Who has a villa for rental for 5 people in the South of Crete (Greek
Island) close to
a scuba diving centre for the week of 3rd to 10th August 2002?

Hello chatanoo-ga (I like that - very clever),

The following link will take you to the Blue Planet Crete main
(English) home page - a scuba diving school located near the city of
Ierapetra in southern Crete:

http://www.blueplanetcrete.com/english/where.html 

If you click on the WHERE TO FIND US link, you'll see the location
information. If you click the CONTACT US link, you'll see their
contact information:

BLUE PLANET CRETE 
PETRAMARE HOTEL
P.O BOX 
IRAPETRA, CRETE 
PHONE: + 30 - 8420 - 23341 - 9 
PHONE/FAX: + 30 - 8410 - 61376 
E-MAIL: blueplanetcrete@hotmail.com 

This was the only scuba diving facility I could find in southern Crete
(although there were many in northern Crete). There appeared to be
another called Scuba Dream Diving Centre but I don't believe it exists
any longer since the information only appears on a cached page:

://www.google.ca/search?q=cache:gk7qrOG_UwoC:www.padi.com/padi/offices/worldwide/news/newdcnr.asp+%2B%22scuba+dream%22+%2Bierapetra&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

For accommodations, I concentrated mainly in the Ierapetra area as
this was where the scuba diving facility is located. The following
link takes you to the Nicolas Apartments, located on the 3 km from
Ierapetra:

http://www.geocities.com/nicolasapart/indexe.html 

The apartments can accommodate up to 5 people. The page provides
further information such as amenities, activities, contact
information, etc. It also mentions that scuba diving is available at
the diving school 200 metres along the beachfront. I'm assuming this
is the Blue Planet Crete facility.

I also came across a few more accommodations from the Smart Holidays
link below:

http://www.smart-holidays.com.gr/English/English/e.Exquisite/creteexqusite.htm

Ierapetra - Koutsounari Cottages (5 to 6 people):

http://www.smart-holidays.com.gr/English/English/e.Exquisite/Koutsounari/e.koutsounari.htm

Ierapetra - Patriko Traditional House (6 to 9 people):

http://www.smart-holidays.com.gr/English/English/e.Exquisite/Patriko%20House/e.housepatriko.htm

Matala (on the southwestern coast) - Archontariki Villa (4 to 5
people)

http://www.smart-holidays.com.gr/English/English/e.Exquisite/Archontariki%20Villa/e.villaarchontariki.htm

Here also is a link to the Petra Mare Hotel. I just wanted to add this
page as this is where the Blue Planet Crete scuba facility is located.

http://www.hellenic-philoxenia.gr/D_crete/P_lassithi/H_lassithi/petramare.htm

Unfortunately, none of the above hotel/villa links offered a method of
checking their availability online. Therefore, I don't know if any of
these places are available from 3rd to 10th August 2002, your
timeframe. You will likely have to call them or e-mail them to find
out.

I hope this information helps you with your diving and accommodations
quest and I hope you have a wonderful time in Crete. It is on my long
list of beautiful places to visit in this world!

Regards,

ames

The only scuba centres I have found are on the northern coast:
Hersonissos (heaven forbid!), Agios Nikolaos (very nice town), a place
17 km from Heraklion, and Sitia.  Apparently there are more
restrictions on where you can do scuba diving than on where you can do
skin diving.  Apparently, this is concerned with protection of any
antiquities that might not yet have been recovered from the sea bed.

Best of luck, and I hope you enjoy Crete, it's a fantastic place!