If you are visiting the Chania area in Crete as two couples or a family of 5/6, then this house really is a super option. The house is one of three in small, private development. It therefore potentially also offers a great opportunity for large family groups who want a couple of villas right next to each other.
Firstly, the location is excellent. Only a few kilometers from Chania's old town, it is very accessible by car and bus. In addition, the villas are just a 5 minutes walk from a lovely family-friendly, safe beach with facilities/ beach bars, and 10 minutes walk from 2 more lovely safe beaches with facilities. There are good restaurant options nearby, or a short travel in the car. And there is a wide choice of supermarkets and smaller stores in the immediate area.
This private development consists of 3 brand new villas situated in a secure, gated area with nicely landscaped gardens around. It feels private. It feels very safe. The view from the front of the villa is mainly to trees, shrubs and blue sky. At night, the gardens and outside areas have very nice ambient lighting.
Each villa has it's own pool (it's not heated - which is no issue in the summer, but in October it feels pretty refreshing). The pool lights up at night. There is also private parking at the bottom of the garden.
The villa itself is state of the art and extremely well built using high quality materials. There are two bedrooms, both very comfortable, one upstairs, one downstairs. One little thing to note is that the upstairs room is slightly open plan to the main room of the house. You can't see into the room from downstairs, but you will hear. This is less of a consideration for families, but maybe worth noting if you are two couples. The other bedroom is not open plan, and therefore very private/ quiet.
You can also sleep two on a sofa bed in the main room of the house. All bedrooms (and living room) come with new TVs that allow you to log into your Netflix or Apple TV accounts.
The bathrooms are very modern wet rooms, and are equipped with fantastic showers. These were a real treat. The hosts provided plenty of quality, soft towels.
The kitchen is extremely well equipped, with all the utensils you are likely to need. There is also a large gas BBQ out front, poolside. Our stay at the villa was short, but it was not clear what the arrangements are in relation to recycling in Chania - this is something you should ask about.
The living room of the house is very spacious with a double height roof. It has a large L-shaped couch and a dinner table. All downstairs rooms are fitted with huge sliding glass doors, meaning that you can really open out the house to the pool area. All sliding glass doors also have sliding insect screens, meaning you can have the doors open for airflow with the protection of the screen from insects (more of an issue in the summer than in October).
At the back of the house there is a main road that goes into Chania. This means the back of the house is a little noisier, but the road is not immediately at the house - it's separated by a decent bit of garden. For this reason you are much more likely to sit at the front of the house, where the pool is. There is a slight sound of traffic inside the house, but it is so well constructed that it is minimal and doesn't affect sleep or enjoyment of the set-up. Traffic noise at the front of the house is also minimal and doesn't affect enjoyment.
The house is fitted with air-conditioning through-out. Although not necessary in October when we stayed there, I suspect that it is very useful in the summer. There are good black-out blinds and privacy curtains through-out, ensuing everyone sleeps well. Beds are a reasonably good size and comfortable.
Upon arrival our hosts had left a lovely selection of items for us, including Greek wine, cheese, grapes, water, ouzo, bread, honey and jam. This is a lovely touch and very welcome when you arrive before you've done a supermarket visit! Really helpfully, the kitchen is stocked with the key essentials like dishwasher tabs, coffee, coffee filters, soaps etc.
The hosts were excellent, very responsive on AirBNB to any questions and attentive to you during your stay - checking in to make sure all is okay. They were very flexible with us, allowing us to stay on a little later the day we were checking out as we had a late flight. However, such flexibility may not be possible during busy periods. The hosts also gave us lots of information on beaches, restaurants and things to see and do. We've stayed in a few AirBNB's, these guys were the definitely the best yet - very professional, not at all intrusive.
Clearly a lot of thought and effort has gone into ensuring that guests have a relaxing and enjoyable stay at the Ethereal Villas. Although this villa is probably priced at a little bit of a premium to other options, it is money well spent for those who want to ensure they have an enjoyable vacation in a little bit of luxury.
The only problem now is a long list of complaints from the children about their own house back in Ireland!
Well done to all behind Ethereal Villas, you did a great job of ensuring we had an amazing break.