Samos Hotel Reviews

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 :-)

Two weeks not long enough to see everywhere, eat everything AND lounge around the pool all day! The room was small, but clean and well tended, AND we were hardly in it, the breakfasts were similar each day, but needn't be if you tried different stuff, breads and jams were yummy.The roof pool and pool bar were superb and the views spectacular, especially since one ship thoughtfully provided us with a practice ";abandon ship"; which went very wrong, great fun for us watching though! We hired a jeep for 2 days with the rental place recommended by Janice ( our very friendly rep)and explored a bit, loved Kokari (take jellies for beach) and Pythagorian ( eat seafood at furthest restaurant @ right of harbour) but we loved Samos Town best. Fabulous suprise when Trev's brother and his wife joined us for 2nd week, they stayed at the Ino which was lovely too.

In Samos Town we were torn between Steps restaurant and Christos. In Steps you must try the shrimp saganaki, we all agreed it was the best we've ever tried ( and boy, have we tried some)and the more unusual chefs specials - Swordfish in dill sauce or Chicken in honey and tomato - were out of this world! Christos offered more ";home-made"; fayre, the very lovely Finish waitress (and wife of the mad chef, we think)told us what was on offer each night, and we were devastated when the meal ";like moussaka but without potato"; was ";off the menu"; as it was divine, until we tasted the chicken stuffed with rice and minced meat!! We ate, one night, further into the old town and were disappointed, so stayed close, none closer that The Appalousa, next door to the Hotel. Lunch there consisted of trying all the pizzas and pastas which were scrummy. Also say ";hello"; to Lamda the friendly waiter who loves to learn English, and Vasilis who let us watch the Grand Prix as long as we kept drinking!!

We were unable to find ";Petronas"; bar that we'd heard so much about from this web site, felt ripped off at drink prices at Ovaga bar, although the view was lovely, the Italian opposite was a treat (not cheap) and our evening was enhanced by the wall behind the bar collapsing down the stairs on to our table, which was really funny and led to us getting delicious desserts ";on the house."; We are already planning how soon we can go back to Samos and would definately go back to the same hotel. The locals said the weather was ";a bit like September"; but we came back brown as berries and weighing considerably more than when we arrived!

This is not the sort of holiday I would imagine kids enjoying ( not our kids anyway) it's much more a couples, chill out, romantic, strolling along hand in hand watching the world go by sort of holiday. I can't think what 18-30 type holiday makers would find to do, but if you like taking it easy, in lovely surroundings with fab food and cheap drink this is the Island for you. Well impressed!

We don't think this resort is for a fortnight's holiday. We had a good time but a week would have been long enough. We took the Island Tour which was excellent and very informative. We had a trip to Kusadasi which I found overpowering but we had an excellent Turkish meal whilst we were there.

The Hotel is excellent. The towels,soap and shampoo were changed every day and the sheets were changed every other day. The only fault we could find was that the rooms were a little on the small side. There was an excellent shower.
Of all the places we visted we liked the nearby village of Kokkari best which was just 15 minutes by bus but only 8 euros for a taxi. You can get a bus to most of the resorts but if you stay at the Samos Hotel it is quite a walk to the Bus Station but is on the doorstep of the Harbour.

We would recommend Apovrado Tavern-Restaurant on the shopping street. They were very friendly and welcoming and the food was very good and reasonably priced.

All in all we had a good holiday.