Villa Katerina - A traditional and luxury villa at Kalamaki

This property can accommodate 6 people based on bedrooms and baths. It was very clean and the beds were good! However, if one is expecting to cook and eat there with 6 people, the kitchen is utterly inadequate. It is a very narrow galley, with a long bar on one side and appliances on the other. There is only one plug for toaster, coffee pot, tea pot, waffle iron, and espresso machine. The espresso machine was very difficult to get apart, still had the coffee from the previous client in it and could not be put together properly when we got it clean. Written instructions on how to use it in several languages would be helpful! The lighting was very bad. Only one large bulb that was not directly overhead, but set back from the bar/counter area more to also serve the eating area. Hence the working area was always dark. It made it difficult to see what one was doing during food preparation. So more plugs, more lights to improve the kitchen area. [This was particularly annoying since the exterior lighting of the property was very obvious for miles around! Moreover the fridge seems to be leaking. there was constantly water on the floor near it. No room for more than one person to be working in the Kitchen. Finally, the owners insisted on cash to pay off the total minus the deposit that had already been paid by credit card through VRBO. Since we did not carry over 400 euros around with us, this meant that we had to find an ATM or bank. As it turned out, the ATMs in Kalamaki did not have any cash. Hence, needed to drive all the way to Moires where the owners live to find a bank or ATM, and then meet the owners to hand over the cash. That took almost a full day out of our 3 day stay. I suppose we could simply have ignored the owner's request and left it to them to solve the problem, but we are not that kind of people. We try to fulfill our obligations. Perhaps the most annoying thing about this was that we later discovered what looked like an electronic money processing machine with hook up in the property, but it seemed to be disabled. [Tax evasion????] Finally the owners themselves only speak Greek, so one had to communicate either through a friend or by telephone with a son who apparently speaks English. Definitely need a cell phone which we did not have, only messaging! On the whole the owners seemed very eager to please, but there were significant logistical issues, particularly the late hour of our arrival, that also interfered with a smooth stay.