Elpida Village — Hotel in Municipality of Agios Nikolaos

As a family, we spent 2 weeks at Elpida Village, 2 Adults, a 7 year old and a baby. ||||We arrived in the early morning and was greeted by Dimitris the night manager, who was very friendly and helpful and helped us with our luggage to our room, which was quite some way from the reception. We had put in the notes prior that it was our anniversary on arrival. When we arrived at the accommodation, they had left us wine and some meals, however the rooms consisted of a dark downstairs room with a very dangerous spiral staircase to an upper room and bathroom. The stairs were not only dangerous to walk up and down the way the top of the staircase had been fixed to the wall, would never pass building regulations in the UK (I work in construction). With 2 young children on the booking this accommodation was not acceptable. Even though very tired, I agreed with my wife we wouldn't be able to sleep in this room without worrying about an accident happening. I spoke with the night manager and after some checking of the room schedule and visiting a few rooms at 4am, we found a large acceptable accommodation close by that we could sleep over night. In the morning we were called by reception to be informed we needed to leave this room and they had another room, I didn't find this had been done in a particularly friendly way. Then whilst packing up we had the caretaker knock on the door to tell us the exact same thing. At this moment I felt that we were being pestered to leave the room. ||||Once we had packed up all our things, we made our way to reception to be shown the new room that was offered to us. This room was close to reception and was in a good location to access everything, it consisted of 2 rooms with a large balcony with a sea view. This room was very nice and we had no issues with the accommodation following this. We did have help moving our luggage from our old room to the new accommodation. ||||We then got ready to go to the pool, when we arrived at the pool we realised there were no sun loungers available, this can be something you can accept when arriving late morning. However the fact is they have lots of space around the pool and no way enough sun loungers, especially during any busy periods. I did complain to the person on reception and they agreed with me that this is a problem. I then enquired about beach towels, which I was told that there is a deposit to pay and a weekly charge of 7 euros per week per towel, I have been to many hotels in Europe and around the world and have had to pay a deposit but not a charge for beach towels. ||||The food was very basic and not a great deal of choice. During our first lunch I wasn't able to eat much as I have a shellfish allergy and they had provided a shellfish pasta bang in the middle of all the other dishes, not segregated. I therefore couldn't take the risk that other foods had been cross contaminated by the utensils. In addition none of the dishes had labels to tell you what it was. I complained about this and there was not shellfish present for a few days and some labels appeared. However once the shellfish had returned it wasn't segregated from other foods and there was limited food labelling happening. The food was extremely repetitive, very rarely was it that tasty and after a while we spent much of the lunchtimes and dinners eating out even though we had payed for all inclusive. ||||The drinks including alcohol were very limited and not great, all the other all inclusive I have visited previously have had many more options. ||||The hotel had strange rules, such as you could have an espresso or cappuccino during breakfast lunch or dinner but any other time you would have to pay for it as only regular coffee available at the bar. Times were limited for snacks or ice cream around the pool bar. If you were at the buffet late and had some savoury food, once it had past the last time for entry they would remove everything, including desserts, without asking you. ||||The staff were generally very friendly but seemed overworked and very tired at the same time. Dimitris, Marina at the bar and Aphrodite and the pool bar were all really nice. Didn't care much for the surly gentleman at reception who I think was the manager (not exactly setting a good example).||||We were given 2 vouchers for the barbecue which we could use over the 2 weeks. We used one in the first week and although I very much like barbecued food, it was very average so we didn't bother using the 2nd one. ||||Before arrival we looked on the website and our booking and noticed they had an animation team and entertainment provided. They do a Greek night once a week, however its probably only worth watching once, they do a open air cinema and that is it for entertainment. There appears to be a lot of guests from Poland and eastern Europe, therefore the kids club is really aimed at them. If you have children or are looking for entertainment, if you are planning on staying at the hotel you will be very bored. ||||The pool area itself and the location is lovely, great views etc. We spent a fair few days at Voulisma beach which is approximately a 17 minute walk or the hotel offers a shuttle bus a few times a day there and back. The beach is beautiful and there are lots of nice bars/ tevernas close by. We also got the bus which is at the bottom of the hill to Agios Nikolaos, which is definitely worth a visit. ||||When we arrived at the hotel we were dropped off in a small minibus which took us up the hill right outside the hotel. When leaving and after speaking with the transfer provider we were under the impression the same vehicle would be collecting. However a larger coach was sent which was waiting on the main road down the hill. The receptionist was called by the provider and informed me of this. ||We then had to make our way down the hill from the entrance, my wife had the baby and my son to walk down the hill, i had few cases and a push chair and the receptionist did not offer to help us with anything. I was then left to run up and down the hill with luggage etc. ||||The fact some of the staff were friendly and the room we were eventually provided with and the location was lovely, stopped me from scoring lower. When you have spent quite a lot of money on all inclusive its hard not to feel aggrieved. I would recommend if you visit this hotel, go with the bed and breakfast...

