Diana Studios Reviews

Diana Studios are situated just outside the town, nearer to the old capital of Vathi. Accommodation is basic and fairly small (our 'kitchen' was a sink and a portable plug-in one ring cooker which disappeared behind the door as you entered) but perfectly adequate if you're only using it as a base. Maid service was only twice during the week but for the cost of the holiday (under £400 for both of us) there was really nothing to complain about!

The only problem was the location of these apartments - the brochure says 800m from town centre - what they don't tell you is that this is the vertical distance! To reach the centre we had to go down several flights of steps and walk around the lovely harbour - great on the way out but not so good coming back! We counted the steps - 154 in total so this accommation would certainly not suit those who struggle to walk far.
We hired a car for 3 days but parking near the apartments was a problem as all other guests had the same idea!

The best restaurant in town has to be The Steps (only 49 of them) - the food was great, the view over the entire harbour was unbelievable - service fantastic and far cheaper than we could have expected - eg E4.80 for Moussaka. We ate there every evening having been so impressed the first night, but sampled several other establishments for lunch.

We loved Samos - it is much greener than a lot of other Greek islands, most of the roads are tarmac and there is such a difference between the north and south coasts and the complete peace and beauty of the mountain areas. One of our favourite 'finds' was Ormos Marathakambos - a perfect little fishing village with lots of tavernas along the harbour front, but no obvious sign of where all the people they obviously expected would stay!

We didn't get our hire car via the rep [never have, never will] but she was quite forceful about making sure you have full cover so we got ours from Aramis who have offices all over the island including the airport. Manolis delivered it to the Diana apartments (a new Picanto, only 1000k on the clock). Nothing was too much trouble - he even invited us to the house he is building on our next trip! A great company to deal with.

We will definitely return to Samos but will choose different accommodation next time, although Samos town is still a good place to be based as it is not too commercialised or 'touristy' like we found Pythagorion.