Eleni Apartments Reviews

On arrival in skiathos our baggage was transfered by small truck to the Eleni Appts, we went via the normal bus transfer, the Rep, Dianne, left us to it so the bus driver showed us where to get of the bus,while we were at the airport we saw lots of people from our flight getting into taxi's for their transfers,we will do the same next time,only 7euros to Achaladies,as the hill you have to walk up to get to the Eleni Appts is like climbing a mountain, and after a long flight not something i would do again,the Eleni Appts are lovely, clean,fresh and what you would expect in Greece, the pool and bar area's are all lovely and well looked after by Kostas' father,the Bar serves a good breakfast and other main meals and snacks all reasonably priced,Kostas will put the footie on for anyone who wants to watch it but unfortunately not many bars have BBC so if it's England games you want to watch you will either have to go into Skiathos town or down to Pariskava to a bar there,after unpacking we decided to go the supermarket for some provisions, and were told the nearest one is at the bottom of the hill towards Paraskva,the owner was a nice man because he will deliver your groceries to the Appartments free of charge,when you walk to the supermarket you will understand why he delivers ,its like going down the side of Mount Everest in 90 degree heat, not niceto take all your shopping up again,so if you have any problems walking or have Asthma be careful not to book these appts,the walk to the beach is even worse it is a much steeper hill down,and to get back up you will need to take climbing gear with you,it really is a nightmare, but having said that we hired a car from the Sixt office in Skiathos town and got a good deal after a little hagglingso the drive down to the beach and supermarket was much nicer,back to the Appts,they are cleaned almost everyday and the linen and towels were changed every other day which is brilliant in Greece,when you eat out, go to Skiathos town and follow the signs for the Old Port House and just before you get to it you will see a little Restaurant called Varthalimas,the food is exceptional,good home made greek food and very cheap, it was the only place we went to where if you didnt eat the bread you didnt get charged for it,normally 3-4.5 Euros,if you like quick food try Nikos cafe in Papiadamantis Street, ok if you want fast food,good beaches are, Achaladies, but go to the Rose Garden Restaurant and walk behind down on to the beach its easier,Koukanaries is a good beach but because of its status everthing is quite expensive,on all the beaches the sunbeds and parasolls are 8 Euros,one word of warning Dont get caught by the time share sellers, they are normally next to the Taxi rank in skiathos town,they will tell you its not time share and that you have won 1st prize of a holiday and it will only take 90 mins and you get free Taxis back and forth to the hotel all true except we were there for 4 (FOUR)hours nightmare and even though we tried to get away after 90 mins Dawn our lovely host just would not let us go, be warned........

On arrival at Skiathos airport look out for the free guide (green) with good maps of the island and Skiathos Town.

As we booked on the internet and Eleni Studio Apartments didn't appear in any brochure and were only 2 star we were a bit apprehensive but had a nice surprise. They are very modern with a good-sized bedroom, large tiled bathroom, well-stocked kitchen area (inc. fridge/freezer, small ove/4 hobs, kettle). It looked hardly used. Very clean - the cheerful cleaner worked hard and also changed sheets/towels frequently. The manager/owner didn't speak English but seemed OK. The 2-bed rooms each have a small patio area overlooking the nice small garden (roses etc). Seems to be no shortage of water judging from the amount used on garden. Very quiet day and night. Up a steep short slope from 'main' (i.e. one and only) road. It's not very pleasant walking along the road with lots of traffic passing close by. Hire a fan for one Euro a night. A few mosquitoes around. Lots of wasps in tavernas - a nuisance but don't seem aggressive like British ones.

No TV/radio/phone/pool, hence the 2 stars, but you can use any hotel/villa pool if you buy a drink. Eleni is midway between Agia Paraskevi (bus stop 16) - downhill and Kolios (b.s. 15) - uphill. Supermarket a few minutes away (uphill).

About same distance to two nearest beaches: Kolios and Agia Paraskevi. Kolios was our favourite of all those we visited - fairly quiet, lovely sand and clear water, good for all ages, 2 nice tavernas.

Buses come about every 15 mins depending on time of day but can be extremely busy (mid-Aug) and often pass by without stopping, especially late afternoon until about 9 p.m. in direction of Sk.Town. (Twice we waited 45 mins in the evening). Cost one Euro from b .s. 15 or 16 in either direction. Pay conductor on the bus.

A beach umbrella and 2 loungers cost 8 Euros whichever beach you're on, which is exorbitant when you might want to visit 2 beaches on one day, so first day we bought our own umbrella for 7.50 Euros and used it with mats and inflatable pillows.

