What a fantastic holiday! We spent a relaxed and fabulous two weeks at Stavros Apartments. We had a large apartment (sleeping 5) although there were only 3 of us and it worked really well. The layout is a bit strange, with a double and a single bed in the living area and twin beds in another room, but having two showers was great. We found that we could cope without the air con, though our son opted to have it in his room. The apartment was clean and functional, although I think that cooking would have been a struggle as there was only a hotplate and a microwave. That was definitely not a problem for us though as we ate breakfast in the apartment - yoghurt, cereal, juice - and lunch and dinner in the taverna and it was delicious. There is an extensive menu with both Cretan and 'ordinary' dishes and there were usually two daily specials as well. I think we managed to try all the local dishes, particularly enjoying the salads. I can recommend Stavros' Salad as a refreshing meal, though one is a perfect size for two people! We did wander down the beach to check out another establishment to see if we wanted to 'eat out', but the menu looked very similar and there was a large TV in the bar with the ubiquitous football matches on... The bar at Stavros' Apts appeared very well stocked, but we were very unadventurous, drinking mainly beer and wine, though cocktails were available too. It's a bonus that the water in Crete is safe to drink, so you don't need to buy bottled water all the time. We hired a car from the airport and found Gerani without too much trouble once we had negotiated the outskirts of Chania. We took a trip to Phaestos (an early start is recommended - it took us two and a half hours in our little Nissan Pixo, but it was really hot by 10.30, when we left and the coaches arrived, poor things!) went into Chania itself (very crowded obviously) but had a delicious lunch in the Market there and can recommend the Archaeological Museum, and visited the Commonwealth War Cemetery at Souda and the German one at Maleme, both very moving. There is a very good taverna at Ano Vouves, by the 4000 year old olive tree, where they sell local olive oil - delicious poured onto crusty bread! We very much enjoyed having the choice of beach or pool and mainly chose the beach, apart from a couple of days when the sea was quite rough and the red flags were out. We could not have been made more welcome by the family - a huge thank you to Charoula, Stavros, Despina and Michales, not forgetting George, the barman, who soon learnt what our favourite tipples were! Although there seemed to be quite a few people around during the day, the pool was never crowded and nor was the...