Hotel Esperides

And a great choice- beachside location - with water taxi jetty right on the beach to whisk you off to Skiathos town. Hotel staff were great, very friendly and nothing too much trouble. Whilst basic, my room was immaculate and fine for the limited time spent in it, complete with balcony. Buffet choice was huge with something for everyone and a lovely beach bar for evening/anytime drinks & def worth an early rise & down to the beach with a bottle of fizz to watch the sunrise! Lovely location & super break - thank you Esperides and Skiathos!

The fact is holidays just cost more nowadays, so we do expect more. As a late deal this holiday went up £100 each from looking at it on line one day and booking it the day after ( which didn’t go down well with my other half). We then paid extra to upgrade from a “side sea view” to a sea view room, as there seemed to be rooms actually overlooking the sea (ie within hearing distance of the sea )on the hotel photos Getting there: A tip for saving plastic-take an empty bottle through airport security as you can now fill it from special water stations in some British airports (well done Bristol). Failing that, the air stewards will fill your empty bottle on flights now. Skiathos airport has been rebuilt and has lovely clean toilets, and a nice cafe upstairs with runway views, even if you are not travelling. Transfer was efficient and short..essential after an early start. At the hotel: Check in at reception was efficient and a porter takes your suitcases to your room. You can pay e10 for a safety deposit box in a room behind reception..a bit fiddly with 2 keys, especially if they give you one at ground level behind a door that people keep opening. Room tax of e3 per night is charged on the day before departure. The room: My dream sea view room only exists in Block 8, which is practically on the beach but evidently occupied by the numerous returners in the know. We were in Block 1 and we did have a sea view, but more distant than I expected..so my own fault for expecting more. (I was spoiled by a previous hotel in Kefalonia ). I had also made a false assumption (from photos of the hotel)that a sea view room would not have any roads in front of it, but the service road is by Block 1(noisy at times), and because of the curve of Achladias bay, the busy main road goes up the hill to the right as you look out. The room itself was delightful. Nice and clean.Thick walls so no noise from neighbours. A good size, plenty of storage, sockets and good lighting. Furniture is wooden and Greek in style, with shutters on the windows. Twin beds. The bathroom had non-slip floor tiles, good shower attached to bath taps with plenty of hot water. There was a cord dangling over the bath which I presume was to call emergency assistance. There were shampoos ,shower gels and soaps. Lovely white towels changed regularly. A fixed hair drier of long tube variety. There was a useful fridge for milk and water (the latter e3 for 6x 1.5 litre bottles from the supermarket).The cupboard behind the fridge was useful for drying off damp swimwear. Our balcony only got sun from late morning to early afternoon when we were invariably out, except for the wet/windy day when it made a dry covered place to sit in fresh air,(useful stone ledge for resting feet for a pedicure!). Air conditioning operated by remote was efficient, especially on fast setting when coming in from a hot day. If you don’t use it at night ,but open the patio door, be sure to put the net curtain across..we forgot and got bitten badly. There were no tea/coffee facilities but thanks to previous reviews knew to take our own kettle, cups , spoons, tea and coffee. Also we knew no pool towels were provided. There was a TV..we only used for occasional World news, so can’t report on channels. Pool: I like to swim regularly, especially to cool off after a short lie in the sun, but there were so few recliners, and always occupied by those who like to bake, and the pool was in any case (allegedly) cold. I swam instead in the beautiful clear sea in all the locations we visited. Hotel environs: All lovely and clean throughout, although with being in a hot climate you can’t avoid the occasional tiny ant, and we even saw a preying mantis on the outdoor spiral steps one day! There is seating in the main bar, and the beach bar is a nice place to sit and read (with the sound of the sea!). It also had the better wi-fi than reception (no wi-fi in the rooms). The beach: The lovely sandy beach is right next to the hotel. Beach recliners and umbrella e4 pp per day. We only used them on our last day. The attendant didn’t give a receipt and some people seemed to avoid paying by being in the sea when she was collecting. Is anyone’s memory that reliable? The sea shelves quite quickly down, but the depth then levels off. The water is crystal clear with little fish. A real joy to be in. Hotel Restaurant: The ambiance of the outside (under a roof) terrace was nice (lights indoor were very bright). Breakfasts were the most disappointing. The fruit juice was horrible, so we bought some from the supermarket, kept it in the fridge and had some before going down. Some people took it in with them.Coffee was served in a thermos jug, and wasn’t always hot, but tasted fine. I made muesli with the oat cereal and added loose walnuts and sultanas , but some days these disappeared. The replacements eg candied pineapples etc weren’t always to my taste..why not put out all options every day? The fried eggs were ok, but similarly not always available, and the scrambled eggs were bright yellow slop which I didn’t trust. The omelettes were sprinkled with cheese which I didn’t want. Why? Serve the cheese separately! Saving grace were the croissants, there every day in a