The positive-||The hotel and apartments themselves are good,Traditional Greek style, plenty of room and air con. Rooms are cleaned daily with fresh towels.||||Staff are helpful and friendly, especially Marina and Aphrodite.||||Hotel is a great base for the village of Kalo Choria, and the views from the hotel pool and restaurant are stunning.||||Pool area is nice, we always managed to get sunbeds even in the height of August. Cake served at 11am, wraps or sandwich of the day at 3pm.||||Food is good, traditional Greek- albeit it does get a bit samey and is limited in comparison to other all inclusives. I would advise going bed and breakfast only.||||Don't get the shuttle bus to voulisima beach. Overcrowded and not pleasant.||The local beach is off the main road to the right of the hotel and signposted. Pantaleimon beach. It is clean, beautiful, quiet even in August and has cheap sunbeds and lovely toilets. The local shop will deliver you lunch and drinks if you call, leaflets on tables by the beds. ||||The Negative-||||This was the most limited all inclusive I have ever been on. Food is tasty, but options are quite limited and traditionally Greek every day which gets a bit boring after a few days. Mealtimes are short (lunch 12.30-2 and dinner 7-9) with no pool bar style options Inbetween for all day burger and chips or similar. Drinks are also very limited. Local wine and one choice of beer, non branded soft drinks. No cocktails included. It would have been nice to just do a daily cocktail on the all inclusive perhaps.||||Lack of entertainment. For me, this was huge and dropped the hotel a star. There was absolutely nothing aside from one Greek music night and an outdoor film 3 times in 10 days. Chairs really uncomfortable at the outdoor cinema, a few cushions would make a difference. I saw reviews about cooking demo's, quizzes and karaoke - it is clear that has all been scrapped this year and that is a real shame. It can't be that difficult to add a few of these things in, especially at the busiest time of year.||||The hotels clientele is mainly polish, but there were a few English families there. Sadly with the total lack of entertainment nobody got chatting, people headed elsewhere to eat etc.||The issue with the above for me is that there was no information folder about the hotel, or the local area in English anywhere. Only polish. This wouldn't take much effort to put together. I stead we had to keep asking, we didn't even know our check out time. We fully expected to have no rep,but did expect a general info folder.||||The hotel does need to look at the above if it wants all inclusive and family guests to return. We loved the area, and there are some lovely local restaurants (The Italian is authentic...

My family (myself, husband and 2 children aged 15 & 12) have just returned from 10 wonderful days at the Elpida. ||||I first went to the Elpida in 1987 with my parents and 3 siblings. We visited many times between then and 2001. ||||I really wanted to show my family the hotel that I considered my second home and was apprehensive I/they would be disappointed after a 21 year gap. I needn’t have worried…we had an amazing time. The hotel was clean and not too noisy. The room we had (number 2) was lovely. It was a lounge and bedroom set over 2 floors which was no problem for us but could see that with younger children it wouldn’t be ideal (spiral staircase). However it was nice being in an apartment slightly away from the main hotel. The room was cleaned everyday very nicely. ||||The grounds of the hotel are just the same. The pool is lovely…the main pool is very deep but that is pretty standard. There are loads of seating areas around the whole of the hotel…not a huge number of sun beds but we never struggled go get one. ||||We used the multi court one morning which was great. ||||The food in the restaurant was plentiful…there was no chance of going hungry. The only downside to the food was that we didn’t have anything like Mousaka, souvlaki etc and it would have been nice to see a wider range of fresh fruits. But the food that was there was really nice. ||We were only half board so can’t comment on the all inclusive option but to be honest 2 meals a day is plenty and gives the opportunity to go to the local bakery. ||||We took the shuttle bus to the beach on the first day but to be honest the walk isn’t particularly bad so we only used it the once. Yes the slope up the hill is hard after a long hot day but this is mentioned in the information! || ||||All in all it was a very relaxing holiday with a good dose of nostalgia for me. It was lovely to see Nikos on reception, Manos R, Mrs Maria and Kostas…and especially Manos in the restaurant 😊 ||||Thank you for a wonderful 10 and as mentioned many time in the visitors books…we intend to come back!! ||||Rachel & Jon ADAMS ||||(Family Warner: Margaret, David, Martin, Jonathan,...