We stayed at Evelyn's family country home in mid August for almost 2 weeks. The home itself was very roomy, relaxing and immaculately presented. It really felt like home from home as there is everything you possibly need, e.g. 2 coffee machines, a multitude of crockery and cooking utensils, lots of different pans, lovely bedding, 2 sets of towels, pool/beach toys, everything you need and more (apple tree, fig tree, grape vine, etc) and also all the little things you have to hand at home : - coffee, tea, sugar, salt, oil, etc etc! Everything worked perfectly and the fact that there's a washing machine helped us bring only a minimum of luggage! The garden didn't look enormous from the photos and we were worried that our 9yr old rugby boy might get a little stir crazy but the house is surrounded by a very large terrace and there was a lovely collection of scooters, bikes, trikes to whizz around on circuits! There was also a huge amount of toys inc a table tennis set so he never got bored in between his sessions in the pool! There's loads to see in the local area (Knossos, wineries, multiple beaches, kids parks) and adventures to the south coast (Myrtos to the east and the Matala area to the west) are easily reachable in about 80-90 minutes. We found Crete very cheap to eat out and the food was always lovely. Restaurants away from the coast were always infinitely more authentic, and despite speaking no Greek whatsoever we always managed to get by. Lunch seems to be available from noon to about 6pm and dinner then starts and seems to go on well after midnight! We usually paid about 50 euros for 4 (at least 2 courses each with wine/sodas + coffee) There's a few Tavernas in the village that you can walk to and a well stacked shop (though no fresh meat only frozen) that's open till 10:30 at night (selling refrigerated drinks - wine, beer, etc! as well as fresh bread if you missed the bakery). The three restaurants in Skalani that Evelyn recommends are all good and the most we paid was 80 euros when all 4 of us had at least 3 courses and multiple drinks! A fair few places don't take credit cards so you need to have cash at hand. Beach beds are about 2 euros and there are a couple of local beaches that have free beds and umbrellas if you're buying drinks! Hiring a car can be a bit hit and miss so you'll need to book one asap to have any kind of choice outside group A and B. We hired relatively cheaply GroupD 500E for 2 drivers and CDW through CaRantee (then SURPRICE) the car had a few bumps but lacked so much in acceleration that we forgot our desire to see the west of Crete about 3hrs each way! So we'll have to come back! I would highly recommend staying with...