Delfini Beach

Seventh visit to the Macadonia hotel and clearly we wouldn't keep coming back if we didn't like it. A plane spotters delight as the hotel is right at the end of the runway so you do get a good view as they land, you soon get used to the noise and there are no night flights. Warm greeting by staff on our arrival and they have catered for where are room should be situated working within their restrictions. Family friendly and a well priced snack bar and breakfast menu, the beach is approximately 400yds away and a similar distance to the main strip of Kalamaki. Rooms seem to be changed every two or three days and the general feeling of the hotel is that it is clean and tidy. Slightly annoying in that safety boxes, air con, wifi all carry an additional charge but I suppose this is all in line with other resort hotels. That aside what I particularly like about the Macadonia is it is extremely good value for money and comparing with other Kalamaki hotels it proves very competitive. We also found handy that they run their own shuttle bus to the airport for 11 euros which saves bothering with a more expensive taxi.

We wanted to stay somewhere for 2 weeks and saw the pictures online and thought this would be a great fit for us with the old rustic look and the location close to the sea (in fact JUST by the sea). The place was as good as in the pictures. Very lovely scenery, the sea just beneath the balcony and a nice outdoor tavern. We chose a room with a sea view and I higly recomend that you do that if you want to stay here. On the other side is a very busy road and you will probably hear the traffic all the time if you don't have a room on the sea view side - where you will not hear the traffic and instead waves. So do yourself a favour, upgrade to a superior room. The tavern has GREAT food. I think the tavern is called Almira. It seem to be well known as well (check out the reviews for Almira). During our 2 weeks stay we ate here twice, but we regret that we didn't eat here more since this was the best food we had in our whole stay. Also some locals who we asked for good restaurants named Almira/Delfini beach hotel. The location. Well, it is not a very child friendly location. There is the sea and you can swim, however you don't have an immidiate beach, you have to walk on stones to get to the water if you want to go directly from the hotel. There are no sunbeds and even if they had, where should they place them? There is just a tiny rocky beach where the waves sometimes makes it impossible to be there. However, if you walk 200-300 meters by the sea in the rethymnon direction you will find a place called djungle bar with a nice beach which offers free sunbeds and umbrellas if you buy something. We spent time here almost every day. To get to the city center you need to walk by the busy road. It's not a pedestrian friendly road, not much to see along the way. This part is not touristy at all so not even any cafees or taverns until you get to the center. However, there is a coffe shop which sells some basics and a small mini market just above djungle bar. Besides that, there is nothing. The walk takes approx. 25 mins to the center, but in the day and when the sun is shining that is a real pain. On day 2 we rented bicycles for a couple of days, which we then prolonged our whole stay. With a bicycle it didn't feel like any distance at all. Next door to the hotel on the left side if you are on the busy road looking at the sea is a nice tavern which seems very popular among the locals. We ate there one and it was the second best meal we had during our stay (best meal was in the hotel as I mentioned earlier). A bit furter away from rethymnon, 2-300 meter is 2-3 large upscale bars with high music and big crowds, we went to one of the bars once. People seems to come there for the view but really, you have the same view from the balcony at the hotel. This side of rethymnon is completely different to the other side, with all the hotels and touristy commerce everywhere. We kind of liked that, felt more genuine. The hotel and staff is very nice. Everybody working there is always smiling and giving good service. When we were there there was a little kitten who wandered into the tavern and meowed a lot. The staff took it under their wing and adopted it, had it locked in when guests were eating in the evening but they let it run around in the tavern in the day with the staff feeding and playing with it. We sat in the front row on the balcony and enjoyed watching them. The hotel is charming, but it is not a luxury hotel if you look at the standards in the rooms. The beds are a bit on the hard side and the "kitchen" is more like a small fridge with running water and water boiler. This suited us fine, since we only made coffe and sandwiches in the room and went out for dinner. The room itself is just amazing, with old stone walls and the very high ceiling and windows. Very romantic. All in all, we had a great stay and would go again. I give it 4 stars. It would have been 5 if it wasnt for: lack of private beach and sunbeds and that it felt like it had no common areas where you could hang and relax and read a book, the tavern was it and it was closed during large portions during the day.

We had a lovely stay at the hotel, our room was basic but had everything that we needed and was very reasonably priced. The hotel sits right on the rocks of the coast so you can hear the sea as you go to bed at night. You can also walk out the back of the hotel straight onto the beach and into the sea. The staff are very friendly and there is a fantastic restaurant at the hotel which also does great cocktails.