Hotel berhampiran Hundecova, Delvine District

We spent one night at the Kalemi Hotel. It is an old Ottoman house with a lot of character and charm. The room is very large, very quiet and the view of the city is breathtaking. A very warm welcome, very good breakfast, wifi which works very well...everything was perfect. Only small point, a little difficult to find because the streets of Gjirokastër are quite ”complicated” with a car. But, parking is at your disposal. I especially wanted to warmly thank the hotel staff : I had forgotten a gold chain in the room. I contacted them and they graciously sent it back to my home in France. I found it in my mailbox when I returned. A big thank-you.

Nonostante la posizione vicino la parte vecchia di Argirocastro, sul sito di booking veniva indicato tra i servizi anche parcheggio, quando in realtà la strada per arrivare alla struttura è molto complicata, a meno che tu non sia uno del posto per via della strada in pietra e per via delle salite molto ripide. Inoltre, quella zona specifica è praticamente priva di parcheggi, e i pochi presenti sono già occupati o tenuti occupati dai locali con dei sassi a terra.. unico modo per raggiungere la struttura tranquillamente è in taxi o con un bus poco consigliabile. Il ragazzo dell' hotel che ci ha visto particolarmente arrabbiati, in quanto abbiamo dovuto parcheggiare lontano e portarci tutti i bagagli in salita, preso dalla pietà e forse dalla paura di una brutta recensione, mi ha gentilmente accompagnato a prendere l'auto e farmi parcheggiare in un suo posto. Peccato però che poi la mia auto sia stata chiusa dall'auto che avrebbe dovuto occupare il posto, impedendoci poi di recuperare l'auto più tardi, se non la mattina dopo al momento del check out.. struttura in generale carina, una bella colazione, ma almeno toglierei tra i servizi il parcheggio e il parcheggio gratuito in strada, in quanto così non è propriamente stato! Ci vorrebbe trasparenza e indicare che la zona non è facile da raggiungere in macchina e che ci sono pochi posti in zona, perché io ad esempio lo avessi letto, non lo avrei scelto, ma almeno ci sarebbe stata sincerità.

Nice hotel, very well located. Espacious rooms, comfy beds, good bathroom. Special mention to Havi, a girl at the reception desk, who helped us recover a sunglasses that an Italian guest had stolen. She checked the camera images and solved everything fast and easy. Besides, really nice and professional person.

We chose this place because we wanted an authentic experience and also because all rooms had a balcony ( and we wanted to wash a few clothes and dry them in the balcony). NO ROOMS HAVE A BALCONY here! However, the positives : it was authentic, the room was a good size, the bed was comfortable and it was an easy walk to the old town and castle. Negatives: We had walked 30-40 minutes up steep hills with full backpacks to get here and my partner wanted a wash asap. She closed the plug with the old fashioned pull/push type mechanism, filled the hand basin, had a wash and then when she opened the plug again the water gushed out from behind the unit all over the floor. I immediately reported this and it was fixed leaving me waiting 40 minutes for a wash & to change to go out for dinner. We were later to be blamed by the male host for breaking it. As a GP, my partner didn’t take kindly to being called a liar! There were cobwebs attached to the window pelmet - maybe a bit too authentic. We went to the “shared” kitchen area to make a cup of tea to find a kettle full of “herbs” and seashells. It transpires that the hosts make herbal tea which they boil in the kettle then put in percolator style coffee pots for you to have cold at breakfast. Bizarre. Breakfast was not brilliant (traditional Albanian cold over-cooked fried eggs - also bizarre to us). However, there was some lovely home made sour cherry jam and also some Madeira style cake which was nice. We then had a stand up row about the exchange rate he was charging (different from 3 hotels before and one since). Though this was pathetic as it ended up being over £1.50, I paid with some euros we had to avoid feeling being ripped off. The hosts then told Booking. Com that we hadn’t turned up (either to avoid their charges or avoid our review). I think we were just unlucky. Wanted authentic - be careful what you wish for!!!