Aeolis Hotel Reviews

We went to Samos in late Sept/early Oct 2006, knowing nothing about the island before booking. We wanted to stay somewhere Greek, but not too quiet and the brochure descriptions of Samos Town seemed to offer what we wanted.

Accommodation
We stayed in the Hotel Aeolis, which is on the harbour front not far from the ferry terminal. We asked Thomson for a sea-front room at the time of booking, but as we booked quite late we were told that all the rooms allocated to Thomson had already been booked. Disappointingly we had a room round the back of the hotel overlooking the shopping street. The balcony was tiny and there was a huge tree in front of it cutting out any light and making the balcony chilly and unusable. There was noise from the street in the morning as the shops opened and more annoyingly at about 2 am when people leaving the bars started their motorbikes under our window! However, another guest who had a room nearer the front of the hotel told us that he was kept awake by the music from both the Aeolis bar and the bar next door, so maybe a sea-front room wouldn't have been so good after all! The room was a basic Greek hotel room which was starting to look a bit tatty round the edges - single beds, a tiled floor, a shower built over a bath with a shower curtain (with reasonable water pressure and constant hot water) and thin towels - extras were a so-so hairdryer and a rather old and very noisy fridge. The room was cleaned every day (including Sundays) and the towels were changed daily and the bed linen changed every other day. The reception desk was manned 24 hours and the receptionists were friendly - one male receptionist enjoyed testing my very rusty Greek!

The bar was very modern-looking with comfortable seats inside and outside overlooking the sea. It was very popular with the young locals, which meant that loud music was played throughout the evening, which we found off-putting However, in the day time and early evening it's a pleasant place to sit and have a drink. The roof terrace of the hotel had a small pool, which was big enough to swim in if no one else was in it (which at that time of the year they weren't, as the water was unheated and therefore not pleasant to swim in!) There were also sunloungers up there overlooking the sea, but there was a breeze up there all the time, which could be quite chilly once the sun left the roof top. Also the pool bar was unattended most of the time, so it was hard to get a drink when we wanted one. Breakfast was only served until 10 am (it was served on the roof terrace for the first week and then moved to the ground floor in the second week) - we missed it most days as we like to lie in on holiday. We had breakfast three times - if we got there early there was a small selection of hot food (scrambled egg, sausages), but if we got there too late the hot food had all gone. The other choices were the usual cold buffet of bread rolls, tinned fruit, yoghurt, honey, fruit juice (not fresh) and not great coffee, so we didn't feel we missed much by not having the breakfast!

Eating out
We went to Gagou Beach quite a few times over the fortnight, which is a twenty minute walk from the hotel (turn right onto the harbour road and follow the coastal road until you see a sign to Gangou Beach pointing downhill). The beach is quite small and pebbly and sunloungers are set out along the beach. There is a restaurant and a couple of bars by the beach. We went to the Vergina Restaurant for lunch, which overlooks the sea - they had a good choice of snacks and main courses. A typical (for us) lunch of two fresh orange juices, two Greek salads and a portion of chips (!) came to 16 euros. One of the waiters was also responsible for the orange sunloungers on the beach in front of the restaurant. A sunlounger cost 3 euros for the day. Beware - the Vergina wasn't open on Sundays in late September and there weren't any other cafes around Gagou Beach open, so we had to walk all the way back to Samos Town to get something to eat!
In Samos Town itself there is a good choice of restaurants for evening meals, but not so many if you just want a snack-type lunch. Most of the bars in Pythagoras Square (the square with the statue of a lion on the harbour front) serve drinks and ice cream or yoghurts, however, the Samion Café had a good selection of sandwiches, salads, etc (and huge portions!) A vegetarian club sandwich with chips, a tuna salad and two bottles of Greek beer came to 12.50 euros. Sitting outside any of the bars in Pythagoras Square is a great place to people watch and just look at the sea!

We tried most of the restaurants listed on other reviews and found that the quality of the food was similar in most of them, but the ones away from the sea front offered better service (we didn't feel so rushed). Our favourites were Garden (from Pythagoras Square turn right onto the harbour road and turn right by the Aeolis Hotel, take the 2nd turning on the right into the shopping street - the restaurant is on the right, it's well-signposted), Steps (there are signs to Steps on the harbour road between the Aeolis and Samos Hotels - look for a car rental place on one corner and a 'Chinese lantern' bargain basement-type shop on the other) and Avli (turn left out of Pythagoras Square and walk along the harbour road past the National Bank of Greece, then turn right by the Bank of Greece, then turn right onto the shopping street and Avli is two or three shops up on the left next to the Alessi homeware shop). Garden is set in a sheltered courtyard and the woman who serves is very friendly without being too overly attentive. I wasn't impressed with every meal I had in Steps - the chicken had been cooked from frozen, although I did like the baked potatoes. One evening they played jazz music instead of Greek music, which made a nice change and, of course, the views over the town at night make up for the slightly mediocre food. Beware on windy nights though! A typical meal of a Greek salad, two souvlaki main dishes and 1 litre of house wine from the barrel came to 20 euros. Avli was the most expensive of the three restaurants and seemed to serve the smallest portions, but the setting was very pleasant - a nicely designed courtyard, which was completely covered (ideal for rainy or windy evenings). It was one of the few restaurants to offer a vegetarian option and the waiter was very friendly and chatty.
Some of the bars and restaurants (particularly on the coastal road between Samos Town and Gagou Beach) had closed by the time we arrived on 20th September, so we weren't able to try some of the places recommended in other reviews.

