PORTO RIO HOTEL — Hotel in Municipality of Patras

All inclusive trip 11-18 September 2024||Let me make it clear from the beginning that this review refers strictly to our all inclusive deal in this hotel. I can understand that if one pays a rate of 100 - 150€ a night, one may have other expectations, but again, this is not the case! ||We have purchased our all inclusive trip for a a price of around 600(room tax included). The offer included the flight from Timișoara, Romania, the transfers to and from the hotel and an all inclusive meal plan, which was very clearly explained on the hotel's site. I make this point as I don't understand why people complain on site about different things which are made clear beforehand - inform yourselves and choose accordingly! |Everything that the hotel informs you about is true on site: meals, pool access, beach and so on. |Now more on point:|The hotel might not be a 4 stars hotel by comparison but, again it depends on what you pay for your stay. |Rooms: double standard - comfortable and clean. Beds are comfortable and the room is quiet once the doors are closed. |Bathroom: basic and a bit outdated but does the job: includes hairdryer and toiletries.|There was hot water at all hours.|Mini-fridge and seif are there. |Cleaning services daily. |Balcony: basic but provides a side view of the sea. From what I saw all rooms have it on both sides. There are of course those rooms which face the sea directly, but we did not buy that so the side view was a nice surprise. |There are 2 chairs and a table.|Lobby: nice with many sitting areas.|Pool area: nice with sea view, maybe not enough sunbeds at full capacity. |Terraces: enough chairs and tables with the same great view of the sea and the bridge. |Beach: sand and pebbles with included sunbeds, umbrellas and a lifeguard. Looks more like a wild beach than your classic beachfront but I personally found that refreshing and having searched it on maps I knew what to expect. |Food: the restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating with great views all around, especially on sunset. We were a party of 4 including a vegetarian and there were many options for all. Food itself tasted great every time. (Olives, yogurt, fish, and even octopus rings were in the menu contrary to what I have read in guests' reviews)|Staff: polite. Special thanks to Ioana at the front desk :)|Activities: |There are not many things to do around there but we were not aiming for the activity type of trip so we were expecting that. |You can however take a stroll on the beach side to the Rio-Antirio Bridge and over it which is wothed in my opinion. The pedestrian crossing is free and the sights are great. From what I understand you can cross with a ferry as well, charge free. |The city center is not far. There is a supermarket about 10 minutes walk, and little kiosks where you can buy cigarettes and other little snacks and beverages even on Sundays when the supermarket is closed. |There are also restaurants and cafés along the beach towards the bridge and in the center. |Our tour operator had some excursion offers which you could purchase if you wanted. We didn't so I can't say how it was but they seemed interesting.|However, we visited Patras on our own. There is a train station 2 minutes walk behind the hotel with trains coming and going on the hour. A ticket costs 1,40€ and in about 10 minutes (5stations)...

About Porto Rio||The staff are very kind and respectful...only they raise the hotel to the level of 4...otherwise the hotel does not deserve more than 2||All inclusive is a thorn...the same food every day in the morning...it's ok if you're not picky, you can choose to eat different every day||At lunch...3-4 dishes with the same side dishes, pasta, rice and potatoes...on no day were there fried potatoes, at least for the children, insufficient desserts, if you weren't careful you couldn't get enough for that they passed very quickly||The Greeks are not soup experts, but there is no soup at lunch, instead, soup is served in the evening||Dinner...about the same every day||In the land of olives, olives are completely absent...only in one day I saw them||Everything is paid for at the pool bar between 10am and 1pm, after 1pm you get the cheapest drinks, and in the evening between 8pm and 10pm alcoholic drinks||At 10 p.m., when people would sit on the terrace... the bar closes||The rooms, with quite outdated furniture, but ok to sleep, the beds are ok, the bathroom ok without the smell of mold as other guests said...cleaning is done and towels are changed daily...||The pool is ok with water between 0.8-2.7m... although the hotel has 3 pools, only the big one is for guests, one is rented to someone else and you have to pay, and another is taken by those who take care of the SPA, so here you pay||There are not enough sunbeds at the pool, there are people who occupy them and don't pick up the towels until the end of the stay, or at least that was the practice until I raised this problem to the manager, then another thief followed, she followed you, if you were absent for 30 minutes at the sunbed the staff would pick up your towel and you would be left without a sunbed||The beach...sand and stones...and entering the sea only with stones...requires shoes otherwise you get hurt||If you find it elsewhere, I recommend going elsewhere, otherwise you will be...

It is a very nice hotel in general, with nice swimming pools and wonderful trees by the pool, free sunbeds on the beach. The rooms are a little bit outdated and need renovation. The food was ok the first 3 days but then it became quite repetitive, there were days I did not know what to choose, no croissants or pancakes for breakfast for the children, tzatziki and other Greek salads only two times in seven days,most of the salads were lettuce with apple or lettuce with raisins(all variations of lettuce and leftovers from breakfast),no written paper signs of what you eat. The staff was ok, specially Manos Kelempisiotis, the waiter in the restaurant, only good words for him, very polity with the customers in the restaurant where we had our meals every day. One thing more, which part of ruined our holiday, which was not the hotel's fault, the sea was full of jellyfish!!!My son entered the water 3 times and was beaten every single time by the jellyfish .He still has the scarves even when we are back home now. We had to go t other beaches and the nearest nice beach without jellyfish was 55 km away(Kalogria beach) which is not very nice to drive every day, you need one hour to come to the beach. We tried another one ,Ianniskari beach which was a lovely one but it is about 60 km and the road is awful. So if you are really fond of swimming in the sea, it is not the place to go unless you do not mind the jellyfish and I have seen plenty of children and adults dealing with the same...