooking. A small group of very friendly cats live in the surrounding olive grove and they like to spend time at the patio area. They are totally harmless and won't enter the house. For us, they were the cherry on the cake!
The pool is located on the lower level and the annex door is on that level, too. Access to the lower level is via wide concrete ramp. Toddlers and people with disability of walking may need some support to get there safely. However, there is a railing and the ramp is made of coarse concrete, making it non-slip and we had no problem with it. The lower level itself is covered by stone and artificial turf.
There are two sun umbrellas and four sturdy, adjustable sunchairs by the pool. A recent addition are four beanbag type sunchairs that are super comfy. Also, there is a small seating area and an additional dining area with a barbecue. We didn't use the children's equipment, but families with small children will appreciate them for sure. At night it was interesting to watch geckos and other small lizards come from their hiding to hunt insects at the lights on the stone wall surrounding the grounds.
The house is very clean, in very good condition and nicely decorated and furnished. In the ground floor there is a kitchen, dining area, living room and a small wc/shower room. The kitchen is modern and very well equipped. All kettles, pans and tableware were in perfect condition.
In the upper floor there are three bedrooms and a wc/shower room. The main bedroom is of good size and has ample storage space. The other two bedrooms are on the smaller side with limited storage. Bed linen and matresses are of high quality. For us, the mattresses were too firm, but as an earlier guest wrote, people have different preferences.
Overall, I warmly recommend Villa Marina. It is a beautiful house, in excellent condition and built with high quality materials. A big plus is air conditioning that covers the entire house, each bedroom having individual units. Living room and bedrooms also have smart tv:s and there is good wi-fi coverage inside the house and outdoors.
Marina deserves a special thank you for being such a nice person, determined to do all she can to ensure a successful vacation. She was always easy to reach but gave us complete privacy. Thank you again!