Aegean Aparthotel

We arrived at the hotel and were thrilled with the spacious and well designed room with a proper double bed. We chose late in the season so it would ge quiet with like minded guests and we were not disappointed. We were half board and the food was fresh and tasty with plenty of choice. The pool was very deep and great for a good swim, which I like, but consequently was very cold. We ate several lunches at the hotel and the food was excellent, cooked fresh and cheaper than many of the tavernas in the village. drinks were a comparable price, wine was great and cocktail so strong I only needed one!! We missed the Greek night but as there were only a few couples left by the middle of our first week we all enjoyed each others company. It is on a steep hill but the exercise did us good! We always walked down and along the beach every morning and it was beautiful and peaceful at this time of year. We ended up being the only guests left in the hotel for the last three days but the staff couldn't have done more to make us welcome. Our food was freshly cooked and amazing although they gave us so much we had to tell them not to!! We had a couple of days not so good weather but we used the time to walk and visit the nearby towns which were easily accessible by bus. The transfer to and from airport was easy and relaxing and yes we had some bites but you get them all over Greece. Yes we had to run the shower to get it hot but it was piping hot so no complaints. The brothers and staff were lovely and made us very welcome. Overall great value for money we loved it and will definitely return

We spent just one week at the Aegean Aparthotel at the end of September and were unfortunate in suffering something of a wash-out with two days during which we had thunder and lightning. Sad to say, we had only two or three days when we felt inclined to swim. No doubt, the weather being so inclement it has probably soured my comments re the hotel and location slightly. Our transfer from the Thessaloniki Makedonia Airport to the hotel took an hour and a half. Our first impression of both the hotel and our room was very positive. It was smart and attractive. However, after a long journey to the resort, we felt rather peeved that our shower, which was difficult to fathom, failed to issue hot water and even the water in the wash basin too was barely tepid. We had tried every permutation with the three controls without success, and the bottom knob handle was very loose and we thought it was broken. One of the brothers came up with us to the room to show us how it functioned but even after that the shower did not seem to want to give us hot water and that was twenty four hours later. It was lucky that we had managed a good swim on our first day as it was a case of a cold shower. Our saviour was in the form of Jodie-Lee, the Tui rep who actually went in to see the brothers about it and went up to our room to try the shower for herself and came back to tell us that she had also found the same problem and had consulted the brothers. They had admitted that our room (211 on second floor) was furthest from the boiler and required leaving on for ten minutes. It is a pity that we had been given no warning about this. Had that been so, we would have accepted it as a minor nuisance. After that, we had no problem as we knew to leave it running for a long time. As for our en-suite, it was smart and the walk-in shower was good. The white bathroom towels left something to be desired as some of them were well past their use-by date i.e, stained or slightly torn, and the same may be said of the bed linen. In the week we were there, they were changed but they tended to leave the making of the beds to us apart from the bottom sheet, which we were happy to do. The room was smart and sizeable, the bed fairly comfortable and there was a sizeable balcony overlooking the pool. The television failed to work at first, and having notified the brothers in Reception, it seemed that it would merely be a case of run-down batteries in the remote control. We were assured that this would be put right. Nevertheless, there was piped music coming out of it when we turned it on. All we wanted was the BBC Overseas rolling news so as to be kept up-to-date but there was not a single English language programme to be had on the set. In fact, this was even after we had supposedly had batteries replaced, the reason, we were told, being the lightning during our first night which would have rendered having the television on ‘very dangerous’ while there was a risk of further storms. After two days, we did have Greek channels which were absolutely of no use to us on a miserable day. I suppose the motley unrecognisable repertoire of piped music was better than nothing. We were very happy with the smart, modern design of the open-sided hotel restaurant and the staff were excellent, particularly the ever-smiling Elle and the young Albanian, Sami, both lovely people. It must also be said that we were perfectly happy with the food which was tasty. Barman Valentine was pleasant and obliging but the drinks were far from cheap and did nothing to keep us or many other guests in the hotel. Neither was there any hotel entertainment other than on our last night when it was ‘Greek Night’ with a typical Greek menu and we were entertained after dinner by a troupe of four Greek dancers which we quite enjoyed. One of our biggest disappointments was down to Tui who failed to offer their excursion by coach and boat to Mount Athos on the Wednesday since the last one of the season had been the day we arrived. We had counted on subscribing to this since this is a spectacular, must-see attraction in Greece as a whole. Jodie-Lee, ever helpful, told us we could try the Agent up in the town, but this came to nothing on account of weather. Instead, we were obliged during our stay to visit by bus the local town of Afitos/Athitos, a pleasant, picturesque town, and two neighbouring towns. Kalithea, a pleasant sandy resort lying at the bottom of 100 steps down a cliff and good for swimming, and the more run-down but cheaper Canioti/Chaniotis. As for the small town/village of Kriopigi itself, two hundred steep yards uphill, it was full of welcoming restaurants and bistros. Sugar’ was the plushest bar, immediately opposite the ‘Casablanca’ which had a good atmosphere and was well frequented. There were also several supermarkets, particularly the largest one to left with good prices. Down the long, steep hill towards the sea, lay the coast and slightly narrow beaches, a quarter of an hour’s walk taking twenty minutes to return uphill on foot (with a shuttle service run by the beach bar, which had ended on our second day!). We did have a couple of good swims on the beach there, taking the hint from other reviewers about where to go to avoid a fringe of rocky pebbles under the edge of the sea. Finally, a warning: We were slow to apply repellent and so my wife had eight very irritating mosquito bites and I had seven. I wonder if this is on account of the prevalent wet weather during our stay or down to the locality since the steep hills are full of conifers and evergreens. We have to admit that ours was a budget holiday. It was a whole Tui package with flights, transfers and half board accommodation and fairly cheap but we would avoid returning to Kriopig, at least at this time of the year, mainly on account of the location.