St. Constantin Village

2 readers found this review helpful

Me and my Mother just came back from St. Constantine’s after lovely two weeks holiday and can’t fault it in any way at all, the lovely hotel and most helpful staff made our stay very comfortable and relaxing, as well very special.
If you are looking for the hotel that offers plenty of Greek charm, put this place at the top of your wish list. There is a lot to be said for a family run, just a right size, peaceful hotel. If you’re looking to really chill out, you won’t get much charm and peace at a bustling mega hotel in the centre of busy resort. You’ll not find a huge and loud resort packed with guests (mind we were staying in the end of season), but that’s its charm. What you get is a pin-drop peace and quiet, along with a lot of good old fashioned Greek hospitality.
Well designed complex and the accommodation was a 1’st class, immaculately clean, and very spacious. On arrival we were surprised to see that up keeping of St. Constantine’s apartments was as good as we seen in five star hotels, everything was spotless, which for apartments can vary greatly. Rooms are cleaned every day, towels and bedding changed regularly except Sundays. All rooms have free air-con, well designed kitchenette, dining area, balcony or terrace and lovely bathrooms. I haven’t seen other rooms but ours had shower over the bath what we found as an added bonus.
The two swimming pools are kept in tip top condition and there are plenty of sun beds and umbrellas so there is no need to put your towels down before sunrise, and what a better way to enjoy the calm surroundings then from the comfort of the lounger. There are couple of pool tables, children play area and internet access for a small price. Hotel restaurant serves delicious and fresh food with the great choice and variety. What impressed me and my mother the most is the wonderful church in between old and new buildings with its gorgeous exterior and beautiful hand painted pictures of the saints inside.
The location of the hotel was perfect, not too far to the centre of Gouves, with it lively bars, charming tavernas, shops and supermarkets, but far enough not to be too noisy. Hotel is stone’s throw away from the beach which was, like the hotel, clean and worm.
And last but not least – I can never remember being made more welcome anywhere, all staff was both professional and friendly and most of them had a wonderful sense of humour. Nothing ever was too much trouble. Special mentions have to be made to Maria (receptionist)- very professional, friendly and goes out of her way to help every guest (and that comes from Front of house senior staff member in one of the busiest hotels in Newcastle, UK), wouldn’t say the same about another girl in reception but that’s just my opinion. Katherine (reservations) – what a welcoming smile, thanks for directions. Dimo & Ben – the atmosphere behind the bar would not be same without you, great sense of humour and nice “Ursus”. Housekeeping ladies – immaculately clean rooms and public areas, very well organised. And George (the owner) – absolutely great job!
It’s absolute quality, simple as that, because it ticks all the boxes. We would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending St. Constantine’s to anyone. We had the fabulous stay and two weeks wasn’t enough....
Efcharisto everyone for the lovely holiday....

1 reader found this review helpful

From the moment of check- in, to the time of our departure, we ,Joanna & Virgil Smith (room 2010),were spoiled.
The wonderfull staff,food and superb accomodations,
hats off to all of you and especially to Kinga(reception),Maria (restaurant),the wonderful girl sweating over the hot plate kooking omllets at breakfast,to Bogdan the guy with irresistible smile and kindness and never the less to the bar tenders!!!
Thank you all and see you very,very soon.
Love, Virgil &Joanna from California.

3 readers found this review helpful

On arrival, was shown to a room up 2 flights of stairs. Not the handiest when you've got two kids under the age of 3 with you. Anyway, room was ok, bit tired looking to be honest, bathroom could do with a refurb, but everything seemed to work. As we settled down to an early night(1st night) we were all woken by the noise from the pool bar. Karaoke night was the worst, must have dragged on till 2ish. Once the music stopped there was a banging from the water pipes on the roof all night. Then on the third day the hot water started playing up. Fixed straight away. Next day off again. Report it to reception. Not fixed. Next day tell reception again, not fixed again. The weather had been rubbish aswell, so we were pretty fed up at this point.After 3 days with no hot water, I demanded they move us. This is when they moved us to the new building(what?) Apparently our tour operator doesn't book these rooms,more expensive. All russians apparently. Everything worked like a dream(the a/c was wonky in old apartment) we actually had a double bed,(instead of 2 singles pushed together) and the bathroom had no mold, which was nice. We couldn't here a thing at night from the bar and no banging! Was like a different hotel.
At this point the weather changed for the better and we had a great second week. Not much to do in gouves but the people are the friendliest i've ever met. If I had to go back to this hotel I would definitley pay the extra £100 per week/per person for the new building. The hotel didn't charge us due to the inconveniance.
The restaurant is pretty rubbish(the russians are all inclusive, (so everything is just ok enough I would say.) Much better value at the local greek places.
The main street is over a mile along the beach road I reckon, but a few shops and pubs near the hotel.
And if you are taking a kid in nappies, take them with you. We had to pay over 15 euros for a pack of 36, which costs you about a fiver here.