Beaches: Kolios - lovely. Ag. Paraskevi - good.
Vromolimnos - v.busy. Koukanaries (b.s.25) horrible in mid-Aug. - jampacked with noisy people and the lake behind empty and unattractive.
Walk from b.s. 24 to Ag. Eleni (steep walk) - nice.
From b.s. 25 walk longish way to Big Banana (v. busy, lots of litter - why are there no litter bins?), also to Small Banana (partly nudist beach though you can wear what you want) - this wasn't too busy and had a good atmosphere - very amusing when the tourist boats went by and stopped so passengers could take a good look and the nudists lined up on the water's edge to wave!
You can walk quite easily from b.s. 23 to Mandraki on north-west coast - looks a long way on map but only took about 30 mins through nice pine forest.
Nostos (Tzaneria) and Kanapitsa beaches OK and from both you can take the sea-taxi at certain times to and from Sk.Town - well worth the 2 Euros! Didn't try the busy beaches near Sk.Town.

If you like walking, walk from b.s. 13 around the peninsular - a long way, uphill and downhill, good views, coming out eventually at Kanipitsa, Tzaneria and b.s. 12. Takes a couple of hours. You can easily walk from Eleni to b.s.13.

Wildlife seems almost non-existent. All we saw were the odd sparrow, crow, dove, hawk - no lizards, almost no butterflies, no wild animals. Even on the sea and rocks just the odd gull.

Restaurants local area:
Excellent: Mesostrato opposite Kohili, near b.s. 16 - nice atmosphere/music/waiter-manager.
The View at Magic Hotel - far end of Ag. Paraskevi on right - balcony restaurant overlooking bay, great food (esp. fillet of fish spetsiana).
Infinity Blue - good food and view but more expensive and they kept one table empty all evening with reserved sign - annoying when we had to sit towards back without much view.
Platanias Taverna - just past b.s. 16 on right. Busy and good.
Vasila Taverna - b.s. 18

Not so good: Telos (high up, between Platanias Taverna and Magic Hotel)
Masailka Taverna (poor service and food)
Kolios Taverna (lovely situation by beach but poor service and on 2nd occasion we had to walk out after waiting an hour for food)

To go to the Evagelistrias monastery there's a small white bus about every hour from Sk.Town bus terminal, costing only one euro each way (it also goes to Xanemos beach). The monastery is worth a short visit - it's where the Greek flag was first raised.

Skiathos Town - picturesque, white/blue buildings, lovely harbour area, busy touristy back streets.
We went to the Windmill restaurant for a birthday meal - expensive but worth it for special occasion. We booked the 'special' table (wooden balcony) by phoning beforehand. English owners. Great views. Lots of steps up to it!
Ariston restaurant on harbour OK, also blue and white taverna (Faro) at far end. Taverna Cuba in back streets behind harbour (between Papadiamantis and Evangelistrias Streets) really good - carafe of good red house wine 4.50 Euros, good reasonable food.

Bourtzi small peninsular - taverna with nice views. Plakes area - old boathouse you see in postcards is now dilapidated.

Internet: In Sk.Town on leaving bus terminal on the right is 'Creator Tours' (Europ Cars) between restaurants. One euro for 15 mins. Don't go to 'Sixth Element' near Papadiamanties Street - cost 1.50 euros and it kept cutting me off. The manager was very rude and unpleasant. Rep recommended 'Enter' in same area but we didn't try it. Also some hotels have internet.

Book your boat trips not through rep but directly on harbour the evening before - much cheaper, and you can get on to boat early to grab a good seat, rather than turn up late with the coach party. Boats were overcrowded with lots of people inside or standing all the time.

We went on the 'Kassandra' to Alonissos - Alonissos Marine Park - Skopelos, a long day from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. On the boat pay 3 euros to go from Alonissos harbour by bus up to old town which is lovely, but not enough time there due to having to wait ages for bus up and down. The Marine Park was v. disappointing - we didn't see anything, not even a seagull, just an awful lot of sea and rocks. Skopelos v. attractive but again not long enough there. We'd given up hope of seeing dolphins but a group turned up as it was nearly dark and we were approaching Skiathos (great excitement on the boat. We suspected fish had been thrown out to attract them!).

A good trip also is round the island (15 euros paying at harbour). Book the boat which leaves earliest (i.e. 9.30 a.m.), then you get to an almost deserted Lalaria beach. Within a few minutes lots of other boats arrived disgorging hundreds of passengers. Pebbly and nice clear water. At Kastro you can walk up a very steep and tiring track to see the old ruined buildings and 3 renovated churches - it's worth the walk. Apparently you can go by car also. The boat goes on to Asellinos beach for lunch at the taverna, then continues round the island to Tsougria island - beach, old olive press building, little church.

