The Village Holiday Club

This resort is centrally located (east-west) on the north shore of the Island of Crete. It is basically in Hersonissos (Chersonissos). (Technically it's in Koutouloufari - the hill overlooking Hersonissos), which is about a 30 minute drive east from Heraklion (Iraklion), the location of the nearest international airport ("HER"). The nearest beach is about a 15 minute walk down the hill in Hersonissos, where there is an active town filled with seaside restaurants, hotels, clubs and stores. Koutouloufari itself is a very quaint hillside community of narrow brick and cobblestone roads that serve mainly as pedestrian walkways for quaint boutiques and restaurants.

The resort itself is spectacular for someone looking for quaint hillside villas (the resort consists of 87 units) in a pleasant, peaceful, interesting town.

Be sure to use the unmarked side entrance up the outside stairs if arriving late after the office has closed. You'll find your arrival packet taped to the outside wall near the top of the stairs and the room door left unlocked. A car park (parking lot) is available for free parking behind the "Supermarket" store across and slightly down the narrow street (you'll know when you found it when you see the signs on the wall saying "Parking for The Village Holiday Club only"). If in doubt, use the free Public, municipal lot instead (just follow the blue "P" signs to the Public lot).

The room is quaint, a polished slate floor, full sized kitchen (but no microwave - just a microwave sized portable oven, and no dishwasher). Queen bed in the bedroom and two twin sofa beds in the living room. All units have patios or balconies, most with lots of manicured vegetation. Cable TV and phone (outgoing calls 10 euro cents each). Pool with deck and poolside bar overlooking the Mediterranean and the town of Hersonissos. We found the resort to be calm, peaceful, quiet and relaxing; but all the excitement you want can be found once you step outside of it (especially down the hill in Hersonissos where there's topless and nude beaches and even a Hard Rock Cafe).

The front desk manager is SPECTACULAR! The room and grounds are extremely clean and immaculate (maid service is every other day; and they also hand washed our dirty dishes). The only things we can think of that could be improved were the door key being attached to a device that had to be inserted to have electricity and air conditioning (when you take the room key when you leave for an outing the a/c and lights go off. We found it annoying to have to keep returning to a hot villa). Our solution was to remove the key from the key chain. The only other drawback applies only to those that have difficulty with stairs or are disabled.

What a great resort!