We loved our stay in Villa Nikos and Manolis was a fantastic host!
He was waiting for us super friendly, even though we arrived delayed and very late in the night. There was a home cooked, still hot meal for us in the oven and he quickly showed us the Villa, that was spotlessly clean and absolutely beautifull. It had everything we needed and more, also for our little ones (8 months and 5 years old). AC, TV, electric blinds, fly screens in every room. More than enough towels, bathrobes, pooltowels and other supplies.
I especially appreciated the fact, that matresses, pillows, blankets, towels, sofas and so on were brand new - so is the house - and from a very good quality. (I really do not like it at all, if I explore a very used, yellowish matress under the sheets, small hairs on the pillow, or something like that.)
In the next days Manolis and his family were super discreet: his son came every morning around 8 a.m. and cleaned the pool, without looking at anything else but his pool-supplies and left right after the job was done. Manolis passed by every few days and brought us some home made cheese from his own goats, grapes or other delicacies, but also always very discreet and not disturbing our privacy at any time.
We relaxed very well in Zoniana, since the house is the last one in the village, our only neighbours were goats, sheep and mountains. Is was very quiet and peacefull.
Every room has its own AC, but we really didn‘t have to use it, because the stone walls keep the house cool and in general it is some degrees cooler than e.g. in Heraklion, since Zoniana is quite high on the mountains.
The village is not touristic at all, but everybody was friedly, hostile and helpfull. In fact, my husband even became friends with the shepherd next door and on our last evening, we were invited to a very traditional barbecue by Manolis and Babis the shepherd. We ate the freshest lamb of our lifes, drank selfmade wine and enjoyed greek company.
Rental car is indispensable, there is no possibility to go somewhere by foot/bus/cab. A not-cretan driver will take around 45 minutes to the famous beaches in Bali and around one hour to Rethymnon or Heraklion. The street up to Zoniana is curvy but asphalted and easy to drive.
We highly recommend Farragi Villas and Manolis to everybody that wants to spend a relaxing time in a wonderfull house in Crete! We will return soon!