My family and I decided to book this house—even though we would be the first guests—and we are so glad we did!! Since we will be their first review, I will try to give you lots of details.
You can feel like a true local and kick your shoes off or you can dress up and relax by the sea in style because this house offers the best of both worlds.
Just outside the front door on your right is a homey seaside taverna. Listen to the owner. He knows what’s fresh and will serve you a great meal. We mostly self catered, but I did go back for his crispy fried anchovies twice. And the fried baby shrimp are not to be missed. One day, several hours after we had eaten there, I returned and asked if they had any wine I could buy to drink on the beach. They gave me a half carafe to take and refused to let me pay them for it!! So kind and so fun. They do offer loungers and umbrellas with wait service for €6 per day (2 loungers under one umbrella), but we never used them as we had plenty of beach space just outside our door, but I’ll get to that later!
Just outside your door on the left is a more upscale hotel and restaurant with more plush loungers and umbrellas with wait service for €10 per day. (Same set up with two loungers under one umbrella.) We didn’t use them or dine there, but it looked very nice.
Keep walking left and you’ll come across many more nice restaurants and many more loungers.Directly in front of the house is a small parking area where locals park. We arrived on a Saturday afternoon, and Maria was thoughtful to save a spot for us to park in right in front of the home. Saturday was quite busy, but Sunday through when we left on Thursday were much quieter.
When you walk out the front door, it really is only 10 meters to the wonderful sandy beach!! It stretches far in either direction. Amazing for morning walks!!
I was worried about air traffic noise, as the house isn’t too far from the Heraklion airport, but it was actually very fun to watch the planes fly in from time to time! Inside the house at night, we never heard a sound. The windows are excellent and there are automatic wooden shades you can lower over the windows, too. They made for a quiet and dark sleep! Perfect!
The whole house was spotless, spacious, and comfortable. Plenty of towels and beach towels. Great quality soaps and shampoos. Oil, vinegar, coffee all stocked for us. There was both a drip coffee maker as well as a Krups machine that ground up fresh beans (which Maria also left for us!) and made espressos. There’s a really cute looking coffee shop just as you turn in to where the house is. We never tried it, but it would be an easy place to buy coffee if you would prefer!
The kitchen had a toaster and panini maker. And! We were treated to a beautiful basket of delicious fruit and a bottle of wine upon arrival. Maria left bottles of water for us, too.
It is obvious that this family really cares about their guests. They were super fast with communication throughout booking, arrival, and our stay.
Everything you need is very close. We walked to a market within about 5 minutes. We drove to a larger market one night within about 6 minutes. The rest of the time, we just walked the beach and enjoyed the beautiful sea.
We would love to return someday. There’s not a whole lot better than having a vacation with your family right on the beach!!