Louis Royal Palace Hotel Reviews

Arrived at the tiny airport and had to queue outside in the boiling heat-which we were not yet used to,for a good hour before they let us in. Nearly fainted.
Eventually got out of the airport and straight away found a friendly taxi driver who was more than happy to take us to our hotel, which was about half an hours drive. He tried very hard to make good english conversation with us which was nice, although his taste in music wasnt to our liking!

From looking at the pictures on the website when booking holiday it looked amazing. Hearing it was 4* also was exciting as we had never had the money to afford such 'luxury'.
First impressions were good i guess.
Got to our room, which was right next to the kitchen at the end of a dark grotty corridor, opened the door and walked into a pitch black room (it was the middle of the day), which smelt of stale cigarettes. Eventually when we worked out how 2 open the doors to get some light in we realised it didnt look anything like what we expected.
Very dated blue wooden furniture, wallpaper yellow,ripped and peeling, poo brown itchy blankets, and the smell of stale cigarettes was getting worse, even as a smoker myself. (I had the decency to not smoke in my room though for other peoples interests)
Soon realised that it wasnt all bad as we wouldnt really spend much time in the room apart from when sleeping.

A typical day consisted of waking up at 9am, going for breakfast, going bak 2 room and grabbing a book and went down what seemed like a million stair to the beach, stayed on the beach untill about 5pm and hiked back up to our apartment. (The lift was always broke)Usually had an hours 'siesta' as the hot sun and doing nothing wore us out, then after showering went for dinner, drank lots of wine and went to bed.

Found there was a wide variety of food, but after a while got repetative.There was a kids menu which consisted of just chips, meatballs and frankfurt sasuages..everyday. As a vegetarian i wasnt too impressed with the vegetarian options, salad got boring and usually had meat hidden in there.Not labelled.

Go easy on the wine!! It is very young, therefor quite strong as i found out on the first night! Bad hangover!

Got a local bus on the fourth day to zakinthos town. That was a waste of time. Carpet shops, souvineir shops selling hats and keyrings, and random chemists, and fish mongers. Nothing to do there.

Found the beach nice, but in order to get a sun lounger you 1.had to pay, which i found cheeky as it was all inclusive and 2. Make sure u buy one at about 9am as they are all taken by 10am. Also sand is full of cigarette buts. Again, as a smoker myself i know i am a hypocrite to complain but i made sure i collected mine in a cup and put in the bin.

Airport back was the worst. I can only descibe it as a cattle market...wait no an overheated sweaty cattle market. There were 4 small desks, a room of about 400 people and you struggled to move. No where to sit, many on the floor so you found yourself stepping over them. One packed duty free shop, very limited, and one cafe. 6euros for a cup of tea...horrible tea and 4 euros for a can of drink! Disgusting

Overall relaxing holiday, just limited things to do, and hotel needs a large lick of paint-everywhere.

hi,just returned it was a fab holiday,food was very good,even the kids enjoyed it ! staff was very good .i talked to people who go back every year.reading the comments before we went it put you off a bit but i think some people will moan about anything the hotels were very good,maybe no good to any clubbers .makesure you go inclusive worth every penny ,eat and drink all day

We are a family of five just returned from a weeks all-inclusive at the Louis royal palace on Zante. We booked for the Louis imperial (who's rooms looked better on the web) but on arrival the bus dropped us at the royal palace and we were informed the imperial had closed for the season, we had only booked three weeks previously so we should have been told.

The two adjoining rooms we were given were across the grounds from the public areas of the hotel, two story accommodation blocks with rooms accessed from the outside and terraces with views of the next block, some rooms would have had sea views though. The rooms were large with sleeping and sitting areas but very bare and depressing, not what I'd hoped four star would be but maybe four star for Greece! The bathroom flooded into the bedroom on the first day when the bath plug was pulled and the overflow is in the middle of the bathroom floor. There's also the quaint custom of not flushing paper in the toilets.

