Elvira Hotel – Stalis – Crete

After reading various reports about the Elvira Hotel Hotel on Crete we arrived in the resort of Stalis thinking this is going to be the Holiday from Hell. There was no one there to greet us but it was 4am in the morning to be fair.  

But how wrong we were – As a family run hotel, some things seemed a bit unusual, but nothing that the experienced traveller has not seen before. The Room was Ok - a bit on the small side and basic but everything was clean & cleaned on a daily basis. The shower worked, the toilet worked, there was electricity, the beds were comfortable & the doors locked.

Air conditioning was available for a fee of £30 per week but this seems standard for Crete. The fan @ £12 per week works fine & does the job adequately.

Breakfast was continental (read, basic) with coffee bread, jam, a hard boiled egg & finally some cake. all well presented & your choice if you attended. Having this every day was a bit boring but the local Taverna did a Full English @ £2.80 so the option is there.

The Elvira’s pool was well maintained, the gardens are very tidy, the reception area & lobby were clean too. The Reception was unmanned but the ladies that run the hotel were always around if there was an issue. All the shops etc. are about a 5 minute walk but be careful of the millions of quad bikes on the roads!

Overall the hotel deserved a mark of 8/10. They were friendly & very helpful people & made our stay memorable.  A small minus point for some may be the old lady that runs the hotel speaks very little English although her 3 daughters help out and they all they speak perfect English.