Dia Apartments

Beautiful surroundings & the perfect base for exploring the eastern side of Crete. I spent a week here as a solo trip exploring the history & culture of the island - a nice bit of solitude after a busy period at work. The grounds are impeccably well maintained, reflecting the pride the owners take in this place. I was staying in a 1st floor split level maisonette with charming wooden ceiling & wonderful views across the Mediterranean & the pretty villages of Piskopiano & Koutouloufari perched on the slopes of Mount Harakas (a landmark geological feature illuminated at night & accessible by pathways for the more adventurous walker). The apartments are located between the old town of Hersonissos high up on the hillside and the old port - now a seaside resort (officially called Liménas Chersónissou) which mostly lacks the charm of the hillside villages (but the old harbour is nice for a wander). The modern resort is good for shops & is where you can catch KTEL buses (most are really comfortable coaches) that run half hourly (most days) to Heraklion to the west (c 40 mins if the express service €3.50 single) & Agios Nikolaos to the east (c 45 mins €4 single) which a pretty town surrounded by water on three sides with good beaches. The place is full of archaeology but you have to make the effort to look for it & plan an itinerary. The Bronze Age palace of Malia is just 15 mins by KTEL bus (€2 single ask for stop no 36) and just 400 metres from what I thought to be the best beach in the vicinity with a good taverna, with countryside around you as the area is pregnant with archaeology preventing mass development (thankfully!). Most of my days were spent exploring followed by relaxing by the swimming pool in the late afternoon sun enjoying the serenity of Dia Apartments under palm trees with the only disturbances being the sound of birds & the meow of a friendly black cat popping by to chill under a bush. It really is a charming place if you like to swim, read and relax …followed by an evening meal in one of the many tavernas in the hillside villages. Island life!! The Dia Apartments staff recommended David Vegera (aka David’s) which I found to be the absolute best in the area & made repeat visits. Great staff serving good traditional Cretan food. It is one of the closest tavernas (just 5 or 10 mins walk away in Piskopiano, near to the church (wonderful atmosphere with the bells ringing as you enjoy a glass of something cold). Eating out in Heraklion is also highly recommended- especially Ippokampos at the Venetian port if you like seafood (the octopus is amazing!). I had a great time at Dia Apartments - it really did exceed my expectations. A lot of that is down to the charming & friendly staff that create such a safe and enjoyable environment.

The apartments are smaller than they look in the photos. The beds feel a bit rickety, I certainly wouldn't trust them with an evening of passion. The only place to sit was the chair at the table, or the single bed in the living area. The stairs didn't feel safe at all. It's self catering but they don't even provide a dustpan and brush, which would be useful. They do come and empty the bins every day, sheets and toilet roll are provided every 3 days. I kinda got used to it though, it was quiet at night (except the one night there was an insanely loud party somewhere else that lasted until 5.30am). Most people seem to book there just to sit around the pool all day, I do think they need to ban the reserving of the sunbeds with a towel culture, especially those who leave them overnight. Some people would go down at 9am when the pool opened, put their towels there and then go back to their rooms for hours before coming down. We were out a lot but noticed this on our last day when we had to check out, but didn't get picked up until 7pm. They let you keep your bags in reception if you're checking out well before your pickup, and there's toilets and showers you can use too. Aircon was €7 a day, but you can choose on a daily basis if you think you'll need it. There's a supermarket a 10 minute walk away that's actually better than the lidl a bit further away, it's a longer walk back uphill with bags though! All in all, I probably wouldn't stay again, because I feel we've done the area now, but I can see why people do. I also wish they'd ban smoking by the pool, but I appreciate that's not likely to happen. Food served at the bar was very basic, which I underdog is all they have space for, certain foods at certain times, very meat heavy so nothing for me, but we were self catering so it wasn't an issue. Comfort 4/10 Cleanliness 6/10 Location 7/10 Staff 10/10 Pool area 8/10 Food options 4/10

