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Reviews of El Castillo Galapagos

2.5 out of 5
El Castillo Galapagos
Barrio Pampas Coloradas, Calle Albatros e Isabela, Puerto Ayora, Galapagos

Reviews

7.8

Good

Rating 10 - Excellent. 13 out of 36 reviews" "
Rating 8 - Good. 13 out of 36 reviews" "
Rating 6 - Okay. 6 out of 36 reviews" "
Rating 4 - Poor. 3 out of 36 reviews" "
Rating 2 - Terrible. 1 out of 36 reviews" "

7.8/10

Cleanliness

8.4/10

Staff & service

7.6/10

Property conditions & facilities

Reviews

8/10 Good

roger

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort
Quirky architecture - helpful friendly staff
Slight problem with the room on arrival, having booked a family room, but we compromised since it was only for a night, and a sofa was made up to suit. Owners couldn’t have been more apologetic or indeed more helpful during our stay. The hotel is a little unusual in that it is made somewhat castle like, with quirky architecture - which incidentally was the reason we booked for the night. Located away from the harbour area and the main restaurants so a taxi to & from that area is required, although only a $2.00 fare. hotel happy to arrange taxis, which arrive within minutes.

10/10 Excellent

Karan

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
The staff is exceptional! We stayed in a really large room upstairs. It was great. Just the shower might need remodeling. There is no air conditioner so if you are prone to mosquito bites... you'll definitely be bitten. I would recommend they add a mosquito net around the bed. This location is about a 15 minute walk to downtown, which if you like walking and great weather this should be totally fine. since we did the walk every day we actually ate at local restaurants were so good!! The bed and the breeze coming through the room was amazing and I slept like a baby! I just got bit by mosquitos however my fiance did not get bit once! Also the wi-fi is terrible...but the wifi on the whole island is not that good. I would recommend if you need internet go to an internet cafe.

10/10 Excellent

Elizabeth

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Familymoon at El Castillo
Family run hotel and they couldn't have been more welcoming to us. The rooms were really clean and comfortable and well serviced each day. The breakfast each morning was great, limited choice but all you needed to set you up for the day. They have also recently started a courtyard restaurant on the weekends. The food was really delicious and the atmosphere was top notch. We loved or stay here.
Stayed 7 nights in Nov 2017

8/10 Good

Alberto , Berkley, Massachusetts

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Made to feel welcome.
Highly recommend staying at El Castillo while in Puerto Ayora. The owner and her two sons, as well as the rest of her staff, go out of their way to make you feel welcome. The hotel is set back from the center of town, but within an easy walk. It was actually cool to be in a neighborhood. You can plan all your tours at the front desk and they are knowledgeable and dependent. The restaurant serves mouth-watering grilled dishes prepared by Alejandro. And don't miss the desserts made by pastry-chef girlfriend. Absolutely awesome. Also enjoyed the wonderful jazz music being played by the sound system on the patio.
Stayed 3 nights in Nov 2017

6/10 Okay

Therese

Liked: Staff & service
Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
The staff are really helpful and friendly. The rooms were a little dirty, and the showers had hot water sometimes.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2017

10/10 Excellent

Molly

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Alejandro and his wife were absolutly wonderful. They helped us with planning everything for our trip and making sure we saw everything on the island in the short time we were there. The hostel is clean and beautiful. Everythhing downtown is withing a 10 minute or less walk and if you dont feel like walking you can get a taxi for $1-2. We had a great time!
Stayed 4 nights in Jul 2017

10/10 Excellent

Rajvi, New York

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Loved the LOCATION!
This place LITERALLY is a castle from inside out. Loved the location - it was 10-12 mins walk from the center. Enough to be away from the crowd/noise to come back to a peaceful place to sleep just mins away from the center. The staff was very friendly and extremely nice. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone who wants to have an authentic experience in Galapagos and is budget friendly.
Stayed 3 nights in Jun 2017

10/10 Excellent

Dan

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Very unique! Worth checking out
Really cool/unique place! Owner is extremely nice and makes you feel at home

10/10 Excellent

Planicie1, Lima

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Very helpful staff
We had a very enjoyable stay in the hotel. They helped arrange transport from the airport, which is a big benefit after a tiring journey and were able to check-in early and rest. Any problem or question we had with tour operators or generally about the islands were answered for us, making everything much easier.

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Wonderful place!
Wonderful family run hotel with spacious rooms and great breakfast. Only a $1 cab ride or 10 minute walk into the main strip. This place was very nice to stay at.

