Traditional Homes of Crete Villas

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Please read if you want to save your vacation experience!! I have always read travel reviews & never felt compelled to write a review until now. Hopefully this will help anyone even considering a stay at the Traditional Homes of Crete. Firstly, you will spend an hour looking for the place. The directions are horrible considering the complexity of the area & the phone number is incorrectly listed on their booking. Instead of an apology on the matter, we were greeted (after disturbing other nearby guests for a correct phone number), with the phrase of how "inconvenient" it was for them to meet us with keys without a proper phone call! I should have left after hearing that. The home we rented was absolutely filthy. This might be considered what they like to guise under the title "Traditional Homes." There were insects between the bed sheets, dust and dirt from the front door to the bathroom & a distinct smell of mold throughout the home. The dishes in the kitchen were stained and dirty. We NEVER had towels replaced. 4 days & no one bothered to replace the towels that appeared to be questionable in the first place. I advise you to bring your own bath towels. You will never have them replaced - nor your bed sheets for that matter. Someone manages to sneak in and make the beds, but the point seems useless since I feared more bugs would enter the bed if left unexposed. The sheets did not appear changed even from the last renter. Bringing a very strong mosquito repellent is recommended. The place is infested. I wish I could exaggerate on the matter, but it is a serious health concern. No one left under 20 bites each. You will even see the remains of them smashed against the tiles, walls, mirrors & furniture of the previous renters who battled the same problem & no one bothered to clean. I wanted to leave within 15 minutes of arrival. If a health agency inspected this property, it would be shut down! The nights were sleepless since the 5 stray cats outside the homes meow and fight continuously. We paid twice more than a fancy resort to have the rustic feel of Crete. Save your money and book a high rated hotel. Crete was amazing & am saddened that this rental may have ruined other traveler's opinions of Greece. The lack of comments on Trip Advisor should have warned me, but I thought maybe this was a hidden treasure of Crete. I was so wrong. It may have been the worst experience of rentals of all my travels & I have traveled the majority of the world.

We stayed in the smaller of the two Almond Tree Houses. We had booked the larger but the owner had given it to someone else. Refund, but no apology from Thomson. Vrouhas is home to many geriatric greeks who plod around the streets and sit in the bars (locals only, unless you're brave). There are few young people. It's a small mountain village with no amenities - a dormitory, really, and very down at heel. The nearest beach is a 5 min drive away and 600m down the mountain. You can walk to the sea - a rocky cove, no swimming - it takes about 60mins through olive groves. Past the dogs chained in fields. (Why? There's nothing to steal.) The apartment we stayed in is awful. Concrete steps everywhere and no kitchen to speak of and no view. The larger house (that we booked) is much better. You need to shut the windows at night - or be woken at 0400 by cocks crowing and dogs barking. Then you gently steam all night. Apart from that, it's really quiet. Sitting by the very nice pool is a pleasure - as is cooking on the BBQ. So stay here if you want: quiet (after 0800); greek poverty up close; nice pool. Don't stay here if you want: charm; a beach; no driving; shops close by; a local bar.

We stayed in the villa called Erato for our honeymoon in 2005. It was beautiful - the views are fantastic and you really are part of a traditional Greek village there.
The villas are about a 10 minute walk from the centre of Elounda (it is up on a hill so not recommended for those with walking difficulties). Don't let this put you off though, you walk past fields of olive trees on the way into town, and you see the ladies of the village milking their goats.
There are loads of places to visit - we hired a car for a few days and went Far East to the Vai Beach which is famous for its days in the Bounty ads - definitely worth a visit. It is full of palm trees and white sand. Knossos is another great day out - some Cretan ruins just south of Heraklion. Plaka is lovely too - the beaches have gorgeous pebbles which look lovely in the evening light.
Be sure to visit Spinalonga - it is full of history and very interesting.
There are plenty of places to eat in Elounda, some offering Greek Nights which means you can try all of the local food so that when you go to the restaurants/tavernas you know what you like. Our favourite restaurant was the Ferryman Taverna run by Akis - you will be sure to be treated as one of the family and the food was the best we had in Crete.
If you don't fancy walking into town to eat you can cook on the barbecue at the villa (Erato has a barbecue - not sure about the other villas) or you can wander into the village by turning right up the hill rather than walking left into town.
We went on a 24 hour trip to Santorini during our stay - it was wonderful. We watched the famous sunsets from Oia and visited the lovely local shops down the cobbled streets.
I would definitely recommend Elounda as a place to stay in Crete and also the Traditional Homes as accommodation.