Home from a two week stay at the Dia our second visit We love the apartments the pool is very nice and well maintained the gardens are beautiful the rooms are very clean and maintained daily The pool bar is great for snacks and drinks We used the near by local bus service a few times to spend days at Stalis Beach and Analipsi and we took the bus to walk around Agias Georgias A special mention to all the staff , The wonderful Angela and Billy and the lovely Maria We will be back

We were greeted nicely on arrival and shown to our room nice and quickly. Our room was nice and big with table and chairs, two beds in lounge area and double bed in separate bedroom and bathroom, it was a very basic room but all the rooms were nice and clean. The kitchen area is very small, for a self catering holiday unfortunately there are was not many appliances to be able to cook anything with in the apartment. There was only one air con system which was in the bedroom so the living area did get extremely hot and muggy, this was a bit disappointing especially when you have to pay 7 euros a day for the air con for it only to be useful in one room. The view from our balcony was lovely, looking directly over to the sea. Unfortunately for the first two days of our stay we had no hot water, we did have to mention this to the hotel staff more than once before the problem did get sorted. Some of the staff were lovely but a couple were less than helpful when asking for help especially when you ask for a toilet roll as the cleaning staff did not replace them, to be told the cupboard is now locked ( at 3 in the afternoon ) and there was no key so they could not get us any and we would have to wait until the morning. The beds were nice and big but they were quite uncomfortable, although if you like a hard mattress your be fine. The pool area and grounds was kept nice and clean, plenty of sunbeds. Nice chilled music playing making it a very relaxing place to lay in the sun. The drinks were a bit pricey but most hotels/apartments are the same these days. Give and take a few hiccups, a reasonably nice place to stay, nice and quiet, a little hilly but close to the main town which was only a fifteen minute walk away.

Just back from 11 nights at Dia Appts. Lovely place, clean, quiet and pleasant place. As noted these are basic apartments but comfortable enough for a summer holiday. The self catering facilities are basic but were doable, eg, we self catered our own breakfast every day, had lunch there when staying poolside and had two evening meals. However it would be helpful to have a chopping board and some cleaning utensils, we noted previous reviews and brought our own cleaning stuff and tea towels. Staff are all nice and accommodating and happy to help when approached all in all a very good value stay . The area is good , a 10-15 min walk downhill to Hersonosis or a 10-15 min walk uphill to Piskopiano. Hersonosis is a busy holiday town and where you get public transport if busing it anywhere . Piskopiano is a pretty wee village with a number of good restaurants , immediately next to Piskopiano as you walk through it, is the village Koutouloufari which is prettier in our opinion and also has a wide variety of restaurants. Worth noting though is , that if you walk up to Piskopiano and rather than go in turn right as though walking away from it you’ll end up in Hersonosis old town , which has a beautiful square with its focus on restaurants and lovely setting for your evening meal. Hersonosis old town is about a 20-25 min walk from the apartments. Places to see, If you don’t want to lay by the pool every day , there are plenty excursions available we did two through Orange Travel who provided a door to door service , reasonable prices and good tours . We also used the local bus in Hersonosis to visit Heraklion, Knossos palace, and to head to Stalias beach . The bus is cheap and reliable running every 20mins and pretty much on time. All in all Dia apartments are ideally situated for a quite relaxing holiday with quick and easy access to a number of different areas for alternatives .

Dia is a beautiful, relaxing oasis. The grounds are beautiful and the pool is kept spotless. Cleaners are out cleaning every morning. The staff are lovely. Special shout out to George, he was so friendly and helpful. He gave us advice on the best places to go. Always made us feel comfortable and welcome. Rooms where always spotless. 7 of us stayed in one studio and 2 maisonettes which were more than spacious for us (3 per maisonette). If you're looking for a nice peaceful place to stay and relax after a night out, I would highly recommend. It's in a good location, down hill is hersonissos with plenty of sea view bars and restaurants. Up hill is Piskopiano and Koutoulafari. Which is more quieter but still plenty of places to go. I would definitely like to go back one year after I've visited a view other locations as i like to try new places. Thanks for a lovey stay.