5 readers found this review helpful

Arrived mid afternoon, to some clouds :( only people on our flight staying here, so straight into reception, handed over passports, had room keys in 5 mins. We had 7 people in our party and 2 rooms, next door to each other, one was a maisonette, one a standard room. In the bigger we had a large kitchen living area, 3 single beds, table chairs, good kitchen and bathroom with shower. Upstairs we had a huge bedroom, huge double double bed, huge balcony and bathroom with shower and bath. The second room had 3 beds and a kitchen then 3 steps up to bathroom with bath and shower and a large double room with good size balcony. We were right by the smaller pool area, which was great having a disabled person with us for ease of everything. The pool area was clean and tidy and the sunbeds were the best quality beds I have seen in 20 years of travelling abroad, wicker, high end beds, although unless you positioned yourself right they dig into your back a bit...never satisfied eh :-)
The complex was really big, small church at the back too. There was a really big pool higher up the complex, with loads of sunbeds and a pool bar at both pools. There were disabled access ramps all around the place, in truth they were atad steep, but the whole place was accessible. The buildings were all clean and tidy looking, all very presentable. There was a PC in the reception area and a Playstation 2 for the kids, and a small supermarket in reception.
The staff were helpful and friendly, especially the bar staff (which is usually the caese wherever you go) Benny & Dimos, lovely guys.
The cleaners came in every day, they were around the complex all day everyday til 4.30pm and on hand if you needed them. The only let down to this place was they didn't change the towels daily, but every other day they did. The sheets were replaced every other day too, which , some people might say wasn't enough, but I certainly don't change my bed sheets 3 times a week let alone daily!So the cleaning service was good. The tap in the bathroom was a bit wonky, but was fixed straight away. No other problems at all in the week we were there.
It was quite central to most things, 20 mins from Heraklion airport, close to the beach (across the road) and a few restaurants very close by, although Mylos was my favourite, just a 5 min walk away. The hotel itself has a buffet style restaurant, 12 euros, eat as much as you want, free wine beer or coke etc, icea cream, cake, coffee, stuffed! and 10% discount for guests. Bargain and well worth it, lovely food.
15 mins away were lots more bars and restaurants, near the Aphrodite Hotel, although there weremay restaurants along the walk that way within 5 mins of this hotel.
Overall, it was a lovely holiday (bit cloudy mind, but hey it's end September and I can't write a review on the weather!) hotel overall, fab, rooms, huge, clean and everything else, fantastic! Especially the cocktails. (prices in Crete have like everywhere caught up with the rest of the world, no more cheap beers really....average for local beer large was 2.50 euro and cocktail;s 5 euro, but hey, we were on holiday and shots were given out all the time free. Entertainment was ok, but coming to end of season slightly quiet so not lot but we made our own.
I can thoroughly recommend this place, definitely going again.

1 reader found this review helpful

Only jst found out about this site, so thought i would post my comment.
Arrived early hours to be totally snubbed by guy behind desk.
Had to call home let them know we had arrived (My mobile had broken on flight so couldnt use that !!) we asked at the desk about a pay phone and after many attempts wer directed to one outside the front entrance. Found that it wouldnt dial out with phone card we had just purchased so went back inside to ask for change and again after many attempts eventually got some to find the fone still woodnt wurk !!
Anyway... Got rubbish directions to a pay phone near the beach (which was quite a walk away in a strange place at 1 am + in the morning).
Room wasnt very clean, and bathroom was black with dampness. Bath/Shower was dirty also.
Had sheets as covers and a horrible itchy throw, i found it very cold at nite inside and out.
For it being about 32 degrees outside, the pool was absolutly freezing haha.
We went in May, but most facilities (E.g. Gym, sauna etc) wer not open.
At Greek Nite, the firewurks went in wrong directions and flew into the crowd. no one was hurt but the children got a big fright.
One thing that realy anoyed me (was my first holiday so i dont know if this hapens alot), our flight wasnt until tea time'ish and got put out rooms at 12ish so we had to either pay for another room for a full night or sit in the lobby with our cases. We obv chose the room but we had asked earlier to be moved but wer told no more rooms, the one we paid for was empty all week!!
They also seem to favour regular guests, i understand this as they come back over n over again but they missed out on us returning partly due to this!
We didnt actually pick this hotel, but ours wasnt ready on time so we got placed here, But it felt like thats the way they treated us.

2 readers found this review helpful

We arrived on 02 Sep at 2200 to these apartments - we had requested that we were to stay in the new apartment block on arrival we were allocated rooms 113, 114, 115 & 117 which were in the old block above the bar - The rooms were dirty as were all the cup, plates, fridge etc. We complained to our rep from Direct holidays who said that the apartments in the new block did not belong to direct holidays and if we wanted to move it would cost us 20 euro per day extra - we had four apartments and it would have worked out to expensive to do this. So we stayed were we were, and were allocated clean cups etc. The entertainment was good but if you wanted an early night you could not have one as the music played till 2 am in the morning not ideal if you had young kids. I got talking to a couple from Dublin who said they were staying in the new block and they had taken their holiday with direct holidays so our rep had told us lies. Over all thelocation was grand beside the beach and the hotel staff were very nice. We did not meet the famous Emily whom I had read about on the internet. She seemed to busy entertaining the English folk. Benny the bar man was very grumpy. I would return to these apratments but only to the new accomodation, however our rep assured us that the apartments were being refurbished next year, not much use to us. The trips with direct holidays are very expensive and not worth the hassle averaging on 40 euro per trip with no lunch. Over all I would say staff are friendly except the Direct holidays rep, location is grand and you could have a good week if you were allocated accomodation in the new block away from the noisy bar.

