Location:
Almyrida is the perfect place for a relaxed family holiday. Small enough to be safe and friendly, but big enough to have everything you need - supermarket, bakery, a choice of fabulous restaurants, clothes/beach gear stores and car hire right in the village if you need it. The bay is safe and shallow with clear water and lots of fish to snorkel with. Towards the eastern end of the bay, near "Tsunami" cafe there is a little concrete jetty and just on the other side is a lovely natural pool which is connected to the sea but screened off by big boulders. It stays calm even if the main bay is a bit choppy on a windy day, is sandy underfoot and is only knee deep. Perfect for little swimmers.
Almyrida is slightly off the beaten track which meant it never felt crowded but also not hard to find. Recommend visiting Gavalochori for the museum, and the taverna in the little square nearby, Chania old town, Chania museum, and Aptera. Knossos and Heraklion worth the drive too.
The villa is three minutes from the shops and maximum five from the beach, although if you want to walk along to the western edge of the bay, add another two or three minutes. So easy - you can walk down in your swimming things, enjoy the beach and then just walk home.
The villa is also just far enough away from the village centre that it feels peaceful.
If you want to eat out at a particular place and have one of the lovely waterside tables, I recommend choosing your restaurant the day before or earlier in the day, and booking a table. Although it is always possible to just walk in to most places but you won't have the lovely view of the bay.
The Villa:
Stylish, comfortable and feels very private. Nicely furnished although the beds upstairs could have been more comfortable - the one in the room to the front was very soft and the one at the back very hard. Well equipped kitchen and endless places to sit whether you want shade or sun, breeze or not.
Because of the high walls and hedges it feels very private.
Air conditioning in the bedrooms is modern, quiet and very efficient and with the shutters and double glazing the rooms are dark and peaceful for a good night's sleep.
The pool is large enough for children to enjoy, learning to swim, snorkel and jump in, and for adults to swim a few strokes up and down although if you want to do serious swimming it's maybe not for you (we estimated 5m across).
Others have mentioned not being able to flush toilet paper as a negative but really it's way less gross than changing a nappy or picking up dog poop in a bag!! We just emptied them every few days, popped them in with the kitchen rubbish and took it all down to the communal bins (in the green enclosure under the bridge on the way into town).
There are sometimes power cuts but these were very brief, usually only a few seconds.
Wifi is good downstairs but not upstairs, and does drop out every so often but not to the point it was annoying.
The floor tiles on the front terrace and inside the house can get very slippy when wet from rain or people coming in from the pool so take care!
Someone else had mentioned running out of hot water but there is a way to supplement the solar hot water system which Dimitris showed us as we had a couple of cloudy days.
Dimitris was easily contacted when we had a minor issue with the flush on a toilet and fixed it straight away. He also arranged car hire for us at the airport which meant we were met by someone in arrivals and didn't have to queue up with everyone else and the price was quite competitive.
Overall would recommend both the location and the villa for families or adult only groups.