Having been to Crete many times and Kalyves twice, we searched for an apartment specifically overlooking the beach. From the website of the Thamaris Apartments we chose Apartment No 3 on the first floor. This overlooked the small river, the gardens and the beach - just what we were looking for. We had confirmation by email that this apartment was reserved for us in January 2008.

When we arrived we were told there was "a small problem" with the apartment. The owner had let the previous week's rental stay on, so we would have to have a different one. He showed us a similar sized apartment, but this one had the bedroom overlooking the main street (which was very noisy) and the main balcony off the living room overlooked trees and bushes (which were very close) and the next door property. Because of this, the apartment had very little natural light and absolutely no outlook at all. As you can imagine we were very upset about the situation. The owner then proceeded to offer a discount on the price, then (when that didn't work) a promise to move us to our original choice after 3 days. We couldn't bear the thought of staying there, so decided to walk away. We then had to find alternative accommodation - late in the afternoon, with many businesses closed until 5 pm or after.

On speaking with a local person in the travel business, she informed us that the owner had a reputation locally for re-arranging bookings to suit himself.

We stayed at the Thamiris for a week in May 2006. The apartments are right on the beach on the main street in Kalyves. Our apartment was on the first floor and was spacious and clean with a very large balcony and AC. It was definitely not luxurious but for £35 a night it was very good value. The ground floor rooms were dingy and dark I would not recommend them.