Hotel Review: Renieris Hotel

Hotel Review: Renieris Hotel



This summer, Stephi toured the Mediterranean with a focus on the Greek Islands.  When choosing hotels, I wanted to try to avoid chains and stay in primarily locally owned hotels.  I figured it'd be a waste to stay in an internationally owned chain hotel in a country with as much character as Greece.  In addition, I wanted the majority of my Euros spent in Greece to stay in Greece given their recent economic issues.

I chose Renieris hotel from a combination of their high Trip Advisor score, their location, and how helpful the owner Giorgos was.  This guy was great, I emailed him probably close to 30 times prior to the trip with questions all about Chania and Western Crete.  He told me many different beaches, restaurants, activities, and things to check out that I would have definitely missed were it not for his advice.  He even gave me a bottle of olive oil when I checked out as a gift.

This hotel is actually in Stalos, just outside of Chania.  For anyone visiting Chania, I'd recommend to stay in this area if you prefer a more quiet and serene experience.  In the summer, Crete is LOADED with tourists in the big cities.  If you are coming to Crete to relax, stay here and then just take the bus (station just outside the hotel) into Chania.  We had a car, but would actually recommend the bus.  Even a taxi could be hired pretty inexpensively to get into Chania if needed.

The beach just outside the hotel was calm, relaxing, and quiet.  The beaches in the more heavily touristy areas were not as nice in my opinion and they were more crowded.  After all, people come to Crete mainly for the beaches, not for the cities.  If you plan to hike the Samaria Gorge, that is also not difficult to get to from this hotel's location and there are tours available if you prefer.

The prices vary per room and date, but are VERY reasonable by Western standards.  My favorite thing to do here was to order in room service and just sit on the balcony taking photographs of the view.  The room service menu is your basic pub food.  There's plenty of restaurants in the area if you prefer some traditional Greek cuisine.  If you're on a budget though, you can eat at the hotel for about 3 or 4 Euro per meal, that's a good deal!  The hotel has breakfast, wi-fi, a computer station, a nice pool, poolside snack bar, and is perched atop a hill providing the best view of the beach.

Overall, if you need a base in Western Crete, don't stay in Chania, I'd recommend this hotel based on location, value, helpfulness of staff, and atmosphere.

For more information, photos, location, or contact info:
http://www.renierishotel.gr/

Enjoy your time in Crete!
-Jason of TWiBT

Hotel Review: Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro

Hotel Review: Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro

 

Tokyo is an absolutely massive and sprawling city.  The Tokyo metropolitan area has around 35 million people, which is greater than the entire population of Canada.  The city is served by a complex spider web of light rail, subway, and bus networks.  I'm pretty good at getting around cities and figuring out their public transit systems, but even Tokyo made my head spin sometimes!  So the question remains, where exactly do you stay in such a massive city?  Well, anywhere near a metro station should fit the bill.  Because of Tokyo's sprawling nature, it doesn't really matter where you stay.  You'll always be near something, but far from most things.  I chose to stay near the Ikebukuro Station because its one of the largest and had rooms in the price range I wanted.

Links:

http://www.sakura-hotel-ikebukuro.com/

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1066460-d775810-Reviews-Sakura_Hotel_Ikebukuro-Toshima_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html

 

The Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro offers a nice sweet spot between hostel and hotel.  This is because it is actually 2 buildings.  One has hostel rooms, one has hotel rooms.  I stayed in the hotel side, which I liked because I still had all the benefits of the hostel (full kitchens, social aspect, laundromat, etc.), but the privacy of a hotel.  There's a grocery store just a 2 minute walk from the hotel.  At the end of the day, most grocery stores have ready-made hot meals that you can buy at a heavy discount.  So we'd buy these and heat them up in the hostel building's kitchen.

 

The hotel side was definitely more private, but maintenance was somewhat lacking.  The walls were all scoffed up and the bed was really uncomfortable.  The cafe at the base of the hotel was a great place to socialize and just hang out.  I'm not sure about the quality of the food they serve, because I didn't really see anything that I wanted to eat.  However, for coffee and drinks its fine.  The hotel only has Wi-Fi in the lobby.  They have wired LAN in the rooms, so if you need Wi-Fi bring a miniature travel router.  You can get one on eBay for under $20.

 

I was not really blown away by this hotel.  Its really just a place to sleep in Tokyo for the most part.  I'd recommend it for people who are on a hostel budget, but want the privacy of a hotel.  It's a pretty middle of the road, average, hotel.  Having the kitchen was convenient, but aside from that nothing stood out.

 

Hotel Review: Sotetsu Fresa Inn Yokohama Totsuka

Hotel Review: Sotetsu Fresa Inn Yokohama Totsuka

Recently on my trip to Japan, I decided to stay here because I needed a central location for all my Tokyo excursions. I had a hotel for staying in Tokyo, but felt it'd be too much of a stretch to explore the other cities in the region from my Tokyo hotel, while all the other cities I wanted to see didn't really merit me staying there more than a night. I booked Sotetsu Fresa Inn Yokohama Totsuka to stay in as a base for me to visit:
-Yokohama
-Kamakura
-Hakone Circuit

The hotel is too far from Tokyo to be used as a base for exploring Tokyo, but its in a perfect location to explore the above mentioned cities. So initially, my reason for booking this location was influenced by location as well as price. The price was around $90 per night, but the quality I perceived was that of a property costing around $160 per night.

The check-in staff at the front desk was very helpful. They provided me with maps and made recommendations after taking the time to find out what exactly I was interested in seeing. They even gave my wife and I umbrellas to use when we went to Yokohama. I thought that was a nice personal touch. They had a little trouble finding my reservation when checking in, but considering I booked in an unusual way using points, that is to be expected. Room service was prompt and did a thorough job cleaning the room each day. Didn't bother with the breakfast, but it looked like a high quality western-style breakfast.

The location was really convenient, but better to be regarded as a base to explore the region, rather than a hotel to explore the surrounding area. The hotel was located just outside the Totsuka train station, which is a major station with lines going everywhere. In and around the train station were plenty of department stores and a full grocery store. The grocery store had plenty of hot packaged meals, which was really convenient when you wanted something quick, decent, and cheap! There's not much of major significance in the immediate area surrounding the hotel. The area surrounding the hotel was totally safe and well populated. You needed a key card to access the different floors, which added to security. I had a pretty good view of the city from my hotel room.

The room felt very clean, but it felt modern and clean. It wasn't a large hotel room by American standards, but it was a very smart use of space. The furniture was in good condition and the bed was VERY comfortable! I liked having all the controls for everything in the room right next to the bed. Didn't watch any television, but it worked fine. The room had a small refrigerator as well, but no microwave. The room had a nice view of the city. The hotel corridors were quiet and the window prevented any outside noise from coming in. One cool feature was heated mirrors, which prevents the mirror from fogging up during a shower. The wi-fi was only accessible in the lobby, but the room had ethernet LAN ports. This was not a huge deal for me since I travel with a travel router (TP-LINK TL-WR702N) which basically makes your own Wi-Fi network from a LAN cable. You'll need this as wifi in Japan hotels isn't very common, but LAN is for some reason.

This hotel is more of a business hotel, but given that I used it as a base for all my excursions, I was exhausted by the time I'd get back to the hotel anyways. Overall, I was very pleased with my stay at this hotel and felt that it was a pretty good value for the money.

For more reviews & hotel photos:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g298173-d1869646-Reviews-Sotetsu_Fresa_Inn_Yokohama_Totsuka-Yokohama_Kanagawa_Prefecture_Kanto.html