Pacifae Golden Village — Hotel in Argostoli Municipality

This potentially good hotel is spoilt by its owner who walks about as if he's running the best hotel on the island, but he isn't. We're just travelling home after a week there. First the good points, some of the staff are very friendly and welcoming, and the maids are determined to clean your room every day even if you're not bothered, like us, both sets of staff were suitably tipped by us at the end of the week. The pool is fresh and clean. The a la carte evening food in the restaurant is excellent, we only ate in there twice, but it was on a par with anything we ate outside. The lunch meals are generally okay and well presented. Now the bad bits, the sunbeds are very uncomfortable, and have a habit of coming apart because they are loosely screwed together. Our SUPERIOR room was not, it was a room, and the toilet did not fill or flush properly because either it was broken or set that way, and the sink tended to block easy as half the plug mechanism has been lodged at the bottom of the waste. The shower doors also do not close properly, with a big gap that could flood the floor if you're not careful. The shower is also tiny for a hotel enclosure and you can not have a relaxing shower, and the spray head is not adjustable and misses most of your body. There is a lack of storage space in the room and is lacking a large drawer unit you would normally expect. There is no subtle lighting in the room, with only one big light at the end, with no reading light for your bed. Now the serious problem - for three days, including the last two of our holiday, both the water and the power in the room failed for intermittent periods, which meant uncompleted showers, no showers, and no air conditioning in 40 degree heat. A power cut happened from just after 5am on the day we left at 9.30am for the airport. My wife initially couldn't shower and by the time I could after on/off power cuts it was too late to do so for the departure. After intermittent cuts that morning I went to see the owner to ask what he was doing about it. He told me it was a 'local problem' affecting different properties in the area and different rooms in the accommodation block, which it was, but that isn't the point. No power, also meant no water being pumped to rooms either. This 'local problem' never affected the bar or restaurant and I told him in no uncertain terms I didn't care about the excuses, and told him he would be out of business with no guests at this rate. He gave it back, which is fair enough, and said he couldn't wait to see me go quick enough, the feeling was mutual. If this place does not warn guests of the power problem when they arrive they can only expect more reactions like mine. They need to get a working backup generator in quickly! Instead of sitting around drinking and chatting to his mates on a freebie, and trying to impress younger guests with his apparent sporting prowess in water sports and, wait for it, BMX riding, he should get his hotel operations in order. Let's see if he responds to this review like he does with the usual excuses he writes in response to even modest criticism of his hotel on other review boards. By the way, this is currently a Jet2-only hotel, and for the money paid, we had a perfectly good holiday - so he never...

Overall, this is a lovely hotel but let down massively by the location and lack of WiFi. Perfect if you intend to hire a car or spend most the time at the hotel. Mosquito repellent is an absolute must Pool area - 10/10. Can’t fault it, always beds available, pool is perfect size for the amount of guests and pool towels are provided in the room. Bar/restaurant - Choices of both local and well known foods so will suit anybody. Food very high quality and fresh, fairly priced too. The pork on a spit night was the best meal we had all week. Bar has a great choice of drinks and happy hour daily with reduced price cocktails. Cocktails were delicious! Staff - 10/10, faultless. Really welcoming and friendly. Three dogs live on site which were a huge bonus for us but they don’t bother the guests (unless you call them over). Breakfast - Yogurt and honey very good. Everything else is basic (fried eggs, pieces of sausage, baked beans). We went to the bakery down the road on a couple of days. Room - Slightly disappointing. We booked a Superior double room but it was very basic with nice decoration - far from superior. No tea/coffee provided in the room but kettle is there if you take your own. Fridge and air con both very good. Hairdryer was awful and absolutely zero WiFi coverage. We had a ground floor room and guests constantly walking past our patio doors which meant we were constantly in darkness with curtains closed when we were in the room. A sheer curtain would have been welcomed beneath the blackout curtains. There weren’t sufficient hooks in the bathroom or bedroom either which was annoying with wet towels after a shower. Location - Not good. A 20 minute downhill walk to the seafront where there’s a nice selection of sea front bars and restaurants. The road to the restaurants is uneven and at times requires you to walk on the road. Not suitable for children, elderly or people with mobility difficulties. Also requires a 5 minute walk through fields which is mosquito city. Small supermarket and bakery 10 minute walk away. Taxi to the seafront from the hotel is €8 each way. Skala is around 10/15 mins in the car and €18 each way. Skala beach is very nice. Excursions - Jet2 rep recommended a boat trip to Ithaca of €60pp which was a 90 minute bus ride to the harbour. We booked one directly through Hermes when we were in Skala, they collected us directly from the hotel, a 40 min bus ride and overall very good - €55pp. The hotel was booked through Jet2, we paid around £800 each for flights, accommodation and breakfast which I think was priced accordingly. We paid an extra £120 for direct transfers which cut 1 hour off each journey. The WiFi was the biggest issue as we could only use it in the bar and even then it was hit and miss. We were unable to google and plan our holiday as we...

Just back from the Pacifae Golden village, set in beautiful surroundings which were very relaxed and scenic. Family-run hotel with various rooms available. This is not a negative review in any way, just our observations and stuff we wish we knew beforehand! If you want quiet and relaxation this is the hotel for you. The nearest centre with a stretch of restaurants and bars, is beautiful and surrounded by the beach, it is a 20-minute walk from the hotel…. Ladies don’t attempt in anything but trainers/flat shoes! The walk is uneven underfoot and bring a torch for the walk back, no taxis unless they come from the next town a distance away. The room….we had a swim-up room with a small dip pool ideal for the high temperatures but don’t expect to be able to do any lengths! The main pool Is large and very pleasant. Wardrobe space consists of a unit in the room so unable to accommodate long dresses and lack of space generally. Bathroom… no shelves for extra storage. Would have been good to have bedside tables to put phones etc on overnight. Rooms are cleaned every day if you require. Breakfast…served in the restaurant, but the actual self-service area is very small when you get a few people in! I struggled with the offerings and would have appreciated less fried food and some brown bread, there is some dried fruit but a fresh fruit bowl would have been great, but lots of people piled their plates so l know you can’t please everyone. l am vegetarian and found it restrictive for our personal taste. The lovely bar area was open late but was quiet during our stay, the toilets are located adjacent to the restaurant and have a shower room next to them, however, there are no locks on any of these doors. Checkout is at 10 am, we had a late flight and were told if room was available we could keep on for 40 Euros. There was no availability for us, but we were told they could let us stay until noon at a stretch and the extra 2 hours would still be 40 Euros which we declined! These are our thoughts and hope they are helpful, Kefalonia is stunning, the people are so lovely and we had a very...