We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Villa Alma and felt very much at home in this lovely house full of character. All communication with Maria was excellent. To access the house, we were met at the Agia Pelagia stop just off the main road. This was much appreciated as it meant I did not have to hunt for the house in the winding streets of the town. The views from this house are stunning. We could have spent our entire week just reading on the two large balconies. However, as Agia Pelagia is very well located for access to Heraklion and the main road, we were easily able to easily drive to Knossos and even further to The palace of Faistos and other parts of the island.
The house was clean and tidy. Two sets of bed linen and two sets of towels per person were provided. It was handy to have the washing machine available for freshening up our beach towels. The kitchen was equipped fine for our purposes. We were provided with a large water bottle and some delicious fruit and other basics to start us off. There are two small supermarkets on the sea front which can supply all your groceries. We mainly ate breakfast in and the occasional salad for lunch but ate all of our main meals out at the restaurants in town. You could eat every night of the week at a different restaurant by only walking down the hill to the beachfront. We even had entertainment on some night as one of the hotels had some singing put on for their guests but we could enjoy it as well from the balcony when we returned from dinner. This was only until about 10.30 pm and then all was silent.
As others have mentioned, access to the beach was down a fairly steep hill via the access road, then about a three foot wide path for a small bit, then onto a road again. Only a two minute walk and you are there. The water at the beach is turquoise blue and clear. Very safe for small children and you can swim out a good distance from the beach if you want to swim or simply float on a raft or tube. The beach here is narrow and can get quite busy in August but we were mostly in the water and did all of our reading or sunbathing back at the villa as it was so pleasant to sit on the balconies and get the nice breeze. We were sorry to leave and very happy to have found this lovely, characterful villa to base ourselves in while on holiday in Crete.