Thalassa Boutique Hotel - Adults Only

“Had a great stay here”

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 an... more

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.

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“Great Location, very reasonably priced”

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 th... more

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.

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“Historic building, very nice seaview, good restaurant, bit far from town and bit tired”

It is a cozy small historic hotel quite far from town center. Rooms with seaview are marvelous, but other rooms might not be worth of it. (This may partly explain the difference in these reviews.) Waking up to the sound of sea or sitting at night on your own small balcony looking to the castle ... more

It is a cozy small historic hotel quite far from town center. Rooms with seaview are marvelous, but other rooms might not be worth of it. (This may partly explain the difference in these reviews.) Waking up to the sound of sea or sitting at night on your own small balcony looking to the castle on the other side of bay are moments to remember. It is bit shame that this wonderful historic building has not been maintained very well, the furniture in rooms is quite simple and old, etc. With quite small investment this place could be so much better. The restaurant is nice, breakfast is very good and additionally near the hotel is one of best restaurants in the town, Prima Plora. Hotel's pool is small and more for decoration than for swimming or sunbathing. However, directly from hotel you can get down to the beach. Beach immediately next to hotel is bit rocky but 50m further it is wonderful sand beach. Hotel staff is friendly and speaks good English. There is free parking on the other side of road - car is needed here as it is quite far from the town and area is not very nice. Hotel's Wifi is quite weak.

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“A wonderful historic building with breakfast to feast on !”

We stayed in a large family room for a few nights, there were 4 of us and it was an unusual room in with 3 on the mezzaine and one down next to the kitchen. If you are looking for a classic hotel room this is not for you but it suited us just fine as the room was large and there was a table with... more

We stayed in a large family room for a few nights, there were 4 of us and it was an unusual room in with 3 on the mezzaine and one down next to the kitchen. If you are looking for a classic hotel room this is not for you but it suited us just fine as the room was large and there was a table with chairs and an outdoor seating area overlooking the pool. There was parking across the road in an unfinished building but that was fine as there are few places to park easily in Rethymon. We were a 20 minute walk into town and it was worth walking as there is some interesting scenery along the way. The taxi home cost 5 euros each evening and it was nice to get home without the walk! The location and view were beautiful and the restaraunt where breakfast was served was lovely. The breakfast itself was fantastic, plenty of choice and of a high quality. The only disappointment was the lack of a good beach but we drove to one which was easy enough. Reception had limited english and seemed to only be around for some of the time but we were self sufficient so it caused no problems for us until we wanted to check out early. Next time I would sort that the night before. In all I would recommend it for staying in the fantastic building alone.

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