Porto Platanias Beach - Luxury Selection

There was so much going on that we never had time to get bored. Mornings started with Marco leading a fantastic stretching session. He checked how everyone was feeling and adapted the exercises for back pain and old injuries. Then came lively, really fun aqua aerobics with modern music and great energy, suitable for different ages and fitness levels. Marco is a charismatic, positive instructor who brings a lot of joy to everyone. Everything was perfect! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

We had a very pleasant week here in the off-season. It's a huge resort in Platanias village, right by the beach, with several buildings, many room types, and small and large pools between the buildings. The pools aren't heated. Staff were polite, helpful, and friendly. Our sea-view room was spacious and had a kitchenette; its terrace opened onto the hotel beach or a small fishing port. Other rooms look over the pools or main road, or sit in quieter corners. Breakfast was included in the service options, but we paid for it separately. The buffet followed general European tastes, with a few Greek specialties. Guests can also use a moderately equipped gym and a spa area for an extra fee. One frustration was the sunbeds: guests often claimed them early with towels, so even when no one was at the pools, we sometimes couldn't find a free one.

We stayed from September 29th to October 6th 2025 in a two-level Maisonette. The room was fairly clean but old, with awkward lighting, too few sockets and towel hooks, and no shoehorn or slippers. Paying for the safe was strange. More upsetting, we also had to pay for sun loungers despite being all-inclusive. Restaurant staff were slow to clear dirty dishes. There wasn't much food after dinner, and they wouldn't give it to us even though we were all-inclusive. At the pool bar, the bartenders seemed greedy and wouldn't make a cocktail without a tip. They treated us like we were pieces of shit. I wanted to throw a slipper at them, but held back. I wouldn't come back or recommend staying until their guest policy changes. Management apparently hasn't realized it's 2025, not 2005, and they're losing out to Turkish hotels.

We left frustrated instead of rested. This did not feel like a true 5-star resort, especially for a family with a small child. If it had been honestly sold as a 3-star hotel at the right price, we wouldn't have minded so much, but calling it a “5-star luxury family resort” set expectations it didn't meet. We traveled with our 9-month-old baby, and the place was surprisingly impractical. Our room was old, small, and musty when we arrived; the bathroom smelled unpleasant most of the time. We booked one double bed but got two separate ones that kept sliding apart. The mattresses were so soft and unsupportive that we woke with back pain. Shower water kept switching between hot and cold without warning, making it stressful and unsafe to wash the baby. The crib situation was shocking. The first one was broken and had a blanket instead of a proper mattress. The replacement also had no real mattress. Our baby sleeps on his stomach, so we felt this was genuinely unsafe. There was almost no greenery or shade, mostly concrete, and nowhere comfortable for a baby to crawl or play freely. The room was too small for crawling, and outside the space revolved around pools and sunbeds. The two little playgrounds weren't suitable for babies or toddlers: no shade, very limited space, and hard to use safely when older kids were on the swings. The beach was the only place our baby could somewhat crawl, but it had no shade or promenade, little greenery, and dirty sand with cigarette butts, sticks, and debris. There were no heated pools for babies or small children. Pool water often felt oily and poorly maintained, and people reserved sunbeds with towels early every morning. Staff did nothing about it. Nearly everything cost extra: parking, spa, water park, tennis, beach sunbeds, and even weighing luggage. Two beach loungers cost €15 per day, with no clear sign that they were paid. You sit down thinking they are part of the hotel area, then someone comes demanding payment, which felt misleading. The gym was disappointing too: small, in the basement, badly ventilated, unbearably hot, and with very little equipment. A loose part on one machine cut my partner. For a resort in this category, basic amenities were missing: no welcome drinks or fruit basket, no bathrobes or slippers, no daily water refill, no complimentary tea, coffee, or toiletries, despite a kettle, and extremely poor Wi-Fi. We also had constant mosquitoes because the balcony doors had no nets. Another surprise was the tourist tax. Ving's website advertised the hotel as 4+ stars, but on site it was classified as 5 stars, so we had to pay €15 per day instead of €10. People kept interrupting the beach area to aggressively sell massages every few minutes, and staff did nothing to stop them.