Skiathos Princess Hotel Reviews

Well where do I start rooms are large and very good and kept very clean with bed linen changed every day bathromm is also large and very good - no problems at this point service in hotel during meals is very very poor with the waitress walking round in a dream and dressed like a nurse in a mental hospital as this was the last week of the season dishes started disappearing on each day, it started with no cornflakes it was ok if you liked coco pops then the pineapple disppeared along with the fuit cocktail and finally on the last evening meal there was no vegetables the King Prawns along with the clams were like rubber thats ok if you like rubber tasting prawns - this was very poor indeed Internet is free in the hotel but that was taken off in the last 2 days all in all the poor sevice really let this hotel down and I was talking to a waitress and she said that the hotel have had complaints about the hotel all summer and especially about the waitress dress - the first 3 days there was a couple of waiters taking the dishes away and they were always in a dream world. beach this was very good but the only problem was that it had rained for two weeks before our arrival and the sunbeds could not be used for two days because the mattresses were wet- they placed a cotton cover over the mattress and you sat on a towel but you still finished with a wet backside. returning back to the airport on leaving the rep asked if we were all coming back next year and nearly all said the would come back but not to this hotel

unfortunaley the hotel will lose custom if the do not get something done about the service and meals what is certainly lacking is some leadership organizing things at meal times they need to get a good hotel manager who must have been hiding all week when we was there

Just back from Skiathos and loved the Skiathos Princess, I think it has to be the best on the island, although its about 10 minutes outside Skiathos Town, its location right on the beach was wonderful. The buses are frequent and often they don't charge for the children, the cabs are 9 euros now and do stop to get as many people in as possible, often the boys had to sit on my lap and they drive so fast it made me feel car sick. I hired a jeep in the end and had fun driving around.

I felt thoroughly pampered and enjoyed every minute of it. I was slightly worried about travelling with two young boys on my own but I had nothing to worry about with the wonderful help of our rep who was very understanding and helpful, and I felt very safe and secure in the hotel as indeed the whole island.

The rooms were very spacious and spotlessly clean, the pool and beach were fantastic, sun loungers are brilliant, so comfortable and you get clean towels from beach to pool. The staff were great with the children and although there weren't many children there you didn't feel worried about them jumping in the pool, in fact it was lovely and relaxing as there weren't loads of kids running around. I thought the kids club was expesive at 30 euros so I didn't put them in that, in fact I don't think anyone did, it was always empty.

The food was very good but like another review said "not enough greek" we went out one night to eat when the whole buffet was entirely sea food, so I actually got to eat Greek food, but the Inguana Bar across the road now does Souvlaki and Gyros which are delicious and we had them for lunch a couple of times (although the breakfast is so big you don't need lunch). They do a kids menu in the restaurant if your kids don't like whats on offer. Most staff in there are good, but you could see a lot were young and learning, not greek and I would say not as friendly as the greeks were (who always love children and pay them a lot of attention).

The drinks were expensive and the mini-bar in the room was very pricey, I didn't try the spa but it looked lovely. One thing, the reception staff seemed to be the least friendly and helpful, I asked for a plug for my sink which never materialised, but got my air conditioning fixed immediately. Overall the hotel was comfortable and of a 4* quality (I think in Greece the stars are always a little lower so if its a 5 you expect a 4)

Skiathos Princess hotel was lovely, very clean, all rooms have sea view.

The pool area is very clean with large sunbeds the towels are provided. Just a few steps onto the beach.

The restuarant is self service which has a good selection of foods (not much Greek though) the hot plates are kept warm with hot water and the food can be quite cool.
Apparantly next year the hotel will have electric hot plates.

There are a couple of Greek restaraunts close by cooking is done by the owners wife, basic Greek food.

The bus stop outside no 16 has an excellent service taking you all along coast road, into Skiathos town one way and Koukanaris the other. Try bus stops 14 Vromolimnos/Kolios, stop 26 Koukanaris/Banana.

A beach lovers paradise

SKIATHOS PINCESS

This is a 5 star hotel - allegedly. Well there's 5 stars shining away outside it at night. I personally would call it a 3 star with pretensions. The pool area is possibly between 4 + 5 stars - the new owners (Santikos Hotels) have bought some really nice sunbeds which apparently cost 1000 euros each. An earlier reviewer said that the decking was new this year too - if that's the case it hasn't aged too well !!

We only ate in the hotel one night despite being on half board as the food was fairly ordinary bordering on below average. The breakfast was OK though - lots of options here.

