Caretta Beach Holiday Village

The room was great and cleaned daily, and the maids work really hard. There are lots of pools, and we always found a sunbed, even during the half term holidays. The water park was great, with no queues. Breakfast and lunch were good, but we ate out in the evenings and didn’t try dinner. Drinks were okay. I’d read bad reviews, but they weren’t the worst all-inclusive drinks I’ve had. The location was great too, less than five minutes from a road lined with restaurants, bars and shops, and a 20-minute walk to the beach. Can’t fault the place for the price.

The only thing the kids have enjoyed so far is the bouncy castles at night, and they cost 10 euros each per night. Anything worth doing costs extra. There’s hardly anything good to do nearby, everything is driving distance and taxis aren’t cheap. The area generally isn’t very nice. We booked for two weeks because everything looked amazing online, but after a couple of days this place feels like a dive. Everything looks as if it needs painting or replacing. The food isn’t much good, and they’re very stingy with the meat at the snack bars. We paid £300 extra for an upgraded room, but it’s exactly like the other rooms, just with nicer furniture. We’ll most likely leave early. We’re already looking at booking flights home, and I’ll 100% never come back.

The location is great, and the waterpark and grounds look lovely. The grounds are kept very clean, and the housekeeping staff work incredibly hard. Some staff members are genuinely friendly and helpful. We had to move rooms due to domestic issues, and the TV was replaced, which we appreciated. The pools are visually lovely and probably one of the hotel’s strongest features, but in May they’re absolutely freezing and hard to enjoy for long. With Greece’s unpredictable weather at the beginning and end of the season, it’s disappointing that none of the pools are heated. Unfortunately, our experience of the food, drinks, organisation and management made this the worst all-inclusive stay we’ve personally had. One particularly concerning issue was at the OGS Burgers à la carte restaurant. Burgers advertised and served as beef clearly weren’t beef, and multiple guests questioned whether they might contain pork. This was especially concerning given that Muslim guests were staying at the hotel, along with people who have allergies, dietary restrictions or religious requirements. After guests complained, management reportedly took the meat away for testing, a staff member was dismissed and actual beef burgers were sourced afterwards. Whatever the outcome, this should never happen at a 4-star all-inclusive resort, and it understandably worried guests. The hotel also handled dietary requirements very poorly throughout our holiday. For medical reasons, I can’t drink full-sugar soft drinks. The local sugar-free cola alternative was undrinkable. Management initially agreed to provide something more suitable, but that stopped later without explanation, so I repeatedly had to buy my own drinks from local shops during an all-inclusive holiday. Communication about pre-arranged dietary meals was extremely poor. Restaurant staff repeatedly didn’t know about arrangements that had supposedly already been agreed, so I had to explain myself over and over. It became embarrassing and stressful, and honestly made me feel like a burden for having dietary requirements. With so little communication or suitable food, I mostly survived on salad and bread rolls. Even plain pasta was regularly covered in oil. The buffet was poor quality and extremely repetitive. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were practically the same every day, with maybe one or two small changes. The food was often cold and genuinely unpleasant. My husband and son aren’t fussy eaters at all, but even they struggled after a couple of days because the food was so lacking in variety and quality. The snack bar wasn’t better: the burgers were inedible, and the gyros and fish fingers were awful. The chips, onion rings and hotdogs were acceptable enough. The ice cream was lovely, and the Malibu alternative was a hit. My husband says the beer was okay, but very weak. Other guests have reported it was 0.5%. Reception staff were generally rude, dismissive and unhelpful. Calls about problems were regularly cut off, check-in was chaotic from the start, and one receptionist was consistently rude whenever we needed help. We were basically told to complain once we got home instead of having problems properly resolved during the holiday. The hotel has real potential because of its location and facilities, but poor organisation, inconsistent management and very poor food and drinks let it down completely. Based on our experience, we wouldn’t return or recommend it. I’ve also posted a longer, more detailed review on Facebook for anyone who wants more information about our stay.

Over our seven-day stay, the snack bar was probably the best food option at the resort. The water park wasn’t anything special, just a few basic slides. The all-inclusive food was the worst I’ve ever tasted, to the point that we ate out for breakfast and our main meal every night. The outside bar staff were okay, but the inside bar staff and security were very rude. At 11pm the lights went out and they stopped serving. We won’t be back.