warming cabinet. However the orange jam that I liked on them was absent some days. There were cold meats and cheeses available, and it was a shame these weren’t available with the salads in the evening (especially the blue cheese which only appeared once in an evening). Evening meal: The waiters take your drinks order and if you are adding it to your room bill, you sign a slip which is in Greek with no price on..giving you no evidence if you think you have been overcharged at the end of the week. Bad practice. Water is e2.30 for a bottle..disgraceful! You could not buy wine by the glass, and we don’t drink a lot, so bought a bottle e17.50 first night and had it put back for our second night, but it didn’t seem to be a practice they were used to, so thereafter ordered a half bottle of house wine e8.50. I took my own small bottle of water in with me in my handbag. Salads were lovely. Soups were also quite good.There were lots of tasty dishes to choose from, and I’m not sure that all the previous criticism is justified. In any event we hadn’t budgeted for eating out in an evening. Labelling was however very poor. Just “Pork” “Chicken” “Lambkin(?)”, “Vegetarian” etc, so not very helpful if you have an allergy. For example, finding that the sauce with the salmon was orange flavour was a surprise..but it was nice. There were some disappointments...squid rings tasting like elastic bands, flavourless “prawns” (shrimps more like), and chicken kebabs that I’m sure were pork. There was no show cooking, except for the BBQ meats on the Saturday night, of which the veal patties were very flavoursome, the rest average.Some foods could have been hotter. For example a tray of baked potatoes in foil coming out of the kitchen were only just warm. I never go much in the desserts in any hotels, but the 2 types of baklava (particularly the shredded wheat looking one which was nutty inside) and the banana ice cream were nice. Entertainment: None, apart from Greek night on the Wednesday in the bar, which we missed, so can’t comment on. Out and About: A disappointment for us was that apart from walking up and down the beach there was nowhere to walk to ,as the hotel in on the one dangerous busy main road that runs the length of the island. The bus runs from terminus 1 in Skiathos town to terminus 26 at Koukounaries beach and back again, e2 pp from end to end, e1.60 for any other part journey payable to a conductor. The hotel is near bus stop 10, on the main road turn left out of the hotel and past the second supermarket, for the shelter for Skiathos town, or opposite (no sign ) for the other end of the island. It is sometimes like playing sardines to get on. They run about every 20 mins ..sort of to a timetable! The water taxi from the beach pier is e3 pp each way to Skiathos harbour where you catch the bigger trip boats. Reception display the timetable and take it down if it is not running (as happened on our bad weather day). My tip for using the maps provided on reception is to cut off all the adverts from around the edge to make a more manageable map to handle. We recommend going to stop 25, walking to Eleni beach which is very nice for a swim, with shaded cafes to get lunch or a drink. Then walk back to Koukounaries beach (also nice for a swim)..more commercial...e5 for sun beds we noticed. There is a nature reserve there next to the bus terminus. Another “must do”is to walk along Skiathos harbour (lots of lovely tavernas next to the water for lunch) to the end of the airport runway to watch the planes landing over your head. There is a nice cafe there to get a good Americano coffee between planes. We did also watch a plane take off, (the pilots and passengers wave as they go round the turning circle)but you get blasted by the noise heat and smell of the jet engine, nearly get blown over and end up coughing so although thrilling I can’t recommend on a health basis! We also took the Tui all day boat trip to islands of Skopelos and Alonnisos. Possibly cheaper elsewhere but no worries getting to town to catch the boat and a very informative guide. The tour through Skopelos town was lovely..so unspoilt..like the Greece I backpacked in nearly 50 years ago! Conclusions: The hotel is clean and the staff friendly, so with the beach close at hand, and good transport links, this hotel makes a good base for discovering this beautiful island and its neighbours, and if you lower your expectations regarding food and some other facilities ,and you have a bigger holiday budget than we did it could be a good choice for you.

Have just returned, first surprise no pool towels and no tea and coffee making facilities in the room. New to us in a 4 star hotel, we have travelled extensively around the world. Luckily we took our own travel kettle and towels. The food was very boring especially at breakfast. Complained about the cold conjealed fried eggs, they were taken away and replaced by similar. Scrambled eggs were always cold- very sloppy. No fresh orange just squash. Had to buy from local supermarket. Asked for tea at breakfast but were amused when we were just given a themos flask of hot water and had to go and get tea bags and milk for ourselves. There are very few sun loungers around the pool - about a dozen so you have to go down onto the beach at the front of the hotel and pay. Anxious people had to wait outside a little locked gate in order to claim a sunbed around the pool at 8am. Rooms were comfortable with good access if you are disabled. Staff were very friendly and efficient. Lift could be bigger though. Couldn't fault cleanliness. We would not visit again especially because of the food situation. Expected more from a 4 star hotel. We were there when Thomas Cook who we holidayed with went bust. 3 star rating would be more appropriate.