We (two families with children) stayed in this beautiful house in the heat of August, and really appreciated the large cool rooms with elegant fans, the open internal courtyard, and the shade of the amazing plants on the huge terrace. If you want an easy Greek holiday lazing on the beach with English-speaking tavernas, poolside bars and shops on tap, this isn’t for you. If you are interested in something a bit closer to real Cretan architecture and life, it certainly is. The house is reached along a street beside the church, too narrow for cars. Many of the other houses are single storey with tin roofs, and the occupants spend their days in the street on plastic chairs chatting. They were very friendly, but not sure they were that impressed with our perpetual ‘kale meera’. The baker down the road seems to be always open, with wonderful warm bread and a few pasties. There is a very small minimarket, and a local fruit/veg truck which appears occasionally selling tomatoes and peaches, but otherwise it is a car journey or bus ride into Kissamos for the bigger shops. Imported food is expensive, though, so bread, nectarines, tomatoes, olives, cheese and honey were our main diet. The local beach at Nopigia is a hot 30 minute trudge along an empty road lined with dusty olives and drying onions, at least in August. There is a good taverna when you get there, but this isn’t exactly the height of tourist-ville either. The local town of Kissamos is quite busy but in a rather sweet way, with an amazing little museum of local Minoan pots and Roman mosaics. Chania of course is wonderful. Highlights of our holiday (apart from the house) were the snorkelling, particularly at Falasarna, which has an amazingly beautiful beach and clear water, as well as a ruined town from 600BC – no sign of much development since other than some huge polytunnels. A similar length drive and a very hot walk up a mountain took us to the equally ancient town of Polyrinnia where we scrumped too many figs. The gorges were stunning - sheer walls of rock, and relatively easy walking in the shade due to the abundant plants and trees – we went to the local Rocca gorge, and to the Sougia gorge on the South side of Crete. The long journey to Sougia over the mountains was memorably breath-taking, and indeed completely terrifying back home in the dark. My daughters however would say that the highlight was none of these amazing sights, but the 3 week old puppies of the extremely kind owner!