Mandraki Village

"Just a short walk from beautiful koukounaries beach and opposite bus stop 23 with regular services into Skiathos Town. The staff at this hotel make it their mission to get to know the guests and make them feel like long time friends. Maybe that's why many of the guests keep returning. Beautifully maintained, spotlessly clean with a great breakfast and restaurant. If we're back in Skiathos, we'll be in this hotel again."

"Well what a lovely hotel. With exceptional staff. From the moment we arrived in reception Miranda looked after us all, she was helped by the rest of the friendly hotel staff including Agri, Zen on the bar, and waiters Nico and our favourite young Paris, who kept us supplied with drinks and crisps/nibbles and who's smile made us all happy, even through the rain !!! First impressions of our room were that it was a little small and we were underwhelmed by the size,, but it grew on us and we found it perfectly adequate for our two week stay and it was cleaned every day to such a high standard by our cleaner Betty that she also deserves a special mention. The location of the hotel was ideal for us, secluded enough to feel comfortable and away from any hustle and bustle but also close to three or four good restaurants and an easy walk to the main beach and a 40 minute or so walk from three or four other smaller beaches. The bus stop,(No.23). to take the 20 minute journey into Skiathos town was just across the road too. A lovely touch from the hotel was also to place a bottle of wine in our rooms due to the birthdays we enjoyed while we were away. There are more than enough sunbeds around the pool and gardens. Breakfast was simple but there is everything you could ask for and again the staff made sure nothing ran out. but TWO coffee machines please . All in all we had a great time here and it was enhanced by the staff.."

"We travelled with Jet2 to the Mandraki for 10 days in Sep 26 and as we have now become accustomed to in Greece you never quite get what you expect and star ratings should be taken with a pinch of salt. In this case I think J2 were guilty of mis-representation at best as they sent us pictures of a suite with our booking which certainly wasn't what we were allocated! There was nothing particularly wrong with our room in the pink block, it was cleaned to an inch of its life each day, there were fresh towels every day and bedding was changed a couple of times. The main problem was general lack of storage, one small wardrobe with a couple of drawers and shelves and that was your lot. I'm sure if you stayed there for a couple of days whilst island hopping then you would be fine but our 10 day stay meant we lived out of our cases in the main. The other issue that bothered us was the shower. It wasn't a full on wet room but the lack of a door meant most of the floor got soaked and became very slippery. Not an issue for us however a lack of grab handles and ant-slip mats might be an issue for the infirm. From what we saw the owners should re-invest in some refurb of the site in general as it is looking a little tired but guess we know the answer to that... The hotel as others had said never seems overcrowded and sunbeds weren't an issue. Cant comment on the pool as being only a few minutes from the best beach on the island we did all our swimming in the sea. Breakfast was a bit of a bun fight at times as the food is crammed alongside the bar and staff kept getting in the way as well as guests all the time. The staff were generally great but you could tell that most were counting down the days to the end of the season! Regards the infamous coffee machine I gave up and bought coffee and a mug from the supermarket and just used the hot water bowser! Even though the hotel is located next to the main island road it never suffered from road noise IMO and logistically is fine for anyone hiring a car or using the bus service. In summary we enjoyed our stay room limitations apart. I'd question the star rating of 4 and the subsequent tourist tax rate however as previously said you never quite know what to expect in Greece. Would we go back to the Mandraki? In a word no however listening to other quests there were plenty that are frequent visitors so maybe they see something we missed! Restaurant tip Strofilia under the pines about a 10 min stroll was superb. Some of the best pork I've ever eaten and a magical setting at night under the lights"