We spent a week in Matthew’s house, the one with the grey gloss kitchen. The spec and facilities was impressive and represented good value compared to others we looked at. I would concur with other reviews that this property is better in reality than in the listed photos.
I marked this property down by one star for location as it is quite far from anywhere - so come expecting to drive. I don’t mind this but others may.
The local restaurant - Osteria - that many prior reviewers have celebrated, we were not impressed with. Our group was half Greek, half English and we have all travelled - and eaten - extensively in Greece. Osteria was expensive for Greek prices, offered a limited menu that took fantastic Greek dishes and tried to make them justify the higher price. As an example, Soutsoukia without any sauce led for a dry, disappointing plate of food. Sadly in our opinion the food was not up to the price and we left disappointed and £170 euros lighter (no starters, no deserts) and never went back.
The local mini market is fab and anything they didn’t have seemed to appear later that day. Their fresh bread and Naxos milk is a must.
The location for Covid controls was superb - while Naxos town was top of the Covid chart in Greece, we knew we were safe away from all the people and the private beach was a real treat.
It is clear there are still bits around the site to finish but this did not detract from a brilliant property equipped with everything you might need including bats and toys for the beach, all the kitchen equipment you can imagine including mixers, blenders, Nespresso machine… you name it.
Manoli was a great host who lives locally on call to assist with any problems - not that there were any. He was able to point us towards the tavernas visited by locals and answer any questions. Thank you Manoli!
The starter box of food on arrival was impressively comprehensive and generous. It might be useful for guests to know in advance what is included so not to double up on their first shop. We stopped in Naxos to do a shop when off the ferry, which I’d recommend.
The trip to Koufonissi island with Mr Prassinos was great - he is a real character and so typically Greek! Highly recommend.
One important point I had not realised until I arrived - I may have missed it - was that each of the two properties are divided into three separate units. So we booked one whole house for 7 people but it consisted of the main house with two bedrooms and three toilets plus two other adjoining units, each only accessible separately from outside, that had their own kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and a bed in the living space. This might be an advantage for some as provides more privacy but a challenge for groups with few adults and many children.
Finally some of the previous reviews have stated the beach is all pebbles. This is no longer the case. There are many stones at the back and sides of the beach and there were many stones in entry to the water buy my kids cleared all these to the side making for a much more sandy entrance to the water.
The views from the house are amazing - no need for a TV and the wifi is also very good - essential for the kids or my life would have been miserable!
Thanks for letting us stay in your fantastic house Matthew.