Blue Oyster Villas

Had a lovely time in Crete and at the Blue Oyster Villa. Staff were lovely and made us feel very welcome. The table tennis was a great surprise as it was months since I booked it!

The balconies in the next hotel were very close but I felt I was over looking them rather than the other way round. Also the lane up to the villas was very narrow and luckily we didn’t hire a bigger car. We did scrape a wing mirror. We then pulled mirrors in from then on.

Location was fantastic - so close to the beach, it made for a great family holiday. Staff were all really friendly and it was great to have beds made and cleaning every few days.

The property had a few niggles that let it down… a broken showerhead fixing, no chopping board, no ping pong balls for the ping pong table, broken outdoor lighting. The bottom bathroom began to flood at the end of our stay.,Whilst these things weren’t a deal breaker it was a little annoying.

- The villas are in the front line to a very nice sandy beach - Everything was super clean and the cleaning service worked very well - Very friendly staff - Private swimming pool with a nice terrace - Large living/dinning room - Coffee machine on Nespresso capsules - Basement with a gym (one multi-purpose weighting machine) and a ping-pong table - 3 sleeping rooms with comfortable double-beds (1 sleeping room is in the basement)

- The kitchen could have been equipped slightly better, we missed a pan or nicer bowls for example - What we didn't realize upon booking was the fact that one of the sleeping rooms is located in the basement. None of our three kids wanted to sleep there, since it's a bit dark during the day. They preferred to share the sleeping room in the upper floor instead.

The villa is lovely, well appointed and in a great location, moments from a great sandy beach - the 2 free sunbeds and umbrella are a great bonus. There are several good tavernas close by, we were recommended Yiannis, Vergina and Finikas tavernas by Giorgios and they were all very nice. Finikas you may need to book. Great supermarket very close but expect to pay more than at home for most items. Nice meat to take back for barbecue back at the villa. Shout out to Giorgios and Maria who were very helpful hosts, Oreo travel also very responsible to queries. There was are flag on the beach for about 6 days out of our fortnight. We took a trip to the south coast which is calmer and had a great boat charter with Plakias Boat Tours. We also had trips out to a winery, olive oil farm and Kournas Lake.

I agree with previous reviewers about the bathrooms needing a bit of a refresh. The drain smell is fairly common in Greece and it's not a big issue. The hand soap in the bathrooms is poor quality, although the olive oil shower gel is really nice. The access road is tight (even for the Ford Focus we hired), not their fault but tuck your wing mirrors in! Finally this property is borderline value for money and it looks like prices going up quite a bit next year on this site at least. This may price out families like us and tip the balance towards adult group bookings which could change the nice relaxed vibe.