"Hotel of horror!
Before I start I would just like to point out that I have never felt compelled to write a review ever before. I’ve also read countless reviews on places I’ve visited previously where people haven’t had the best experience and upon staying at these places myself, have found that not to be the case. However this place is an utter joke and is in need of a full scale investigation into its standards across the board!
An utter shambles from start to finish!
We came here for my partners 30th birthday and this hotel took it upon itself to completely ruin our trip. I strongly advise avoiding this place!
I’ll begin with pointing out the very, very limited positives we experienced here. These include stunning views, modern/spacious rooms, relaxing pool areas & the Den Bar à la carte.
On the flip side I could write an entire novel on the horrific time we spent at this resort, which is somehow categorised as 5 star.
I’ll start by talking about the food, keeping in mind that I am the least fussy eater around. Upon entering the main restaurant on the first morning I was appalled by the extremely poor quality/choice of breakfast buffet which led to me & my partner going hungry. The main restaurant takes on a different format for lunch & evening meal in the form of table service with salad & desserts remaining buffet style. We were sadly greeted with the same sense of disappointment though as all the food is clearly pre cooked which begs the question why it’s not buffet style anyway. Now, when I’m on holiday I do like to broaden my horizons and try different cuisines as I’m not a picky eater as already explained above and if I’m unsure of what certain menu items are I will proceed to quickly look up how this dish typically presents and make a decision on whether I order it or not. One evening I followed this process by going for the Pork Tigania which looked very appealing, however what I received could hardly be even called food and had me wondering whether Ant & Dec were going to pop out revealing how many stars were up for grabs if I ate it. Whilst you’re being treated to stomach churning food and incredibly poor service to match; you can sit and watch all the birds fly in and out of the restaurant picking at scraps off people’s plates that haven’t been cleared away for long periods of time. In fact on my last day staying here I decided to brave breakfast for a few slices of toast since that’s the only thing bearable to eat here and sat watching the next table over as it was swamped by 4 large birds taking half eaten food that wasn’t cleared away, if that doesn’t sound bad enough the birds then started lining up on the rail beside me waiting to converge on my table.
Fresco Bar is almost entirely vegetarian with very limited snack choices, which are often unavailable anyway when you go to order. The drinks from this bar follow suit as countless times I attempted to order the smoothies only to be informed they had ran out for the day by midday despite the fact this bar only opens at 10am. Keeping with the theme of extremely poor service/choice from this place I once requested something on the menu titled “cold chocolate” which I’d imagined to likely be an iced version of hot chocolate (which this item sits directly under on the drinks list of the menu) or simply a chocolate milk of some form, sadly I cannot even describe to you what this drink actually turned out to be as the bar staff didn’t understand and when I pointed it out on the menu he went into a panic before telling me they don’t have this which just led me to believe the staff aren’t even trained here.
Zia Snack serve Gyros throughout the day but it’s located down at the beach so I’d recommend hiking boots and a strong cardiovascular system if you are lounging by the pools and fancy visiting here.
Med Bar serves stone baked pizza & ice cream, however I’d suggest taking a book to read whilst you stand waiting for someone to serve you their limited flavours of ice cream. On the topic of ice cream, it’s self service in the main restaurant yet have to stand and wait to be served one single scoop at the Med (which is of course met with attitude if you dare ask for a second scoop)
Brunch at the Med was definitely an improvement on the rest from a food quality point of view but the service was nothing short of abysmal! I took to asking my partner if she could still see me as I was convinced I’d developed the superhuman power of invisibility. It took them 45 minutes to serve us some bread with preserves, which is listed as a welcome offering and you’d assume it would be provided upon being shown to your table. We were then immediately served our main brunch items which became a problem as the table wasn’t big enough to store all the plates. They entirely skipped our yoghurt bowls until the end which was delivered at same time as our dessert which led to same problem mentioned above! I ordered strawberry yoghurt with strawberries, blackberries and raisins but instead received plain Greek yoghurt with strawberry sauce typically used on ice cream and some raisins with my partner also receiving an incorrect order. The options you’re allowed to order from the menu are not properly explained either as first time round we were not even offered bread or yoghurt bowl options and when I ordered my dessert option from the menu the waiter then proceeded to ask me which sweet option I would like in a very impatient and abrupt manner as if I hadn’t just stated my order only 5 seconds earlier.
