Valia was an excellent host & responded to my emails immediately. She also provided us with maps & lots of useful information regarding restaurants & beaches and offered her friendly help many times. We arrived at the villa about midnight and were given a very warm welcome by the owners (who do not live on site) The Nisanakis family - Zaxarenia, Kostas & Antonia who made us feel like family straight away. They showed us around the villa with pride, quite rightly so as it is more beautiful than the photos depicted & we were made to feel at home immediately. Zaxarenia had also made us a local dish of meat, pasta & bechamel sauce which was delicious & greatly appreciated. The villa has everything you need & more. With beautiful views of the local countryside & mountains. It is situated 2mins walk into the mountain village of Melidoni which has a lovely church, friendly helpful local supermarket, but not at all touristy, which for us added to the charm. Seaside villages of Panormo & Bali are easily reached within 10-15 mins via car and Rethymnon is 30 mins away. The Melidoni cave can be seen from the master bedroom & is worth a `thought provoking` visit. The villa has a balcony from every room, to enjoy the views. The pool is cleaned everyday, but so early as never saw or heard anyone, but we're often left presents of fruit & cake. Zaxarenia & her assist cleaned the villa on Weds & Sats leaving fresh bath & pool towels & freshly changed beds. Basically if you want a relaxing, `away from it all` holiday in a villa which is hard to leave any day, and hosted by lovely genuine people, you have it here. We were lucky to be invited for dinner where Zaxarenia cooked us an AMAZING feast, a great night which we'll never forget. We feel we have a new family in Greece and we look forward to going back as soon as we can. Thank you again Zaxarenia, Kostas & Antonia missing you already - and of course Valia :-)