"🌟🌟🌟🌟 3.5 Excellent 10-Day Family Holiday with a Few Useful Tips!
We having a great 10-day stay at the Atlantica Mikri Poli. We are a British family of four (with two sons aged 8 and 13) and travelled as part of a larger group of 20 (split across 5 families). Overall, we had a brilliant holiday, but there are a few insider tips and constructive bits of feedback that future guests might find helpful.
The Rooms & Maintenance
Our family lodge was tidy and a great size for the four of us. The master double bed was incredibly comfortable! The hotel is great with amenities, providing a fresh bottle of water daily, along with coffee, milk, and fresh towels every two days.
* **Room Feedback:** The children’s beds were very hard and springy, meaning our youngest ended up in the middle of the master bed with us for a few nights. Also, the floors could do with a more thorough clean (it’s a "don't wear white socks" situation), though the hotel does thoughtfully provide slippers. We also had a minor glitch where our towel count dropped from 4 to 2 after a change, though reception sorted it.
Maintenance & Reception Tip: Our room safe needed new batteries and was fixed within 2 days by maintenance. It took a couple of reminders to get it done, but a big tip for guests: **don’t bother going to reception at the end of the day with a non-urgent issue.** They don’t seem to have a way of logging it for the maintenance crew until the morning, so you’ll just be told to come back tomorrow. Head down first thing in the morning instead!
Late Checkout Life Hack: If you have a late departure (we weren't leaving until 9 PM), the hotel charges around an extra €100 to keep your room. Instead of paying that, make use of the showers located in the basement of the reception area. I spotted them on day one, and knowing they were there gave us total peace of mind for our final day without having to shell out extra cash!
Food & Drink
The main restaurant is a highlight. The catering is very clean, and the staff are absolutely lovely. Even during peak, very busy periods, the team works incredibly fast to clear and make up tables. There is a great variety of food with different themed nights, and the chips are excellent! Breakfast is good, though as Brits, we did find ourselves wishing for normal pork sausages rather than the resort style.
* **The Beer & Drink Tip:** If you find that the standard local all-inclusive draft beer doesn't quite agree with your stomach, you can purchase premium bottles of wine and beer in the evening. It was well worth it for me to pay €4.50 for a bottle of Mythos, or €5.00 for a cold Erdinger wheat beer, which quickly became my favorite treat of the holiday! **I really wish the hotel offered a premium all-inclusive drink upgrade package** so you could access these branded options without paying out of pocket each time.
Top Dining Tip: You MUST book the Polynesian restaurant. The food is amazing and there is loads of it (everything from duck and sushi to great salads). Make this the very first thing you book at the start of your stay.
Coffee Lovers Beware: There are basic coffee machines around, but the only proper barista-style machine is in the main reception—and it doesn’t open until 5 PM. Having proper coffee available during the day or at breakfast would be a massive upgrade.
Tech & Booking
The resort's connectivity is outstanding. There is excellent 5G roaming on the Three/Smarty (Nova here) network, and the hotel’s own Wi-Fi 6 (running on high-end Ubiquiti gear) is rock-solid throughout the entire park.
Booking System Glitch: You cannot book the à la carte restaurants via the app. There is a Windows NUC touch-screen terminal at reception for this, but it had an IT glitch where the on-screen keyboard wouldn't pop up. Trying to book for a group of 20 at the desk was a logistical challenge, but the reception staff did a great job sorting out separate tables and times for us.
Pools, Bars & Amenities
The pools are lovely, clean, and unheated in the summer months which will either wake you right up or cool you down perfectly depending on how hot it is! The lifeguards are highly attentive and constantly on duty. Just a heads-up: they take safety very seriously, so do not hang around or linger on the footbridges or you *will* be warned! 😉
Main Pool Bar: The main poolside bar (located just under the main restaurant) is always well-staffed. It is not a self-pour station, so you can expect some queues at peak times, especially around 3-4 PM. We did notice a persistent, unpleasant "sicky" smell around this bar for the first week, though it seemed to clear up around day 8.
Hidden Gems & Fitness: Make sure to check the resort map for the "hidden" bars located down by the beach and at the very top chill-out pool. They are well worth exploring! There is also a spa and both an indoor and outdoor gym on-site if you want to seek them out.
Location, Local Area & Excursions
If you fancy a change of scenery, turn right out of the hotel (facing the beach) and take a short 5-minute walk. It brings you straight to a crossroads for Eucalyptus Street, which has everything you need—supermarkets, gift shops, restaurants, and bars.
THE HOLIDAY HIGHLIGHT - Self-Drive Boat Hire:** Right down by the beach, there is a boat hire place. You can rent self-drive boats starting from around an hour for roughly $80. Our entire group of 5 families hired our own boats, went out together, and anchored in a nearby cove for a swim. The absolute freedom and experience of doing this was incredible—highly recommend!
* **A Note on the Symi Island Excursion:** Symi itself is a lovely, picturesque town (bring some spending money!), but the excursion is a very long day (9:30 AM to 7:00 PM). It involves a 1-hour coach ride to Rhodes Town with hotel pickups, followed by a 1 hour 40 minute boat ride.
**Crucially!!!! for families with accessibility needs:** the coach was completely non-accessible for wheelchairs with no lifts, meaning our group had to physically carry a 14-year-old onto both the coach and the boat, even though we were told by the hotel is was accessible, there was no lift, no toilets on boat for wheelchair users.
Despite a few minor IT and housekeeping niggles, we had a wonderful holiday so far. The fantastic staff, great food, and excellent facilities make this a top choice for a family getaway. We would definitely recommend it! There was some Very Nice hotels in the facinity so check Google Maps too!"
