This was probably going to be the last holiday we would have on our own as a family group - our kids are 16 and 17 and will soon want to either bring friends, or go on holiday without us.
Things didn't start too well at Gatwick, our paperwork had a flight time of 19.00 hrs, whereas the actual scheduled departure time was 19.50 hrs. Not sure if the fault lay with Cosmos or Monarch, however the Captain made up time and we landed just about on time.
We arrived at the hotel in the early hours of the morning and first impressions were good. The gentleman on reception was friendly and we were dealt with promptly. We had paid extra for a 2 bedroom room with a sea view and were somewhat surprised when we entered our room to find the 2nd bedroom was the 'sitting' area partitioned off with sliding doors. The 3rd and 4th beds were sofas and clearly not suitable for our son who is 6ft 1". We decided to try and get some sleep and sort it out in the morning. Unfortunately the air conditioning unit didn't work very well, and made such a loud noise it was as if there was a helicopter in the room. I gave up trying to get to sleep and went back to reception and reported my grievances. The very kind gentleman took my details and told me to go back at 8.30am.
At 8.30 we were told to come back at 9.30 - very irritating given that I hadn't had any sleep for 36 hours. Luckily, when we went back, the reservations lady was just arriving at work and she took immediate action to move us to the correct room. You could just about see the sea over the roofs of other blocks in front of us, so I wouldn't say we had a sea view, however we did have 2 separate roms and the airconditioning worked a treat. The 2nd room was clearly designed as a sitting area, it didn't have a door and the beds were not full size. In that respect I think it is very misleading to advertise it as a 2 bedroomed appartment - it was not! It was however a vast improvement on our first room and always very clean. If you are going to this hotel as a family with 2 tall children it would be better to pay for 2 separate rooms. If you are holidaying as 2 couples this room would not be suitable at all due to the lack of a door on the 2nd room. It was nice to have a reading light above our bed, however it was a little too dim whereas the main bedroom lights were much too bright - a minor irritation. (On the subject of lights - we tried to play cards in the bar area at night and had to give up because of the lack of lighting!).
After this initial hiccup we were pleasantly surprised by the hotel, its location and the facilities. It does however have a lot of steps so if you have difficulty walking you should ask for a room on the lower level. The location was superb, close to the airport but without the noise, making the transfer time a superb 10 minutes. The hotel is clean and attractive with beautiful grounds and very close to the beach.
Before we went I had e-mailed the hotel to ask whether they provided beach towels. I was assured that beach towels would be in the room for use by us during our stay. This regrettably was not the case - we had to pay 20 euros for them and another 20 euros as a deposit - not acceptable! If it had not been so hot I would have walked in to Kardamena and bought 4 cheap towels.I have never before had to pay for towels in a hotel!
We had read on tripadvisor that the hotel is mainly used by Germans and were expecting a fight for sunbeds - a real bug bear of mine as I only go on holiday to lie in the sun- by the pool preferrably - all day! Luckily we managed to get 4 beds by the pool every day and never had to get up at the crack of dawn to put our towels out! The hotel has a magnificent pool with room for far more beds - those who came down much later would not have been so lucky. I can never understand why hotels build these enormous pools, with beautiful gardens around them, and then seem surprised when guests moan at the lack of sunbeds.
The beach was in front of the hotel, across a narrow, very quiet road and for once the use of the sunloungers and umbrellas (owned by the hotel) was free. It was lovely to sit by the pool in the morning and head to the beach in the afternoon when it was hotter and the sea breeze very welcome. This fact alone makes me want to go back to the Mikri Poli.
A word of warning - the beach is sandy but the sea quite rocky so take a pair of water shoes to swim in - it will be worth it, the sea is clear and very refreshing.
We were 'all inclusive' and I would say the food was plentiful but not exciting. The soup was obviously made from a packet mix - why do restaurants find it so hard to make their own soup these days?! The tzatziki was delicious, but so many dishes - why not concentrate on a couple of very tasty dishes rather than lots of bland ones?
As with all hotels these days the entertainment started at exactly 10am with the volume turned up to maximum. It should be obvious to these animation teams that actually we don't want to be shouted at that early in the day (if at all!)- it's only the kids that want entertaining so why can't they be taken off somewhere to a separate area. The majority of adults were reading and listening to their own music on their mp3s - so why did we have to have someone elses taste in music inflicted on us. Hotels could save a lot of money by reducing the size of their animation teams.
We took the boat trip to visit 3 islands - this was a great day out but, disappointingly, you had to pay for your drinks on the boat - maybe this was a sign of the current economic difficulties.
I do not wish to sound negative about this hotel, the imperfections I have mentioned above were not major and will help you know what to expect when you get there - we had a great holiday, the staff (particularly Akis on reception) were friendly and helpful, the location and facilities perfect for our requirements and the weather glorious. We will definitely go there again.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