Airport: You leave your cases outside accommodation and they're picked up by a van and taken to airport. You wait for coach outside Jimmy's taverna, a few minutes walk away. Don't worry about the runway! It's very short but on landing you don't notice (only when the plane taxis around do you see how near the sea it landed!). Also the takeoff is quite OK. We were expecting to go via Thassalonika to refuel as it said on the departure board, but it didn't - it flew directly to Gatwick (I think they were using a different plane). Food VERY POOR on board. You pay beforehand £12 each for the two meals and they are rubbish, with not even free drinks. Another time we would take our own. (When booking on the internet we were not given the option of 'no meals').

All in all a great holiday, great island - and we didn't need to hire a car!

June 10th 2005 for 1 week (7 days of hot sunshine!)
If you have booked here - and you like authentic greece - you'll love it!!!
now all reviews are from an individual's perspective; so here's ours!

FOOD: we like real greek tavernas, no burgers and english breakfast and deffinalty no mcdonalds! - in our opinion the restraunts and thier food was AMAZING! if you're eating in platanias (otherwise known aghia paraskevi) then up the side street for the ";Green park"; - it's sign post is on the beach side of the road, right on a tiny bridge over a tiny stream, and the restraunt is up the opposite side of the road to the beach - yes it ";is"; at the end of the dust track - it also seems lovely hotel/apartments. the other palce is SO easy to find - it's on the only bend of the road in this resort it's called taverna platanias (or platanias taverna) again - GREAT food, REALLY cheap, and outstanding service - well recomended!. if you go into Skiathos itself - try the restaurant right at the top of the main street in the town, past the police station (which'll be on the left) and past the school (which'll be on the right) and you will see infront of you a lovely restaurant surrounded by lovely plants and flowers - this was fantastic value for money, beautifully hot food and very polite service.

ACOMM: we like proper greek accom. we don't expect a 5 star kitchen and a double bed! these appartments are so sweet, very well equiped for greece, very clean and michealo doesn't speak a word of english, but galdy carried my wife's suitcsae right to the door! and everytime we say him - ";yassoo!"; you'll have nothing to worry about here! we used the supermarket on the road back towards the town - only 20 meters away (on the hill) nice fresh bread! this accom. has only 6 well looked after rooms, and a very short but slighty steep driveway. we would deffinaly go back! (hopefully this sept/oct

BEACHES: we like peace and quite and no british music banging out of a karaokee bar - the beaches at the resort were our favorites, none of them have an ";obvious"; route to them, just turn off the road towards the sea and 30 seconds you'll get there no problem. there's a tiny beach which is harder to get to, it has about 4 chairs and umberallas, you have to walk up past the mentioned supermarket, to the top of the hill, then walk down through what seems a few apratments, past the wild ducks, and a few kept goats, and there it is! (also a very private beach (for 2) if you wish to clamber over a few rocks to the right) but mainly we stayed on the main platanias beech with lilos instead of the 8 euros for pair of chairs and umberalla - cheaper to buy your own umberella from the mentioned supermarket.
avaoid the bar/restrnt at the far end of the beach - the salad wasn't fresh and the options were't great - and the price was nothing to smile about either! (I think hat's due to it being part of the hotel hidden behind)

we didn't like koukanais beach as it was too commercialised and covered in fag ends!

EVENINGS; there's not really much to do in platanias in the way of entertainment aprt from eating and drinking wine; eating and drinking wine! so we had a jeep for 3 days and went into the town (or use bus if u like) there's bars on the stpes with chilled out music and cushion, a double bed and swinging chairs to enjoy your cocktails on. this is a very safe capital, and you see all the local famillies out until the wee hours. Nice to wonder past all the expensise boats and yachts in the marina.

MISC: the dog sanctuary was a nice way to spend an hour, they really appreciate the help - everybody's up there; they just give you a lead and dog, and off you go up a stunning walk (you can't get lost) with amazing views of the mountains and coastline.
if you want to see kastro - be prepared for a walk once you've negotiated the 4x4 only terrain to the carpark - we had to use low ratio 4x4 to get there!!! great fun though!! better than a day trip and cheaper!

the airport - once you've passed over your bags, don't go through the pastport check yet! go upstairs (toilets/food/drink/seats/view of runway) untill just about 15 mins before you have to start bording - there's no seats once you've passed passport control - they're ll taken!

sea was a little chilly for the first minute, but lovely once you're in, and very calm - good for snorkling (we bought a mask/snorkle from ebay before going - I've never had a ";tourist"; mask that doesn't leak!)

don't worry about the apparent short runway; it was fine - just wave to the sunbathers just before you touchdown.

If you're thinking of booking and you like genuine greece - DEFFINALTY BOOK! (even though I'll be jealous!!) enjoy!