Castro Hotel

1 reader found this review helpful

As a family of five we loved this hotel. The rooms were comfortable,a good size and cleaned daily. The pool was right outside the rooms and was very clean (and refreshing!)never too full and always plenty of sun loungers available. The food was good for our bed, breakfast and evening meal package. Also an excellent base for exploring the rest of Crete (by car). Bus trips to Heraklion were dirt cheap. The staff were extremely pleasant and helpful. Even had free wireless in the reception!

1 reader found this review helpful

room basic but adequate, room was clean, linen changed regularly. br4eakfast was again basic,but you could get refils, outsidearea was clean , ands the pool was excellent, plenty of sunbeds, 10 meters away there is a wll stocked supermarket. 40 meters away is the pythia cafe bar, good music and excellent beer, great mine hosts in george and vesna, weel worth a visit.

4 readers found this review helpful

I stayed here for ten days half board in July 2010. Booked via Cooperative travel and found the price very reasonable especially being a single traveller. I found the hotel very noisy - this is mainly due to the fact that that is it on a road junction so you get lorries, mopeds, etc revving when pulling off. I had to buy some ear plugs to get some sleep. But, apart from that i had no complaints, food lovely, lovely outdoorish restaurant area, manager (great bloke!) and staff very friendly, nice clean small pool area (but i am a beach person so cant judge). The resort was more 'Greek' than British (i sensed a lot of of greeks were on hol there or come from the nearby capital Iraklio (Heraklion) this was good. Good beach nearby, hardly any 'British' hooligans there (comparing the day the day i went to Malia... young girls drunk in the middle of the afternoon and loud, gross emabarrassing behaviour - made me ashamed to be British). Ample bars and tavernas and gift shops. Excellent base to hire a car and explore the whole island (which i did) and the capital is not far on the bus or you can walk along sandy beaches (about 5 km). Captital was lovely had a real buzz to it. Weather was not as hot as i was expecting for mid July about 30 degrees and windy. Beautiful, surprisingly unspoilt island well worth a visit.
My room was lovely and clean, never seen a cockroach, fridge included which is very handy and little shop next door. All i all given the price i would go back there (but i dont do this as it is a big world out there to see).
I found Greece expensive though(esp petrol), compared to earlier years i have been. They need to realise we are now only getting 1.14 to the pound whereas a few years ago it was 1.46 but shop around: in one bar a pint was five euros whereas next door it was 2.50. Barter for car hire too and get a deal.

this hotel is awful. I stayed there with my wife and will not be there ever again ever. The room was dirty and smelled bad. We asked to change our room and were very rude. Eventually they changed our room and it was worse. it even had cockroaches. The breakfast was very poor and poor.

7 readers found this review helpful

My husband and I have just come back from one of the best 2 week holidays we've ever had in the Castro Hotel, Ammoudara, Crete. I am basing this review on the fact that we knew before we left that it was going to be basic and therefore weren't expecting five star luxury however we were very pleasantly surprised. As mentioned in the review below the rooms were basic however they were very clean with maid service almost every day and contained a hair dryer, satellite tv (the Greeks have American / British programmes and films in English with Greek subtitles) and a fridge with a litte freezer shelf.
We went half board and for breakfast there was bread, ham, cheese, jam, cornflakes, melon, tea coffee and juice. The best thing however was the evening meals. Although we went half board and had many of the included meals which were buffet style (different selection everyday - always salads - pasta night, curry and rice night, fish, roast turkey dinner etc) if you didn't fancy what was on offer on a particular evening, if you went into the hotel's restaurant Maxim, they would give you a hefty dicount off your bill there. The food there was out of this world. We had fillet steak, sweet and sour, pasta, pizza, fish and much much more and because of the large discount for paying to go half board sometimes we paid as litle as 3 euros total for our meals!
What really made the holiday though was the friendliness of the staff. In particular, Matteo and Nikolas spoke excellent English and went out of their way to ensure you had everything you wanted and even stopped their work to chat with you. They really were lovely and I can't praise them enough. Alex who worked at the Pool Bar and were oversaw the running of the half board evening meals was also very friendly and helpful.
The hotel is only a 20 minute bus ride to and from the airport at a cost of 1.50 euro and the same distance from the Crete capital of Heraklion where you could then go on a bus to a number of different destinations. The bus stop is right ouside the hotel. It is therefore ideally located. Ammoudara itself has plenty of shops, bars and restaurants which go on for about a mile and literally a 10 second walk from the hotel and the beach is a 5 minute walk away from which there is a fantastic constant, cooling breeze which was perfect. There is also a cinema there which show all the English films with Greek subtitles!
There are only 2 minor downsides which are that it costs 5 euros a night for air conditioning which works out as quite expensive on a two week break. We therefore only had this for the last 2 nights and therefore had to have the balcony doors open for the other nights which brings me on to the only other downside which was the noise of the motorbikes and cars going up and down the road. Because we had the door open and because of how centrally the hotel is located it could be very loud at night going into the early hours. However if you close the door the noise was blocked out and I would therefore recommend the air conditioning.
All in all this was a fantastic place for a holiday. We will definitely be going again and I would recommend it to everyone.

2 readers found this review helpful

excellent value for money stayed for 2 wks on bed and breakfast.Ok breakfast a bit plain but plenty to fill up on!!...hotel amnd staff excellent rooms clean 5 mins to ocean like the caribbean breathe taking..eat at the main bar food excellent on water front called heaven,bus to heraklion every 20 mins good mkts,last min shop.one of the best holidays ever.pool facilities big enough to swim and v clean.

