KENTRIKON HOTEL — Hotel in Municipality of Chalkida

The Hotel Kentrikon in Halkida or Chalkida or Xalkida or Khalkis (take your pick) proudly advertises (in their rooms at least) it was built in 1928. I chose this as it offered free wifi, breakfast and parking and it was roughly midway between Tripoli and Thessaloniki. I wish I had known better.||||Lets start with the parking. Yes they have a tiny lot with space for 4 cars. You need to make a tight turn the wrong way on a short one-way street then a tighter turn into their parking lot and getting the car turned around is a parking lesson in 3-point turns. Also I think 2 cars were staff. Don't even think about this unless you have a really small car.||||There is no elevator and the stairs are steep. The rooms are clean and bigger than some places at this price (we paid 52 euros for a double). But the wallpaper is peeling in the bathroom, there are no spare power points and only one set of towels for 2 people. We carry an extension board so we unplugged a bedside lamp and could use our computer and chargers. The wifi does work. ||||Similarly the breakfast is OK, a no-frills continental. The staff are friendly and the location is central although frankly there isn't much to see in this town. As it was off season they had no food or drinks despite what it said in the room but there are plenty of nearby restaurants. Our room was above the main street and there was a lot of noise at night even in the early hours. I rate this hotel poor because for about the same money in Greece outside Athens you can do so much...

Yesterday we took the train from Athens (Larissi stion) to Chalkida (capital of Evia - second largest island in Greece, after Crete) cost Euro 13 (AUD 20) for 2 persons and it took 1hr 20 min on a chug-chug train. Disembarked at the old bridge, as opposed to the new suspension bridge, and walked along the promenade to the Hotel Kentrikon (clean, plain with basic breakfast) where we got a room with a sea view (albeit over a rusty rooftop!) - all for Euro 54 (AUD 80) per night. Adjacent to magnificent sea promenade lined with fish and souvlaki taverns. The fish and seafood on the menu is costed by kilo on the menu e.g. Kalamari is Euro 40 per kilo (around AUD 60). So when ordering, ask for enough for 2 which is about 250grams. Had lunch at Delfini (Dolphins) restaurant and I ordered tsirosalata (dried mackerel) in oil and lemon, fried sardines, seafood in shells saganaki and of course horiatiki salata (country salad). We ate the whole sardine, left only the tail, as the bones are so soft and they were delicious! Good for calcium intake!! Meal was delicious plus we had great music (laika) playing while we ate enjoying the lovely sea view. Idyllic!||||Not many non-Greek tourists here. It is a really pretty place with lovely hills in the distance. WiFi didn't work in room but there is a nice foyer where I am...

Hotel was nice and clean, there was heating and hot water, refrigerator and small TV, but the bed was very uncomfortable. the hotel was pretty tiny and the room faced a roof with generators and electricity so it wasn't pretty, but not too loud. you can see also the sea from the room. ||Very small parking and a bit hard to park. ||It's seems to be that there was nothing to do or see in Chalkida, we planned to drive to Steni and walk the Dirfys Mountain but it was hard rain so we couldn't. A lot of the restaurants were closed ot abandoned, maybe due to strikes or the wheather. not everyone speaks English. ||It was pretty hard to find the hotel with the car, we were lucky to have GPS.||We paid 64E, pretty much in...