Family Bikakis

From $ 80 per night

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Polemiston 1941 Street, Kissamos, Crete

Amenities:
Internet Access, Pets Allowed
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Hotel
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The kitchen with the bed Photo - Family Bikakis, Crete, Greece

User Reviews

Strangely OK

by MagdaDH_AlexH

Perth, Scotland, United Kingdom

November 20, 2011

Best of IgoUgo We stayed at Bikakis Rooms in Kissamos having found it in the guide book (where it was described as "well run" and "budget", both Good Things in my book) as well as online where the prices seemed right. Unusually for us, we phoned in advance as we ...Read more We stayed at Bikakis Rooms in Kissamos having found it in the guide book (where it was described as "well run" and "budget", both Good Things in my book) as well as online where the prices seemed right.

Unusually for us, we phoned in advance as we knew the ferry will arrive in the middle of the night and we needed access (most self-catering places of this sort don't have 24 hour reception).

We did manage to find it although it's less easy that it seems (on the map, the street appears to be the main road through town but in fact it has a hard-to-notice split and you need to look out for a sign). There is no dedicated parking, but we managed to park on the street within about 50 meters of the hotel during our whole stay.

Initially, we were quoted 45 (or was it 50?) Euro per night, but eventually we ended up paying 40 Euro per night and we stayed five nights in total, four (or really, three and a half) at the beginning of our Crete stay and one at the end.

Bikakis Family Rooms is something of a cheap hotel, something of a self-catering accommodation venue, something of a pension. Our room was itself a combination of two, more of an apartment – a kind of an apartment, really, but not quite, not quite. It consisted of a double bedroom with a single extra bed, entered by a normal door from the corridor. From that, a glass (lockable) door led to a small corridor from which the shower room was accessed, and then to what was pretty much a kitchen – it had a sink, a cooker and a table with chairs, after all. But it also had a single bed. The balcony door was also in this room as was the air conditioning machine (the double bedroom had a fan, but the doors in between could be kept open).

We gave the kitchen bed to the Older Child who seemed happy to sleep in the kitchen and kept the Younger Child on the camp bed in the double bedroom. The beds were comfortable enough, the air conditioning worked fine after we obtained the remote from the reception (some Greek domatia charge extra for that, but the Bikakis owners simply kept the switchers and probably saved quite a bit on a/c by not quite offering them to the visitors unless specifically asked).

The kitchen was – just about – usable, though there was a complete lack of storage space (the only cupboard that was there was full of kitchen stuff) and no worktop area (I used the table). The lack of a hood discourage real cooking, but it was really perfectly adequate for some basic hot-weather self-catering.

The whole arrangement with doors, kitchen, beds and rooms was a bit all over the place, and Bikakis Family Rooms might be well run but in a Very Greek Way. The main guy in the place (possibly Mr Bikakis?) spoke good English and seemed to know what he was doing but walked around with a comic put-upon air of a long-suffering misery: from a runny-nose cold to stubbed toe (or was it a twisted ankle), he seemed sorely tried by all his life experiences (and dealing with dumb visitors was just one of them). The establishment also featured two elderly twin ladies, one sad and one very cheerful (I even saw her laughing out loud while slapping her thighs) as well as an assortment of children.

All in all, although 40 Euro for a 4-bed room (studio? Apartment?) is not much, we did have similar in standard – and also nicer – accommodation for less than that I Greece (and in Crete as well) and there was much that could be improved about Bikakis Rooms. And yet, when we returned to Kissamos on the way back to the mainland, at the end of our two weeks in Crete, we went back to Bikakis without hesitation. The same room – at the same price, despite the peak period having started in the meantime - was give to us and it felt like going back to a well-known and cosy place, a benign Fawlty Towers a la Grecque.

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From journal Western Crete in High Season

Family Bikakis

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