Marina Apartments Reviews

we had a wonderful holiday at the marina at golden beach. the apartment was the cleanest we had ever stayed in.magda , the owner came in vitually every day and tidied and cleaned. the family were very polite and friendly. the pool bar across the road was relaxing and clean and the apartment was in an excellent location close to all amenties-bus stop right outside !

we enjoyed our stay so much that we have already booked a return visit for july2008 staying at the marina again.

In all fairness for a couple July/August is probably the wrong time to go on holiday unless you have children, but due to business commitments we had little choice. The lovely beach was rather crowded as hoards of Greek kids descended on the resort during the day. The Marina apartments were a short stroll for the beach which was the resorts main attraction together with the spectacular surrounding mountain terrain.

The apartments were very average but clean. There was nothing special or bad about them. They were quite well equipped for self catering. However they did overlook a bar which at times had loud music blasting out. Also there was a camp site just around the corner that was very noisy. We understanding this is only a problem during the school holidays.

Would we return possibly but either in June or early July or September. The Marina Apartments were alright but we would try some other accommodation next time, especially as we were of the opinion they were poor value for money especially if you add the high cost of hiring the air conditioning. One other point about the resort - there was a mass invasion of wasps and we were one one of the lucky ones only getting stung once each during our stay. We believe the wasps have been an issue at Golden Beach for a few years now but what anyone can do about we do not know, but something needs to be done.

lovely studios we had one on top floor, very clean. really enjoyed our stay, well worth hiring a car but not through rep ask around get better deal just as good. marina bar opposite very good especially the chap that runs it very nice and friendly,. wasp were a bit of a problem but did not spoil the holiday at all, walked up to village well worth a visit.
would go again for a week . enjoyed the ferry crossing. the beaches are lovely well worth visiting them, golden beach is lovely nice relaxing holiday. try different taverna's as all seemed good.

We were allocated a very small ground floor room at the Marina apartment which had little privacy andonly a limited amount of light.

The rooms are well equipped but in need of modernisation. There are no facilities whatsover at this accommodation- no lounge, bar or swimming pool and for what we paid we consider it to be very poor value. We also were given damp clean sheets one day which was appalling. Whilst the Marina is situated close to the beach what you are not told is that between this accommodation and the beach is a campimg site which could get quite noisey.

Golden Beach itself is lovely with spectcular surrounding scenery and beach shelves slowly into the sea- great for not so good swimmers. Public transport is limited so car hire for part of the holiday is suggested. We found Avis both to be helpful and reasonably priced. One word of advise book any excursions of car hire locally as tour operator prices are subtantially higher.Taxis bck from Thassos Town at night are not expensive provided you startyour journey before midnight.

Have just got back this afternoon from Marina Apartments Thassos, and have only now read the other reviews.

Directly opposite the Marina Apartments there is the cunningly named Marina Pool Bar, which as the title might suggest is an adjunct to the Marina Apartments which features a pool, and a bar. It's a lovely quiet, friendly spot staffed in the morning by the Thomson rep, serving full English breakfast to Marina Apt. guests for 3 euros and to the hoi polloi for 4, and staffed the rest of the day and night by friendly locals. The pool is small but very good for a quick cooling dip when the temperature tops 40°C (which it probably will), and especially good for getting the salt off after a day at the beach (it's fresh water). It's even safe for very small children as one corner is *very* shallow and walled off from the rest. (Note - if you don't have or like very small children, don't worry. We didn't see any in there the whole week.) The pool is surrounded by a good selection of deck chairs, sun loungers and tables, with a perfect mix of shaded and sun-worshipping positions. All in all an excellent spot to chill out on those days when you can't face the gruelling five minute walk with its fifty yard diversion round the campsite to the perfect beach.

On that five minute walk you'll pass two good-ish restaurants, the Playa D'Oro and the Finikas. Nothing spectacular, but friendly, cheap and reliable, and if you've any sense bring some fly spray. I spent most of a couple of meals shouting obscenities in semaphore just to keep the little devils off my bread rolls.

You'll also pass two good mini-supermarkets, one for the campsite and the other on the road, for all your inflatable beach toy/ice cream/water/etc. needs.