On all inclusive you can use the facilities at all three hotels anyway so we used the lobby bar at the Palazzo di Zante in the evening as the royal palace had no inside bar and it's pretty cool in the evenings at this time of year, but probably not a problem in summer. The Palazzo di Zante seemed to have an older and more cosmopolitan clientele than the royal palace. It also had a cinema (not in use at this time), Internet access and a gym.

The properties are isolated, if you miss the second free bus into Zakynthos town at 10.30 a.m. you're stuck for the day unless you have your own transport or sign up for an expensive trip. We were with med hotels booked through lastminute.com and the island tour by bus cost £25 each basically to take us round their selected shopping opportunities. This is not a problem if you just want a relaxing sun bathing and/or walking holiday (we met some very active pensioners who'd located a roman road and some further afield beaches) but be aware of what you're going to.

The food and service were excellent and a long list of cocktails is included in the all-inclusive price, with wine and beer at lunch and dinners as well as drinks from the two pool bars and in the greenhouse come entertainment venue. Children's club must have been ok as junior went back for more but it is based in a depressing underground room beside the hairdresser (closed at this time of year), ironing room and one of the two expensive shops. Entertainers tried hard but there weren't enough guests to create an atmosphere at the evening shows.

The beach is not long but is shallow a long way out (marked by buoys) with excellent water sports (free kayaking was the highlight of our holiday) and lunch available at the restaurant and drinks at the bar. There is a charge for sun beds on the beach. The funicular railway is also fun but had queues even at this time of year.

All in all a relaxing week but don't forget the playing cards.

Checking in to the Royal Palace is reasonably quick though we were first off the coach. The rooms are basic with little in the way of storage though they are large in size. Everything was kept clean with fresh bed linen and towels when required. Pool areas are OK though some of the sunbeds are worn out or broken possibly due to being near the end of the season. The hotel is situated on the top of a hill, this gives good views but means a walk down quite a few steps to the beach when the lifts don't work (quite frequently) and there is a small charge for sunbeds when there.

Meals in the hotel are ok, being buffet, though may get a bit monotonous if staying for 2 weeks, more meal speciality nights would keep it more interesting.

Evening entertainment is a little amateurish though sometimes a laugh though based more for young children.
We had a pool view room which was quite close to the pool bar, you need to bear in mind that this is open til 00.30 and depending on who is in the hotel this can mean a late night even if you weren't intending on one.
There is a free courtesy coach to Argasi and Zante Town from the hotel, the times that it runs are plain daft and too sporadic, a taxi is approx 15 euros each way.
This is a 3 hotel complex and you can use the facilities at all 3 but outside the hotel there is very little to see or do within walking distance. I would recommend a car to really see the island.

P.S. We decided to book on the Cruising the North Trip which was organised by First Choice is not cruising but more like a ferry trip, which visits Smugglers Cove with the famous shipwreck.
Nice place to visit but the ship is less Captain Columbus and more Captain Birdseye, it just looks like a fishing trawler!!

We have just returned from 1 week at the Louis Royal Palace Zante. We couldn't fault it, it was clean, the food was excellent, my little boy who is a very fussy eater ate more than he does at home. Yes there are wasps, but don't let them worry you. Yes there are alot of steps, but a little bit of exercise after the massive buffets is exactly what is needed. The same days newspaper comes out in the shops about 1.30pm. We all loved it in the evening our favourite place to sit was on the balcony of the Louis Imperial sipping our cocktails looking out over the sea to mainland Greece. this was a fantastic holiday and we would go back without hesitation.

I forgot to add that whilst we were away it was my Birthday and my husband mentioned this to the Restaurant Manager earlier that morning and asked if he could prepare a birthday cake. That is all my husband said. That evening I was presented with a vase of flowers, the Restaurant manager got my 2 children to go into the restaurant and carry in my birthday cake, the restaurant manager got the whole restaurant to sing happy birthday to me, and a waiter then bought over a bottle of champagne with the compliments of all the staff. How special is that