If you’re thinking of stating at Villa Allure, please take the time to read this review in full…
First, let’s start with all the positives… We have to say the Villa Allure is a stunning property. It has magnificent panoramic views of the country side, it is vast in size and has everything you could wish for in a holiday villa! It was immaculately maintained and looked after. The villa contact and handyman, Antonis, is incredibly helpful and accommodating to your every need and couldn’t have been more friendly and helpful!
The location is near the town of Dafnes that has a few very VERY basic shops, but no restaurant or cafes worth visiting. Surrounding towns are further away but much nicer. Most are around 15-30 min drive away.
Now for some of the issues that you must be made aware of if you’re considering renting the property... The beds were all INCREDIBLY uncomfortable. The mattresses were so firm that many of us developed bruises after a few nights and resorted to putting layers of blankets under the sheets to try to soften them even a little. A few beds even had bases that were too small for the mattresses they sat on and dipped considerably on one side making them unusable for the person sleeping on that particular side.
We also had a MASSIVE issue with bees at the property. On the day we arrived there were hundreds if not THOUSANDS of bees all around the outdoor space and swimming pool. There was no way whatsoever that the villa owners / management team were unaware of this prior to our arrival, despite their protestations. Having said that after complaining about the issue they swiftly arranged for a professional to come to the property to deal with the issue. Over the course of the next 4 or 5 days the issue got much much better but the bees NEVER completely went and there were ALWAYS an issue particularly around the pool and especially around the pool stairs. We had a 3 year old with us at the villa and he was unable to spend almost anytime in the pool with us because bees were a CONSTANT intrusion and worry. The issue was not resolved at the end our our 14 night stay at the property, despite raising it as an issue at the time of our arrival. If you have young children in particular you should take this into serious consideration. It plagued our time there. The Villa owner took the time to call me personally to assure us that they were doing everything they could, which was very nice, but nevertheless did not solve the issue.
We were also unlucky enough to have a covid outbreak in the group a few days into our stay. We mentioned it to Vasilis in our WhatsApp group so that the cleaner would not enter the property and got a mixed reply of supportive and vaguely threatening responses that started informing us how and where particular group members should quarantine themselves and for how long, how we should have reported the issue sooner (even though we reported on the day we tested positive). We were also informed that “all health protocols were now in effect”.
The main villa contact, Vasilis often seemed combative in our messages and generally very defensive.
Having said that and to be fair the villa owners and management were also supportive and offered to do shopping etc if we needed it.
Generally we’d say this is a lovely villa, stunning locations, but with a few alarm bells to be aware of and take into consideration.