Finally to the beach, and it's everything everyone says and more. Long, gently curving, very gently shelving, which leads to the water being very warm. Up at the Golden Beach end it is mostly just soft sand, too, rather than the more rocky texture at the southern end. Seven euros gets you a couple of good loungers and a parasol for the day, or you can slum it on a lilo I suppose.

One thing that sets this beach apart from any other I've ever been to is the sheer range of watersports available, all of it from one guy and his wife. If it's a sport and you do it on water, this guy can hire you the kit to do it. Literally the only thing that springs to mind that you can't do there is kitesurf, which you shouldn't do on a crowded beach in any case. In the week we whizzed round the bay on a 1500cc jetski, I windsurfed (admittedly on a pretty ropey board, but it worked), wakeboarded (on an excellent board) and sea-canoed. If we'd wanted, we could have knee-boarded, ringoed (sit-in inflatable rings on a rope behind the boat), banana-boated, waterskied, monoskied, surfed, bodyboarded, parascended, hired a pedalo, or just hired his motorboat for the whole day and taken it right round the island.

Now back to the accomodation. We were on the top floor, which I understand was quite lucky. Not sure why people are complaining about the air con, for two reasons:

(1) the rooms face north, so they're in the sun until about 08:30. After that they're in shade all day so even on days when it was 45 degrees the room remained relatively cool. We never used it.
(2) the cost of the air con was, indeed, about equivalent to twenty quid for the week.

The room had a pleasant balcony overlooking the pool and bar opposite. The balcony was as I say shaded for most of the day so was very pleasant to sit out on.

Inside the room was functional - i.e. it was small but all we needed. A double bed, a single bed, a wardrobe, table and mirror, kitchenette that we never used and fridge we filled with water bottles. Shower, toilet and sink worked, as did the extensive lighting in the room (switches everywhere, lights all over the place, including the balcony). Since most of the time we spent in the room was spent in the bed, any extraneous space would have been a waste in any case. We didn't pay for the Presidential Suite, didn't expect it and didn't get it. Fine.

The staff were very pleasant. Magda, bless her, the lady who runs the place, is not the world's most fluent English speaker, but since the Thomson rep is based at these apartments and is in the bar over the road every morning and evening, that really is academic. The Greeks who staffed the bar in the evenings are much more fluent and just as friendly.

Flights were at a civilised time of day, which is not to be sniffed at - we looked at going to Crete, I think, but the flight was at 03:15 or something. No thanks. I'll take the flights to Kavala which arrive and leave at sensible times. Also the transfer is made bearable by being in three bits - short coach ride (15 mins or so), pleasant ferry trip (half an hour-ish), another slightly longer coach journey, and as if by magic, your bags are there before you. Cool.

As has been previously stated, if you're a party animal looking for a place to rave the night away, look elsewhere, please. Do NOT come to Golden Beach, and it will remain what it is - a haven of peace and relaxation in a beautiful spot on a beautiful island.

I would recommend this resort and this accomodation to anyone.

Golden Beach Resort

Defo the best resort on the island!!!

The beach was stunning and suitable for all ages including children. Not a massive resort so a smallish selection of restaurants and bars, but all were excellent and served a good variety of food. The apartment was basic but very clean and the owners were wonderfully friendly. You can use the pool at the Marina Bar across the road which is owned by the same family. We hired a car and went round the island - took about 4 hours with a couple of stop offs. Thassos Town at night is fantastic and busy and has the best fish restaurants.
A holiday suitable for couples wanting a relaxing time and familys. May be a bit quiet for people wanting to party!!!

This was the worst holiday we have been on for a long time.

The Marina Apartments were very poor.Our room was situated on the ground floor and was like a box, very hot and we refused to pay the silly money for their air conditioning. The Apartments had no facilities like a swimming pool and to add insult to injury there was a noisy camping site between us and the beach.
The beach was the only positive about our holiday although on windy days you could not sit on it without getting covered in sand. There was very little else to do.

The tavernas in Golden Beach were below average and the final straw was when we suffered from mild food poisoning from a meal we had a taverna in the square at the bottom of the hill coming down from the fishing village. Sorry we can't remember its name. Even if we wanted a drink there was only 2 bars the better of which was Daves Bar which was OK.

We are not usually moaners but for the first time ever we could not wait to come from a holiday.
We have written to Thomsoms regarding the Marina apartments which we thought were awful, particularly the room size. To date we have had a holding reply saying the matter is being investigated but we don't expect to hear much more.Golden Beach and the Marina apartments are off our list for ever!!.

