Marathon Hotel

"We had a great time at the Marathon Hotel late October. The staff are lovely, especially all the buffet staff, barmen, and the lady on reception during the day, so friendly. Manager also helpful if any issues. The highlight was the homemade pizzas during the day and gyros in the evening, you are never hungry! The room and balcony was great too, and air-con was excellent. Very good value for money and the hotel is in a fab location as there’s a bus stop yards away that takes you to Lindos/Rhodes Old Town and other places, and plenty of shops round about. Short walk to the beach also. Would probably return again in higher season as quite a bit closed in Kolymbia late October but no detriment to the hotel. Would return!!"

"Fourth time staying here, staff are always amazing, always willing to do everything for you, the manager is a great man who treats you like family, atmosphere at the hotel is always amazing too. Every year this hotel gets better and better, will be back next year, location is great too, bus stop outside the hotel, plenty of shops, restaurant and bars very close. Beach is a 5/10 min walk away too. Harbour 10 mins walk for boat trips and water activities, great location great food at the hotel, cater to everybody. Thank you vasily and the rest of the hotel team for being so welcoming year after year, will see you next year for our fifth stay."

"Marathon - REVIEW Of course, this serves as a review and others are welcome to disagree with my thoughts and opinions - however this is MY opinion and my experience of the resort in off peak season of October 2025. For the sake of context, I want to add that all inclusive resorts or plans are never my first choice usually. I have a mild nut allergy, as well as Crohn’s Disease (IBD, NOT to be confused with IBS) - so eating in restaurants or staying in properties outside of hotels is usually the go to. My standards are like that of many brits - as long as it’s clean, fresh, there’s edible choices and somewhat sunny - we usually don’t ask for much more. I stayed with my fiancé as a couple for 7 nights. ROOM - DOUBLE POOLSIDE The double bed was extremely soft and comfortable. The hairdryer in the bathroom is weak so be warned, but we always take our own. There were hangers, a safe (free to use), a fridge with a large water in as well as space for much more. We kept bottle drinks in there as well as my syringe medication. The bathroom was lovely, the water pressure fantastic. The air con was modern and worked excellent - again free to use. There was a smart TV also - which was a bonus for late nights. Our ground level terrace had a table and 2 chairs. The rooms themselves overall are extremely spacious. There was also a metal bunk bed in here - which wasn’t a problem for us, but I know for some couples we spoke to they didn’t like this. Some downfalls of the room: (This one is far fetched) The lights & Colour. The lights are all white lights, except for one, so with the white sheets and blue toppers it did feel a lot like a hospital environment. This of course for me was a bit more jarring than it would be for most people (due to my medical history) but nothing problematic for 99% of people - so take that with a pinch of salt. The shower drainage system needs some work. The shower is almost too powerful for the drains, so the water would spill out across the floor, past the loo and towards the sink at times. We sussed out very fast that you can just roll some towels to act as a barrier, but a simple higher ledge or deeper drain would do the trick for such a powerful shower. There was no iron or ironing board, something that I always appreciate given the crease curse from suitcases - but this could be requested from reception! We did have a leak in the ceiling in the bedroom, something that we did mention to reception on our 5th day - but it wasn’t fixed by the time we left. I think they were just waiting for us to leave before looking further as it would probably need an internal inspection, as it was apparently happening in the room next to us as well. We didn’t have the maids or cleaners in at all for our stay, due to my AirPods being stolen on day 1 by the pool. I cannot confirm whether it was a guest or staff member who took them - but it hindered my trust on who came into our room with our other valuables as we were at the bottom of the private pool rooms, so there wasn’t many people there at all who would’ve seen them. We therefore didn’t use this service at all. We did notify reception as soon as they were stolen, and whilst we saw a lot of people with AirPods including staff, which made me hopeful, in the end they didn’t show up and weren’t handed in. POOLS / ENTERTAINMENT There were 2 pools to choose from - the main pool, and the pool with the terraced rooms. I believe this pool was mostly reserved for that block of rooms, as I