Bars
We tried various bars for an after-dinner drink. The Museum Café (continue walking down the shopping street from Avli and turn left into a small park) was a very quiet bar in the pleasant surroundings of the municipal gardens in front of the museum. I can only guess that the reason it was so quiet in the evenings was the location - it's quite a way from the main bar area. We also went to the Hotel Samos bar, which was popular but the clientele was a bit older than the Aeolis and the music was much quieter. It's more or less the last bar on the harbour road and that section of road is a bit quieter, as the youngsters on their mopeds don't come that far down to pose in front of the bars! I tried some of the Kaimaki ice cream - it is known as 'antiseptic' ice cream and did have a strange almost mentholly taste, but is served with a very sweet cherry sauce which takes away the antiseptic flavour. I don't think I'd have it again!
We went to Café Europe (next to the Aeolis) a few times as they showed live football on an outside screen, and it was mainly full of Greek men watching the football - we felt we couldn't talk without fear of disturbing the football fans! One evening after the football finished the owner put on some Joe Cocker, which made a nice change!
The average price of drinks in Samos Town: a large lager was between 3 to 3.50 euros; half a litre of house wine was between 2.60 and 4 euros; a coffee was between 2 and 2.50 euros; and a small bottle of water was 1.50 euros.

Beaches
We visited three beaches on Samos: Gagou, Pythagorio and Kokkari. All are pebbly beaches with rows of sunloungers on them. Gagou is the smallest, but was never crowded. The sea was a beautiful clear blue and quite warm for the time of year - much more comfortable than the hotel swimming pool. The worst bit was getting in and out of the sea - the pebbles were big and very slippery. I invested in a pair of rubber shoes (all the tourist shops in Samos Town sell them), but still managed to slip on a big pebble getting out of the sea. Kokkari and Pythagorio have a similar problem, but there was a small walkway built into the sea on Pythagorio beach with a step ladder going into the sea. However, the sea around this walkway was dirty with lots of litter and seaweed floating around - not as clean as Gagou. A sunlounger at Pythagorio cost 2.50 euros for the day. Kokkari has two beaches - one with sunloungers and lots of bars behind and another beach to the east of the bars and restaurants had nothing on it, but is nice if you want to get away from the tourist trappings.

Both Pythagorio and Kokkari are small tourist resorts with an almost endless row of waterfront bars - the ones in Kokkari are literally on the waterfront, in the middle of the village where there is no beach. Kokkari still retains traces of the fishing port it once was and is pretty. There didn't seem to be much to keep you occupied for a fortnight. Pythagorio appeared to be the most touristy of the two places, with lots of shops dedicated to tourists. The waterfront bars have a through road to the harbour running in front of them and there is the constant sound of aeroplanes taking off and landing (as the airport is very near) and the noise from the ferries! Both Kokkari and Pythagorio are easily reached by public bus from Samos Town. Samos Town to Kokkari takes 15 minutes and the fare is 1.20 euros each way. Samos Town to Pythagorio takes 20 minutes and the fare is 1.30 each way. (Take the 5.15 pm bus back to Samos Town for a different route - via Mitilin - and see some inland villages. This journey takes about 40 minutes and the fare is 1.80 euros.)

Trips
We went on two Thomson-organized tours: the island tour and the trip to Ephesus. The island tour cost 39 euros per person, however, there were additional costs of 3 euros entry into the Temple of Hera, 3 euros to walk into the Epalinos Tunnel and 1 euro entry into the wine museum, which we weren't informed of by the Thomson rep when we booked our trip. Some of the stops didn't really seem worth it - the Temple of Hera is really just a field with some pillars and broken remains scattered around it. The Greek tour guide did her best to make it interesting, but her visual aids of some tatty photocopies from an old history book didn't help to convey how impressive the temple once was! We didn't attempt going into the Epalinos Tunnel as the guide has warned us that it's very narrow and slippery. Those who did go in, couldn't have gone very far as they only had 5 minutes or so before the coach left. It was interesting to hear from the guide about its construction, but we could have read about it from a book, as we didn't see anything! The monastry was in pretty surroundings and the guide told us a little about the Greek orthodox religion - we had a short amount of time to look around the church in the grounds and there was a gift shop in the grounds. There was a mid-morning stop at a hill top café where we were given a free bowl of locally-produced yoghurt and honey that was delicious.

