"Parga Beach Resort – the place I didn’t want to leave
I have a rather peculiar habit when choosing a hotel: I read the negative reviews first. Not just any negative reviews, but the recent ones. I want to know what went wrong, what annoyed people, and what might potentially ruin my holiday.
So, before coming to Parga Beach Resort, I had already read a few things that didn’t sound particularly encouraging: no mattresses on the sunbeds, no mosquito screens on the balconies, services not quite at the expected level.
Well… I checked.
The sunbeds had mattresses. All of them.
The balcony had a mosquito screen – and not just any screen, but a proper roller screen.
And then I realised something: perhaps the people here actually read the reviews and, more importantly, do something about them.
To me, that is the first sign of good management. Not getting offended by criticism, but improving things because of it.
But let me start from the beginning.
On our first evening, we did what everyone on the internet, everyone who had been to Parga, and practically the whole world seemed to recommend: we took a taxi boat from Valtos Beach and went to Parga, to Bachos.
I will write a separate review about Bachos, so I won’t turn this into one. I will only say that the experience was so disappointing that, without knowing it, that restaurant actually did us a huge favour.
It convinced us not to leave the resort again.
And that is when we truly discovered Parga Beach Resort.
The resort is beautiful. Not simply “nice”. It is one of those places where you immediately realise how much work goes into making everything look effortless: little houses and villas surrounded by nature, beautifully maintained gardens, flowers, olive trees, spotless paths, the beach, the pools and the restaurants.
In fact, there are an enormous number of people working here.
But they are an extremely well-organised army. 😄
And the thing that impressed me most was not the beach.
It was the people.
There are many staff members – on the beach, in the restaurants, at the bars, housekeeping, reception – but you never see people who look annoyed, exhausted or bothered because you need something.
You see people smiling.
And not just because smiling is part of their job.
They genuinely seem to care.
They seem to love what they do.
And that feeling is contagious.
You look at the gardens and see the greenery, but if you look more carefully, you see the work behind it. Work, work and more work. You look at the beach and see people constantly cleaning, arranging and preparing everything. You look at the restaurants and see people moving constantly, but you don’t see tired or irritated faces.
You see dedication.
And I think this is one of the reasons why we felt so good here.
I have a young child – very curious, very energetic and absolutely convinced that everyone in the resort is his friend. He walks around, talks to everyone and gets involved in everything.
Not once did anyone seem bothered.
Quite the opposite.
They greet him, ask him what he wants, joke with him, talk to him and recognise him.
At Kokona, after a few days, we would meet the staff on the way back to our room and they would greet him. One evening, when he was sleeping in the room, one of them actually asked me:
“Where is he?”
That got me.
“Family-friendly” doesn’t even begin to describe it.
There are many families with small children here and, for the first time, I had the feeling that a child wasn’t being seen as a potential disturbance, but as a little guest of the resort.
There is a children’s playground, children’s activities, babysitting and many other facilities. We didn’t even have time to try everything the resort offers.
And that is probably one of the reasons why we want to come back.
There is still so much left to discover.
The beach is fabulous. The water is so clear that fish literally swim among us. Not once did we have trouble finding sunbeds. We didn’t wake up at 6 a.m. to claim one, we didn’t leave towels on them to reserve them and we didn’t have to develop a military strategy for getting a place on the beach. 😄
And speaking of towels: there is no ridiculous towel-card system.
You leave your wet towel on the beach. They collect it. You go and get a clean one.
Twice a day. Three times a day. As many times as you need.
No forms. No explanations. No feeling that you are somehow trying to steal something from the resort.
The beach is constantly cleaned and maintained.
There are also several beautiful swimming pools. We didn’t even use them.
Because the sea was simply too beautiful.
The room was spotless. Daily housekeeping, fresh towels, perfectly made beds, toiletries, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, body lotion, coffee and everything you need.
One day we used the coffee capsules in the room. The next day, because they had noticed that we had used them, a new box of Lavazza capsules was there.
Small things.
But small things tell you whether someone is paying attention.
And then came my birthday, on 22 August.
My child wanted to surprise me, and the resort gave us a birthday cake. We didn’t pay for it. And, most importantly, it was delicious. 😄
But the cake wasn’t the best part.
On my birthday, someone from the team asked me whether I was happy with the services and whether there was anything I wanted to complain about.
I said that I felt absolutely wonderful, but there was one thing: there was a noise at night that sometimes woke me up.
That was all.
I didn’t ask for anything.
Within two days, they found the problem.
The technical team came, investigated it, identified the source and fixed it.
Then they came to our door and told me:
“You won’t be woken up by the noise anymore. We found the problem and fixed it.”
And they were right.
That, to me, is five-star service.
Not marble in the lobby. Not chandeliers. Not how luxurious everything looks.
Five-star service is when you say, “I have a problem,” and someone actually takes responsibility for making the problem disappear.
We had another, much more ordinary situation.