We travelled to Golden Beach for the second year running as we had enjoyed our stay at Hotel Dimitris last year. As all the other reviews says Golden Beach is lovely with clear sea and soft sand.

However we were disappointed with our particular room (106) at the Marina Apparments. We were in a basement room which was mouldy and smelt damp. The shower, loo and sink all ran through a pump which was noisy and ran intermittently all through the night which was sufficiently disturbing to wake us. There was insufficient storage space and lighting. I am used to Greek accommodation and this was at the poor end of the spectrum and not a patch on the accommodation we had last year. I am not sure this was typical of the other apartments at the Marinas and feel we may have been unlucky with the particular room.

The rep although pleasant only offered one other alternative accommodation which we would have had to pay a £25 administration fee each and was not in an area of the resort where we wanted to be. Instead we moved (at our own cost) to the Stephanos Studios which I would recommend highly. Very clean, air con included in the price, friendly owners, quite the best accomm i have ever had in greece.

This part of the resort is by the camp site so may be busy in peak season but at this time of year I think is the nicest part. It has sun loungers and umbrellas for hire but is not too crowded.

Food - I would recommend Arkogalia (had some lovely fish there) in the centre of the resort on the front and Pefka (lamb chops on the grill were excellent). There are two cocktail bars on the front and the cocktails were not great and not that cheap but there is a lovely view.

What drew us to Thassos was various internet reviews of the food available. But what a disappointment it turned out to be. All restaurants we visited had exactly the same standard menu. Over the course of two weeks, there was not one memorable meal.

Golden Sands is a resort that appears to be approximately half complete. There is a lot of building work ongoing and i expect it to continue over the summer. The beach is the resort's selling point. The beach is fantastic and the sea is very clean and clear.

Our apartments were the Studio's Marina. The apartments are kept spotless by what appeared to be one woman only. During our stay there (16/05/04 - 30/05/04) there were two long electricity failures and numerous occassions of no hot water and on occassion of no water. The Thompsons rep was of little help or support. The evenings were chilly and requests for blankets had to be asked often before they were provided. I should add that the rooms contained new air conditioning units that could double up as heaters but the owners were unwilling to switch them on unless large amounts of euro's were paid. The result was lots of calls for blankets and most residents leaving the two electric rings burning all evening.

i would find it hard to recommend any resaurants on the island. But a special mention for badness must shorly go to Vigli's for their frankfurter served as Greek Sausage accompanied with tinned carrots sprinkled with sesame seeds and down at Scala Potimia the Corner resaurant which proclaims to be a curry restaurant. The Corner restaurant produced the singularly worst eating experience of the whole holiday.

The Playa d'Ora always had a welcoming smile and food that was consistant and good without being interesting or special.

We hired a car from Avis which was good value at 150 euro's for a week (2 named drivers plus baby seat)for a Opal 4 door hatchback whose name escapes me (it was bigger in size than the standard Potos hire car).

In conclusion, the islands coast and beaches are fantastic, our studio's were not up to much but clean, food was bad (where's the fish Thassos!!!!!).

We took a last minute deal(allocation on arrival) and to be honest for thr money we found the Marina to be good value and away from the centre,although i agree if we had a ground floor room we may not have been as happy.We found the resort being commericialised,but it was quite a good selection of Tavernas and these were cheaper than most Greek Islands.

To be honest the staff at the Marina were very friendly and always cleaning,the rooms were small but adequate but for the price you pay you cannot expect 3 or 4 star,the Marina was full in the week we stayed and everyone we spoke to felt,the accomadation and the staff were good and helpful with limited English.Other than the rooms there are no other facilities,but the larger hotels will allow you to use there pools as long as you buy a drink.

Thassos is a great island,beatiful beaches and cheaper than most greek islands we have stayed on.It is changing though due to more tourists from the Uk,Thassos town is worth a visit but please hire a car for 1 day and see the rest of the Island you wont be disapointed.We have booked to return for 2 weeks in May 2005 and if we had been able to find the Marina Apts on the website at the time of booking we would have rebooked to stay there again.I cannot say more!

