Sunrise Village Beach Hotel [Site du Club Lookea (FR) et Grecos Holydays(PL) ] — Hotel in Municipality of Messini

15 days stay in Sunrise Village Beach Hotel, 06.2024.

WOW😊: -IVAN, The Chef, pool lifeguard & the waiter – he represents the highest standard approach to his duties! I hope it will be noticed by the hotel management/owners & prized! BRAVO for such dedication! -Pizza – I love pizza & ate it on 4 continents and NONE was even close to that one made by Lady-Pizza Chef from SVB hotel in Petalidi – this hotel has the best pizza I have eaten in my whole life, this is a masterpiece Desserts –cream & chocolate cakes = TOP CLASS, delicious – HUGE appreciation and congrats to the Chef who makes them – the best cream pie I have ate abroad! BRAVO -hotel is clean and looks fresh, congrats to housekeepers -garden – impressive, clean and big -first class views -hotel in the middle of nowhere with a bus stop & connection with Petalidi & Kalamata – this is what I like (nature-silence and plenty space to walk)

Positives: -generally food (besides breakfast – more below) – vegetables (yummy), fruits (fresh), nice pastas, excellent dinners, good lunch, big variety of nonalcoholic drinks from machines -good beer (the best I had in GR) -pool sides – big/clean R&R places -sufficient number of fun places for kids -the reception desk – communicative people with the right attitude (special thanks to Ms Olga – for support in our “ants story”)

Not bad: -breakfasts (they are based on eggs and poor quality meat & cheese, also the pancakes which are tasteless – 2 tips – improve scrumble eggs / add salt & sugar to pancakes recipe) -snack bar – small variety & rather boring menu -new slides at the “Grecos Aqua Park” – more silicone (slides connections) and it will be perfect

To be improved: -what are meals hours? – write them down somewhere -the indoor restaurant area should be enlarged – during “rush hours” there’s no place to move -outdoor restaurant – definitely split the smoking and none smoking area – smokers minority “kills” majority of none smokers (especially kids). Lack of shade, effect huge problem with finding free tables not in the sun -big shortfall of FTE’s – at the restaurant (long queues/lack of main dishes) and the beach – hire more people -alcohol – I’m not an alcohol lover, but quality of what is served at the bars is dramatic, wine is like colored water. Strong alcohol – whisky/vodka/gin, sorry guys, but this is trauma in mouth. Only ouzo was not bad. -coffee -the machines & Lavazza are OK, but improve setup of the coffee makers – it is now on “economy coffee” lvl -milk – this is or 0,5% milk or milk with water -beach – gigantic shortfall of sunbeds & shade – all rooms are occupied, full hotel of guests and there are few umbrellas and maybe 50 sunbeds – effect, 9:30AM there’s no free sunbeds and umbrellas -hotel parties – for hotel where 60% guests is families with kids, noisy parties until 23:00 this is unusual -poor quality of Internet – focusing on FR guests, this is visible in service quality & what FR gets (eg bar) – I have great respect against Greeks, I think that the same should be delivered to all nations -rooms - not well prepared for 2+2 families (wrong space organisation) + NO electrical outlet at bathroom

“OMG” points: -no water at your room when you step to it 1st time upon arrival– you have to go to the reception and beg for a bottle of water (SIC!“All Inclusive”) – standard in Greece is “starter” bottle and you fill it in on your own – but I have never seen room without “starting bottle of water” per quest -beach – no toilets, no showers (drama for families with kids) – they are at the beach but doesn’t work -new pool – lack of toilets and water dispenser -ants & other insects at the rooms – I informed the reception, they tried to remove them twice, no effect. Start looking for the nests (eg at the roofs & AC) -don’t mix old food with fresh food – it was very visible especially in the fries

Summarizing: Sunrise Village Beach Hotel is already a nice place. BUT with some improvements can be a real paradise for everyone. Despite some imperfections I would recommend it with score 4*...

Booked in at Sunrise Village Beach Hotel for our honeymoon in a sea view room which we paid extra for. Didn't get the sea view room we wanted when we checked in, we questioned this at the reception desk and it was apperently a mix up so we got another room provided the next day on our expense with no apologies and still not the room they advertised for.

Website stated this was a 4 star hotel which looks beautiful on the pictures but when you actually arrive here it is totally different as this place clearly looks like a 2 star hotel max.

The rooms are dated that badly needs refurbishing, room service is absolutely shocking, they dont even clean the room properly, Had to plead with them to change the bedding having the same sheets on for a week!! The room floor seems like it as never been swept or mopped as my socks are lifting with dirt after walking around. There is a strong odour of sewage coming from the bathroom which fills the room and is very unpleasant at times. Raised our concerns with the front desk and seems to fall on deaf ears, like they have heard it all before.

