I thought seen as though I had reviewed my booking agent I might as well review the resort, as unfortunately this also did not live up to its expectations!
I arrived at the resort at around 1pm and as we were loaded off the coach we were told to leave our cases outside the hotel reception whilst we checked in, I may be paranoid but wherever I go my luggage comes with me, there was a ramp for cases so I didn’t have to lug it up the stairs. As I got to the desk and checked in I was given my all inclusive wrist band and told to leave my case outside the front of the hotel and it would be driven and places inside my room whilst I went to the restaurant for lunch as there was not long left, I explained I did not want to go for lunch – I had eaten on the plane, I just wanted to go to my room now, I was told none of the rooms were ready and I would have to wait an hour or so before I could go to my room.
Not the best start to my holiday I have to say, but I thought I would just have a drink at the bar and check my emails etc, as I still had my case with me I thought I would just have a drink at the bar in reception, I went and stood at the bar and was planning on sitting at the high stools that were placed along the bar until I was told in an ignorant manner by a greek waiter, if I wanted to be served I would have to sit outside, I didn’t really mind as at least I could get some sun. I headed outside the back of the reception area to the seats and found the tables were all dressed for food, it was full of couples drinking wine and enjoying what looked to be tapas, just behind there were some more tables outside the mini shopping center, these tables had no cloths on, brilliant I thought, I will sit there!
The Greek waiter that had made the previous comment inside watched as I walked and sat in the seat waiting to be served, I sat there for 15 minutes whilst he stood onlooking by the door, turns out they don’t serve the tables without table cloths on either.
I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of moving to the other tables so I checked my resort map and realised there was a pool bar literally just around the corner, I got some right looks as I wheeled my suitcase along the pool side, but by this point I was past caring and needed a beer!
There was some music by the pool bar, the ques were what you’d expect in an all inclusive – manageable, and the sun was beaming! finally I was relaxing! I finally had chance to get on WIFI and check my mail, I watched as it tried and tried to connect… that’s odd, maybe you need some sort of code, so I left my mum enjoying her beer with our cases whilst I went to ask in reception, the woman also ignorant told me I would only reach the WIFI in certain places, in reception, by the pool bar or by the beach bar. Well the pool bar was definitely out of the equation.
I did mange to reach the WIFI in reception so that would be my go to point for the whole week, brilliant, the place where your not allowed to drink at the bar.
An hour or so had passed and it was time to get our room key, the receptionist circled where abouts it was on the map, did not offer us a lift with our cases in the golf caddy’s like we saw many others getting. 20 minutes later we actually found the room, at the top of a massive flight of stairs, with no lifts in the buildings, terrible for our cases – yes we could have left them and got them taken up but what about when your checking out or if someone was elderly and could not walk the stairs. It was a real disappointment and a health and safety issue, I watched many people struggle over the week I was there.
I luckily managed to lug the cases up the stairs and we saw our room, it was actually very nice, although it had a sign in the bathroom which stated you should not flush toilet paper – apparently that is the norm in greece, although I have to admit I did not follow this sign!
We decided to check out the beach bar, it seemed nice, good music, nice staff, then it was time for dinner, our room was very close to the restaurants luckily as it meant we didn’t have to trek around the resort much, unless I wanted WIFI as the reception is at the opposite side. There was two restaurants to choose from both with the exact same menu, as the third restaurant was closed until the end of May. We spent most of our time in the smaller Italian restaurant as the main one got very busy and made me feel slightly dizzy with the lighting.
It was the same food everyday, the usual pizza, pasta, chips, chicken nuggets, etc but it was nice enough. The deserts was all the little fancy cream cake things you get in all the all inclusive places, my mum loves them but there not really my type so I went for ice cream. Breakfast I was expecting lots of fruits like watermelon – I think I saw the odd orange, there was the full english and pancakes with chocolate sauce which was amazing but I couldn’t find any cereal which I thought was odd.
All we seemed to do was eat, sunbathe, eat, sunbathe, eat, drink, sleep… I realised as much as I like to relax I also like adventure and we were in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do.
The animation team put on games and classes during the day, but that’s not really my thing, and on an evening, I was looking forward to the entertainment in the auditorium, from magic shows to cabaret acts. It was actually the animation team and possibly a few others making complete fools of themselves on stage, it was anything but entertaining, it was freezing and the quest for the bars on the night were chaotic, with only 1 0r 2 bar staff working.
During the day you had the choice of 2 pools I think it was, the main big pool looked lovely but had stairs at only one side of the pool which was ridiculous considering the size of it. If you fancied a day at the beach you were charged for sunbeds, so they definitely knew how to make their money.
I spent most of my evenings in the games room playing pool or in the mini shopping center as it had some brilliant fakes dirt cheap.
There was a bus that went past the hotel every morning to take you into Corfu town, luckily we met some people in the resort who told us about this as there was no advertising for it. The bus was actually a coach and we nearly missed it thinking it was an airport coach. Corfu town was nice, it was just like Spain which is what i’m used to, small alleys, bars everywhere, shops everywhere selling fake designer goods, anything you wanted, they had. There was a new town and an old town and a lovely port – I am a bit of a boat geek when I go on holiday not sure where that has come from!
The evening after we had been shopping we came back to find one of our room keys which was left in the electricity port to ensure the clock did not reset was missing, luckily there was still a cleaner on our hall so we tried to communicate the best we could and she pulled a load of cards she had taken from her cleaning pinny, and passed over a card, I tried it in our door and said no this one is not for our door, she claimed that only one card per person unlocks the door and the other is for electricity.
We took the wrong card off the greek idiot and headed for reception as for all we know she can clock off work and enter our room without it being traced back to her, the young receptionist found it hilarious and spent most of the conversation eyeing up the maintenance man who was stood next to us beside the counter also eyeing her up. She wanted to give us another card, but we demanded she clear the cards she gave us to make them void before she issued new ones, which she did, we then kept the other card we had to see if she had done it correctly and she had, we knew that whatever the maid did with our card now, she would not be entering our room with it!
Overall I would say the resort was not what it was made out to be, it was very German orientated, the staff were unpleasant and unhelpful, the food was standard, they had ways to charge you whether it be the sunbeds, the games room, the snack bar, the cocktail bar, the fish spa, or all the bars after 11pm.
But from what I have seen of Corfu town, I would definitely recommend going there!
Have you been to Corfu? where did you stay? and what was your experience like?
