Belvedere Gerakas Luxury Suites

My wife had previously stayed at this hotel with friends and was keen to take me, mainly because of the peace, the rural location & the beach. I was well aware that it was not a 5* hotel & have stayed in Greece before. Our flight contained a very disruptive/aggressive passenger who was sitting very close to us. Police boarded the flight on arrival; we were quite shaken & arrived at the hotel at 9.30pm on Saturday 9th September after several hours of travel. It was raining & a storm was due. We mentioned our scary flight experience during booking in, "well your holiday starts here" was the response & we were handed our room key. I asked where the bar was as a drink was desperately required, to be told that it was closed because of the rain. I asked if I could have one beer to be taken to our room, to be added to our bill, to be told that it could not be provided as the bar was closed. It's a hotel, surely a drink can be obtained at 9.30om in a Saturday night, but apparently not. We accepted this, deciding that a cup of tea in the room would suffice, only to find that the room contained only a kettle & 2 cups. I returned to reception & asked if we could have 2 teabags & milk, to be told that this had to be purchased from the shops by us. It's now 10pm, dark, raining & no shops are closeby. I was too weary to argue but could have wept to be honest. Later the receptionist brought a couple of teabags & a cup of milk to us. Not a great start & it set the tone. We visited the outside bar on 4 evenings after eating out & found George unpredictable to put it mildly. If we went to the bar to be served he told us it was table service. If we sat at a table we eventually had to go to the bar to be served. We gave up trying. We only drank soft drinks around the pool but the staff behind the pool bar never cracked a smile. Breakfast was quite basic & the room was run by an excellent, motivated young male who also worked in the bar at night, although in the evening he was supervised by George. Our room was quite basic but acceptable. The area is beautiful & there are nice places to eat out but the hotel was underwhelming, especially our "welcome".

This hotel is not reflective of its 4 star rating. The choice at breakfast was minimal - bread, cheese, cheap pastries, salty water and salty fruit juice. The evening meal provided via half board was like a cheap canteen - potatoes and peas, one choice of meat, no real veggie option - most of the food was uncovered so it was sometimes unclear if it was safe to eat. Staff weren’t friendly and were often sullen. Only George at the Rosa bar was welcoming. Reception seemed to lack knowledge- and there was no manager on site. The pool area was neglected eg there was a plaster on the railings of the pool, the sun beds were stained. The area itself is lovely and the surrounding taverns are absolutely fantastic! But sadly the hotel is not to be recommended.