facilities:

There is no doubt that if you spend your holidays on Crete and you are lucky enough to have a few genuine Cretan meals, you’ll be tempted to try and reproduce some of the won­ders you've eaten back at home. You can always pick up a cookbook at the airport, but if you want to learn the real tricks of the trade, you should stay at Rodialos where dur­ing 'alternative holiday programmes" you can discover the ins and outs of Cretan cooking. 

Renting the house with a bunch of friends must be great: but to come here for a week and be guided by owner Mary Fragaki and her childhood friend and professional cook, Jenny Vassilaki, through the world of the Cretan cuisine, is an experience that is hard to match. You will shop in local markets, har­vest organically grown fruits and veggies, collect herbs from the fields, choose fish, fresh off the fishermen’s boats, and then, you will learn how to transform all these, the purest of ingredients, into beautifully tasting meals, using ancient recipes adapted to modern lifestyles. 

Where You’ll Sleep
There are four bedrooms in the house. The master bedroom is a splendid large bedroom-cum-­bathroom. Its windows are small but it has a large sky lighted ceiling and at night you can gaze at the stars up above from your bath. The other three rooms are smaller and rather basic and share two bathrooms (both with shower).  

When you feel hungry
If you come to Rodialos for a 'Cretan cuisine' programme you are in for a continuous culinary feast. lf you are renting the house however, you won't totally miss out οn this, because Mary will come by at least once to prepare a grand repas. Otherwise you will have the large open kitchen at your disposal and you are free to harvest some organic veggies from the garden. If you do not feel like cooking you can just walk over to Panormos. When you first arrive at Rodialos, the refrigerator is stocked with ingredients for breakfast. 

Bring the children!
The courses at Rodialos are not for children and while they last, all rooms are kept for partici­pants. If, however, you rent the entire property, your kids are more than welcome and they will enjoy the space ίn and around the house. Young children should not be left unsupervised around the garden as there are some steep cliffs plunging down into the sea.

Το see and do
If you come to Rodialos for an 'alternative holiday programme" you will be kept as busy as it pleases you, not only with cooking lessons, but also, if you wish, with yoga, tai chi, massage and shiatsu sessions, as well as sailing, mountain biking, walks and excursions. If you rent the house to yourself, you can arrange for the occasional cooking lesson or yoga, massage or shiatsu session. Το go for a swim you can climb down the rocks beneath the house to the sea (there are some nice flat rocks for sun­ bathing) or you can walk for a couple of minutes to a tiny  beach where you will have easier access to the water. 

Good to know
The house is available all year round. Usu­ally programmes are organised in May, June and Septem­ber. In all other periods (also in between the seminars) the house can be privately rented. Prices for the seminars start at €75 per person per day, on the basis of a shared double room. The price per night for the entire house is €250 in the high season, or €210 ίn the low season (for a maximum of eight persons). Normally, the minimum rental period is two weeks. Facilities in the house include the fully equipped kitchen. a washing machine. a telephone, an internet connection, a television and a CD player. Credit cards are not accepted. 

Getting there
Rodialos it about 800 m west of Panormos (off the national highway about 20 km from Rethymno, or 55 km from Iraklion). The terracotta-coloured house sits all by itself and is hard to miss, but new arrivals are met in the village.