Gerald Durell's Strawberry Pink Pool Villa

The strawberry villa is a grand house. It has high ceilings and beautiful art work. The furniture is comfortable. The TV has mainly Nat geo / wildlife channels. DVD player, 2 DVDs, wifi slow even if you sit in a prime spot. The pool is huge and well kept. Friendly cats live outside.

The villa is approached up a steep narrow slope. If you hire a car, get a small one or you may not be able to get it up to the top. The location is excellent, less than 20 minutes from the airport and close to an excellent restaurant and some basic supermarkets. You can walk into Corfu town across the walkway at the end of the airport runway.

The accommodation is good, although the main bedroom is considerably nicer than the other two. Its bathroom is enormous featuring twin basins, a large bath and a shower with an enclosure, the other rooms are much smaller, have twin beds and have smaller ensuites with a small shower tray but no enclosure so the water goes on the floor, not a problem as there is a drain in the floor, but it does mean that the toiler and floor get wet.

There is a lot of nice poolside furniture and a small table for four, but not sufficient space for six to eat outside which was a shame. There was a barbecue but it had not been cleaned out.

The kitchen needs updating. There is a tap for drinking water which is great as you do not have to fetch and carry drinking water, a large fridge freezer and a 2 slot toaster. There is a mixer tap for constant hot water, however the basin has cracked so this is not secure and it is easy to accidentally direct the boiling water onto your feet. There is a hob but the pans that are provided do not fit onto it very well. There is an oven (with only one shelf!!) There is a microwave (above head height) but no suitable containers to cook anything in. There is a dishwasher but not enough crockery to fill it (not even 6 full place settings of crockery) so we washed up by hand. The main omissions : no measuring jugs, microwave pots, spatulas, casserole dish, oven to table dishes, egg whisk, oven gloves, only 1 tea towel, only 1 wineglass, no cafetière or teapot. No jugs. Meal preparation is a challenge! We did not use the washing machine.

There are wires sticking out of the walls in many places and a number of ineffective switches - if we had taken my son when he was younger this would have been a concern.

The villa was a true throw back to "The Durrells"

We've had a brilliant week. The villa is a short walk to the hotel Aegli where we enjoyed several wonderful evenings and a short walk from lots of other restaurants and facilities . The beach was just across the road and we would recommend hiring a boat and visiting some of the nearby coves and wonderful fish restaurants for a day trip .

The owner of the villa was a great host and looked after us brilliantly .

Great Stay, Basil was very friendly and helpful. We loved it!

We had a great relaxing and fun week in the Strawberry Pink Villa. Enough space for seven of us to relax inside the house (it's a big space) and enjoyed the pool. Incredible sunset views from the front balcony. House is surrounded by Cypress trees and old olive trees, We even picked fresh figs from the along the path up to the house. Thank you Basil for all the great Durrell reminiscences and stories. He is on hand to help with anything we needed for the house and tips on where to visit on the island, a real life Spiros (in a good way).

You can hear the planes coming in and taking off from the airport but it doesn't take away from the peacefulness or charm of the house

We used CorfuTownBoatRental company for 2 days of boating to swim and eat at Agni and Kalami we were picked up and returned to the house by Tony. Highly recommend them for very reliable and reasonable priced boat hire.

We had a wonderful family stay in this house. It was a summer in Corfu that we will remember for a long time.

We spent a week in the villa in June 2016. We booked via Owners Direct by selecting our dates and emailing Mary and Basil. Based on our dates we were given a quote, placed a 30% deposit via bank transfer which secured our booking and then a month before our arrival we paid the remaining balance. I was dubious of booking a holiday this way as I have always used a travel agent, however I was surprised at how easy it was and once we were at the villa and met the owners I was very happy with our decision to visit.

As a group of six young people we wanted to make the most of our stay on the island and we definitely did! With Basil's help we hired quad bikes and did nearly the whole of the North of the island. The villa was amazing, everything was very clean, modern yet extremely grand with the high ceilings and decor. Mary and Basil had even kindly bought us some food and drink for our arrival, this was greatly appreciated. The pool is huge and always clean. Nothing was too much trouble and we were made to feel very welcome. I would definitely recommend to my friends and family, but I would suggest getting some form of transport at least for a few days if you are looking to explore, there is a regular bus (stop is on the road next to villa) which would be great for getting in to town but obviously you don't have the freedom of going when you like. If anyone is looking for picturesque beaches/sights I would suggest visiting Paliocastritsa, Canal d'amour, Nissaki beach and the Old Fort. As you can see from the pictures, there is a small island in the sea close to the villa and Basil's hotel and cafe, we swam to the island (approx. 150m) or you can get a boat trip, I would recommend the trip because there is a church, gift shop and cafe on the island- we didn't have any money! I can't praise the villa and owners enough and hope that everyone that visits has a fantastic holiday!