Irida Aegean View, Philian Hotels and Resorts

The hotel provides spacious, clean rooms with friendly, accommodating staff and a strategic location near the beach and town. Guests enjoy a variety of breakfast options and well-maintained, comfortable rooms with beautiful views.

If you want simple but comfortable, calm but charming, some of what you want but all of the things you need, then the Irida Aegean View with its beautiful view of the mouth of the bay of Skiathos, is definitely for you. My wife and I stayed there a few weeks ago and had one of the best holidays of our lives. Bearing in mind our last holiday was our dream trip to the Maldives with a few days in Dubai, this was right up there. On landing in Skiathos it took twenty minutes to clear the airport, (including hold luggage retrieval), twenty minutes waiting for a few stragglers to find the bus, twenty minutes transfer journey and a five minute walk from the drop off point, up to the hotel. We were greeted by the ever smiling and wonderful Catherine in reception and after the briefest of check-ins were shown to our first floor room. The room was fairly spacious, comfortably furnished with a good sized ensuite bathroom and a nice sized balcony from which to take in those views. Our hold luggage arrived shortly afterwards, no lugging our cases up the hill to the hotel for us, (more on the hill later), and we immediately began relaxing. Our room was spotless and this was maintained by the very hard working cleaning staff ... every day. Inside there is a very quick and possibly the quietest boiling kettle you will ever use. There's a decent sized fridge and a TV with a good sized screen, but don't expect too many English speaking channels. We hardly used it and certainly didn't miss them. This is a bed and breakfast hotel but the poolside bar serves a nice selection of food from about 11am until 3pm and alcoholic and non-alcohloic drinks from 10am until late. There are around sixteen comfortable sun beds around the pool and the Irida supply you with complimentary towels to use by the pool and for a small fee to use out and about. The fee is refunded in full upon their return. The breakfast has a good mix of a continental selection, cereals, along with a few cooked breakfast options, and delicious Greek Feta cheese and Greek yoghurt. Some might find it a bit 'samey', but we thoroughly enjoyed it all. The access road from the main drag up the hill to the hotel is only a four minute walk going up it and gets a little steep at the very end. As for the hill it's more like a slight incline to begin with, becomes moderately steep in the middle, and is a decent climb at the finish. It's certainly not the worst hill we have encountered but in the summer Skiathos heat it will have you a little out of breath at the finish. Fortunately refreshments are on hand right where it ends. You have the choice of a drink at bar or a dip in the pool. The Irida is situated about a fifteen to twenty minute walk from Skiathos town and the bus, which traverses the main route on the island, can be caught from the stop just yards from the end of the hotel access road. If all you are looking for is a quite, relaxing break with some traditional Greek hospitality, this is the perfect pla