Food is edible at times but not great, plates are damaged and the drinking glasses are either dirty or badly chipped. The cutlery is also dirty so we had to clean them ourselves. The aircon above is directly dripping on the food. The rotation of the food tends to be the same each day so this becomes monotonous. Deserts aren't covered up so they are full of flies and wasps as there is no measures been put in place to help stop this. There are feral cats and dogs outside which can make it extremely difficult to eat at times as the staff encourage this by feeding them. These animal can have all kind of diseases!

A small handful of staff are friendly, most just ignore your existence. The staff that we got on with, we noticed they are overworked.

All the entertainment is in French where the TUI reps are on site, the hotel seems to be all for them as they are catered for with drinks upon arrival and activities

The WiFi here is non existent so it's very hard to try watch anything online as the TV channels are all in Greek and you only get 1 channel in English. Your mobile signal is very poor due to the secluded location so couldn't use our own data.

The trail to the private beach is very treacherous where one wrong footing can lead to your peril down the cliff as the barriers are all damaged and in poor repair! got to be very careful if you have small children or have difficulty walking.

There is 2 private beaches one is free and the other you pay €12 for some nicer undamaged sunbeds, the beach itself is a beautiful view however be prepared to purchase some beach shoes as its all pebbles. Be aware the bar at the beach only provides alcoholic beverages unless you purchase the sunbeds where the young lady down there brings you water in an ice bucket.

The public toilets have no locks on so you have no privacy and everything in there is hanging of the wall.

The on site shop is ridiculously overpriced as there is no competition and without a car you have no choice but to buy here.

All inclusive stops at 2300 so you got to pay for your drinks which wasn't a problem for us, however it was quite a trek to get a drink as the rude bar staff on duty insisted we went to the pool bar during the day.

If you do decide to come to this hotel take in the consideration to rent a vehicle as its a very secluded area. The vehicle hire is cheap enough which was great as we got to travel around. Rent a car came in at €56 a day, the salesmen isn't great with English but couldn't care for any minor damage to the car which when questioned only major damage only mattered, very chilled person.

To sum up our experience, the view here is spectacular but the hotel itself is in poor maintenance. This place really needs refurbishment, especialy the amount of money people pay to come here. Me and my wife made the most off what we had but was heavily let down by everything else. Definitely won't be coming back to this hotel...

Good stuff first |First thing your notice when you arrive , is how pretty the sunrise village is and most definitely the absolute stunning views of the sea and mountains and a lovely pool area.|We had a bungalow which looked like it just had a refurbished it was very nice and clean and we had an olive tree just in front of our terrace and with views of the sea … stunning .|Maids came in every day and were very friendly.|Helena at pool bar very helpful and friendly.|Other staff Maria from a la carte / bar was very knowledgable and friendly .|So were the animation team especially Camilla,|They were great fun I took part in Aqua Zumba/dance/gym |And water polo .|and they had good music .. someone commented on here it was very loud … yeh it was but it was only while they did there activities and it made it more enjoyable experience|We only went water park once but it was all working. ..|We used the restaurant every day to and that’s the only place we had our meals ,|Due to it being a little remote if you wanted to go out for a meal you would need a taxi or a bus .|So we just decided to eat at hotel I mean that’s why we paid for Al.|And breakfast was ok I’m not one to moan about food but breakfast was only just warm sometimes cold .|Lunch was my favourite and the breads and salad was really nice .|Chicken & pork always on the menu nice but a little repetitive.|Alcohol tasted a little bit water down, but me and my husband are not really drinkers. We only had a couple of evenings where we had a couple of glasses of cocktails and beers. So this wasn’t really a problem for us .||Now for not so good.|Now I like quite a firm mattress but when I say laying on the floor didn’t feel as hard I actually mean that .|Room didn’t have a kettle or any coffee facilities as stated on room description.|But not to bad told reception and next day we had .|Also a couple of large tiles were broken and cracked and kept moving on the floor in the room which we made reception aware as soon as we arrived, But unfortunately nothing got done about it .|Evening animation wasn’t really the best I mean we had 2 nights were it was done quite ok.|But the night before we came home the team said it was Dj night dancing .|And it was just a few flashing lights with a phone hooked up to a speaker for an hour and it was unmanned .|So it could do with improving.|The one thing I’d say be careful is with obviously the cooked meats as we met 3 couples during holiday and they got sick and they blamed on the food . But I must admit I did judge in my head a little as they were all heavy drinkers and I thought that was probably the contribution to it.|But on the last day just before our coach picked us up I started to get real bad stomach cramps and nausea and just in time at the airport in Stanstead I had diarrhoea and when I got home I had sickness too and this last year 48 hours and I was very weak and it actually took five days before I fully recovered. This was obviously to do with some food that I ate at the hotel as this was the only place that we had food so that was a little bit upsetting to say the lease but at least I wasn’t actually sick when I was in Grace, that would’ve made the whole experience, not good.||Other than the bad it was still a really pretty and friendly place and the weather and people was brilliant.|Would I go back no! Only due to it being a little bit too remote for me . |But I’d give it a good 7/10 and very reasonable price we paid last...