Latest Reviews for Samos

If you want a basic holiday without any luxuries at a reasonable price then the Sophia hotel is not a bad choice. Our room overlooked another block and the view was uninspiring. The bathroom flooded very easily and took ages to drain. The was a large number of cats around the cats that the owners adopted and if you do not like cats you may find this point a real problem They got into our room once. Everything else about the Sophia hotel was good a different breakfast each day(no choice) and a small but nice swimming pool with free sunbeds but no cushions and a wonderful well run and friendly pool bar that was a good place to finish the day after your meal. Located 2 minutes from the beach but well back from the main road, so no traffic noise.

Kambos was rather windy which took away some of the heat and this had advantages and disadvantages. there is an excellent choice of good value tavernas the best being Nostros, Nick the Greeks and Angelos. Try walking into the fishing village of Ormos a 35 minute eay walk. Car hire is a good idea as no bus service from Kambos. Both the hotel and the resort are ideal for couples requiring a tranquil and larger lout free holiday.

in our opinion not suited to families and certainly not for the young single night owls.

We arrived about three in the afternoon, it looked very pretty with stunning views from the hotel terrace. Shhhhh!!!, it was very quiet, and we tiptoed round to our room so as not to disturb the few people around the pool. Still that's what you go on holiday for isn't it?

This hotel isn't for everyone. Situated up the steepest hill you could imagine. Fine, you can get a taxi back at night from the square in town (3 euros), but if you just go down to the beach (10 min walk), you have to walk back up again......nightmare, not nice at all, especially in that heat. Nice little beach, and the taverna there serves up some brilliant giant prawns. This is not a relaxing beach holiday, if that's what you want go somewhere where there are no cars and motorbikes whizzing past you.

The Ino is NOT children friendly, they threw away three blow-up lilos, and a couple of balls, simply because we'd left them around the pool in the evening. Breakfast at first looks lovely, but no changes at all in 14 nights, gets boring.

Didn't rate the food at the restaurants in Samos town, although heard good reports about 'Steps'. Didn't go there as there were too many of them.

All in all wouldn't be back to Samos in a hurry

Had a wonderfully relaxing holiday at the Evagelistria apartments ( no ";N"; in the Greek) in Kampos. Apartments were clean, well run and Rania and family made you very welcome. Unfortunately there is no pool bar and therefore it makes it more difficult to mix with others and find out where the best tavernas, beaches etc are.

Apartments are very close to the beach which is fairly quiet towards the end of the season. Lots of good tavernas but would recommend ";The Blue Bucket";, Rinas and Angelos (especially the Dolmades made from zucchini flowers rather than vine leaves). Those nearer Votsalakia are not so good. Fish is good on the island - Kostas at the Blue Bucket does excellent Red Snapper and Merides(small fish like whitebait) are good at Angelos. also had good fish meals at Ormos and Balos but can't remember name of tavernas.

Would recommend hiring a jeep or car to explore the island which has spectacular scenery. A drive to ";The End of the World"; taverna is interesting and a walk up the waterfalls at Potami is an experience but recommend wearing shoes that you don't mind getting wet as you have to wade through the water up the riverbed (in swimwear of course!!). Lots of the beaches on the island are stoney rather than sandy so ";pool Shoes";, available from the shops locally are recommended - we didn't buy any and wished we had by the end of the holiday.
The Captain's BBQ boat trip is a good value day out.

Overall- good accommodation and a ";Greek"; resort compared to those that are now much too commercialised.

ACCOMMODATION

The description in the brochure does not really do justice to the quality of this accommodation. The apartments and studios have air conditioning, are spacious, well furnished and spotlessly clean. Twice weekly cleaning ensured this standard was maintained throughout our visit. Linen also changed twice weekly - full-sized bath, hand towels and sheets - BRILLIANT WHITE! - and tea towels. Smaragda, the owner, is a wonderful lady, extremely friendly and helpful, constantly smiling and always ready to chat. Having experienced a wide range of self catering accommodation over the years on numerous Greek islands, we rate this accommodation the best yet.

RESORT

Great for a relaxing holiday. It is built along a flat, coastal road. The long beach varies from sandy at one end to pebbly at the other. The beach was never crowded despite being the height of the season when many Greek tourists arrived too. The sea shelves quite steeply in places. Plenty of umbrellas and sun beds (well spaced) - 4 or 5 euros for 2 beds plus umbrella. Other beaches visited nearby were Psilli Ammos and Limnionas to the west which, although nice beaches, were more crowded. Balos beach, to the east, was excellent, offering the normal beach facilities and also small caves for shade.

