Athina Hotel

It’s in a great spot near the beach, and the pool is the only other plus. Don’t let that fool you, though. Staying here was easily the worst mistake you could make. The accommodation was bad, towels came only every three days if you were lucky, and breakfast was very poor. The staff mocked the guests with their bad service.

The beach is directly in front of the hotel, and the sea is beautiful and crystal clear. The wind can pick up in the afternoon, though locals said that’s normal. Our room was clean and tidy, with a large terrace. The internet was quite poor, so we used Alkyion’s Wi-Fi. The bathroom lighting was very dim and inconvenient. Housekeeping came regularly and changed the linens. Breakfast was the same each day: eggs, bread, a few slices of cheese and ham, butter, coffee, tomato and cucumber, then Greek yogurt with honey and banana. It was simple but filling before the beach. It wasn’t buffet style. You waited for the waiter to bring each person’s serving, which could take up to half an hour. We didn’t use the pool. The hostess was very nice, and her assistant Spiro was kind and always available when we had questions.

The best thing is the beachside location and the mosquito net on the window. Beyond that, this is the worst place I’ve ever stayed, LOL. It felt like the staff kind of hated us for being tourists and didn’t want to help. I get it, lol, but since they make their living from guests, it would’ve been nice to have a respectful, pleasant stay. We paid for a sea view and got a ground-floor room facing the car park. I didn’t even bring it up. They handed me the key without explaining anything. There was no shower door or curtain, so the whole bathroom became a pool, and there wasn’t a floor mat. We asked for one and waited 24 hours. I think they just didn’t care, since we saw their branded mats hanging from other rooms’ windows. We had to use one of our towels, and when I asked for another, they refused because the lady owner didn’t have the key to her own towel room. The bed was so hard it felt like a wood board, and I couldn’t sleep on my side. (Though, to be fair, someone might like them hard.) The room was generally humid, with scaly walls and a bit of a smell. The place didn’t seem particularly safe on the ground floor, with the gate always open, though Corfu itself didn’t seem especially dangerous. Maybe if I came back to the island in 30 years, after Athina was gone and her pictures no longer covered the reception walls, and the huge 2002 list wasn’t still taped there with no point written on it, I’d miss this place. Maybe there’d be a chain hotel run by rich people who never visit, like the next one, with even less experience for definitely more money. I’d miss the old, odd Greek ladies shouting at me from the kitchen while eating watermelon, and the millions of wasps that ate with me and never stung me once.

We were charged 27 euros for our drinks and desserts, but when I added up the prices on a menu I got from the bar, it came to 19 euros. At first, a younger boy served us and didn’t know what was available. He checked and came back to say the chocolate pie wasn’t available, so we ordered lemon pie. Drinks came, then baklava, then ice cream, but no lemon cake. When I asked, they said that wasn’t available either. An older man explained that the menus they use belong to the place next door, where prices are lower. I told him they can’t hand someone a menu with one price and charge another. I asked for the difference back, but he said the manager wasn’t there to hand out money. When I asked what about the money I’d already given him, the younger lad suddenly returned the 8 euros I was owed. Before that, I’d had to wait while another customer complained about his room. He’d paid extra for air conditioning and a sea view, but got no air conditioning and a view of the car park. Nothing worse than being ripped off. I wouldn’t recommend it.