CASTELLO INFINITY SUITES

Where do we start… the good bits first. The staff are superb. Cannot do enough for you. We were not made aware that you need a car. Public transport is very limited and taxis expensive. We booked the black pearl suites. And the room is lovely. But if you are expecting any sun, forget it. We were hoping to relax by the plunge pool in the day and go out in the evening. But the rooms do not get any sun. Nothing. Not a single ray of sun. So plunge pool was never used. We asked to be moved but no rooms were available. We tried and tried to be moved. To be honest, we got very upset. This was meant to be a special holiday, and it’s not cheap! But we ended up fighting for sun beds on the small beach, which goes against the whole idea of booking these rooms. We like our privacy. And because we had to go out so much because the room was so cold and dark, we spent a lot more money. If you don’t mind shade, great!! But literally, third is the worst holiday we have ever had and we have already put complaints in as soon as we came home. It’s upset us so much, we will never return to Crete again.

What a fantastic experience in this 5 star hotel. It is situated on the end of the bay and only minutes from all of the local Taverna’s The staff are extremely professional and most helpful I emailed the hotel prior to our holiday and Pela responded very quickly Other than breakfast, which again was 5 star we did not eat at the hotel The rooms with the plunge pools we well equipped and very comfortable I would not hesitate in returning to this fantastic hotel

From the time we checked in until we checked out, staying at this hotel has been an exceptional experience. You are in a bay surrounded by restaurants and shops where the beach is two steps from the hotel. The staff is so nice and attentive. We were upgraded to a much bigger suite. What a view with your own private plung pool/hot tub! We rented a car through the hotel. Very easy and affordable. The onsite restaurant is a must with delicious food and service. Crete and this hotel has been our “coup de cœur” of our Greece trip after visiting Athens, Santorini and Mykonos. Thank you Castillo Infinity suites for forever memories of our stay at your beautiful hotel. We will be back one day!

