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Our
Home
Welcome
to Villa Verde, our ecologically friendly seaside home near Athens.
We hope you’ll like what you see here and that you’ll want
visit Nea Makri to spend some time with us.
We have a "3 Key" quality certificate issued by the Greek
National Tourist Organisation, permit number 0208K123K0300001.
If you’re planning a
relaxing holiday or short break based on the coast near Athens, we hope
you’ll find what your looking for here at Villa Verde.
You might have in mind an Athens city break.
Why not consider basing yourselves an hour’s comfortable coach
ride away in the green and pleasant seaside town that’s Nea Makri?
We call it “Athens with a breath of fresh air”.
On
these pages you’ll find information about our town, our home, and us.
The Local Attractions page includes many links to sites with additional
information.
We
designed and built Villa Verde in 2008-09, with some help from local
architects and builders. The
house is built to very high environmental standards.
Geothermal energy provides most of our heating and cooling needs.
Those needs are relatively small because the house is extremely
well insulated. Very large
solar panels provide hot water for personal use with geothermal back up
if there’s no sun. Water
from a well is used for the garden.
We
live upstairs whilst on the ground floor we have four self-contained
guest studios. Two of those
can be linked for family use.
Last
year, for the second time, we were judged by Travel & Hospitality Awards of the UK as
winner of the "Affordable apartments of the year for
Attica", that's Athens as well as its surroundings.
Early
this year Booking.com increased our rating yet again, from 9.4 the previous year.
A few
years back we
were also very proud to receive this TripAdvisor certificate. Please see our Guests' Comments page for more details.
Where
are we?
Who
Are We?
Silvia
is from the Ukraine and Chris from England.
We came to Greece for work and business reasons in 1996.
When we decided to stop work we moved a short distance
away from the hustle and bustle of the Athens metropolis to live just
200 metres walk from the beach.
We
have travelled quite extensively around Greece, with and without friends
and family, so we’ve got to know the country well.
We are both very good with the Greek language.
We very much look forward to welcoming guests to share our ecologically
friendly villa and its garden.
One thing we must
mention is our cats. We have rescued more
abandoned cats and kittens than we had intended. They are not
allowed inside the guest studios and most of them will usually keep away from guests who don't want them close. If you love cats then it will be a big bonus for you. If you dislike cats
then, regrettably, you might prefer to stay somewhere
else. That said, cats are pretty much everywhere in Greece and
none of them are cleaner or better cared for than ours. We've
added a page to this site explaining more about our cat family.
What
Can We Offer You?
We offer:
 | High quality self-catering accommodation with hotel style service including thorough cleaning every day (extra cleaning on request). |
| Transfers to and from Athens International Airport, Rafina port, or Pallini metro and railway station, included in our rates, and help with your luggage. |
| A friendly base for a seaside holiday or a short break, with easy access to the city of Athens,
to other famous archaeological sites, to the islands of the Aegean Sea, and to Athens international airport. |
| A chance to relax without worrying about your carbon footprint by enjoying the comfortable room temperatures and hot water that are provided by our eco friendly renewable energy systems. |
| Continental breakfast (at extra cost), served on your private patio or in your
studio. |
| Use of a local mobile phone (at extra cost). |
| Help in dealing with the locals for things like car and bicycle hire, ferry tickets, tours, or shopping. |
| Simple interpretation and translation between the Greek, English, Russian and Ukrainian languages. |
| Ideas on where else to go in Greece to best satisfy your own personal objectives, and advice on how to get there and back. |
| Help in putting together a detailed itinerary to make the most of your visit, for example trips to famous and fascinating ancient sites or time on the islands. Chris can usually arrange to accompany our guests on some trips
and to do the driving. |
| Out of the peak season when the weather is pretty much guaranteed, we share local weather forecasts to help our guests plan their time. |
| So that you don't waste journeys, we make phone calls to confirm opening times of archaeological sites and museums and to make sure that they are unaffected by manpower shortages or strikes. |
If
there are marches or demonstrations in Athens, we can explain how you
can still enjoy almost all of the city and its attractions without getting
close to those problems. Serious problems only occur rarely and they are confined to very small
areas, away from most places that are of interest to visitors.
Please
see the Sample Itinerary page for an example of the kind of trip around
Greece that we
can help you to arrange.
Weather
These
average Athens weather conditions are taken with thanks from the Weather2Travel
web site.
