GREEK (CRETE) VILLA HOLIDAY - OUR PRIVATE LUXURY VILLA WITH POOL IN ALMIRIDA, CRETE

Our Greek Villa - Welcome & Introduction

We fell in love with Crete several years ago on holiday and decided to have our own Greek villa (Villa Kalithea) built on this wonderful island - the largest of the Greek islands - as our second home. It was completed to a very high standard and is now in use by our family and friends - please note that Greek legislation now requires that we obtain a Greek Tourist Board (EOT) Stage 2 license, which we are progressing, and register for VAT as a business before we can rent the villa out to tourists. Please contact us for further information and a progress update. In the meantime, we hope this website will provide a valuable insight into the wonderful island of Crete, why we love our villa and the surrounding area, and encourage you to visit.

Location

Villa Kalithea is located in a fantastic position close by the sea, with breathtaking panoramic views of the awe-inspiring White Mountains (Lefka Ori), the beautiful unspoiled resort of Almirida with its lovely sandy beaches, Souda Bay and the Akrotiri peninsular. The villa has large terraces and balconies to take full advantage of these panoramic views. It is situated amongst olive trees just a few minutes' easy walk into the delightful village of Plaka and, conveniently, only about 40 minutes' drive from Chania International Airport.

Facilities

Our Greek villa is luxuriously appointed and sleeps up to 6 people. The property has illuminated stone boundary walls with large wrought-iron entrance gates, a hard standing for cars, its own large secluded swimming pool, and spacious gardens with plenty of room for sitting out and relaxing. There are three double bedrooms (two with double beds, one with two singles), two bathrooms, lounge with TV/DVD with adjoining large terrace providing fantastic views over Souda Bay, and an Italian-style luxury fully-fitted kitchen with dish-washer. In terms of location and special finishing touches, Villa Kalithea is ideal.

Places to visit

Although we often just want to laze around the pool, the villa also provides a superb base for walking holidays and exploring the fantastic scenery in West Crete, including lovely little coves, mountain gorges, and pretty inland villages. Hire cars are readily available and reasonably priced. This part of Crete has so much to offer:

• Plaka

  Our local village - just a few minutes walk away to the lovely village square and small friendly coffee-bars, little shops and restaurants (serving excellent food at reasonable prices).

• Almirida

  Still has a typical Greek small seaside village atmosphere, with beautiful sandy beaches and small water-front tavernas unspoilt by mass tourism (although with a good holiday atmosphere). The resort is just a few minutes drive from the villa or about 15-20 minutes walk. Taxis are readily available if you don't want to drive or walk back up the hill.

• Chania

  The beautiful Venetian town of Chania with its narrow winding streets leading to the harbour is only about 35 minutes' drive away and is a 'must-see'; it has a wonderful atmosphere with a wide range of shops and restaurants to explore. Visit the water-side cafes for a relaxing breakfast or snack throughout the day.

• The White Mountains

  Wonderfully scenic and ideal for a day out - either to the south coast of Crete or up amongst the peaks near Omalos. There are delightful and friendly little inland restaurants up in the mountains which are well worth a visit.

• Sightseeing

  Lovely villages, scenic boat trips, wonderful beaches, archeological sites, restaurants, wildlife, excellent walking, abundant flowers, orange groves, green valleys, fishing, sunbathing, windsurfing, paragliding - tremendous variety all within easy reach of Villa Kalithea. Crete's clean air and clear skies at night often provide spectacular sunsets and views of the stars.

Getting to Crete

There are two main options:

• via scheduled flights (eg London to Athens and then from Athens to Chania (CHQ) which is the nearest airport to our villa). Greek airline Aegean also flies from the UK (London) to Crete via Athens.
• via direct charter flights to Crete eg with FlyThomasCook or Easyjet during the main holiday season from the UK to Heraklion (HER) (about 1.5 hrs drive to the villa) or Chania (about 40 minutes away), which usually works out cheaper and avoids changing at Athens. The main arrival day from the UK to Chania for charter flights is Tuesday; flight time is ca. 3.5 - 4 hours.

For more information about travel to Crete and to learn about car hire, travel insurance etc. go to our links page

For more details about Our Greek Villa and to see more photos of the area and places to visit, please use the navigation buttons on this page - click on the images for larger pictures and more detailed descriptions.

Here's a video that we took of the Sardine Festival in Chania in November 2011 that provides a flavour of the wonderful Crete atmosphere:

and a short video of our visit to the lovely Botanical Park of Crete near Chania in April 2012 that makes for a lovely day out:

and finally a video (photo collage) created using Animoto's video creation service that depicts 'why we love Crete !':

If you enjoy photography and video, you may enjoy my website: The Digital Photo Wizard

Greek Tourist Board (EOT) Protocol Number 11383 13/04/05.

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