Metropole Urban Hotel

Metropole Urban Hotel is a four-star city hotel for divers who prefer a proper town around them rather than a resort bubble. You stay in central Heraklion, with the city doing the entertaining once the day's plans are over: streets to walk, historic places to explore and somewhere to sit with a coffee before deciding what comes next.

English-speaking staff are on hand, alongside Greek-speaking staff, so the basics are straightforward from arrival onwards. The hotel has 24 rooms, a 24-hour reception, free Wi-Fi throughout and a lift — useful details when your timetable involves early starts, wet kit and the occasional return to civilisation looking rather more tired than when you left it.

The overall idea is simple: a central base with meals, drinks, room service and practical services under one roof, while Heraklion supplies the wider evening. It suits you if location and access to the city matter more than a large resort programme.

The address is Platia Agias Ekaterinis, in the centre of Heraklion, Crete, Greece. This is an urban stay rather than a beachside one, with the city itself providing the immediate surroundings and the port among the nearby places to reach.

Xeropotamos Beach and Ammoudara Beach are also listed among the nearby sites, giving you a route towards the coast when a day in town is not enough. The central position makes the hotel more useful for combining diving with Crete's history, museums and harbour rather than treating the hotel as the destination in itself.

For a first look at Heraklion, the location puts the city on your doorstep: you can explore without turning every outing into a transport exercise, then return to a hotel with reception, a bar and a restaurant waiting downstairs.

The choice is practical rather than mysterious. Couples can take a double bed, while two divers travelling together can choose a twin-bedded room and keep the nightly negotiations to a minimum. Standard, Superior and Deluxe categories provide different levels within the double-room range, and the Family Quadruple room is the useful option when four people need to stay together.

Every listed room has a private bathroom. The Double Junior Suite adds an outdoor jetted tub, which gives the evening a rather different rhythm from simply dropping your bags and collapsing onto the bed; toiletries are included there as well.

Families or small groups have room categories designed for three or four guests, while solo travellers and couples can keep things simpler with a double room. The Economy categories cover the straightforward end of the range, and the Deluxe rooms offer the more generous choice for a stay where you want to spend a little more time in the room rather than treating it purely as a place to sleep.

Practical room details matter here because the property is a city hotel: the room is your base between outings, meals and dive days. Private bathrooms, Wi-Fi across the hotel and room service available for 12 hours keep the routine uncomplicated.

Breakfast is served as a buffet, with enough range to build either a sensible start or a determined one. Fried eggs, omelettes, bacon, sausages, roasted vegetables and mushrooms cover the savoury side; pancakes, pastries, cakes, Greek yoghurt, fruit salad, feta, bread, honey, marmalade, nuts and dried fruit take care of the rest. Kalitsounia, the small traditional Cretan cheese pies, are the detail worth noticing if you want something tied to the island rather than another anonymous hotel breakfast.

The hotel has a restaurant, a bar, a café and a snack bar, so you have several ways to handle the gap between returning to base and sitting down for a full meal. Coffee and tea are also available for guests, and the café is there for the less formal pauses — the kind involving a chair, a drink and a quick decision about whether you are going back out.

Room service runs for 12 hours, which gives you another option when the day's combination of salt, sun and logistics has taken the enthusiasm out of going downstairs. Meal arrangements depend on the booking details, so check what is included in the rate you choose rather than assuming the buffet is bundled in.

Heraklion supplies the main activity programme, and this is where the address earns its keep. The hotel can assist with excursions to the Palace of Knossos, the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, the Fortress of Koules, the Church of Saint Catherine, the Tomb of Nikos Kazantzakis and the Morosini Fountain.

That gives you several ways to use a non-diving day without inventing a complicated itinerary. Ancient history, museums, harbour views and central squares are all part of the menu, with the hotel able to help arrange excursions and ticketing assistance available.

Back at the hotel, a massage service is available when the shoulders have had enough of carrying bags and the legs have had enough of stairs, pavements and fins. The bar, café and room service cover the less ambitious version of an evening: sit down, eat something, and let tomorrow worry about itself.

Check-in runs from 15:00, with reception open around the clock, and check-out is at 11:00. Early check-in and late check-out can be requested, which may help when flights and dive schedules refuse to line up neatly.

An airport transfer service is available through the hotel, and car hire can be arranged if you want to range beyond central Heraklion. Public parking is available nearby as a paid service. The hotel also offers luggage storage, a safe at reception, laundry, dry cleaning and ironing services — useful when a short trip has produced more damp clothing than planned.

The building has a lift and access facilities, while free Wi-Fi is available throughout. Visa, Mastercard, Diners Club and cash are accepted, with cash transactions subject to Greece's national limit. For arrivals, departures or simply a late return from town, the combination of 24-hour reception, luggage storage and a central address keeps the practical side reasonably tidy.