2 readers found this review helpful

Stayed here at the San Constantin Village with my husband and 2 children 11years 16years and 19years old boys. We had a lovely holiday here and the staff tried to help you if they could. There are two pools within the hotel younger children i would reconded the one at the reception end of the hotel as the one at the top is more for the adults and older children. We didnt have a problem getting sunbeds however there was a lack of unbrella's.
However we did find things like the bar drinks very expence. Didn't rate the food in the hotel very highly however it was not uneatable. Our rep stef took us on a walk to gouves high street for the price of 5 euros were you get a bbq meal and you are told you will get free shots at the bars they take you to. Not everyone is given free shots and you will need to be prepared to buy drinks at these bars it is not inculded in the price you paid. The bbq was a pork steak and salad.
However do go to the high street for your evening meals. We would recomend the Atlantis restaurant , New China Restaurant but our best one ever was the Elotia restaurant. At Elotia you will be welcomed by Helen a british lady who has lived in Crete for around 10 years. Very funny and very welcoming. The food there is wounderful. We had several trips to this restaurant and even took friends with us. They cook freshly made pizza's there in a stone oven, they are out of this world. However if you dont fancy a pizza the rest of their menu is just as good. If going to Gouves you must try this place.
The high street is around a 15 minute walk from the hotel but it is worth it.

These were the best apartments my family and I hav eever stayed in, plenty of room.
The staff in particular Emily are brilliant, the place would not be as good only for Emily she brings life to the place.
the only downside for me was the fact that people returning year after year and think they own the place also the staff fuss too much over them afterall everyone who is staying there surely is equal, teenagers allowed by parents to do as they please making noise until the early hours of the morning.
if hiring a car go around the corner to Intercar a lovely gentleman and his son will not see you wrong very good rates.
The restaurants nearby are very very good in particular Da Vinci Code, Medusa, Oasis and Mylos and in the main tourist area Atlantis across the road from the Harp Irish Bar.
I will return to the San Constantin again definitely.

1 reader found this review helpful

Highley Recommended!
The Hotel Is Amazing!
Clean!
Emily And Necos Are Just So Friendly!
Are First Year And Will Be The First Out Of Millions!
My Friend Robyn I Met Over There Its Her 11Th Year And Most People That Have Been There Years Think They Own It But This Family Didn't Necos Brought My Dad And His Two Pals Out For A Game Of Golf Witch Was An Amazing Thing Too Do!
The Hotel Receptionist's Are Lovely Especially The Night Man!
Benny And Demo The Bar Staff Made Me Two Free Cocktail 3 Days In A Row And I Taught That Was Lovely!
They Were Amazing!
Emily Was Like My Sister So Nice!
The Entertainment Is Excellent!
And The BBQ And Greek Night Are Fabulous Especially The Greek Night When Me And My Pals Dressed Up...!
My Two Weeks There Were The Best Two Weeks Of My Life!
And There Will Be More!
Nicole ! Ireland

1 reader found this review helpful

San Constantin is fab. Great staff who can't do enough for you, nothing is a problem (especially Emily)! The cleaning staff were also very good (they can't speak English) but we had out bins emptied every day and towels and linen were changed every second or third day. As there are no parasols on the balconies, we asked for one and it was set up the next day. Entertainment on every night from bingo or a quiz, to movie nights, Greek night, a magacian or cabaret singer etc. It can be a bit noisy until about 12.30 or 1.00 am but we had Apartment 214 in the old part which didn't face the pool area, so the bedroom was quiet (although balcony very small). Some apartments actually have two balconies but we preferred the peace and quiet at night. Not enough sun loungers the first week we were there due to people putting their towels out at 6 am but the management and rep solved the problem by removing towels from loungers if no-one was on them and people got the message - so in the second week when we went down to the pool at 9.30 or 10.00 am we could still get sun loungers and a parasol. The guests were mostly families and our son (8) made lots of friends. The only negative was that the Thomas Cook Kids Club wasn't great as it wasn't split it into age groups, so children from 4-11 were in the same group - I don't think this was due to the Kids Club staff numbers as there were four of them, so hopefully they will rectify this. The San Constantin is about a 25/30 minute walk from the centre of Gouves, but there are plenty of local restaurants and some shops and supermarkets locally. The beach is only 2 mins walk away and costs 6 Euros for 2 loungers & parasol per day. We met many people who have returned for 5 years and more and can understand why - it is really good for families, entertainment is provided (if you want to be entertained - we didn't every night but it was good that it was on) and children are safe (two security guards patrolled at night). We'll definitely be going back.