Our stay at Vassilis and Marina's house was an absolute pleasure. We were lucky to stay for a whole month and found the house to have everything we needed and more. It was recently renovated and we were the first to stay in the house. It was very clean and well decorated.
All details were accounted for by our wonderful hosts. The kitchen was very well equipped with a new fridge, glass stove top, oven, and dishwasher. There were sharp chefs knives and a cutting board, food processor, several brand new pots and pans, including a large frying pan. Utensils, dishes, even some very helpful kitchen tools. On the first floor was a new washing machine that worked very well.
Even small details like plenty of garbage bags, extra toilet paper, paper towels, dishwashing detergent, laundry soap, and shampoo were all taken care of. When we arrived, the kitchen was stocked with olive oil, vinegar, lemons, bottled water, some salt, pepper, and spices, beer and some food in the fridge for us and other assorted Cretan goodies.
The house itself is beautiful. The first floor stays very cool during the day, even in the middle of the summer sun. We never had to turn on the air conditioner in the first floor. There were air conditioners on all floors of the house, so if you did want to cool down the upper floors, that was available and worked well. We loved the private rooftop deck with table, chairs and umbrella. We spent many days just hanging out up there, enjoying the sunshine.
The location is excellent, just a couple blocks from the sea and right in the middle of Old Town with many restaurants choices. Every Thursday and Saturday there are fresh fruit/veg markets with outstanding produce within close walking distance. We were able to cook many wonderful dishes.
The internet is the house was very good. Each floor had it's own access point so there was never a place in the house the did not get signal, even on the beautiful rooftop deck. We work online, so good internet was vital. We consistently got 11mbps download and 1mbps upload. This was always good enough for video calls, which we successfully made multiple times a day.
Best of all, the hosts were amazing! Vassilis and Marina were so kind. Vassilis even picked us up at the airport in Heraklion very late at night. They would bring us gifts throughout our stay, which we loved! Cretan pastas, olive oil, jams and honey were a lovely treat. Once per week they would come and clean the whole house, change the sheets and towels. They always answered our messages right away and were easy to communicate with.
We are long term travelers and have been staying mostly in Airbnbs for four years. I can say without a doubt that this is the very best we have ever experienced. I hope to come back and stay in this house again. Thank you so much!