Here are the available villas for rental in Crete.

So discreet in Crete

From the Daily Mail

There was a time when Crete, to me, was loud clothes, clubs and loadsa ouzo and lemonade to wash down the pizza. But that was then. Today I'm two decades too old for the club scene and I've reached that stage where I no longer need the sun to sizzle. Just warm enough to sit outside eating yoghurt and fruits for breakfast will do nicely, thank you.
Nowadays I own walking boots and a book on wild flowers. So hello middle age; holidays in April and May and, hello Western Crete. Arriving was good. Hot afternoon sunshine and a little girly hire car to get my partner and I over the White Mountains to the south coast for the first part of a two-week holiday.
You know those charity boxes where you place a penny at the top and watch it zigzag to the bottom? Well that's what the fenceless mountain road to the tiny hamlet of Kapsodassos is like, with roadside shrines to those who didn't make it every mile or so just to make it a little more unnerving. But we made it to Nikita's House and the tension and stress dripped away.
The house is surprisingly un-Greek, with large rooms and a plain plaster exterior. Behind us a tiny white church and mountains with snow on top. In front, nothing but goats and olive trees on a plain that slopes down to the sea which extends to Libya. We are on the extreme southern edge of Europe and there's definitely a brushstroke of Africa about this coastline.
I am bowled over by the wild flowers. There are so many, everywhere. Yellows, whites, reds and blues. All frilly and dancing alongside the lanes and up the hills. I have always loved the silvery romance of olive groves. But these wild Cretan spring flowers transform the groves into a heaven I wouldn't have believed possible.
We would regularly picnic in the fields, or on our terrace where the only noises are the purr of the fridge and the goat bells. Twice a day, the herd nibbles its way up from the coastal plain, through our garden, along our lane and back down into the olive groves.
On Easter night, we can hear the priest's voice from a distant church across the hills and at midnight we can see candles in the distance and fishermen's flares substituting for fireworks along the coast. ... more

Very friendly

Lovely harbour and shops. Boat trip to caves worth a go. Restaurants good, especially the ice-cream cafe on the front overlooking the beach. Owner and his family very friendly.

A bit of Greece and quiet

From the Daily Mail

Twenty years ago, my boyfriend - Athens-born but English-educated - booked us a flight to his favourite Greek island, Kythera, off the northwest of Crete.
'It's unlike all the others,' he enthused, 'Utterly unspoilt, no tourists, nothing. It's paradise.'
I pictured white sandy beaches, ultramarine skies, secluded coves and romantic little tavernas. I would read novels, sip retsina and get a tan.
Instead, I found an uncomfortable and sometimes hostile place.
Yes, it had no tourists, but it also had no roads, no hotels, no shops and no plumbing - just black-clad women, barefoot children and toothless old men with their favourite flea-bitten donkeys.
'Where are we staying?' I asked nervously. 'We'll find something, said my boyfriend. 'We can sleep on the beach.'
'The beach?' 'It's Aphrodite's island!' he exclaimed. 'This is it - this is where she sprang out of the foam!'
Call me unromantic, but Aphrodite presumably didn't need food, drink, a toothbrush and a clean loo.
Would Aphrodite have been happy to sleep rough and hang out all day with shepherds who drank ouzo and played backgammon and stared at her as if they'd never seen a fair-skinned, blue-eyed woman?
After five nights on the beach, a fisherman offered us an outhouse behind his outhouse. My boyfriend was delighted - a hard bed with a greasy, stained coverlet, walls smeared with the deaths of a million mosquitoes.
I got the tan, but I can't say I enjoyed myself and my boyfriend and I split up soon after. But the experience stayed with me. ... more