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Liked: Staff & service
Very helpful staff
Staff are EXTREMELY friendly and helpful. Room was very spacious and accommodated five of us easily. About 10 minute walk into town. Just a couple blocks from the trail to Tortuga Bay. A couple issues: - No A/C; there was a fan in the room, and although it helped, it's no match for the Galapagos heat/humidity - Wifi is slow/spotty - This is the Galapagos, so we would find a few bugs in the room. I want to emphasize that this was NOT for lack of effort on the staff's part. They cleaned our room thoroughly everyday and put down insecticide. Just a product of the environment and perhaps because our room was on the ground floor.

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Staff & service, property conditions & facilities
It really is a castle
We had an overnight stay prior to a 5 day cruise. We needed a place in Puerto Ayora and this place looked interesting. It's not a five star place but it was located off the tourist areas in a quiet neighborhood but still within a 10 minute walk to the main town. The rooms are unusual. We had a room with stairs leading up to a tower with another bed. Wished they had A/C. They had free WiFi and limited bicycles which they let the guests use for free. The lady who owned it was very friendly and even though she had limited English, we were able to communicate. We were able to store our excess luggage there while on our cruise.

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Puerto Ayora hotel
Overall good experience. Sra. R. was very kind and helpful.

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
small casual hotel,
Hotel is 10- to 15-minute downhill walk to Academy Bay, but you can get a taxi for $1.00 when you want to return. Check in is between 1 and 5 pm, and no one was available at 11:00 am to allow be to leave my suitcase, so I had to keep it with me while I went for lunch.

10/10 Excellent

Greg, Los Angeles

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Like a Fairytale
This place is amazing. The owner is amazing. EVERYTHING was amazing. No but seriously, cool play to stay. Easily the best place on the island, and we looked at a bunch. First, the place is a castle. Initially I couldn't really tell from the pictures on tripadvisor & other sites if the place was nice or a hole in the wall, but upon arrival we were mesmerized. We felt like were staying in a romantic fairytale for the price you'd pay for a night in any other hotel room. The room we stayed in was quite literally like a European castle meets a treehouse, complete with a ladder to a second story with another bed, multiple balconies, a bridge to other parts of the hotel, and 2 extra rooms for we don't even know what (entrance room, luggage room, etc). Ok so that was the nuts and bolts of the place, but the spirit of it was the icing on the cake. The owner was so nice & incredibly accommodating. We let her know that we had a boat that was leaving super early in the morning (6:30am) to Isabella and she woke up early and cooked us an great breakfast and called us a cab that showed up on time. Easily one of the most hospitable places I've stayed, period.

10/10 Excellent

Karin, Canada

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
The best Bed and Breakfast ever!
We had just arrived in Ecuador and I wondered about what to expect for hotel accommodations. I was very pleasantly surprised. The family that manages this hotel are wonderful. They speak English very well and provided lots of information to make our stay memorable. We felt very safe with them and the Galápagos Islands overall. We were there 3 nights and we wish we could have stayed a few more days.

6/10 Okay

Elton, Jersey City, NJ, USA

Liked: Staff & service, room comfort
Cute but overpriced
The personnel were very helpful. We reached the hotel early at around 10 am and expected that we would need to leave our bags at the front desk, but to our surprise the room was already ready and the lady happily let us check in early. We got a gorgeous looking room and very comfortable, however, the flooring is old especially in the bathroom. The breakfast was minimal, but it was there. Also, the hotel is not very close to the port (where everything happens); the hotel does have cycles that you can use for free for as long as you need, but the area around the hotel does get deserted after dark, although, the area seems safe and there were helpful locals who guided us back to the hotel. I felt that the price of $100 for the night was too expensive given the above. We would have rather looked for a hostel near the port (note that other websites list more places than hotels.com).

8/10 Good

alexandra, boston

Liked: Cleanliness
Charming hotel
Liked this hotel - charming place. Did not like the plumbing system at all, there is no AC and no screens on all windows. Breakfast was pitiful. Hotel was without ele power all night. Staff did not speak any English.

6/10 Okay

mistral68

Liked: Cleanliness, room comfort

6/10 Okay

Traveler, USA

Liked: Property conditions & facilities
El Castillo Galapagos
We stayed in this hotel for two nights. The manager was very helpful and pleasant. The location of the hotel was far away from the downtown so manager called a taxi for us to get there. The room was big with the beautiful balconies but it was lucking an air-condition or at least a ceiling fan. There were ant nests in the bathroom, so ants were marching all over the place. The breakfast is a joke. The girl told us that if we want scrambled eggs for breakfast we have to cook them - so I did. We went to the Tortuga Bay which is 45 minutes walking distance from the hotel. The Tortuga Bay is a beautiful must- see place.

