Amazing View

The house is spacious, with a well-equipped kitchen, two bathrooms with showers, and another upstairs bathroom with just a toilet. The sunrise view is especially beautiful, and I knew before booking that it was away from the center, so a rental car is needed. The downstairs Wi-Fi needs a different network for a full signal, though. Getting started was already a hassle. Picking up the keys wasn’t easy, we waited for someone to bring them, and finding the place could be annoying. If you’re six people and need an extra set, there’s a €50 deposit. I contacted the administrator/owner, Miss Eleni, because we’d been given two double bedrooms and one with twin beds. She told me to find another accommodation if I wasn’t happy with it. I was shocked. After four days, the boiler broke and water leaked from its technical room into the downstairs bedrooms. It was chaos, and cleaning it up took nearly half a day. I was collecting water in buckets. I’d called the agency two days earlier to report something wrong with the boiler and emailed too, but got no reply. The plumber only came after a few hours and lots of calls. The shower drain also doesn’t work well, so water ends up everywhere after a shower.

The pool and restaurant look lovely, and I enjoyed the music at breakfast. But the drinks are very expensive, and breakfast itself was poor: the same food every day, barely edible scrambled eggs, sweets that didn’t taste good, no fresh white bread, and no fresh fruit apart from watermelon. There were no tomatoes or peppers either. A drink at the nearby Irish pub-restaurant seemed like the better choice at half the price. We were disappointed by how the staff treated us. The reception team wasn’t friendly or responsive to our requests. We’d booked a superior room but were put in a smaller room in the fourth row, in very bad condition. The door and refrigerator were broken, the walls and curtains weren’t clean, there was only one power socket, and the lights blinked. With help from the TUI representative, we managed to change rooms. Staff said there were no others available, though we found rooms listed on Booking. The hotel has its own beach, which is nice, but guests have to pay for a deckchair and umbrella. We laid our towel on the sand in front of the loungers, and the beach attendant made us move, even though we only wanted to sunbathe for less than an hour before driving off in our rental car. We can afford the amenities, so that wasn’t the point. The price-performance ratio just wasn’t good, and it felt too expensive for what was offered.

Getting there by car is the only option, and some of the turns felt dangerous. At one point you have to reverse on a 30 degree slope to make a turn, so it’s a tough drive if you’re afraid of heights or drop-offs. The Wi-Fi was very poor, and I relied on 4G almost the whole time. For almost (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) euros a week, I think there are better value options. At checkout I had to buy a broom and mop to clean the studio. Maybe I didn’t get it clean enough, since it wasn’t a 5 star hotel.

I spotted this place from S. Stefano beach and did my usual thing of asking locals about it. What I heard was all true. If you and your partner love each other and have the heart for it, maybe you’re ready for this amazing place. Enjoy!