Greece for grown-ups

Doesn't it sound like heaven? A three-and-a-half-hour charter flight to Heraklion, and within half an hour you're checked into your hotel and relaxing in the sun, sipping a cool drink in a thatched roof bar on a gorgeous sandy beach.
Welcome to holiday hell. Hell, that is, if your idea of a getaway destination includes a sense of place, a modicum of peace and quiet or just a good night's sleep.
'Been here eight months,' one young Englishman working in a bar told us.
'So what's it like?' we asked. 'Dunno. Never been sober enough to find out.'
Grown-ups who end up on this island by mistake may feel tempted to swear off Crete altogether. Yet that would be to miss one of the very best islands in Greece.
Crete is big enough to absorb several tourist ghettos, while keeping its integrity nearly everywhere else, especially on the western half of the island, where orange and olive groves cover every bit of flat land.
The mighty White Mountains are the centrepiece, and in April their meadows and gorges put on such superb displays of rare and endemic wild flowers that several UK firms offer special walking tours.
And the beaches? Just as wide and sandy as the strands stomped on by the party ravers of Malia. There are any number of all-in resort hotels for sybaritic R&R, but also towns of character that make great bases.
Venetian-Turkish Chania, Crete's second city, also has convenient charter flights from the UK, and it's a short drive from beaches in either direction.
Its small, romantic hotels in medieval buildings are especially suited to couples; its restaurants serve fresh Cretan cuisine and the island's excellent wines, and there are at least 100 shops selling jewellery, a Cretan speciality for the past 4,000 years.
On a Saturday night book a table at Nikterida, two miles east (tel 0030 282 106 4215), one of the oldest and best tavernas in Crete, with live Greek music and dancing. ... more

Family holidays in Greece

From the Daily Mail

When it comes to holidays, Greece offers the best of finds and - if you are not careful - the worst, too.
What it does well, it does brilliantly: small, attractive seaside villages which have slowly developed into charming resorts with simple accommodation and cheap, reliable tavernas. The people are hospitable, generous and friendly, the atmosphere relaxed, safe and perfect for escaping the stresses of life back home.
What it does less well are the bigger, brasher family resorts. Too often they are scruffy and tired-looking, with bumpy roads, narrow, crowded beaches and ageing hotels. In short, they are desperately lacking in the kind of investment that countries such as Spain have poured into tourism. There are some great exceptions, however, and to help you plan the perfect family holiday this summer, here is our guide to finding them.
So where should you go to find the best of Greece in 2001? According to many tour operators, the 'in' destination for 2001 will be Kefalonia - still riding a wave of popularity stemming from the novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin, which was set on the island. There is no doubt that this stunning Ionian island merits the interest - it has great beaches, attractive villages and towns (though many in the south of the island had to be re-built after earthquake damage).
Luckily it is big and mountainous enough to absorb the influx of curious holidaymakers. Even so, if you want to visit, you might consider avoiding the August peak and choosing a quieter time of year. June or September should be perfect.
Other newly emerging destinations are the islands of Ikaria and Patmos in the eastern Aegean. Both are probably a little too quiet for all but the most escapist of families, though there are some good beaches - especially on the north coast of Ikaria. If you prefer to stick to the more tried and tested destinations, here's my selection for summer:
For fun in the sun, my pick would be not a specific resort but a type of holiday, in this case - a sailing club holiday, of which there are several in Greece, offering an excellent mix of children's clubs, sailing and watersports. As a way of occupying (and exhausting) the children while you either relax or try some sailing yourself, they are the epitome of a well-organised, well-thought out package holiday.
If you don't like the thought of organised activities, the north-east coast of Corfu is another excellent option - especially if you prefer somewhere relatively quiet but have teenage children who want to be near some nightlife.
At several points along this stretch of the coast there are small clutches of villas dotted around the hillsides above the sea. Most are just a short drive from Kassiopi, the biggest and most attractive resort on this part of the island and great fun in the evenings.Among the string of small resorts just south of Kassiopi, those that stand out are Kaminaki, which is tiny but very attractive, and Agios Stephanos (sometimes called San Stephano), one of the prettiest, although it has a very small beach.
Corfu has some other good, lively alternatives, especially on the west coast at Agios Gordios, which has a big sandy beach, and Glyfada, a little quieter but also with a good beach. Other islands with a successful mix of nightlife and good beaches are Naxos, Skiathos and Paros. ... more