The Marina apartments are well equipped ,clean and nicely situated a short stroll to the beach and some tavernas. You also have the advantage that is nearly on the border of Golden Beach and Skala Potamis so it is an easy walk to both resorts. The apartments do have air conditioning for hire and it was necessary. However the hire was expensive and added a significent amount to the cost of our holiday. This was especially relevant as we considered Thomsoms vastly overpriced the cost of these apartments in the first place comparing them with other accomodation in the past. Nevertheless we would recommend these apartments to other holidaymakers if you are prepared to pay the price. The owners were friendly always acknowledging you and passing the time of day. However in view of the cost we thought the lack of facilities was dissapointing. No swimming pool, bar or lounge.

The resort of Golden Beach itself was paradise, a fabulous long sandy beach and the sand gently shelved into the sea. There was a great selection of tavernas both in Golden Beach and Skala Potamis (where Akrogalia on the seafront before getting into the commercialised harbour area was our favourite).

There are buses but not very regular.Well worth getting the 17.50 bus into Thassos town having a look round in the cool of the evening before eating in a Taverna. We found Zorbas Taverna where you could join in the Greek dancing which was good fun for one off evening,commercialised but food surprisingly good and very tasty. Get a taxi back to the resort not expensive about £13.

If you get the opportunity hire a car to explore this diverse island but be aware the roads are very windy and slow in places. Try and include a Monday in the day of hire so you can visit the market of Skala Prinou on the other side of the island held every Monday morning. If you like fruit fabulous melons and peaches here.It is where all the locals go so you get a true flavour of a ";real market";. Some great bargins as well!!

We went on one of Thomsons organised excursions and it was a con. We paid more for this trip than the car hire and felt like school children being told you had 10 minutes at one place 8 minutes at another and then we were herded into a restaurant who obviously got a large rake off. The food was mass produced and poor. The only advantage was the commentary telling about various places was interesting. We would suggest staying well clear of the organised excursions.

Overall we loved the resort of Golden Beach and will undoubtably be returning again. Once in the resort the prices were cheap to reasonable and the tavernas. We enjoyed our stay at the Marina but talking to other ";Brits"; in the resort poor value and we would find better value accomodaion in this resort next time unless Thomsoms reduce their prices for this establishment.

Finally in our opinion Golden Beach is ideally suited to couples who want a sedate and relaxed beach holiday. We don't think this is a great resort for children apart from beach very little for them to do and cetainly not for the young who like discos and cocktail bars. Far to quiet for you.

Golden Beach has a wonderful long sandy beach and it does not get too crowded. The sea has no steep drops and the water was warm. There is a great array of tavernas and a couple of Pizzas restaurants but thankfully no McDonalds type fast food joints. There are only a couple of bars and we thought Dave's bar was a nice place to have an after diner drink. You also can take a stroll to the fishermans village or to Skala Potamis which was marginally more lively(about 30 minutes from our accomodation) Neither resort is ideally suited to teenagers, singles or couples who want to live it up!!. We certainly hope is stay like this.

Don't visit Eric's bar despite the extensive advertising on the island.It over unhyped, expensive(and we were given short measures) and it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. We could notleave quickly enough but had to stay for a beer as we were knackered from the walk.

The Marina apartments are on a flat part of the resort and 4 minutes from the beach. There is a sedate camping site between apartments and beach,which did not trouble us all. There are also a couple of tavernas and a suoermarket on the doorstep if you don't want to move far!!.

The apartments themselves are clean and well equipped, and both staff and owners are exceptionally friendly.Our room was very small and we had to asked to be moved for the second week which was to a room twice the size with a nice balcony to sip ou Ouzo. The downside is there is no pool or bar and the apartments get very hot. You can hire air conditioning but if on a budget it cost just over £20 a week to hire which would substantially increase the cost of your holiday. Why it cannot be metered we don't know so you would only pay for what you use. The time you need it is when you are getting ready to go out in the evening and when you return to the apartment before retiring to bed. Probably 2 hours a day at the most. In the end we compromised and hired a fan which helped. Overall we thought the Marina was not good value for money.

We will be returning to Golden Beach again in a couple of years time although probably to different apartments. We never return anywhere in the summer for 3 years.We can only pray in the intervening period the resort does not loose it tranquility and become over commercialised.

We also understand August is a bad month to visit Golden Beach when it gets unbearably hot and over run with Greek children who take over this resort during this month.