Not a bad little hotel. The staff are all lovely and friendly and will help you if you need it! There's a lovely beach only 2 mins away and the pool is nice and clean. Although there are a lot of bad reviews, it's not all that bad if you haven't paid for a 5* hotel!! Although the room wasn't massive, the place was cleaned everyday and we were in the old block, but we did get a cheap deal so can't really complain! It was a nice base for getting out and around the island! We liked it.

We came home a week ago from a three week long trip to Crete where we stayed at Castro Hotel in ammoudara right outside Heraklion.
We wanted a greek holiday and are from sweden so we dont care about the tea and full english breakfurst. We got a really nice 2 room apart with 2 balconys, one in the shadow and one towards the pool and afternoon sun.
The staff of the hotel is very freindly and they made us feel at home.
Restaurang Maxim at the hotel also have exellent greek food, sorry brits they havent fish and chips and the rest of your awful cuisine.
Ammoudara inst very exiting but have a nice beach and is perfectly located for trips around crete. Bali is a place we highly recommend to visist when you are on Crete.

Be Warned - this hotel has three blocks - two newer modern ones at the rear by the pool which seem to be reserved for tour operator guests. The third, the original hotel is on a very NOISY road, the rooms have zero soundproofing - we were kept awake by neighbours rowing, a baby crying in a room at the opposite end of the corridor, footsteps above, clattering below & traffic! Air con is next to useless, TV has greek channels only & if you open the balcony windows in the evening there are visiting cockroaches. Breakfast was variably adequate, cornflakes reliably stale. The staff were less than helpful + speak minimal English. Security is very poor. On the plus side, the pool is nice, the location has a reasonable beach & bus service to Heraklion & airport stops right outside the hotel every 20mins - you have to buy tickets from a supermarket first though, you can't buy them on the bus.

Thank goodness we were there for only one night - put up there by Thomas Cook as our plane had been delayed. There was a party going on all night until 5 or 6 in the morning so absolutely no sleep. We were right next to the kitchen, reception and bar which was noisy and people slamming doors all the time. We were desperate for a sleep because of our delay but not a chance. The food was very mediocre to say the least.