2 readers found this review helpful

This was two of the most fantastic weeks of my year. Absolutely fantastic. The food in the hotel was gorgeous. Much better than most of the restaurants. The staff were really friendly; especially the waiters, made good friends with them and they treated us very well. The rooms were very basic but, you don’t go on holiday to sit around in the rooms all day do you!
The general area is good as well, as everything is only a short walk away. Only a few mins to the beach, bars, restaurants and shops. I highly recommend the Arabian Shisha bar, its a bit more of a walk. Basically you just carry on through the town until you get there, it lovely. The manager there was a star. Treated us brilliantly and we even went out to the local clubs on his evening off!!!!
I found my stay really enjoyable and made some really nice friends in the hotel.
The only things I will say is, the breakfast was nothing special. So normally slept on....
And the cleaners, if you do choose to sleep in you will get the cleaners banging on the door..... Bit of a pain but..... Oh well.
But I really recommend this place. You will have a great holiday.

1 reader found this review helpful

First the good points: the staff is indeed quite friendly and the hotel is very cheap. The rooms in the new building are nice enough. Breakfast is functional, but ok.
However, I have never stayed in such a noisy place (combination of different factors, such as location on a main street junction, a la carte restaurant with associated kitchen in the main building, sound carrying construction of the building)! Avoid being placed in the 'old' main building at all costs, as it is the worst there (having spent a sleepless first night behind the kitchen)!
The rooms are not cleaned on Sundays, and fresh towels are only provided every 4 to 5 days.
Also, be prepared for the additional costs of air con, necessary for a nights sleep more for noise and mosquito than temperature reasons.
Amoudara is not the most scenic place, and most of the hotels are located on the main road away from the beach. However, the people are very very friendly, and there are many local amenities, shops, bars and restaurants being plentiful and very reasonably priced. The beach isn't bad.

1 reader found this review helpful

Just got back and we're already looking forward to going back again next year.
Ok so the rooms are basic but they have all the essentials and are kept spotlessly clean. The pool was clean and uncrowded. The staff were welcoming and very helpful.
The taverna's in Amoudara in general were very good but Maxim's - the hotel restaurant - was outstanding cuisine, very reasonably priced.
We went to Crete for a week in the sun and for the food and were not disappointed in either. And the Castro Hotel played a big part in our having such a great time.

3 readers found this review helpful

I've just got back from Crete with my wife and two children (boy, 14 & girl, 11).
We were hesitant to book this accommodation having read the other reviews first but for £135 half-board for one week we decided it was too cheap not to take a chance.
In the end, both my wife and I were glad we did.
When we arrived, one of the managers, Manos, helped us with our luggage to the rooms. All the staff spoke varying levels of English, as did most of the people that we came across at the resort, and we found everyone to be very friendly and welcoming.
The rooms were a little basic but clean and functional. We had a large fridge to keep a few groceries in. The maids came everyday and did a good job. There was one tv in the bedroom and it only showed Greek programmes, except in the evening, when some of them showed films in English with Greek subtitles. This kept our son amused when we returned to the apartment in the evening.
Because we went half-board we had a (limited) choice of the full menu for our evening meal; the main course was always included and you got the choice of a starter or dessert at no extra cost. The adult menu was typical Greek fayre whereas the kids' menu was pizza, burgers etc. The hotel manager and waiters all made a big fuss of the children at meal-times and were very flexible with the menu as long as the price of the meal was about the same. The nice thing was, we would go down for our evening meal and it would only cost us the price of the drinks (about 6 Euros for four soft drinks) plus a tip.
Because we went a week before half-term, the resort of Amadoura was very quiet. It was obvious that the bars, restaurants etc were getting ready for the start of the season. This meant that the hotel was virtually empty.
There was a mixture of nationalities staying at Castro with English, Scottish, German and Scandinavians all gathered around the pool at any one time. The atmosphere was very pleasant and respectful. The pool wasn't particularly clean - i had my mask on underneath the water and it was cloudy - but we're still here to tell the tale!
The 'sea-view' from the room was stretching it a little - although the sea was visible it was still some distance away. It was probably best-viewed from the balcony as on closer inspection it was a bit dirty and the sea full of weed; the power plant, or whatever it was, further down the beach, was a little disconcerting and blighted the beautiful landscape somewhat. Incidentally, the beaches seemed to get better the closer you got to the Heraklion airport.
It's true what the other person said - there were lots of young people whizzing round on mopeds and in 'hot-hatches' with the music blasting but that was all part of the experience and anyway, it was only really noticeable on the restaurant patio which is next to a busy road; the room and pool area were both very quiet.
We managed to flood the room a couple of times due to a dodgy shower curtain and poor drainage in the bathroom. We notified the front desk and they sent a plumber up the move the shower-head, only the hose was too short and were supposed to be getting a longer one. This never materialized and I was, well, to lazy to complain so we had sit down showers for the rest of the week! Ah well, when in Greece...
There wasn't much for kids to do at the hotel except swim - even a pool table in the hotel would have eased some of their boredom in the evenings. The internet cafe down the road saved us for a few nights and a day-trip to the water park in the hills was a highlight. Perhaps if we'd gone a bit later in the season there'd have been more kids for them to socialise with but my wife and I were quite happy with the peace and quiet plus it meant we did things as a family instead of having 1000 kids running around after some obnoxious kids club rep!
In summary, we paid less than £20 a day to stay at the Castro for the four of us including a proper evening meal which the kids ate - that takes some beating. If I had paid more perhaps things would have niggled me more but once I saw that it had a roof and running water, everything else was a bonus.
PS The weather was gorgeous everyday while it poured in England ha ha :O)