Hotel Belvedere Reviews

I have been on many holidays to the grrek islands and have always had great experiences. I fully appreciate going to greece usually means pretty basic accomodation. Howvever this placethere are so many basic moans i don't know where to start.

However most disturbingly of all, and making all other moans pale into insignificance, was that i was actually assaulted by a taxi driver (plus 20 of his mates) on the balcony of our apartment! Long story, but the moral is don't use the taxis and don't stay at the belvedere. The staff knew the guy and ignored it, and the rep decided that she ";didn't want to get invloved as they will break my legs";!!!!!! Customer service eh?!!!
However what i would like to stress is how nice skiathos is as an island, how nice the beaches are and achlades as a resort.

Tips: take the boat taxi from achlades to skiathos town: very quaint. Skiathos is very cosmopolitan, and if you like fish, try the restaurant right on the harbour. The police to be fair, and the staff at the medical centre were great, and took the assault very seriously. The police especially were very professional.

I would go back to skiathos, but not to this accommodation.

First of all,3 things.If you are thinking about booking this accomodation ,then dont.If you have booked it already,please contact your Travel Agent and try to get alternative accomodation.If you can't get it changed,then demand that your Holiday rep relocates you during the welcome meeting the following day (don't unpack). After having read some of the reviews on this page i tried to change my holiday only to be told it was too late and that i would have to cancel then re-book.Also i was told by the travel agent not to believe internet reports as they tend to be misleading. Well let me assure you that the reports for the Belvedere pre-ceding mine are 100% true.

This accomodation should not even be in any brochures.It is dirty,outdated and uncared for.The hotel management are not friendly at all. Granted,its on a hill but we knew that.But we did not really believe that it would be this bad.Some people were relocated after complaining but we only used the place as somewhere to sleep.Cooking and cleaning facilities were appauling and the room was only cleaned four times during a 14 night stay.Everyone was of the same opinion about the place.One woman accurately calling the accomodation ";Bunkers";. On our last day the heavens opened around 4am and by 9am the whole floor was soaking due to the concrete roof having a crack that ran the full width of the room.

Achladies itself is a nice little resort with a few decent tavernas,but Skiathos town is only a short Boat-Taxi journey(1.50 Euros).I would recommend anyone to go to Achladies as it has a nice little beach and four supermarkets and a sprinkling of good tavernas(Skiathos Town has no beach)but please stay away from the Belvedere.

We stuck it out and became determined not to let it ruin our holiday.But anyone with kids or the elderly will find it extra difficult.

Belvedere Studios are situated on a really steep hill on a road that is not maintained so it is full of holes, bumps and unsafe to walk for any age group. The accommodation is very poor. Cracked sinks that leak, broken toilet seat, no water in sinks (apart from shower, no plugs). No mop to clean up masses of water that overflows when you take a shower. This could never be described as self catering, we had no tin opener and the cooker did not work. We had three apartments as my parents in their 60's were with us and all three were appauling.

The family who run the hotel showed no interest in making us welcome, something unusual with the Greeks who in the past have welcomed us. There is occassionaly a barman , but often he isn't there. There is no restaurant or internet access as their website states. The swimming pool leaves you covered in blue paint.

Apart from the hill the apartments are in a good location but I would never return to this accommodation and although the hotel had no guests, it looked just as bad. All of the guests who arrived complained and about 8 couples were moved. We have stayed in Greece before so we are used to basic greek style, but this goes beyond 'basic' to 'just awful'. Achladies is a small , quiet resort and easy to get to Skiathos town.

It was our first time in Skiathos we chose Achladies to be near Skiathos town there is a lack of taverners in achaladies,the beach is nice,

But our appartments in the Belverdere were very basic but clean the furniture had seen better dayes, but it was the steep hill you had to climb that was the worst part of staying there the bus servise is very good although very crowded but fun some of the time the taxis are (fast)BUT MAKE SURE U get a price before u get in the cab otherwise good.

we found a small selection of tavernas in achalaidies which the food and service where v good the Perangalli,rose garden,and cozmogate taverna good food nice place to go for a few drinks in the upstaires bar. In Skiathos we also found the Albatros bar on papademantis street the food was very good and very reasnable in price also the Mouria hotel for greek food and friendley service just behind the main bank on papademantis street hope some of this is usfull i found it good myself some of the in formation from this site happy holls

If you want a beech holiday then Skiathos is the place. you need to get a detailed map if you want to find all the beeches tho.The hotel was basic but clean, thats Greece for you. I paid £340 for 14 nights half board, and I got what I paid for. I`m pleased I did`nt pay the broucher price of £460+.the food was quite comical realy,make sure you take your own british tea bags with you.

Some guests would eat out but we stayed the course. But it was hot fresh and healthy, not keen on the apples for desert tho. If you come to this hotel on a self catering basis, be expected to be accomandated behind and up the hill, but it does say in the brochour ";not recomended for eldery or those with walking difficulties";.Dont hire a Quad bike,they strugle getting up hills, and there a death trap on the road. I hired a trails bike and left her in doors sun bathing on the beech, briliant!

If this holiday came up again at the price I paid last year, I would`nt hesetate to book it.If you want five star go across the rosd and pay £700 pound a week at the Esperedies

To begin with, I am only writing this report so that other families don't end up booking their main holiday at this hotel.