Wide range of good restaurants. Two which we particularly liked, not mentioned in other reviews, were Finikas and Maestros. Everything at Finikas is grilled - excellent chicken souvlaki amongst other things and generous portions. Maestros is next door to Smaragda. The food and service is excellent and the menu far more extensive than is apparent from the boards outside. We enjoyed all our meals here - it's well worth a visit.

PLACES TO VISIT

Wherever you travel, it will not be long before you are awed by the spectacular scenery. From certain places near Platanos, it is possible to see both the northern and southern coasts at the same time.
Ormos - a 40 minute stroll away, pretty village with small harbour and several tavernas; Kokkari (lovely harbour; Pythagorio (tunnel closed Mondays); Karlovassi and Samos Town.
The inland villages of Manolates, Vourliotes, Pagondas and Drakei. (Word of advice - park in the designated car parks on entering any village as some of the streets become so narrow they are impassable for all but the smallest cars). Saunter through the narrow streets and soak up the atmosphere in the village squares. Enjoyed fabulous meals at tavernas in each of these villages and in Ormos.
The pretty coastal villages of Ag.Paraskevi and Posidonio are well worth a visit too.

EXCURSIONS

Went on 2 of the organised tours (Manos) to the neighbouring islands of Fourni and Patmos. Prices were very reasonable. Also caught the Flying Dolphin (FD) to Ikaria from Ormos, booking through Rhenia Travel. Also possible to travel by FD from Ormos to Lipsi and Leros, and return the same day.

Enjoyed this holiday so much we plan to revisit Samos in 2008 and will definitely stay at the Smaragda Studio/Apartments.

Just got back from a very relaxing week in Samos.

Weather was excellent, sunny everyday with temps reaching +30C. Night time temps were superb being able to amble around the town in a shirt/t-shirt and trousers/shorts.

The scenery and setting is super for a ";town"; with the harbour and then the hills surrounding the bay. It was quite interesting watching the HUGE ferry boats coming and going. The Ambelos mountains add to the backdrop to make the scenery quite stunning.

The hotel was superb with a great rooftop terrace and pool offering fantastic views.
The maid was the happiest maid we have EVER seen on any holiday! Our room was on the third floor offering partial harbour and hillside views together. The room was compact and very clean. The air-con was excellent. The Samos Music Bar, which is part of the hotel, has seating next to the pavement as well as an air-conditioned area inside. This was busy every night with 95% of the clientel being Greek and chatting away happily with the music at background level.
We stayed on a BandB basis. The breakfast menu was decent ranging from omelettes, Greek yogurt and honey with fruit to a cold buffet and sliced chocolate chip cakes.

There are dozens of cafe's, bars, restaurants around the town and along the long harbour front. The meal prices average
around 5-6e Euro's with the portions being generous.
We ate at the following:
Di Napoli, (lunch) excellent pizza/pasta (as well as Greek food).
El Greko, great pizza at lunch and ";Chicken on Fire"; at night...very tasty.
Garden Tavern, (lunch) HUGE portion of whole fried calamari, nice shady setting amongst grape vines and pomegranates.
Steps, (night)fantastic view over the harbour and as a previous reviewer stated, the prawn saganaki was superb with enough for two as a starter! Chicken in honey and tomato v nice. Chicken souvlaki very tender.
Avli, (night)another lovely setting and good food. Pork with plumbs, different but nice.
Christos, (night)home cooked food which you're invited to choose from the kitchen.
Fish Tavern, (day trip around the island) at Potami near Karlovasi, another super portion of whole fried calamari!
Also tried the ";fast food"; at a kebab place on the front near to Lions Square, very tasty and cheap!
All of the above washed down with Mythos beer and a mixture of Samos wines at around 2e a glass/bottle. Half litre of table wine 4e :-)

A trip around the island gives a flavour of whats on offer and a chance to see the marvellous scenery and other towns. We did a coach tour (37e each) although hiring and driving seems pretty easy as the roads are fairly quiet out of town. For those interested in ornithology there were peregrines, eagles and an osprey!
Walked round to the wine museum, 1e entrance and sample as much as you like LOL! The archeological museum in the town was good too(3e). So much history!

As mentioned in another review, the landing is different as it involves a circuit out to sea then a couple more circuits to approach runway 09 which means a couple of sharp turns over the inland/mountain side of the airport. The pilot did explain to everyone :-) We should have landed at Halkidiki to re-fuel on the way home as the plane is limited to its take-off weight at Samos. The pilot announced that we have enough fuel onboard to get back to Manchester if the take-off wind conditions were right, which they were, which meant we got back to Manchester one and a half hours early! Pity the taxi company weren't checking flight times. We had to have a drink at the airport waiting for the taxi to arrive!

