Ella Helea

"I don’t normally bother with reviews if I don’t like somewhere but I feel like I have to warn people off because I was mislead by the five star rating and reviews. I normally stay in budget three star hotels and I’ve never had a bad holiday until this one. First of all I don’t know how a serious injury has not occurred yet considering the railings down the stone steps(multiple sets of steps) come away from the walls when you use them. The stone slab steps down to the beaches are also loose, when I used them it slid off the stairs and took me with it, I was lucky to not be seriously injured. 2. There is no evening entertainment on any night except for dj sets and the occasional singer so don’t expect to have anything to do at night. 3. It is claimed that the drinks in your room are restocked every single day, this is false. Ours was PARTIALLY restocked ONCE after we complained TWICE. 4. You can’t book your included restaurant meals until you arrive, at which point we were told there was no one there to do it so we must try again tomorrow. We tried again tomorrow only to be told it was all booked up and so we couldn’t go there, at all, for the whole holiday. What had we paid for?! 5. There are signs saying ‘no reserving beds, towels will be removed from beds if vacant’ this however did not happen once during our whole holiday and all of the beds were ‘reserved’ by 7am EVERY day. 6. The spa is another death trap with black mould spread everywhere. Every lounger in the whole spa was covered in black mould. Also, half of the available rooms were out of use. 7. There are hardly any signs indicating the separation of the two Helea hotels that are next to each other, but you get told off and escorted back if you wander on to the wrong side. 8. Some of the staff are lovely and can’t do enough for you. Some of them however are downright rude, and I’m not someone who has ridiculous expectations of hotel staff by any means but some of the reception team were horrible. 9. Everything in our room was covered in a layer of dust when we arrived. It was so bad that I actually cleaned it before we went to bed. 10. The waterslide is for children not adults and there were so many people there, too many, that you could not even swim in the ONE proper pool, you simply had to stand in it still. Rhodes is a wonderful place to go and we will be visiting again, but never to this hotel, I am still mortified by how much we paid for the worst holiday of our lives. I couldn’t even cover everything in this review, save your money please!"

"My wife and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary and our little boys 1st birthday at the beautiful Helea Lifestyle. All of the staff were amazing; from the team on reception, to the fabulous bar staff and housekeeping teams. A big shout out to Mr Lefteris in the Lopia restaurant, who very kindly arranged for a bottle of bubbles to be delivered to our room so we could celebrate our special night in style. Stunning hotel, perfect for families and we cannot wait to visit again!"

"We stayed at the Helea towards the end of the summer holidays which we found a great time to visit as it's getting a little quieter. We were expecting it to be busy given it's a family hotel and sometimes you had to queue in the morning if you got down late for breakfast, but you weren't queuing for too long. The room was nice and comfortable, nothing particularly special for a 5 star. We booked an inland room expecting a garden view of some sort, but we could see the side of the hotel and what looked like a carpark, it wasn't appealing to spend time relaxing on the balcony but we didn't spend a lot of time in the room. We booked this hotel for it's family-friendly facilities and found the kid's club, cinema and games rooms ideal. Though some of the films in the cinema weren't appropriate for young children, but they were the later showings, so assume this is geared towards young adults. We struggled to use the app to book the a la carte's as it wasn't showing current availability, but found guest services very helpful in sorting this - book early on in your stay if you want to visit them all. We enjoyed the Greek restaurant the best. The gyros bar is great near the beach, but the burger bar was very busy with queues at lunch! The beach is a pebble beach as described, but we were able to get a sun lounger. It can get quite chilly in the evenings, so I would recommend a light cardigan/shirt for the evenings especially when sat by the sea and at the entertainment area. The entertainment was hit and miss, but there was a great Michael Jackson tribute and acrobatic performance. Special shout-out and thanks to George in guest services who arranged our Spa booking and a VIP breakfast which was a lovely morning and the couple massages were great. We travelled with our 4-year old daughter so the kids' club came in handy for couple time. Also special mention of Maria and May in the Main restaurant Lopia, who were very friendly and accommodating for us and our daughter. It was difficult to find healthy options for breakfast, but we made do with fruits, fresh bread and eggs etc. You can request fresh orange juice from your server as there's no fresh juices. A couple of negative things to note is the shower floor hasn't been designed very well and the water runs into the room which can make it difficult to keep the bathroom dry, and the floor towels are insufficient, they also block the door from opening. The toilets near the Main restaurant, Lopia, seem neglected and are not cleaned regularly. Overall a great stay and I would visit again. The hotel is in a great location near the old town which you can hop on a shuttle for 4 euros or 15 euros for a taxi. It is also very close to the airport."