Villa Leonidas

We had a really enjoyable three weeks at Villa Leonidas. The pool is 10 m long and a pleasure to swim in, with lots of sunbeds around it. It’s 1.70 to 1.80 m deep, so that could be a little stressful for families with children, though there’s also a small pool for little ones. The spacious house has nicely furnished rooms and terraces on every side, with sunny and shaded spots to choose from. The beds were the most comfortable we’ve found in our 15 years of visiting Crete. There are plenty of towels and bed sheets, and you can change them yourself whenever you want. The kitchen has everything, including an oven, espresso machine, regular coffee maker and grill. George is a nice host and around if needed. Thanks for the fruit and wine when we arrived, and the olive oil and rakí when we left. All the best to you and your family, George. We’ll see you again! Jürgen and Brigitte

We stayed there with our family this summer. The house is cute and has an “authentic family style,” but we ran into some problems. The front door wouldn’t close properly, so we had to leave it open or climb in through a window. There were sometimes bad smells in the bathrooms, and although we didn’t put any paper down the toilets, they seemed a little clogged. The pool was nice, but to reach it we had to go through one of the bedrooms or walk around the house and climb the outside stairs. The owner wasn’t very friendly, which made the family holiday unpleasant.

The pool is huge, over 10 meters long, and there’s a separate one for children. The villa itself is very nice and spacious, but it has a lot of stairs and the pool is on the first floor, so I wouldn’t call it suitable for little kids. There is a fence, though a child could easily get through it and fall into the pool. We also didn’t get fresh towels or a cleaning during our 12-day stay. After a week the house was still dusty and sandy, which isn’t what we’re used to as regular Pitsidia visitors. On the day we left, the owner said we had to be out by 10 a.m. because cleaners were coming, although we never saw anyone during the stay. Our flight wasn’t until the evening, so spending the day in the heat with a small child was unpleasant. I understood that by law guests can stay until noon. 🤔

There’s plenty of space here. Our family of five fit comfortably, and eight people could have stayed too. The layout and pool area are lovely, and the house looks like the photos. The cleanliness was a real problem, especially in the kitchen and bathrooms. There was old grease around the extractor hood, and crumbs and sticky residue in the drawers and cutlery trays. The toilet brush in the small bathroom was awful. In the large one, showering sent water, soap, and other stuff bubbling up through the drain in the middle of the floor. A lot of things also felt badly finished. The wooden doors are warped and hard to open without worrying about pulling off the handles. The kitchen radiator cover comes loose with the slightest touch, the shower head and grab bars wobble, ceiling lights flicker, and cables are left hanging. We’re usually relaxed about little issues while on holiday in the south, but when a pool light came loose, the landlord arrived right away with a €140 bill for a replacement and threatened to call the police. We paid because we thought he might drain the pool or make trouble otherwise. After he got the money, he invited us for wine, since he lives next door, and gave us two bottles of olive oil and a bottle of raki as a parting gift. Hard to know what to make of that.