We then drove through Karlovassi, which is an ugly town - it's not a tourist resort, it's an industrial port - and had lunch at Potami. The food was OK and there was a selection, including some vegetarian dishes, but it was overpriced and there wasn't waiter service. The tour guide gave us the options of having lunch at that restaurant or going to a snack-bar café up the hill or walking down a waterfall and going to the beach (sadly there was not time to do more than one thing!) After lunch we went to a pottery shop and saw a demo by a woman making a pot. There was lots of time to shop (everything was very touristy, but hand made if you like that kind of thing). Then we went for a drive around the less-developed part of the island - we saw lots of signs of fire damage. The rep pointed to traditional villages somewhere up a hill, but unfortunately we didn't visit them.

We stopped at Kokkari for an hour and had a coffee by the water and the final stop of the trip was the wine museum on the outskirts of Samos Town, where the guide gave us a very informed introduction to the wines of Samos and then we had a short amount of time to try them. If you only buy one wine to bring back with you try the delicious honey-flavoured sweet wine produced by local monks (apparently the Pope drinks it!) The trip was slightly marred by the fact that there were three coaches doing the same tour at the same time (an English-speaking one, a German-speaking one and a Dutch-speaking one). The English-speaking one always arrived last at each place and we had to wait for the tour guide to finish talking to the German-speaking tourists before she spoke to the English-speaking tourists, which meant that we were hanging around when we first arrived and then having to rush back onto the coach at the end! This was most annoying at the wine museum where we turned up much later than the other two coaches, but had to leave at the same time as them, not giving us much time to taste the wines, let alone look around the museum! However, the English-speaking guide (Sarah, I think) on our coach (an English woman who lives on Samos) was very informative about life on Samos in a chatty way and she made the trip worthwhile.

The trip to Ephesus cost 79 euros each and it was a long day (8am to 7 pm). The ferry takes approximately 2 hours each way. We had one and a half hours at Ephesus with a guide - there was no time to wander around on our own. It was very crowded (even though it was early October) and also very hot , with no shade or breeze. (The toilets at Ephesus were the cleanest I've ever seen - you pay 50 cents to go, but an attendant cleans the cubicle before you go in, so it's worth it!) We were then taken to a restaurant next to the ferry port and served a set menu of salad, chicken or meat ball kebabs and fruit for 9 euros (the food wasn't particularly good and the portions were small and it was very rushed). I would advise people to go off on their own for lunch, if you don't want to go to the carpet museum after lunch (we didn't!). We had two free hours in Kusadasi after lunch - there is not much to see there, mainly jewellery and carpet shops. We didn't like the place - it's very expensive and the pressurised approach to get tourists into bars, restaurants and shops is very off-putting - we were so happy to get back to laid-back Samos! There are some designer-brand shops in the port along with a duty free shop (euros seemed to be accepted everywhere, so we didn't need to take any Turkish currency). Next time we wouldn't go with Thomson - we would organize it ourselves as there are lots of shops selling ferry tickets on the harbour road in Samos Town and there are taxis which will take you to Ephesus and at Ephesus you can hire an audio guide. The ferry back was a bit rough and many people were looking very queasy!

Other information
- The sunset at around 6.30 pm at the end of September. Leave Gagou Beach at 6.15 pm to get pretty views of the sun setting over Vathi from the road near Gagou Beach on the way back to Samos Town.
- For the most-generous free bar snacks buy a drink in the Hotel Samos bar - one night we were given a plate of salami stuffed with feta with each drink we ordered (almost a meal in itself) - a pity we'd already had dinner!
- Samoan wines are very pleasant - the house wine that is served in a jug in most restaurants can be a bit hit and miss, but on the whole they were drinkable (the worst we had was the house red in Di Napoli - pure vinegar!). The bottled wines that you can buy in most off licences are very good quality - I like dry white wine and found the Samena, Doryssa and Ageri wines very pleasant (you can try these in the wine museum).
- Beware of buying imported goods from the international shops in Samos Town, which include Benetton, Body Shop and Alessi. I bought an unusual corkscrew in Alessi for 57 euros (£39.50) and found out that it only cost £23 in the UK!
- The post office is quite a walk out of the centre of Samos Town - further down the harbour road from the bus station, but you can buy stamps for post cards at the touristy shop nearest to Pythagoras Square (next to the 'Chinese lantern' bargain basement-looking shop).
- We explored the steep, narrow streets of the old part of Samos Town, that is known as Vathi. It's a pretty and peaceful place to escape from the tourists and the traffic (although we were amazed at how fast some cars were driving down alleyways that were only just wide enough for a car to get down!).

We had a lovely holiday on this small and quiet island that hasn't lost its Greek character to tourism. The only thing I would change is to book the Hotel Samos earlier to guarantee a sea view room!