Looking for somewhere warm to just kick back, relax and do as little as possible we probably looked at 100+ boutique hotels and resorts around the Med, until we came across Castello Infinity in Ayia Pelagia and something from the pictures and reviews said "this was the one". And it certainly did not let us down in a delightful and relaxing week. Everything we could have asked for and more. The Hotel is only twenty minutes around the headland from the airport at Heraklion and we’d strongly recommend a taxi transfer that delivers you to the door. 20 minutes from walking out of arrivals at the airport. The hotel is sited at one end of the calm bay and beach-front of Ayia Pelagia, which itself is a small but delightful village nestled against the clear blue waters of Crete’s north coast. A very slick, friendly and professional welcome, but more about the fantastic staff at Castello later. We had booked quite late and had an Aquamarine mountain rather than sea view suite, which turned out to be a stroke of luck due to the hotel’s position within the local topography. And thus we found ourselves in room 1201 on the second floor, and being the first room on the corridor enjoying an expansive and more spacious balcony area. The room was a very good size, with fairly minimalist but fitting decor. Important points about any hotel: Pillows - excellent; mattress - verging on the firm side of firm but very comfortable; Shower Pressure - excellent with both a waterfall and hand held shower; Hot Water - plentiful. Add to this plentiful wardrobe and shelving space; coffee machine; safe; a wonderful standalone full length mirror, effective air-con; excellent wi-fi, electronically controlled black out blinds including bedside controls; and the ubiquitous large TV - not that we flew to Crete to watch television. Lovely bathroom; both room and beach towels provided. Everything pristinely clean. Big tick. But somewhat pales in comparison when you step out onto the west facing and spacious balcony. Two very comfortable sun loungers, a spacious area for the table and two chairs; and the piece de resistance the plunge pool glistening in the sun. A good size being probably around 3m long and 1.75m across. 180 degree view from the balcony taking in the fairly steep hillsides rising up from the village and giving a spectacular view of the beach front and much of the bay. Given the aspect somewhat shaded in the morning, but the table and plunge pool picked up the sun from mid morning, and the whole balcony not long thereafter until the sun started to set behind the mountains. Whilst not the more premium suites offered by the hotel we’d much prefer this over the ground floor mezzanine suites. On the tick list: Balcony even bigger tick. The restaurant and bar area is mainly outside on the first floor of the hotel with tables set to offer a wonderful view of the beach front and sea. Breakfast has a fairly extensive and delightful menu, plus a buffet for fruit, savouries etc. “Pie of the Day” may all sound a bit Lancastrian but it is far from it. The evening half-board menu still offers a good choice - half-dozen starters and a similar number of main courses, and with a single desert choice that changed each evening. That said the a la carte has a wider selection for all courses, and we did dither over that when booking. Something of a coin toss in the end. All the menus can be viewed on the hotel restuarant website. Suffice to say though that the food is delightful - our standout favourites probably the mushroom risotto, and thinly sliced pork with a potato puree from the starters, but harder again to pick just one or two from the mains as almost all were true standouts in terms of flavour and presentation. Cabbage risotto might sound like something more at home in the gulag but it was delightful. One small critique might be that the menu wording for that and the chicken could be more enticing for any less inclined to take a leap of gastronomic faith. Both of these dishes looked and more importantly tasted great. As for the desserts - yummy! Greek and even moreso Cretan wines are not really that mainstream in the UK. So having a wine list largely made up of Cretan and Greek wines was a delight to explore. We are no great lovers of Rose (wine), but the Moni Hilandariou was a quite divine revelation (no pun intended) and whilst we were more likely to have a red or white with dinner each one we tried was a treat for the palette. The wines were also reasonably priced being mainly in the 27 to 35 euro per bottle range, although the number with a single glass order option was limited. There was a fine range of cocktails - including low alcohol and non-alcoholic options - and spirits. The latter, although we only had a post dinner drink on a couple of evenings - served with delightful chocolate buttons, nuts and dried figs. Food and drinks therefore another massive tick. Which takes us to the third critical element in any great hotel - the staff. The staff at Castello Infinity Suites are way beyond 5 stars. Positively galactic in their stariness. Housekeeping, the unsung, and often by the guest, unseen heroes in any hotel were wonderful leaving our room perfect every day; reception could not be friendlier or more helpful, even apologising for the weather on the one afternoon when we had rain. The restaurant and bar staff who of course we saw most regularly deserve the most fulsome praise. Always welcoming and smiling; great service; simply brilliant. There are not enough words to do them full justice or name check each and everyone one of them. SIMPLY BRILLIANT will have to do. Beyond the hotel Crete has of course lots to offer and whilst not something we wanted to do on this trip there seemed to be plenty of car hire options for those keen to explore more of the island. Ayia Pelagia is fairly quiet - it's never going to be the setting for an Inbetweeners movie!, or attract the typical Stag or Hen party crowd. If bustling nightlife stretching well into if not beyond the early hours is your thing then neither Castello Infiniy nor Ayia Pelagia itself are going to be the places for you. The beach front is lined with restuarants so plenty of choice if not dining at the hotel; no obvious pure bars, and no obvious nightclub, let alone nightclubs. Or if there is one it was remarkably quiet. At the other end of the beach there is a large resort hotel / complex - Out of the Blue - which seemed a more gated community, and with far more than the maybe 30 rooms that Castello Infinity has. The beach itself is quite narrow and does get fairly busy - but not oppresively so, though this may be different at the height of the season in July and August, Sun loungers plus a shade are a quite reasonable 10 euros for the day, but on most days we were there were pretty much all taken by 11:00. Although we had no problem finding one heading out just after 10:00. The sea is definitely warm, and with the bay being fairly sheltered the water is clear and ideal for snorkelling. It also has a lifeguard station and very clearly demarcated lines of buoys to keep the small motorboats that could be hired separate from swimmers.

This hotel was a bit of a surprise package to us. The room with sea view was excellent, and we loved the private pool. The sea view rooms face north, so get no sunshine throughout the day. Unfortunately, the hotel has no pool other than the small private ones and very limited outdoor space ( there was one space with only 4 sunbeds, and this was permanently in use by early rising sunbed hoggers. The local beach is very close to the hotel, but it is very narrow and absolutely rammed throughout the day, with sunbeds all taken up from quite early in the day. This, of course, is not the fault of the hotel, but it seemed surprising that a new upmarket hotel should not have been designed to provide more external space and a large pool. The outstanding features of the hotel, for us, were the delightful staff and the overall attentive service we enjoyed. We did experience a few adverse issues one day, but the response from management and staff was outstanding. Breakfast was very good for a relatively small hotel and was made particularly enjoyable by the delightful young serving staff. Thank you, particularly Harry, Bindi, and Katarina. Nearby is an extensive selection of very good, reasonably priced tavernas and restaurants.