This place is fine for the young couple or backpackers, as the island is a fun place to explore by moped or bus, but there are absolutely no facilities in this hotel to keep children amused and the food variety is poor.

Room: The room consisted of two beds, a chair, a two-drawer. The bathroom cabinet was broken (plastic doors hanging off). The bathroom towel rail was broken. To be fair, this was fixed soon after I complained
about it. When we shut our balcony shutter (not the glass door bit, the shade thing) there was a gap at the top. This meant that you had to shut the glass door bit as well to keep out the mosquitoes.

In fact, don't delay one minute on arrival. Go over the road to the supermarket and buy one of the electric mozzie busters and leave it plugged in all the time.

I this case, we couldn't sleep without closing the balcony door, as the road outside is actually the Skiathos M1 - there are trucks and motor-bikes racing up and down it 24 hours a day. That road (you can just see it from the web-site pictures) is actually just about the only hard surface you will find in Skiathos. All the other roads are dirt tracks.

The bottoms of the drawers in the table under the mirror were held on with drawing pins! Hence the bottoms tended to fall out.

The room had no bin - you have to use the bin in the bathroom (the one you put your toilet paper in). Consequently, you have to collect your rubbish in plastic bags. On our fourth day the toilet bin wasn't emptied. This was not the cleaner's day off. Although, when I complained, it was remedied immediately.

The toilet in our boys' room didn't always refill properly after flushing very well - you had to lift the lid and fiddle with the floating ball thing. The room had no cleaning equipment like a broom or dust-pan and brush.

There was no fridge in the hotel rooms. I was hoping for at least this. There was no TV, hair-dryer or kettle.

The rooms had no air-conditioning (I didn't expect this, but there were no fans either. We had to hire a fan for our children's bedroom at 2 Euros per day.

The shower in the bathroom was one of those attachment things that fit onto the bath taps. I can recommend buying some bleach from the shop over the road and pouring it into every crevice. I cannot speak for the apartments on the hill, although from other guests, I heard that they were seriously under-equipped for the ";self catering"; label).

In essence, this is probably a summary of the 'C' type of hotel (so make sure yours is an 'A' one):

Meals: The evening meals were very simple/basic. I cannot recommend them as there was very little variety. In particular, breakfast was mind-numbingly repetitive. I can still see it now: hard-boiled eggs, bread and jam, cheese and ham, biscuits, tea/coffee and orange squash.

There were no cereals on offer at breakfast. Buy your own from the shop over the road, and ask for a spoon and a bowl at breakfast.

I could cope with the evening meals, as most of the time they were edible and the children ate bits of them, but my wife (and several other guests) were disappointed at the lack of a vegetarian option.

Salad at the evening meal was sliced tomato and cucumber. Every night.

Dessert was either water or honeydew melon. Every night, although I think on Sunday we got a nice creme caramel effort.

There were no coffee/tea or any drinks included for free with the evening meal and, to give you an idea of prices, Cokes/Sprites were 1.5 Euros (that's about £1.10).

Facilities: The adjacent pool area consists of two small pools. I don't think both of these are owned by the hotel. I think one is owned by the bar operator.

What you cannot see is the pretty ropey tiling around the pool. No one got cut by sharp edges, but the tiles were very slippery - our kids aren't complete holiday pool novices, but the youngest managed to slip and bang his head.

Every Friday or Saturday, there is a big party in the adjacent pool area. We guests were never invited and I think this was for the owner's family. Consequently, the noise for the unlucky guest in the end room was a problem.

Summary: This is not a hotel you would want to book for a family holiday, unless your children are totally into beaches (i.e. you won't be spending any time at the hotel, other than for sleeping - I cannot recommend eating there) and you have a *minimum* of £300 (E$450) to spend on car hire.

You will need a car or moped to get you to the beaches that are not accessible by bus.

I absolutely cannot recommend the food at this hotel - you are much better off booking ";room only"; and spending £700 on food. If we had done that, I could probably have saved at least £100. Do not book BB or HB at this hotel, unless you like the.

In its favour, the staff are not unapproachable nor unwilling to help. E.g. I asked for a couple of glasses for the room and they got some fans in (at a price) when we all complained about the lack of any air flow in the rooms at night. I got a blank look when I asked about a ping-pong table. There is room at this place for pool and table tennis tables, but I don't think they are bothered.

I would probably have been satisfied with this holiday, if I had got it for £100 per person, rather than the £439 per person.

I wish I had found and consulted this site before booking this resort!

Recommendations: If you are going to Skiathos, I recommend you look at:

Kassandra Bay Hotel (Olympic holidays or Boots holiday club). This is a class 'A' hotel that is right on the beach with a nice pool. I asked some people about the food and they said that the buffet style meals were good. Of course you will be paying £3 a pint at the pool bar, but at least the rooms have A/C and a decent (stand-up) shower.

Kolios Beach Apartments (First Choice/Unijet Summer Sun). My wife didn't like the look of the beach here (too many fag-ends, but I don't think it's cleaned very often, as these are apartments, not a hotel). Someone I asked said that the rooms were OK. There was a table tennis table and a pool and it's right on the beach where there's a bar.

Car hire on this island is outrageously expensive. My Citroen Saxo cost £300 for 12 days from EuroCar, and that was with a 10% discount. Unless you have kids to ferry around with body boards and lilos, you should just get mopeds - much more fun.