One moan is why don't they provide a menu at the entrance to the dining area - we missed a couple of meals that we would have gone to because we didn't know what was actually on offer.
Another moan - why no bureau de change ? I've been to far worse hotels that had a bureau de change and let's face it it has to be a moneyspinner for them. It occurs, whilst writing, that maybe the lack of a b d c is because most visitors are expected to come from what Thomas Cook quaintly calls ";Eurozone"; and will already have euros. B d cs in Skiathos Town seemed to do a roaring trade though so perhaps it's just what the hotel has decided to do.

Another moan - no courtesy bus service into Skiathos Town - I saw the Skiathos Palace bus several times and that hotel is in Koukanaries. With the buses being very full every evening we tried to get into Town we'd have used the courtesy bus many a time.
Also the beach bar - Pr Ammos - seemed to charge an arm, a leg and half a mortgage payment for what seemed to be mainly seafood. One day the music from this restaurant was blaring out at such a volume that friends of ours had to ask them to turn it down and we were about 50 yards away from it - God above knows what it must have been like to have eaten in there. The explanation given was that there were ";celebrities"; there - whether or not they had earplugs was not explained.

Anyway those moans apart we had a good holiday there. We'd been to Skiathos before - 5 years ago - and it hasn't really changed too much. Just as well that we had been before really as the rep was absolutely useless. She turned up for the welcome meeting 20 minutes late with no apology and didn't seem at all interested. We had no welcome meeting as there were 3 groups of us Thomas Cook clients scattered round the hotel and she didn't appear bothered enough to find them and bring them all together to do the welcome meeting. Pity really as we'd have done a couple of trips but didn't get the opportunity, as all we were handed was a sheet of paper with the names of the trips on with two highlighted. It wasn't explained to us if the two that were highlighted were the only two that they did or the only two that they didn't do. Anyway that apart Thomas Cook did roughly what they were supposed to do which was take us from Gatwick and deposit us at our hotel in Aghia Paraskevi. Luckily we had no complaints or worries so we didn't find out how good or bad they were at solving them.

THE RESORT

Well it's a bit grand really to call Aghia Paraskevi a resort as such. It's just bus stop 16 on an island with 25 bus stops along one main road. There's a fair number of villas, rooms, hotels,supermarkets and restaurants at or around bus stop 16 though and there's a great beach with the usual array of watersports all of which appeared to be priced at 20 euros. Just across the road there's a supermarket called ";Iguana"; which, as is the custom, seemed to sell damn near everything including handy 6 packs of water and cigarettes at 20 euros a throw for 200. He doesn't take credit cards though so I did my cigarette purchasing at ";Zannas"; just down the road. There's a couple of decent restaurants here too - well there may be more than a couple but we only tried these two. One is called ";Platanias"; - seems to be attached to the ";Magic Hotel"; (either that or they've nicked their plates) and serves very good food. The other is the ";Shell"; restaurant just down the road from the Princess - we never ate there at night but they do a very good meal at lunchtimes. 6.5 euros for a chicken souvlaki being indicative of the sort of prices they charge. I'm not going to do the ";ask for Christos and tell him Pete sent you"; sort of bull cos 1) he doesn't know my name and 2) I feel that sort of thing is a bit pathetic and I don't do that but . . . his name's Christos !!

SKIATHOS TOWN

OK so you've fought your way on to the bus and paid your 1.10 to get to Skiathos Town - what do you find when you get there ?
Well there's loads of things to do if you just want to have a relaxing time and these are mainly if not exclusively to do with eating and drinking and why not as you're on holiday? Wander along until you find a bar that you like the look of, pull up a seat, order your drink and watch the world go by. The ferry port is a good place just to sit and watch the evening promenade and there's a lovely little bar up on the Bourtzi where you can sit and watch the sea go by and it's not terribly pricey - drinking in the same view in England would cost somewhere north of an arm and a leg.
The restaurants in Skiathos Town are the same as everywhere really - some good and some not so good. I have to recommend two though and these are ";The Calypso"; and ";The Jailhouse";. To call Calypso ";just a pizza place"; is to do it an injustice. The food's great and it was our first point of call after a five year absence - we were not disappointed.

The Jailhouse is tucked away in the corner of the harbour. Go round the to the right from the main ferry port and as far around as you can do and you'll see a bar called ";The Ice Bar"; - just to the right of that is a cobbled street and the Jailhouse is up there. Good food although it's a bit pricey - a welcome change from the normal Greek dishes as it's a steak/Tex Mex type place.
About as far away from that as you can get and still be in Skiathos Town is the ";strip"; where you can very likely boogie the night away and drink over priced drinks if you want to do so - we didn't. A taxi back to your base will cost you 8 euros but don't be at all surprised if the cab driver waits, after you're safely ensconced in his nice Mercedes, to try to cram a couple more people in to the cab. Accept it as it is the way it works over there !! A tip about the cabs - if you're unlucky enough to find the bus full on your way into or out of town you can be pretty sure that there's a cab or 3 following on behind - they're rather like Eric Cantona's seagulls following the trawler in that respect.

