Hotel Kasteli Reviews

Kasteli Hotel:

The Kasteli Hotel is a nice hotel with gorgeous sea views at the rear of the hotel. The hotel itself is very clean and well maintained. Our room was cleaned regularly and towels and sheets changed twice a week. The pool has a small snack bar, which is open from 10am to 6pm, the choice of food was limited to sandwiches and salads. The pool itself was nice although the insects and leaves blown into it could be a pain when the wind blew (though the barmaid did her best to clear the pool with a net during the day). The staff were very friendly and helpful. The hotel is on a hill so the walk back after a night out can take a while (especially after a few ouzos!)-having said that the views make the walk worthwhile.

Pythagorion:

This is a lovely harbour town with lots of good bars and restaurants. There are some decent jewellery shops and a couple of lovely craft shops (selling wooden toys etc) but most of the souvenir shops offer the usual tack! Visitors to the resort were mainly couples and families with a large proportion of them being Dutch, German or Scandinavian.
The beaches were pebbly/shingly but the sea was lovely and clear.
There are ancient ruins everywhere you look in Pythagorion, although they are not well described the way they would be at home.

Eating and Drinking:

There are many good restaurants in Pythagorion. In our opinion the best restaurants were not on the waterside, you got better quality and value in restaurants down side streets and at the end of the harbour next to Remataki beach. Our top five restaurants are:
1) Faros (next to Remataki). Excellent location, good house wine, very friendly service, very good value for money. Recommend: meze starter for 2 (yummy chick pea balls) and stifado. The Poseidon next door was also very good

2) Esperedes (back streets). Very popular restaurant the food was as good as Faros but the location was not as good. They have a more extensive menu than many other restaurants.

3) Riva (by the castle). Excellent location, literally right next to the sea. Excellent food and value for money. Recommend: seafood linguine.

4) Viva (on the harbour right at the very end). Don't be put off by the appearance of this restaurant, the lights are very bright inside!! Once inside the food is excellent even if it is only Italian!! STARVE YOURSELF BEFOREHAND! Nice touches like olive paste with your bread.

5) La Strada (off the main road down a side street). Another pizza restaurant but also very good. Nice atmosphere and huge pizza's. Very friendly staff (and kittens).

There are also lots of good bars. The bars along the harbour are ideal for people watching! Our personal favourites were:
The Iliad, owned by Sandy (a Kiwi). Sandy is very friendly and welcoming. Her bar is full of lots of fun toys sent to her by friends around the world. We especially loved her hot-shots at the end of the night.
Barfly is a good bar to go to if you like good music (i.e. Red Hot Chilli Peppers, U2, REM, The Rolling Stones as well as old classics).
Other bars worth mentioning are Gregory's bar, Thomas' and Summertime bar. Another bar worth a mention is the one at the far left of the harbour (towards Remataki beach) that has an excellent selection of world beers.

Excursions:

Although local beaches are shingly there is an absolutely gorgeous sandy beach called Psili Amos near Pythagorion (not to be confused with the Psili Amos beach in the west of the island). You can catch a boat there from the harbour for 10E return. Be prepared to drink Samos' excellent sweet wine as soon as the boat leaves the harbour.

We also went on a boat trip with Adonis and had a wonderful day. He is very friendly and makes you feel at home on his boat. We stopped at Psili Amos and Kervelli where we swam and snorkelled in a secluded cove and used his kayak. We had lunch on the boat at Kervelli cooked by Adonis and Papa. The lunch itself was excellent. The day cost 23E and was well worth it for a really relaxing day.

We did a trip to Ephesus (Turkey) which was amazing. The ancient Roman ruins were in excellent condition. We booked this through Rhenia tours, save yourself a few euros and don't go with Thomson. As it happened we were on the same boat as the Thomson customers and paid at least 10E less. Our Turkish guide was very informative and good fun. The only downside to this trip was the port Kusadasi. Be prepared to be constantly hassled by Turkish shopkeepers trying to sell you anything under the sun. We were relieved to get back to Greece!

Potami waterfalls are worth a visit, but only for the fit and brave! There is quite a walk, a very steep climb up steps and then a paddle (!) to get to the waterfalls and they are freezing!! Sturdy sandals are a must.

We hired a car for four days for 80E from Kiklos Cars. Again we saved a fortune by not renting from Thomson. Just make sure you check you have full insurance, the above price included this. Beware if you hire a small car (we had some kind of Subaru) and fill it up the chances are you will give it back with most of your petrol still left, they are VERY economical!

Also worth the trip is Manolates. Don't be too put off by the roads, it really isn't that bad to get to! Once there we had a look around the village and then ate at Loukas Taverna. The views from there are amazing and the food is really good and very cheap.

If you like your history the museum in Samos Town is worth going to. There are hundreds of items on display and they well documented in English. The Kouros is very impressive as are many of the smaller items. Many of the items were recovered from Samos itself.

All in all we had a fantastic time in Samos. It is a brilliant place to recharge your batteries but there is also a lot to see and do. We like to go to a different Island every year but definitely wouldn't mind going back to Samos when we have exhausted all the others!!

This was the first time to Samos and I must say it is a beautiful island with alot of scenery. If you want a lively holiday Samos is not for you. It is nice for a relaxing holiday to get away from it all. We went on a tour around the island booked it with the Thompson Rep. and it was first class. The guide was very informative. Pythagorion is a harbour small town with lots of tavernas and bars along the harbour.

The accommodation was very disappointing.
We had self catering and based in the basement on the edge of the property near the main road. This road is the one that goes to Samos so you get heavy traffic passing as early as 5.00 in the morning. If that didn't wake you up then the men on the building site in the next block would. (This was not pointed out in the brochure). By the time we came to go home our clothes were damp as we were in the basement.

There was no bar in the hotel at all, only a pool bar which was open to 6.00 pm. The pool did not have toilet factilites and the pool itself was dirty. Reception was supposed to be open at certain times but it was very hard to find anyone around, and my last winge the dining room where the breakfast was served was in the reception area. The family who ran the hotel were very friendly. Still you only get what you pay for and it was a cheapy holiday for a week. The island itself made up for anything else.