Electra Studios Reviews

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.

The brochure does not do these studios justice!There are 15 studios all immaculate, the linen was changed every 3 days as were the towels, there is only one cleaner who is fantastic and very friendly(nothing was too much trouble). The studios are run by Manola and his parents(lovely people)the small poolside snack bar is great,the food is fresh and cheap. The pool area is gorgeous and Manola's father never stops cleaning and gardening, there are plenty of sunbeds and it was never busy. The setting for the studios must be one of the best in Samos and the views are stunning,very relaxing and peaceful.

The walk into town takes about 20 mins all down hil, well worth the 3.50 euro taxi ride back home. Pythagoria is great lots of bars,tavernas etc It is very clean anf the people are very friendly.
We hired a car to see the sites and I can well recommend this.
Nearly forgot to mention Rivo(named after Rivaldo)the puppy that lived at the studios who enjoyed attacking peoples's ankles we had to stop ourseleves from putting him inside our case to bring home he was fantastic and very friendly.

If you are thinking of visiting Samos you must definately stay at the Electra!

Electra Studios, Pythagorion.
The accommodation is probably the best we've ever stayed at! It is really peaceful and the rooms are basic but very clean with lovely balconies. It is a small complex of approximately 16 apartments, which has a good community feeling. It is owned and managed by a greek family who are very kind and approachable. The air conditioning costs 5 euros per day and we recommend that you take advantage of this as it can get very hot at night! The safe deposit box is 10 euros per week. We stayed for a week and our apartment was cleaned at least 3 times. The surrounding gardens, pool and bar are fantastic and maintained to a very high standard. The owners offer a small menu that is ideal for breakfast, lunch or snack - the food is very good.

The local beaches are a short walk away but it is a steep climb. Although they are quite small we never had any problems obtaining a sunbed and these cost about 3 euros each. The beaches that we went to were small pebbles but the island does have some sandy ones aswell.

The harbour front is slightly further away. It is also a steep climb, which takes about 15 minutes on foot. We usually got a taxi that the owner would book from the pool bar. For some reason it would cost 4 euros 50 to get there but only 3 euros to get back! The harbour and back streets are lovely, and it is where most of the shops and restaurants are situated. All the restaurants we ate at were lovely but we recommend that you try: Symposium, Neptune and Aphrodite.

If you are looking for a relaxing place to unwind or somewhere that is family friendly then Pythagorion is definately the place. Although there are plenty of places to visit in Samos we decided to do absolutely nothing! Some of the other guests hired a car or scooter and some people decided to take advantage of the many excursions on offer - we heard nothing but good reports about them.

If you're reading this Peter and Caroline, we hope you had a good flight home!

These studios are very clean and comfortable. The rooms are cleaned regularly and the beds and (large)towels are also changed frequently. The rooms are also quite spacious as studios go with plenty of storage. The shower was always hot too which I have never encountered before in Greece. Maria and Manolis are wonderful hosts who ensure that you have a very comfortable holiday. The pool is very clean and also quite large with plenty of sun loungers and umbrella's. There is a nice pool bar which serves snacks and the salads are beautiful and enormous. All rooms have air conditioning and saftey deposit boxes (35E for air con for one week, 10E for sd box). When we were there the temps reached 37 degrees so the air con was worth every penny. (£3.50 per day for a good, cool, nights sleep is very cheap).

The studios are about a 25 minute walk from Pythagorion harbour, which is beautiful. Taxis cost 3E back at the end of the evening. Pythagorion has tourist shops, supermarkets and lots of tavernas and bars lining the harbour and also in the back streets. If you want more variety for shopping, you can get the taxi or bus into Samos Town, 14E For the Taxi, which has many designer clothes stores and a wide variety of shops of all descriptions.

Recommending tavernas is quite difficult on Samos as we did not have a bad meal anywhere. We tended to favour the back streets however. The very best meals we had were;

Esperides - lamb in garlic with cheese baked in a clay pot - wonderful. And complinentary ouzo to welcome you in.

Ambrosia - beautiful courtyard, trditional Greek menu.

Opposite Ambrosia (dont know the name) - cheerful staff, singing and dancing, specials every day that are perfectly cooked

Faro - eat on the beach (literally) we nearly got our feet wet, again wonderful food.

Anna's - this is more expensive but worth it for a treat. It looks a bit grotty from outside, but once inside it is wonderful, you sit in a garden and the food is slightly different from that offered in other tavernas.

I could go on and on. We ate in a different place every night and all of the meals were as good as the ones before.

All of the bars in the harbour are good for people watching. The beers cost the same everywhere, about 2.50-3E but the cocktails are a little more expensive.

We tended to go the the beach nearest the studios, which was lovely. Down a steep road or track at the bottom of a hill under the Proteus hotel. Sunbeds and umbrella 5E, a small beach bar run by Sven, who is very friendly and remembers what you drink by the second day. The clearest water that I have ever seen in a small bay that never gets too overcrowded. The only drawback is the very steep climb back up the hill at the end of the day.

You really need a car to appreciate Samos, we did not get one and feel that we may have missed out a little, but even saying that we had a wonderful holiday that I would recommend to anyone who likes relaxing and eating and drinking well in beautiful surroundings.

Resort:
After having a brilliant holiday in Kos a few years back,we didn't think it would be beaten.Wrong.Samos is absolutely beautiful.The holiday will start with a shall we say interesting landing,will just say hold tight.Pythagorian where we were was a lovely little harbour village with lots of tavernas and restaurants.The restaurants on the harbour front are very nice,would recommend Four Seasons.But make sure you go away from the front to the back streets as this is where the best ones are,Aphrodite,Syposium by far the best is Espiredes,have a Meze then let your belt out,the food just kept coming all traditional Greek food as well.

Accommodation :
The Electra was just what we were looking for,the room was what you would expect in Greece.But what we didn't know and it wasn't in the brochure is that it had just had air conditioning fitted and with the temps in the mid 40's it was lovely.It cost us 35 euros for the week,5 euros a day which is less than 4 quid.It just had the basis 2 hot ring and most importantly a good fridge so you can chill some fizzy wine and sit on your veranda in the evening.The pool was lovely with a nice poolside bar with cold Amstel on draft.The couple who own it are brilliant. Maria and Manilos.Anything you want to know just ask Maria she speaks better English than I do and make sure you have one of her Greek salads,beautiful.The apartments are well away from the harbour.Some of the guests would walk in and then taxi back and they said it took 25 mins to walk.But we would just get a taxi there which Manilos will order,taxi cost just 3 euros which is about 2 quid.

Out and about:
As with most Greek Islands you must hire a car to see the island.We pretty much did most of it in one day.The 2 places you must visit are Kokkari and Manolates. Kokkari cannot be described it has to be seen,parking isn't easy but when you do make sure you have a wonder around especially in the bay where the tavernas are literally on the sea-front,also make sure you visit the church.

Manolates is a different thing,its village high on a hill,there is only one road up,with hair-pin bends its first gear most of the way.When you get to the village there is a car park.which is more or less the end of the road.You must go to Lucas restaurant which is an adventure in itself tryiong to find it through the steep tiny backstreets.But when you do find it and sit down you wiil be glad you did.Then its the drive back down.

Summary:
This has been our best holiday yet and if we were the type of people who went back to certain destinations then we would be back next year without a doubt.But with so many islands to try, bring on the next one.