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Staff & service

2/10 Terrible

Holly, Lloydminster Alberta Canada

Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Not reliable
One week before we were flying to the Galapagos the hotel sent me an email and cancelled our reservation. I had booked three months before. They were helpful in finding us other accommodations but i will never book with them again due to the unreliability.

10/10 Excellent

John and Helen, North Carolina

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
The building itself was funky in a charming way; the personnel were friendly and helpful. The neighborhood was working class but we felt safe. It was about a 15 minute walk to the harbor. Overall, I would stay here again

4/10 Poor

John, NC USA

Disliked: Staff & service
Unexpected Disappointment
When I arrived in Puerto Ayora, finally locating this hotel, the person on duty could not speak English nor could he give me a reason why my Expedia "booked" reservation did not apply. He instead told me to go to another hotel on the island which had a room. Later, a representative from El Castillo came over to my new hotel and explained in English that my booking was not pre-paid. I assume that since this was a Monday night, El Castillo had overbooked the hotel for other people who were going to board their cruise ships the next day.

8/10 Good

Hans, Phoenix, AZ

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
A very cute little hotel, located just right.
The hotel is situated walking distance to the downtown area. The rooms are unusual in their style, similar to an old castle. Senora Rosario and her son are absolutely delightful people to be around and do all they can to make the stay comfortable.

4/10 Poor

Verified traveller

Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Not in Town at All
THIS HOTEL ACCEPTS CASH ONLY; hotels.com did not inform me of this and I arrived with barely enough to cover one night. For the price it is too far from the center of town, had no air conditioning and absolutely no hot water. Spend the extra money to stay somewhere closer to the pier.

8/10 Good

Michael, Columbus, OH

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
This hotel is really more like a B & B only better. When you are here, you're really in their house. You have full use of kitchen (we made fresh passion fruit juice) and used their washer/dryer. Rooms are very spacious. Very few amenities you would normally associate with a hotel but that was fine with us. Short walk down to Av. Baltra into Puerto Ayora. Staff is extrememely accomodating and friendly. This hotel isn't for everyone but it was ideal me and my daughter. Cash only here.

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Just $1 Taxi Ride to Harbor
lovely neighborhood only $1 taxi ride to harbor area host is very personable and helpful only takes dollars as many of the hotels and restaurants in Puerto Ayaro bring dollars to the Galapagos and book cruises back home or in Quito we thought we could book in the Galapagos, but they had to call Quito

10/10 Excellent

maria

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Gastvrij en efficiënt
Goed hotel heel vriendelijke huislijke staf
Stayed 2 nights in Oct 2017

10/10 Excellent

Julian

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Lugar bonito para relajarse y compartir.
nos fue muy bien en el Castillo. Alejandro y su familia son muy acogedores. Usamos su cocina y nos dieron informacion buena para conocer las zonas cercanas. Tambien pudimos usar la bicicletas gratis. El lugar es muy tranquilo y todos los cuartos son distintos pues tienen un estilo unico.
Stayed 2 nights in Jun 2017

4/10 Poor

Dennis

Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Liked: Staff & service
Mala relacion precio comodidades
El hotel se encuentra cercano al camino a tortuga bay pero alejado del centro comercial. Cuenta con bicis para manejarse libremente lo cual es importante dada su lejania del centro. Habitaciones amplias y limpias con ventilador de pie. (Se pasa un poco de calor) Amplia cocina para cocinar y desayunar (el desayuno va incluido en el alojamiento aunque se podria mejorar) La infraestructura no es de la mas atractiva. Alejandro es un muchacho con muy buena predisposicion y nos ayudo mucho pero en general el resto del servicio se podria mejorar. El lugar era tranquilo y seguro.

8/10 Good

Ricardo Fernandes, Conselheiro Lafaiete-MG

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Básico, porém aconchegante.
Atendimento excepcional. Um pouco básico demais, entretanto custo muito atrativo para estar em Galápagos.

8/10 Good

Magnus, Simrishamn

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Lugnt och skönt på alla sätt!
Det lilla hotellet med den familjära känslan där du snabbt blir en del av familjen. Tillgången till köket mycket bra för en enkel lunch eller liknande. Bra service i övrigt och borta från allt "stim och stoj".

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort