This review was submitted before 2018 and has not been verified.
8/10 Good
Clive F.
20 June 2014
Beautiful Villa Asteria
A beautiful, well equipped villa set in peaceful surroundings, ideal for a relaxing holiday for couples or families. We were looking for privacy, peace and quiet and that is what we got - almost. We have long since given up hotels, with their noisy activities around the swimming pool, insufficient sunbeds and set meal times. We much prefer the flexibility and seclusion that villas offer, although this is not always guaranteed. Villa Asteria, from the advertisement, seemed to offer exactly what we were looking for and we were not too disappointed. There was a family with teenagers staying in one of the adjacent properties, however, so the quiet was often shattered by the screams of delight from the children as they played in their swimming pool and with less olive trees between the properties than we had been expecting, our pools were quite exposed to each other. The other major disappointment was the distance to the village of Gavalachorie, which we thought would be a 10 minute stroll but turned out to be nearer 20-25 mins for us (both well into our 60s), particularly the return leg which was uphill all the way. We never attempted the walk into Almyrida as this was a very steep climb back and again would have taken us twice as long as was suggested. A car is therefore essential, although the road to the village and into Almyrida is very narrow and with sharp bends.
These issues apart, we were more than happy with the villa and, never fond of air-conditioning, were grateful for the ceiling fans throughout the property. We did find the bed somewhat hard but many people prefer this so not a major problem. We were unfortunate with the weather on a few days and when it did rain, everywhere outside was covered in sand carried over from the Sahara, something which we were told happens a couple of times a year. This left the swimming pool surrounds and the outside dining area very slippery and filthy until the pool area was cleaned each Saturday. We felt that the pool could do with cleaning twice a week as it soon became full of leaves from the surrounding olive trees.
All in all we thoroughly enjoyed our 2 weeks at Villa Asteria and would happily recommend it.
