Hotel 28

“Lovely, well kept and clean hotel”

I emailed a week ahead and asked for a higher level room and was granted this. There are only three floors and the ground floor rooms are sunken so I imagine they would be darker. The hotel is kept extremely clean and beautifully maintained with the staff working hard to keep it this way. The sta… more

I emailed a week ahead and asked for a higher level room and was granted this. There are only three floors and the ground floor rooms are sunken so I imagine they would be darker. The hotel is kept extremely clean and beautifully maintained with the staff working hard to keep it this way. The staff were always helpful. Reception answer any questions. There was a huge amount of books in the reception area to choose from. Reception will swop your beach towels. You can use the sun beds free of charge on the beach at their sister hotel Bellonias Villas which is down the mountain end of the strip. Just show them the card that reception gave you when you checked in. Take your hotel beach towels with you. You can use the hotel toilets while you’re there. There are 24 sets of beds but they were usually all taken by lunchtime. The parasols are a very loose basket weave allowing the sun to pass straight through all the gaps so not really fit for purpose. We used our towel pegs to secure spare towels over the top The sink in the bedroom area takes some getting used to. There was a smell of drains at times in the bathroom so we kept the door shut. We wanted to use the minibar for our bottled water so asked if we could empty the hotel contents into the little wooden crate and this was agreed. The pool bar charges €3 for a large water and the supermarkets charge €2.50 for a 6 pack of 1 litre bottles. There was no issue with drinking these around the pool. A brand new kettle appeared on our second day but no cups were supplied, nut we did see people going into the breakfast room for some. There isn’t much storage space (no drawers) so we had to keep some things in the cases. We are early risers so went to breakfast about 7.45. At this time everything was fully stocked and the hot food was hot. The selection was more than adequate with pastries, bread, cakes, meats, cheeses, cucumber, tomatoes, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, bacon, sausages, beans, juices, yogurt, fresh fruit including water melon and Honeydew melon (previous reviewers had complained there was only tinned peaches so they seem to have listened), and a coffee machine. There were beds in both sun and shade, and usually at least one set was free. There wasn’t really any reserving. The headrests on the beds aren’t fixed so can be removed. Most of the beds experience sun or shade at some point of the day. The row nearest the building are shaded later in the day. The row opposite the building are shaded first thing. The row opposite the bar are covered so are shady all day. The hidden row of 6 are in sun all day We booked a sunset trip to Oia through the hotel on a day when there was only one cruise ship in with a smaller amount of passengers. The pick up was 17.30 with a 21.30 return. The cost was €25 euros each which worked out about €15 each more than taking the local bus which we thought was worth it to not have the hassle. It all went smoothly but it was still extremely busy. From the hotel to the sea front is a slight downhill 8 minute walk, then to walk the length of the promenade takes about 15 mins. If you have a late flight there are hand help showers in the pool toilets. You can leave your luggage with reception and they will supply towels. The door to the ladies doesn’t lock though. We had a burger from the pool bar on our last day and it was really nice. We wished we’d tried the bar food earlier. The tourist tax that is payable to reception is €5 per room per night. The hotel really should have the resident cats neutered if they are encouraging them to stay. Whilst the guests may find the litter of kittens cute they will all breed producing further skinny cats, and an ongoing problem. A couple of non hotel comments I though might be useful; It only took 25 mins from landing to clear immigration and collect our cases. Took about 15 mins to get to the hotel and we were the first drop off. The return journey was another matter….one hour delay, airport heaving and no where to sit as they wouldn’t let us through to the gate. We booked via Tui and the rep at the airport was pretty useless with her instruction on finding the minibus. You will need to download the app as the rep makes no contact with you in resort. We tried to catch the 8.45 bus to Fira from the stop near the football field but it was already full and wouldn’t take us. Reception called us a taxi which was €30. We got the 11.30 bus back and that was also full by the time it left and turning people away. It’s a bit of a rugby scrum at the bus station Had good meals everywhere we ate including Captains Corner, Amelia’s, kiwi and Black Stone with the exception of Zorba’s Taverna which had poor service by disinterested staff and small bland portions

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