"I would advise against staying at this hotel, mainly due to the owners. My wife and I had two issues at the beginning of our holiday which were badly managed by the owners. If you stay here you will soon realise who the owners are. I believe they are brothers. The older one spends most of his time (day and evening) sitting at the bar watching guests. If you are a big fan of the TV show Big Brother then this is the place for you.
We stayed in a Suite, situated just behind the Bar away from the main building. Our first issue was with the water coming out of the sink tap in our bathroom. It was discoloured and had hundreds of small black bits in it. It also smelt horrible. We knew we weren't able to drink the water but obviously didn't want to use this water to wash or brush our teeth. We reported the issue shortly after arrival and were told to run the tap for 10 minutes and it will be fine. Apparently it was because the room had not been used for a couple of weeks. We ran the tap for almost an hour and the problem did not go away. As we had not yet unpacked we asked if we could move room. We were told that the issue will have gone by the morning. The next day the problem still existed. This time we were told that despite the hotel having a water filter, the bits were from the soil and not a problem. We asked to move room and were told the hotel was full. It was obvious that it wasn't, so why lie. We knew of at least 3 rooms near us that were unoccupied. We still hadn't fully unpacked and felt like we couldn't relax until we changed room. In the end we were told we could change room. This should have been done when it was obvious that running the water for 10 minutes was not going to solve the problem. One day of our holiday partly ruined.
The second issue was more serious. On our second morning we were walking to breakfast. I stepped on a tiled ramp and my feet went from under me. I fell on my back and hit the back of my head on the hard tiles on the ramp. My arm/elbow was the first part of my body to hit the ramp. I think I was lucky that it did otherwise the force to the back of my head would have been worse. The reason I slipped is that the ramp had just been washed and was completely wet. There was no sign on the path to warn guests. The sign was folded up against a nearby wall which we couldn't see due to the direction we came from. BTW, I was wearing trainers at the time, not flip flops or sandals. The cleaner was nearby and immediately came over to check if I was ok and was also very apologetic when I asked why there was no warning sign. The head cleaner then walked past and laughed when she was told what happened, she then just walked on. No concern at all. My wife and I continued to breakfast despite the pain in my arm/elbow. We reported the incident to reception who didn't seem too concerned although did offer to call a doctor. As far as we could see no record of the incident was recorded. While at breakfast the TUI rep arrived and sat in the bar/restaurant. Due to the lack of concern rom the hotel, my wife and I thought we should report the incident to the TUI rep, although we were worried about doing so as 'Big Brother' was sitting in his usual spot a few metres away from her. One of the reasons we wanted to report the incident was that there were many elderly guests and had they fallen the outcome could have been worse. The TUI rep showed more interest than the hotel but not a lot more. We thought this would be the end of it, despite the arm pain I had for the reminder of the holiday and a couple of months after our return.
The same morning we went and sat by the pool. The TUI rep approached us and we could not believe what she said. The hotel management had made a story up that we had been upsetting other guests. So, there way of dealing with a customer who has fallen due to their negligence is to lie to the TUI rep. I think the TUI rep knew it was a lie, so shame on her for going along with it. We were told that despite the apparent complaints from other guests, we were being allowed to stay at the hotel!!
Not surprisingly we no longer wanted to stay at the hotel. We did ask to move but were told nothing could happen until the following day, day 3 of our week holiday. We were contacted the next day but decided not to discuss moving as it would waste a day and we only had 3 full days left. Of course we felt uncomfortable being at the hotel for the rest of the holiday. We were watched, not only by the owners but also by the bar and restaurant staff. We did our best to spend as little time in the public areas as possible.
Thankfully some of the other guests made our stay bearable. If you are reading this, thank you.
As for the hotel and resort.
Hotel Room - Our room was ok. The mattress topper was awful and made for a slightly uncomfortable night sleep. Shower was good. Aircon ok, although we went in October so didn't use it much.
Restaurant - Well there isn't really a restaurant as you eat in the bar area. The food is in a separate room nearby. Didn't have a 4 star feel about it.
Buffet Food - Not great.
- Breakfast had most things, although not a great selection of pastries and the ones they did have were poor quality. I don't think they were fresh. No fresh juice. The juice machine served what was effectively squash. The coffee machine wasn't tod bad, just try not to smell the coffee as it smelt the same as the water that came out of the tap in our first room.
- Dinner. Some evenings there were one of two nice dishes. Nothing that will make you say 'wow'. Surprisingly not much fish. It was obvious that food from the previous evening was being recycled. On the odd occasion they had something really nice like Tempura Prawns it wasn't replenished, so if you weren't one of the first you missed out.
Pool - OK. Couldn't use the slides due to my injury.
Location - Good. A short walk to the seafront. Also close to a few supermarkets.
Sidari - The beach you come to when walking to the seafront from the hotel was OK. The main Sidari beach was not OK. I know Greek resorts can sometimes be a bit rustic but I've never seen one so badly maintained as Sidari. Rusty benches, rusty poles sticking out from the sand, old broken decking in places, what appeared to be an abandoned caravan on the edge of the beach. Just felt dirty. I'm not sure if there is a Sidari tourist board. If there is you need to do something. There is a nice beach (Apotripiti) within walking distance the other side of Sidari. You can swim to Mermaid's Rock from this Beach.
We've been to Greece many times and always wanted to go back. Unfortunately due to the way the owners of this hotel treated us, we're not sure we want to visit Greece again."
