Danae and Konstantina Orfanake grew up in a hotel — their father, Yannis Orfanakis, and his twin brother, Niko, started the hotel group Omicron on the Greek island of Crete in 1991. Now the sisters have applied their lifelong experience to Tierras Villas, a new property on the north coast of Crete. The five one- and two-bedroom cliffside villas are a 10-minute walk to the sandy Mononaftis Beach, a popular scuba diving spot, and a seven-minute drive from the low-key seaside village of Agia Pelagia. The stone buildings are designed to disappear into the landscape, and the natural look continues inside, with Festos Cretan stone and Sinai marble in the bathrooms, and rustic oak planks on the floors and walls of the living areas and bedrooms. Furniture, sourced from Studio Obscoura in Athens, includes Torii stools modeled on the traditional gates found at Japanese Shinto shrines, and sculptural Barbare chairs by the French furniture maker Bosc. Each villa has its own 11-meter swimming pool, and guests can use tennis and padel courts, a spa with a hammam, and other facilities at Acro Suites, a short walk away. Breakfast, delivered in handmade baskets, features freshly baked bread and local graviera cheese; the restaurant at Acro offers Cretan food such as gamopilafo, a rice-and-meat dish often served at celebrations. One-bedroom villas from about $1,300 a night including breakfast, three-night minimum stay; tierrasvillas.com.

Source: nytimes.com