All in all a very nice holiday which wasn't ";touristy";, a bit like like Granada or Girona is to Spain. We bought a guide book and a map on the net before we went which proved helpful in getting to know a bit about Samos before we got there :-)

Angela studios ok but owners need to clean studios a bit more often and empty the bins daily. A lovely resort but only if you like walking otherwise a car is a must. Taverners are guite a walk away.Beach is pebbly.We went in june 2006 and weather was great.

Kambos in the resort to stay if you want a tranquil and relaxing holiday without loads of bars and larger louts. In our opinion it is ideally suited to couples as it is a romantic setting. Definitely not for the night owls and has limitations for family holidays.

The beach is average long and uncrowded but a mixed texture of course sand and shingle. Dining out is a dream and you are spoilt for choice. Difficult to pick out the best but after consideration our award to the top three are. First Nick the Greeks Fish Taverna; Second; Angelos; Third Nostros; Car hire is recommended for part of the holiday to view this diverse ideal there is only one bus a day from Kambos.

The Sofia Hotel had good and bad points.

GOOD POINTS. excellent position 3 minutes casual stroll to the beach. Quiet area. Better than average continental breakfast. A nice but small swimming pool and a well run and sociable poolside bar. Free Sunbeds; A good book exchange library;Staff generally friendly.

BAD POINTS; No view from room; Small Balcony; A bathroom where the floor never dries;the excessive cost of hiring the air conditioning. No Cushions for sunbeds. The number of cats the hotel has adopted and they are a problem roaming everywhere and coming uninvited into the room.
SUMMARY KAMBOS- SUPERB
HOTEL SOFIA: GOOD VALUE BUT HAS LOTS OF LIMITATION>

Electra Studios are very nice. They are cleaned every other day and linen changed every 3 days. The complex of around 15 rooms is run by Manoli and his mum and dad (with help from Rivo the dog!). Manoli runs the pool bar - he is very helpful and his food is good and reasonable for a mid-day snack. The pool area is good and you get a nice breeze as its situated quite high up. Manoli will order you a taxi for the hike down to the town. We would recommend you get a taxi as the walk on the main road is quite scary. It costs ?5 into the town if Manoli orders the taxi but ?3.50 to come back if you get one yourself from the taxi rank in town. It was very very hot when we were there so we never even attempted the walk back! The air-con in the rooms is a must - it cost us ?35 for the week. The only drawback with the studios is that there is no shop around them which means you have to be very organised and get your shopping in the town.

We found most of the people very friendly. British people were in the minority with alot of Dutch and Germans around.
Our favourite restaurants were in the town but not the ones around the harbour. We found these to be a little more expensive and the quality wasn't as good. Our favorites were on the second street back - Aphrodite and Esperedes (around the corner from the Aphrodite).

We visited 2 beaches. The beach belonging to the Proteas Hotel was nice and quiet but the snack bar was very limited and quite pricey. The next beach along, I think it was called Valtos, was much bigger but I thought it was crowded and the snack bar was very expensive. It was also incredibly hot on both these beaches. Beware in the sea as well because its very rocky and they can be very slippy.
The airport is very good for size of the island. It was very well organised and the duty free had everything you could want.

All in all, we would definately go back to Samos and the Electra.

samos ought to be called the isle of steps but we still had a lovely 2 weeks holiday with fanstatic veiws and beautiful scenery we had very good meals at the avli resturant just passed the town square we stayed at the galaxy hotel loue and his two sons where great company running hotel bar and amy the receptionist was lovely and made every one welcome whatever the nationality

the weather was red hot the whole 2 weeks the only sandy beach is at psli-almos very clean and the sea is shallow for a long way out looking straight across at turkey one and a half hour across by boat the rooms at the hotel are basic but spacious breakfast a good selection for bb janice kosmar rep was great good fun and very helpful if you needed it hope this helps if if travelling to samos for hols enjoy

On our fourth visit to lovley Samos,we decided to stay at the Villa Anna.

The good points,very clean,good sized apartments.

Bad points.Excessive plane noise, cannot consume any food/drink(even bottled water)around the pool unless it is bought from the pool bar,with very relaxed opening times although open it is not manned all the time.

Mosquitos.we have never seen so many and they are a nuisance and they do bite!!!!!

We found the staff unfriendly,the cleaning staff start very early and they are happy to clean your patio eventho you are still in bed and can be seen quite clearly through the mosquito screen
We could not hire a fan you can only have a/c at an extra cost.

We would not go back to the villa anna,but would return to samos once again in differenct accommodation.