Traditional House With Pool And Great View!

This villa is part of a small cluster of other holiday villas (about 20 or so) all different but set in a community in the foothills of Psiloritis just outside the delightful village of Skouloufia. Zacharias the owner / host was welcoming and hospitable providing groceries on arrival and pies cooked by his mother during the stay. He was extremely approachable and helpful. The villa was clean and spacious with every facility. Pool area nice and private with a lovely garden and terrace smelling pungently of bourganvillea and jasmine. Pool a little cold but refreshing! Excellent value and perfect for us as two adults. It would easily accommodate two couples but the perfect mix would probably be a small family. Splendid views of coastline. The only real downsides? The need for a car, so if you don't like driving be prepared to self cater. If you are not unhappy to drive, there are beautiful country roads leading up to the hillside villages and Arcadia monastery and Rethymon and Panorama (both delightful) in easy reach. The wifi signal is weak, probably sharing bandwidth in the community so make sure your mobile data package is good.The owners have built a more modern and larger house immediately in front which was unoccupied at the time, save for one night when a noisy family were using it (friends of the owner?) and kids splahsing about in the pool. So if you like perfect solitude this could be an issue. However generally a very quiet area. It would work well for two families renting both villas and it would be worth raising this with Zacharias at the time of the initial enquiry. He was a brilliant at responding to all enquiries and his mum's feta and spinach pies were the best we tasted on the island! We hope to return as we loved Villa Gaia.

The hosts are very organised and welcoming, providing a fridge ful of goodies on arrival. The instructions to find the villa are accurate although not all road signs are easy to spot. I would suggest finding it in google maps before you leave.

The house is renovated to a high standard and has everything you will need making the place a real home from home. The walls are really thick so it stays cool throughout the day and the aircon throughout is suitably sized to have it like a fridge if desired. The garden and pool area are very private and not overlooked with a front garden and veranda area planted with mature flowering plants.

Although skoulafia is a really quite village with few amenities it is only a 5 min drive to stavromenos where there are supermarkets, tavernas even a traditional flourist The promenade and beaches of rethymon are about another 10 mins. This area has a huge selection of dining and shopping opportunities to rival any tourist area. We didn't stay out too late as we have kids, but it looked like it would be a lively place until the early hours.

Overall an excellent Chose for a family holiday in Crete.

This is an absolutely lovely villa in a quiet location, just inland from hotels along the coast. It is well laid out and extremely well equipped. Zacharias is a great host who met us at the villa when we arrived in the early hours. The starter food package was much appreciated as were the gifts on our departure. We managed to lock ourselves out at one point and Zacharias quickly came to rescue us with a gift of some amazing cakes to say sorry! He was so gracious to us. There is plenty to do in the immediate area as well as further a field or you can just chill by the pool! Zacharias' warmth together with that of his brother and mum, really made the stay for us. I would highly recommend this as a place to stay in Crete.

Dear Zacharias,

Sunday July 8th we (a family of 5) arrived at your beautiful house in Skouloufia. You were already waiting for us to give us a warm welcome. You gave us a house tour and left us with many (homemade) treats such as cookies, olive oil, marmalade and many more. The house was well-equipped and fully air conditioned, which we really appreciated. Also the fly screens were very helpful to keep out unwanted creatures. There was a beautiful garden with a refreshing swimming pool and lots of lovely flowers which we could smell very well in the evening. We enjoyed having breakfast under the pergola with the beautiful pink Bougainvillea. Crete is a wonderful Island and we explored the middle part of het island including Chania and Heraklion. We have visited the south coast and its beautiful beaches.

We really appreciated that sunscreens and towels for the beach were present in the house. And that there was some information about the things we could visit during our stay.

During our stay you surprised us with treats such as sweet pastries, delicious ice cream and your mom made us some wonderful traditional cheese and green pies. We really loved them!

In short: we had an amazing time. It was very relaxing and we really hope to come back someday. Thank you for having us and thank you for making our stay so pleasant.

The house was a fabulous place to rest. It was so comfortable and quiet with all you could need. Zacharius couldn't, have done more from the basket of goodies and olive oil on arrival, to the midweek cakes and the final parting gifts of oregano, olive oil and homemade quince jam. Our boys loved the pool and the grassy area to play various ball games! Stavromenos had all you needed, a supermarket, a butchers, a fabulous bakers and a great taverna or 2! We explored the south of the island from here but a couple of the highlights were right on our doorstep, the Arkadi Monastery and the family run olive oil factory at Paraschakis. We miss the Cretan hospitality already! Thank you.