Unlike the reviewer in 2003 I didn't find a MacDonalds and one has to be grateful for that - it just would not fit in here at all. I'm sure that it was obviously closed down as being totally out of character. If you want fast food there's plenty of gyros places and these are nice - nothing like what passes as a kebab in the UK.
In conclusion we had a good time - met some nice people and chilled out well.

Would I go back again ? Not probably to this hotel or this resort. I do like Skiathos a hell of a lot though as like most of the Greek islands I've been to it has a lot of charm. The beaches are great - it's still (reasonably) cheap to eat and drink though the introduction of the euro has put paid to it being really really cheap. The people are friendly and the weather's good too.

The bits I personally miss now that I'm back home in England are the lazy bits like just sitting in a bar on the waterfront watching the world go by - that to me is the REAL Skaithos. You can lie on a sunbed anywhere and I do enjoy that very much too but for me Skiathos' charm is around the harbour being part of the hustle and bustle of this magical little island. I could mention loads more like the man who sits towards the end of the harbour and makes those peculiar acrylic pictures of sun moon and stars whilst listening to his thumping Goa trance from his music machine, the huge expensive yachts that litter the harbour, the buzz that seems to be around the place but I'd better not as it's making me feel that I want to get on the first plane back there and I've got to work to afford to pay for the next holiday !!!

Just back from the Skiathos Princess yesterday (18/7/06) Best holiday ever.

The hotel is superb in a very nice location. It has been taken over and is in the process of renovation. All the public areas (pool area, reception, bar and restaurant) have been decorated to 5 star standard and the rooms will be done in the close season ready for next years guests. The rooms are basic, but we had a wee preview of the new room design, and they are superb. Air conditioning worked very well although a bit noisy. We had asked for a balcony when booking, when we arrived our room was on the ground floor, but we asked to be moved and it was done with no fuss whatsoever. The view from the balcony is beautiful.

Meals: Meals are served buffet style and the choice is varied. Cereal, toast, various cold meats, bacon, eggs, bread, rolls, and fruit juices. Basically everything for every taste.

Dinner. Again as the breakfast, everything for every taste. Everything from soups, varied seafood, pasta, greek style, lamb, pork, beef, plenty of salad choice and cold buffet. Only fault was some of the meals could have been a bit hotter but that was the only downside. The desserts were something else, puddings to die for, and the delight on Karls face (the cake man as we called him)when you went back for more was superb. Also a separate buffet for younger kids.

The taverna on the beach (part of the hotel) was very expensive and the food was only half cooked. So not recommended.

The Pool: Excellent. Lovely loungers with very thick padding,great decking so very safe for kids.Grassy area beside the pool so kids can play football using the supplied portable goals.

Pool Bar: Very good service from Maria, Katrina and Nadia. Nothing was to much trouble and they always wanted to help.

Lounge area: Very, very well decorated. The sofas are so comfortable and the area is so relaxing you don't want to move after your evening meal. Entertainment was bearable and only a couple of nights a week, the opulant surroundings made up for this.

All in all we had a fantastic, relaxing, lazy holiday and are so impressed we will return again next year.

We thought we would add a review as there are'nt many on here.

The SPH has been recently aquired by a greek hotel chain and they plan to upgrade it to a true 5 star property. The Pool area has already been remodelled with new decking and leather sunloungers (very comfortable).

The Hotel has beautiful and extensive grounds and would be ideal for families with small children. The hotel has just opened a new Taverna on the beach but we found it very expensive and if you use their sunbeds the cost is 10 euro's. The beach is very nice though.

The H/B food is buffet style and was pretty awful during our first week, complete lack of imagination and everything was cold (school dinners), but things improved quite a bit in the second week. The staff are very friendly however.

Rooms are large but will need a lot of work to upgrade them to true 5 star quality. The air con is a very old centrally ducted system and noisy, also only works during July and August. We found that leaving the main patio door open at night gave a sufficient cool breeze. We would say that rooms on the upper floors are preferable for the views as well as the breeze.

The hotel was very very quiet at night and we used the bar across the road called ";Platanias"; which is owned by the Magic Hotel and the owners are extremely nice people. We went into Skiathos Town a lot.

We found the Hotel to be generally 3* but with a 5* pool area and grounds. However it will be interesting to see how things develop as this is a nice piece of real estate and could be made into something really special.

We had a thoroughly relaxing holiday and could find nothing to complain about at the hotel exept maybe the food.