Ammokrinos Luxury Homes
Kalamaki, Greece · Rental Steady pricing
Ammokrinos Luxury Homes in photographs
Click any of them to see it full size.
When to go
The cheapest month we have found is October, at around USD 162 a night - -10% against what this hotel usually asks.
Where to book
- Book on Booking.com - Free cancellation options, guest reviews and a familiar checkout.
- Hotel website - Photos, facilities and location.
Our notes
What you get
Six modern, self-contained apartments just 150 metres from the sea in Kalamaki, on Crete's quieter south coast.
The apartments differ in layout and outlook; our pick would be one of the ground-floor apartments with a sea-facing terrace and direct access to its own private pool.
Inside, everything is modern without feeling clinical, with fully equipped kitchens and everything needed for a longer stay. The internet was fast and reliable enough for us to work remotely without having to think about it.
Service is personal rather than hotel-like. We were welcomed in person, the hosts remained easy to reach throughout the stay, and there were water, coffee and a few breakfast basics waiting when we arrived, with a small farewell gift at the other end.
Each apartment also has its own parking space - particularly useful when a hire car is part of the trip.
Around it
Kalamaki itself is small: a long beach, easy tavernas and cafés, and very little reason to rush anywhere. The food is simple in the best sense - proper Cretan cooking, informal and good, with more atmosphere than ambition.
The beach is only 150 metres away. One thing worth knowing: directly around Kalamaki, there are sections where flat rock and stone under the water make getting in less straightforward than the sandy beach suggests. Walk further along the coast towards Kommos and you will find sandier stretches and easier entry.
There is also something unusually familiar about the place. Many people have been coming back to Kalamaki for decades, first on their own or with their parents and later with their own families - stay here often enough and evenings have a habit of turning into unplanned dinners with people you last saw a year, or several years, ago.
Matala is close enough for more life without having to stay in the middle of it. Phaistos is just inland, with Gortyna, the Messara plain and the villages towards Psiloritis all within easy reach.
For something more contemporary, drive a few minutes to Pitsidia and find Raftis - a restaurant hidden behind the street in the courtyard of a former tailor's shop (fittingly, raftis means tailor in Greek). The kitchen takes a modern approach to Greek and Mediterranean food, with good wine and a beautiful courtyard setting; it is the sort of place you could easily walk past without realising what is behind the door.
Our take
Ammokrinos fills a gap that is surprisingly difficult to fill in this part of Crete. Kalamaki has plenty of simple apartments and small hotels; what it has much less of is somewhere modern, private and genuinely comfortable without losing the reason for staying on the south coast in the first place.
We liked the privacy, the space and the fact that everything simply worked. Having your own pool and watching the sun go down from the terrace certainly helps, but it was the combination of those things with the quiet, the personal service and a place you could comfortably stay in for longer that made the difference.
With the sea only 150 metres away, choosing between the beach and your own pool is about as complicated as the day needs to get.
This is not somewhere we would book to spend every day sightseeing. It is somewhere we would book because we would be perfectly happy not to leave it for days at a time.
Feli, our Greece expert on the team, wrote this one from her own stay at Ammokrinos.
What it costs through the year
| Cheapest we have seen | USD 159 ≈ €142 |
|---|---|
| What it usually costs | USD 180 ≈ €161 |
| Dearest we have seen | USD 182 ≈ €163 |
| Times we looked | 11 |
| Gap between the two | 13% |
| Last checked | 2026-10-29 |