One day we ordered a large fruit bowl. The next day we ordered exactly the same thing, but the difference between the two portions was enormous, although the price was the same.
I took a photo of both and reported it.
They checked. They asked questions. They investigated what had happened. They apologised.
And then they refunded the money.
They didn’t tell me they would deduct it from our room bill.
They actually came and gave me the money back.
For a fruit bowl.
Yes, I know. It sounds almost ridiculous to complain about a €16 fruit bowl.
But that is precisely the point.
If you take a €16 problem seriously, you are telling your guest that their money and their experience matter.
Good management is not demonstrated when everything goes perfectly.
It is demonstrated when something goes wrong.
And I saw that here more than once.
Even when I wanted to pay cash and realised I didn’t have enough money with me, there was no sighing, no annoyed look, no “that’s not possible”. They simply changed the payment arrangement and put it on the room.
No drama.
No attitude.
Nothing.
For me, all of this says one thing:
this is a resort genuinely oriented towards its guests.
Not just towards their money.
Towards the person.
And yes, let’s talk about the price.
Parga is not cheap.
Prices are high in Parga in general.
But after this experience, I can no longer say that Parga Beach Resort feels expensive.
Because here, when you pay, you feel that you are actually paying for something.
For quality. For good ingredients. For food prepared fresh. For professional service. For highly trained people. For cleanliness. For organisation. For the feeling that when you ask for something, someone will take care of it.
You don’t feel that you are simply paying a premium because you are in a tourist destination.
You feel that you are receiving something in return.
And the food is, without exaggeration, one of the great surprises of this resort.
There are three restaurants – Iporia, Kokona and Lianolia – and we mostly chose à la carte.
We are not buffet people. We prefer choosing what we eat, when we eat and where we eat.
We booked our tables through the app, chose our own time and enjoyed the freedom to organise our days however we wanted.
We tried many dishes at Kokona and absolutely loved the experience. Beautiful atmosphere, impeccable service and extraordinary food.
Lianolia is an experience in itself. The view is spectacular, the service is impeccable, everything is beautifully presented, right down to the cutlery. 😄
I will be honest, though: among all the culinary experiences, Lianolia’s food did not impress me quite as much as the others. It wasn’t bad. Not at all. I simply expected something more considering the setting and the level of service.
Iporia, on the other hand, gave me one of the best meals of our holiday.
We arrived one afternoon, around 4 p.m., and ordered the catch of the day.
Fresh fish, grilled to order.
It was fabulous.
Perfectly cooked. Juicy. Delicious.
We had wine, salad, aubergine, fish roe and lamb ribs.
Everything was exceptional.
And I had one single thought:
Why on earth did I leave the resort on our first evening?
If I had known what was waiting for us here, I would have stayed on the beach and eaten fresh fish with the sea in front of me.
And the ice cream is excellent. My child can confirm that. 😄
A scoop costs around €4, but it is so generous that at some point you start wondering whether you ordered ice cream or bought real estate in Greece.
The resort offers an enormous range of services, and we didn’t even have time to try everything. There are pools, children’s activities, a playground, babysitting and many other possibilities.
They even offered to make a restaurant reservation for us in Parga – to call and arrange everything on our behalf.
And all of this is done without ever making you feel like you are asking for too much.
That is extraordinary.
Because, ultimately, this is what you feel most strongly here:
you matter.
Not just your money.
You.
And I think that is what real luxury is.
I have travelled a lot. Very, very much. I have stayed in excellent hotels and resorts and spent significant amounts of money on holidays.
But I have rarely encountered a place where people seem so genuinely involved in what they do.
There is an enormous amount of work here.
Work, work and more work.
And you can see it.
In the gardens. In the cleanliness. On the beach. In the restaurants. In the rooms. In the way you are welcomed. In the way people respond to you. In the way problems are handled.
And most of all, you see it in the people.
I didn’t see people who looked fed up with their jobs.
I saw people who work hard and seem to love what they do.
And that made us happy too.
Leaving will be the hardest part.
Not because we didn’t see enough of Parga.
But because, honestly, we didn’t feel the need to leave the resort anymore.
We came to visit Parga.
We discovered Parga Beach Resort.
And we are leaving with the feeling that we have found the place we want to return to.
Perhaps that is the greatest compliment I can give a resort.
And if someone who has written a negative review happens to read this, I don’t want to say that their experience wasn’t valid. Everyone experiences a place differently.
But I do think there is something worth saying:
sometimes a place becomes better precisely because someone had the courage to say what they didn’t like.
I saw that happening here.
And that is why, if you have read negative reviews about Parga Beach Resort and decided not to come, you might be missing out.
Because you may have missed the very place that, if you had criticised it, would have tried to become even better.
I came.
I tried it.
And now I’m genuinely sad that I have to leave.
At first, I thought it was expensive. Now I think leaving is expensive.
Parga Beach Resort, we’ll be back. ❤️"