We spent our relaxing days chilling by the pool, until we experienced two gentlemen deliberately soaking people and their possessions by first patrolling the pool edge to check for people on lounges below before diving into the pool and splashing waves of water over the edge and proceeding to laugh about this. I reported this to staff multiple times but action was never taken! On the topic of pool rules/safety, I only noticed the one lifeguard posted at the infinity pools facing the beach/sea. All other pools throughout the complex don’t have the same luxury, bearing in mind you’ve probably got a better chance of winning the lottery than claiming a bed at the main infinity pools! We stayed at this place for 11 nights and couldn’t manage even a few hours to relax here and take in the scenery the hotel uses as its main selling point. Relaxing at the pools was probably one of the highlights of our holiday until one day me & my partner were in the pool when I spotted a large shimmering object lying on the steps leading into pool, thankfully I managed to alert my partner to stop walking before stepping on this item as it turned out to be a shard of glass! I alerted hotel staff of this and notified them which pool it was found at but as you can imagine nobody came to observe the pool area and this plays into the point I made earlier regarding no figure of authority guarding other pools on complex as surely glass would not be allowed near pool in first place if this was the case!
Unfortunately my series of rather unfortunate events does not end there, from the very first night we discovered ants in our room which i thought would not be an issue after reporting this to the hotel, however their solution of sending a member of the cleaning staff to spray insect repellent on a towel and rub the borders of our rooms furniture and sweep the floor we found that they continuously returned and we began to feel like the true invaders of this room! Obviously this was repeatedly raised with hotel reception but the problem was never fully resolved. Obviously that wasn’t the only issue we had with the room as upon checking out we discovered what appeared to be a mattress topper discarded outside our door which I very nearly fell over when coming out the room in the morning as funnily enough I wasn’t expecting them to barricade us in.
The appalling service we received here is only made more amusing by the fact they have tip boxes placed at every bar/restaurant throughout the resort which some staff had the audacity to not so subtly point out when they did get round to serving you. My only tip for the staff here would be to crack a smile and concentrate on serving the people who’ve paid a small fortune to stay here instead of arguing amongst themselves which is something we experience most days, particularly in the restaurants!
We also found it disappointing that any trip we set out on to raise the spirits this hotel successfully dampened had its drawbacks too! Requiring us to sit on a coach for well over an hour each way. I’m aware we’re not the only folk here trying to enjoy their time but this complex is out in the middle of nowhere which means you’re the first picked up and the last dropped off. This led to us rushing to get ready for one of our à la carte reservations one evening despite the fact we arranged our booking for 7:30 thinking we’d have ample time. Provided we came away for my partners 30th birthday we were looking forward to at least one evening to sit having a few drinks to celebrate this occasion, yet again this place had other plans though! The drinks selection was very poor, often excluding the most popular choices you’d expect from your local Wetherspoons never mind 5 star resort! You’d assume majority of the most popular cocktails known to any bar would be available throughout resort, however this isn’t the case other than the main lobby! To top that off this isn’t even the bar that stays open the latest which only baffled me further. As you can imagine it also best to order at least two drinks at a time here since you’ll likely be waiting forever and a day to be served again!
Moving on to the entertainment side of things we were hoping to enjoy alongside the celebratory drinks I mentioned earlier…well that also turned out to be a huge let down! Quite a common sight around this hotel is people playing cards as there isn’t much of interest to do! Mitsis is a huge complex out on its own so I found you’re heavily reliant on the entertainment, however if you’re staying in the summer palace the best they have to offer is overhearing people on the karaoke at the next hotel over. This led to me & my partner often being sat bored in the room most evenings. We even started actively looking into booking flights home to escape this diabolical excuse for hospitality!
To put the cherry on the cake of our disastrous experience staying here, the hotel has zero private storage place for luggage upon checking out. Instead, people left their possessions along the side wall of the main lobby which only makes it appear cluttered and like everyone here has been left stranded!
Obviously this isn’t at all safe and given the return flights are often late in the day it gives you little option but to spend your entire time sitting in the lobby instead of enjoying your final day at the pool/beach safe in the knowledge your luggage is stowed away."
