The Apokoronas Villa Guide: Why Insiders Book Here

Ask someone who has been to Crete once where they stayed and they will say Chania, or Rethymno, or somewhere near Heraklion. Ask someone who has been six times and there is a decent chance they will say Apokoronas — and then look slightly annoyed that you asked.

It is the region immediately east of Chania: a broad shelf of olive groves and stone villages that runs from the coast up towards the foothills of the White Mountains. It is not a resort. It has no strip. What it has is the densest concentration of genuinely good villas in western Crete, and a set of advantages that only become obvious once you have made the mistake of staying somewhere else.

Why people end up here

It is close to everything without being in any of it. Chania old town is around twenty to thirty minutes depending on where in Apokoronas you are. The airport is close. Rethymno is comfortably reachable for an evening. But you sleep in an olive grove with goat bells rather than above a bar.

The landscape does two things at once. From most of Apokoronas you can see the sea in one direction and the White Mountains in the other, and in late spring the mountains still have snow on them while you are swimming. Very few places in Crete give you both views from the same terrace.

It is green. Much of Crete is spectacular and arid. Apokoronas has water, and it shows — olive and citrus groves, cypresses, gardens that survive August. If your image of a Greek villa involves shade and green rather than white rock and glare, this is the part of the island that delivers it.

It is lived in. There is a substantial year-round community here, including a lot of long-term British and northern European residents, which means the villages have actual shops, tavernas that open in February, and a doctor. That matters more than it sounds if you are travelling with children or older parents.

The villages worth knowing

Vamos is the administrative heart and the most complete village — restored stone houses, a good taverna scene, and enough going on to feel like somewhere rather than a hamlet. A sensible default if you want to walk to dinner.

Gavalochori is smaller, older and quieter, with a lovely folklore museum and a genuinely beautiful core of stone lanes. Choose it if you want the village and can happily drive to everything else.

Almyrida and Kalyves sit on the coast and are the two places with proper beaches, tavernas along the water and a bit of low-key holiday bustle. Almyrida is the prettier of the two and good for shallow, calm swimming with small children.

Plaka and Kokkino Chorio climb the Drapanos peninsula above Almyrida, and this is where a lot of the most dramatic villas are — steep, west-facing, with views back across Souda Bay. Spectacular terraces. Steep drives.

Georgioupoli, at the eastern edge, is a different proposition again: a long sandy beach, a river mouth, and a busier, more package-holiday feel. Good if you want a beach you can walk to.

And just beyond the region's edge is Lake Kournas, Crete's only natural freshwater lake, which is worth an afternoon with pedalos and lunch.

What Apokoronas is not good at

Honesty is more useful than a sales pitch, so: this is not the place for nightlife. If your teenagers want bars and noise, they will be getting in a car to Chania and someone will have to drive.

The beaches are decent rather than famous. Balos, Elafonissi and Falassarna — the postcard beaches of western Crete — are all a long day trip away, over an hour and often considerably more.

And the roads up the peninsula are narrow and steep in places. Beautiful villa, alarming approach, is a recurring Apokoronas theme. Ask for a photograph or a video of the final approach before you book anything above Almyrida.

Choosing your spot

A rough rule: if you want to walk to dinner, book in or beside a village — Vamos, Almyrida, Kalyves. If you want the view above everything else, take the hillside and accept that every trip involves the car. If you have young children, the coast is easier; if you have a group of adults, the hills are better.

Whichever you pick, the thing that makes Apokoronas work is that you will spend more of your holiday at the villa than you would somewhere busier — which is the point, and also the trap. Villas here have exceptional terraces and outstanding views, and by night four most groups have run out of ideas for how to use them beyond another late dinner outside.

That is the gap we fill. Apokoronas is squarely inside our patch, and an evening here is close to ideal for what we do: the wind is gentler than on the exposed north-facing coast, there is usually shelter from the olive trees, and the darkness is properly dark once you are away from Kalyves. We bring the screen, the projector and the sound, style the seating with lounge beds and lanterns, stay through the evening, and take the whole thing away the same night.

If you are still deciding where to base yourself, we have compared Chania, Rethymno and Elounda, and written a longer list of things to do at your villa in the evenings.

And when you know where you are staying, tell us your dates — we will tell you honestly whether your terrace will work.