"Just back from spending a week in the hotel.
The room was spacious, spotlessly clean and the maids cleaned the room every day, also providing fresh towels. Having booked this hotel some two years ago, and having emailed them a fortnight prior to arrival to request a room on a higher floor with a view, we were placed on the ground floor. This was a tad frustrating, particularly when at least one of the rooms opposite on the top floor appeared to be vacant during most of our stay. In their email, the hotel advised they receive many similar requests, understood but how do they allocate rooms, particularly for advance bookings from two years ago! Our balcony was surrounded by plants and trees with a view of the mountain opposite. One afternoon, a coloured man walked past our balcony to pick oranges from the tree adjacent to us, something we found was an invasion of our privacy.
Much has been said of the staff and on the whole we found them happy, polite and easy to talk to. However, we never go on holidays to make life long friends with staff, and they were just doing their job anyway.
The pool does get busy but we had no problem finding sunbeds...just be early.
Only ate at the hotel twice, once was the lunchtime menu and must say the servings were huge and very nice. As far as breakfast, have to say it was disappointing, particularly the traditional fry up which was cold. There were additional choices of cold omelette, cakes and pastries etc. So can only give 5/10 for this.
The walk into town was ok, took about 25 mins if you took the short cut through the lanes, but had to dodge motor bikes quite often. Some of the properties you pass were a bit run down and the mozzies were ready to pounce.
There is a taxi service from town, behind the main sea front, with a standard fare of E7.00 one way. But beware...there are literally just 10 registered taxis serving the whole of Parga so the wait can vary, particularly after 11.00 pm.
The town centre is really nice with lots of tavernas and bars but was very, very busy, particularly last Sunday evening when Norway played Brazil in the World Cup. Some bar owners prevented passers by from entering, pretending tables had been reserved, when in fact it was clear they were keeping them for Norwegian fans! We were refused entry twice, which was annoying as there were no reserved signs on any tables!
The castle is well worth the walk, but beware of the steps, they are a killer on hot days. There are a couple of nice bars on the way up, the Blue Bar particularly. There are some very nice old, traditional restaurants adjacent to the castle with some lovely views of the neighbouring resort of Valtos.
We did the sunset train ride up to Ali Pasha's castle which offered stunning views of the surrounding area with a gorgeous sunset. Whilst the guide was patient with people taking their time, unfortunately what was advertised as 20 minute break in the village of Anthousa on the return journey didn't happen and we just went straight back to Parga.
Recommend the boat trip to Paxos. Was a lovely day visiting several places but the 45 minute stop for swimming was really boring and could have been curtailed to allow more time in the towns we stopped in, just 90 minutes in each which wasn't enough to chill, relax and look for food and drink.
Overall, this was a fantastic holiday but having seen it all, and combining both the excess heat (32-35) and the crowds, doubt we would visit again, 9/10."
