"We have just spent 2 weeks at this hotel, which has been nice and very relaxing.
We booked a superior bungalow because we wanted a bit extra space, which was lovely and the views are amazing. Just to note though, the bungalows are built into the hillside and are not bungalows in the traditional sense as there is another bungalow above. We were on the fourth level so were very high up. The rooms are accessed by a “lift” which is actually a very slow funicular railway, and wasn’t working for some of the time we were there. There are steps you can use to go up and down, (there were 140 of them to our room and yes I was sad enough to count them!), but we just walked down them. Fortunately reception have large golf buggies which they would use to take people back to their rooms, but this wasn’t ideal if you wanted to come and go as you please. Also because of this, you had to remember everything when going to the pool as you couldn’t just pop back to your room!
The bungalow itself had a separate seating area, a very comfortable bed and a huge walk in shower. There was a large screen TV in both the bedroom and living area, we also had a largish patio which had a hot tub, (which we didn’t request) but it did give us a larger patio with 2 sunbeds and a table and chairs. The only thing to note is the hot tub is very noisy when it keeps heating up, which was every every hour or so. We weren’t using it, so we had it turned off in the end as it kept heating up through the night and kept us awake as it was situated outside our bedroom.
The pool was lovely, very big, but it was very cold. Probably ideal if you are going in the height of summer, but at this time of year, where the heat isn’t as scorching, it felt chilly, (though the temperatures were ideal if you don’t like scorching sun). The one downside was that the pool area was grass and not concrete, so it gets a bit muddy as they hose down the beds every morning. There is a bar next to the pool (which doubles as the restaurant in the evenings), where you can get drinks and bar food during the day and not too expensive - just note though, there are lots of wasps around, so I had to eat inside the bar area to avoid them. There were a couple of showers next to the pool and a changing “box” next to them if you wanted to change out of a wet costume. We didn’t have any issues getting a sunbed every day, there was only a couple of occasions when people came down early and put towels out, but you really didn’t need to.
Everywhere was really clean, you couldn't fault it. I think the hotel had been refurbished a year ago, so it still looked really good.
Breakfasts were good. There was fruit, yogurts, salads, breads and jams/honey, cakes, the usual fare and then the hot station, where you could get fried eggs (no poached eggs!) bacon, etc but though there was a chef cooking fried eggs - not to order I must add, they were being cooked and then put on a hot plate for you to help yourself, which meant they could be sitting there for a while before you go up. Likewise with scrambled eggs. I did try asking one morning for fresh fried eggs, but got a response that there were eggs sitting there and to take one of those. The only thing cooked to order were omelettes. For a five star hotel I thought this was appalling. Both the egg chefs were miserable and on occasions, quite rude. There were coffee machines and if you wanted tea, you had to ask for hot water. This was hit and miss as they used hot water jugs to fill teapots, which if they had been standing there a while, the water would be warm, so we had to ask to get hot water.
We went half board as I am gluten free and it just makes it easier. The food in the evenings was lovely, extremely healthy and good portions. I even had a separate gluten free menu and there were specials each evening. Just to note, you don't get offered the menu that’s on their website for half board. It is a separate menu, though you get a good choice. Anna in the restaurant really looked after us. It was very relaxing and chilled and the food was really good, fresh Mediterranean food. There is a restaurant near the hotel called Avellio, which is owned by the same owner of the hotel, so when the hotel restaurant was busy, we were asked if we would like to dine there, which we did a couple of times. You don’t get to eat off the usual menu, you would get the half board menu, but again the food was really good and it was situated right on the bay, so the views were stunning.
The staff were generally really helpful and friendly, it was an effort to get a smile or even a good morning out of the younger ones, especially at breakfast in the mornings, but that might be because some of them appear to be doing long shifts serving in the restaurant in the evenings and then early mornings at breakfast.
The hotel isn’t really close to anything. There is a little shop about 10-15 mins walk away where you can get milk, drinks, snacks etc. The bus stop is about a 7 minute walk from the hotel, up a busyish road where there are no pavements. The buses (you need a no. 7) to get into Corfu town, run about every 20/25 mins, they cost 2.50 Euros each, each way and it takes about 25 minutes to get into the town. They are long double buses though, so you can get lots of people on them. There is no queueing system at the bus stop, so it is literally a free for all!
Whilst in the old town, we did 2 of the open top buses, which are really good as you can get to see a bit of the Island and just get on and off when you want. There is a red route and blue route. The red route the buses stop every 15 minutes, so you can get on and off easily, the blue route is every hour because they go a lot longer in distance. The old town is lovely, there are just so many little alleys with shops and restaurants, it took us a few visits to discover everything, there is even an M&S! We would recommend The Liston for food – its lovely just to sit and watch the world go by."
