Villa Kanalia is absolutely beautiful! The house is as it appears in the pictures although the bedrooms are even nicer than we expected and one of the rooms in the main house that says it has two beds had them pushed together to make a nice queen sized bed. Everyone loved their rooms and the separate guest houses were not far and offered some extra privacy. We choose the room under the pool deck at the front of the property. There is set of stairs that leads to the room and there is a nice little private patio before getting to the room. The room has a lot of character and it's very large. The view is amazing and there is small kitchenette which was nice to have our own water and drinks the the small fridge there. We loved this room!!! There is also a fridge in one of the rooms in the guest house at the top of the hill. The bathrooms are all very similar and the showers are easy to use. I've seen some reviews that complained about them but nobody had any issues with the showers.
The kitchen is great and has everything needed to cook a huge meal. We hired a private chef the first night and it was so worth it. He said the facilities were perfect for what he needed to feed our group of 10 men. It wasn't an easy task I'm sure to prepare the feast we had that night.
The outdoor space is incredible and the eating area that is enclosed with windows because where our group spent most of our time. The north winds of July and August are very strong so this provided us protection from the wind without losing the incredible views.
Make sure to have a car/scooter or ATV. We all had ATVs and you'd need at least a 150cc to get up the hills. The hills all over the island are quite steep and the ones leading to the villa are very steep so you'll need some power to get up the hills. The turn off the main road is hard to find. There is a white sign that says Villa Malia that indicates the left turn then go up the hill and take a right towards the green gates.
The housekeeper Raimi is a gem! She is onsite and has a room at the top of the hill but she very much respected our privacy. She made breakfast for us (which was often around noon since we slept in a lot) and dinner one night when we were all home. She helped us order pizza one night and she helped with transfers back to the airport the day we all left. My husband and I were headed on to Santorini and she got a friend to drive us for much less than a taxi would cost to the ferry and Raimi even came with us to show us where to stand and she insisted in helping with the luggage. She does everything she can to be helpful but there were also many times where we just wanted to spend time as a group together and she left us to ourselves and made sure to give us plenty of privacy. Raimi was such a big part of our experience!!
We all loved the Villa and highly recommend it. The views are unbeatable and the house is perfect for a big group. Even when all 10 of us were there the place never seemed full or crowded. Wish we could go back tomorrow!