could see people getting moved off the loungers directly outside of the rooms (which I can appreciate since the upgrade is roughly £100pp for that poolside rooms). The main pool was busy but there were always sun beds available somewhere that we could see when passing. Everywhere was clean and safe from what I saw when we would pass. I believe there were activities available such as water polo, aerobics and more - but we didn’t see these in action as we stayed in the other rooms out the back. Our go to pool was the back pool that our room overlooked for obvious reasons. It was peaceful and attracted less kids which I was really appreciative of. There are no adult only pools, which to be honest, I would like to have seen the side pool be turned into one to give couples that option (again just my opinion!). Unfortunately though, due to the building and the trees, there is no sun exposure except for the top side of the pool; meaning that the loungers were usually 85% of the time in shade everywhere except for about 8 at the top of the pool. The pool therefore was absolutely freezing due to the lack of sun on it to help warm it somewhat. For this reason, we often went out to the beach instead. The entertainment was always a laugh - regardless as to whether it was a quiz to the live music, it was great to see people getting involved and kept the atmosphere alive. I can see this being extremely unpopular for anyone staying directly above the reception with little ones as it was on from 9.30-11 usually - so if you have young ones I’d suggest requesting a room elsewhere in the complex if you can. RESTAURANT / BAR The food was as good. In AI, You have to remember that it is BULK cooking for mass numbers. The food had a decent amount of variety and there is something for everyone. However, the lunches and dinners were extremely similar after a handful of days, so after a few days, maybe 3, it looses its flare. As I’ve said prior - it is mass cooking for mass people, so please don’t expect a 5* west end meal. The food was good quality and there was decent range. It isn’t the best AI I’ve had, but it was more than fine. The gyros were the highlight - these were offered from 8pm so we often went for those instead once we figured out where they were served from. Allergens were a bit hit and miss. The labelling of allergens wasn’t great. Only a handful of items were labelled (2/3 labelled out of around 20 items in the savoury) and the desserts had 0 labels on every day. I didn’t bother asking as I’m not a sweet tooth person, but this could put others off if they don’t want to ask every day what everything contains. The drinks for us were the total let down. Unfortunately they took my 1 go to cocktail off their AI menu (Aperol Spritz) and was €8 to purchase at the bar. The rest of the cocktails were vodka based, and unfortunately uni me many years ago ruined that for me! Alcohol outside of beer and wine isn’t served until 6.30pm, so if you like an afternoon tipple - you’ll need to visit the store across the road. This didn’t affect us as we aren’t day drinkers. I couldn’t tolerate any of the tap soft drinks (cola, lemonade etc), and the morning juices (orange, apple etc) were so bitter and sour I couldn’t stomach it. My fiancé and I were both brought up with ALDI Soda, so please believe me when I say we aren’t used to branded and we also aren’t fussy. But this was awful for us to the point it was a total no go, and water was the choice for every meal. We haven’t had this issue before in any previous AI hotels in Kolympia, so this was really a shame. We did buy all (and I mean ALL) of our soft drinks, juices and snacks in the shop across the road from the hotel, and we luckily brought our own alcohol from duty free - so we had that option if we wanted it too. We hired a car from the hotel and the rep was brilliant. We couldn’t recommend this enough. We travelled to a lot of hot spots in a brilliant Polo with built in car play for £45 for the day. We visited Farma Rhodes, Kallthea Springs and a few other stunning locations. Absolutely worth just driving and seeing the beauty of Rhodes outside of Kolympia. Because of the lack of sun at the pool until we worked out where the best beds were with sun exposure that lasted more than an hour, we visited Verano beach 3 times on the trip. This was €20 for 2 beds for the full day. The food there is excellent and the staff are extremely lovely. OVERALL Overall - I don’t think we would return based on other hotels we have stayed in previously within the area. This is simply because of the amount of time we wanted to spend outside of the hotel and the money we unintentionally planned to spend elsewhere. This is just our opinion though so we would encourage you to make your own decision! I hope you all have a lovely stay if you are visiting! Best wishes all and safe travels for 2026! Chloe x"