Ikos Oceania

First of all, I must mention that the stand-out member of staff during our stay was by far Vangelis (apologies for forgetting him on our checkout survey – we were rushing to finish it as our transfer had just arrived!). From emails about wine lists and room enquiries before we got there to out sorting restaurant reservations and Mini hire, nothing was too much trouble. He truly is a credit to Ikos! I am not sure who co-ordinates the training but the quality and consistency in service levels across all staff was second to none – we will return to Ikos for this very reason. Everyone from the general manager to the guys who cleaned the glass on the stairs near the pool were friendly, helpful, polite and genuine. We were placed in a ground-floor garden room overlooking the sea in Block 4, which was wonderful. The room was always kept very clean by the excellent cleaners, who came twice a day (second time is just for a tidy and bed making). The minibar is constantly topped up with lots of alcohol and soft drink – our eight-year-old son was in heaven with the supply of Fanta and Coca Cola! There’s a coffee pod machine too if that’s your thing (it’s not ours so I can’t say if it was good!). Our favourite restaurant at any time of the day was Provence. We loved its ambience, food and staff. The excellent manager Florin (we hope his wedding went well/goes well!) and his staff Angela and Marietta, thank you for your outstanding service levels each day, you were brilliant. Also a special mention to Nestor and Vlatka at Provence. The food was outstanding, really enjoyed the fillet steak and the lamb dishes. Nothing is too much trouble, you could have a whole meal of starters or multiple starters if you wanted to! Other resorts could learn a lot from how Ikos treat their customers. Ouzo came a close second with the delightful Kostatina and Elena, the food is also very good here and the pool-side barbecue they do here once a week is just divine. We used Flavors, the buffet restaurant, only once for breakfast, as we were heading out for the day so it seemed easier. It was very busy and had a much high quotient of families with young children, but it didn’t seem manic like other buffets we have suffered on holiday. The food is good here too. We just preferred the calm and table service of the other restaurants for breakfast. Had our son been younger though, we would have found Flavors a lifesaver! We only got to try Fresco one night but that was lovely food and attentive service. Although Anaya was ok, we felt the food and service not on a par with the other venues. It seemed really busy and hectic, and the food just didn’t wow us like the other places, although great views from the terrace if you want that picture of the sun setting. The pools are great; you always seemed to find some loungers. You cannot ‘reserve’ your sunbeds like at other places, which is all for the good. Thanks to Vaza, aka the Greek Tom Cruise, kept the place tidy and cleaned your glasses with a Hollywood smile on his face – what a guy! And while you can of course leave your loungers for lunch, the staff will remove towels after a couple of hours as it’s unfair to keep loungers indefinitely. Again, the staff around the pool are great. Kudos to Kostas the lifeguard, who had an eagle eye out for anyone messing about unsafely and unruffled the feathers of the very few guests who took exception to anything he was really professional and never missed anything that was happening in the pool, e.g. people who like to sit on the edge of the infinity pool to take photos! On the beach, Despina was an absolute star all week. She does everything with a huge smile and gave us lots of good advice on places to visit, a real credit to Ikos, thank you for the wonderful service. Buggies, didn’t really use much as were already close to everything in Block 4. Tip: Take mosquito repellent and use it as soon as you get there. I think the pine trees attract them. Book the first three nights’ restaurants before your trip then book the rest when you get there; I would recommend on first check in or first day. You don’t need to book Flavors though. Requests to hotel (v minor niggles!): Put cinema screenings on a rotation more for children in the evenings. The playground is off on other side of resort and in total darkness when sun goes down. The pool and beach parties are well attended as it’s an outdoor source of entertainment. The theatre is inside and no one really wants to be inside on a lovely, warm night. Improve food at beach bar, not really up to same standard as other places. My halloumi wrap had tiny portions in it. Plus ‘hot’ food ordered from beach invariably turned up cold. Please consider adding some more quality in the choices of beer – a couple of IPAs or a pale ale would be fab. A magazine I picked up at Thessaloniki Airport talked of a city beer festival so it must be easy(ish!) to get some local and international craft beers in. Be warned: a holiday at Ikos will make it very difficult to find something of equivalent quality when you look for your next holiday. However, we won’t be returning to Oceania this year…….we’re going to Olivia instead! (We will be back at Oceania in the future though for sure.)

Ikos truly deserves its best in class rating. There are other 5 star resorts with similar amenities and equally stunning locations, however Ikos is a clear winner on three fronts: 1. The staff. Welcoming, incredibly helpful and genuinely warm towards the residents. This wasn't something we had particularly considered when booking our holidays but made a real, positive difference. For example, Marina and the rest of the childcare team were amazing! 2. Truly all inclusive. There is no stress about anything within the resort, including what you may need to pay for. Everything is included - no childcare costs, no supplements, no tipping every 5 minutes. Cost-wise, you know what you are in for at the start of your holiday, which is very refreshing. 3. the food. The range of restaurants is perfect and the quality of food unbelievable. This was another unexpected highlight for us. All in all an amazing holiday and we intend to return this year. Thank you Ikos!

We stayed in October last year and, despite being slightly disappointed with some aspects, decided to give it another chance this year – I’m so glad we did! One of the problems with the Oceania is that expectations can be wildly inflated – the reviews are so good and the prices so high that minor niggles can feel like real disappointments. No hotel is perfect, and the Oceania isn’t without its faults, but I’ve never been somewhere with so many staff who genuinely care about your holiday. They really do their upmost to keep everyone happy. For example, last year my husband was disappointed that they did not serve brandy other than Metaxa. I emailed ahead this year to let them know, and when we arrived there was a bottle of his favourite brandy waiting in the room – just outstanding! We splashed out and paid the extra to go deluxe. The deluxe team is phenomenal. We are truly grateful to Rafailia, who took care of all our requests with charm and grace. The meal on the beach gave us a night we will never forget, largely thanks to Demetrius, who is an absolute asset to the Ikos brand. If you can afford it, deluxe really is worth it. I will echo what other reviewers have said about the entertainment. There are daytime activities, but they aren’t well advertised. We wanted to play boccia which was in the day’s programme, but when we asked reception where it was, they’d never even heard of it! We eventually found it and were the only ones there. We steered clear of the shows in the evenings. The ‘theatre’ is more of a conference hall, and I’d much rather have sat outside or watched something more cultural such as Greek dancing. However, this is our personal taste and I appreciate that you can’t please everyone. The other disappointment was there was only one bar open in the evenings with any outside space. Who wants to sit inside on a beautiful Mediterranean evening? We had the same issue with the restaurant seating. It’s a shame the outside bars don’t stay open longer. We visited the pool party but didn’t like the loud music – a bit too modern for us! We would have preferred live music, but again this is our personal taste. For this reason, we decided to miss the beach party. So, there wasn’t much for us to do but retire with a quiet drink after dinner. The food is absolutely divine, especially in Provence, which was our favourite for lunch and dinner and the closest to real Michelin star cuisine. The Italian and Greek are also excellent. Elena made our visits to Ouzo an absolute joy! In all restaurants, the menus are truly exquisite. We didn’t visit the buffet this time – last year we thought the food was wonderful, but it lacked atmosphere and there wasn’t any outside seating. We also skipped Ananya this year (we have better Asian restaurants at home). Other reviewers have mentioned the surrounding area – there isn’t much to do outside the hotel (we don’t drive, so couldn’t take advantage of the car hire), which does put more pressure on the hotel to get the entertainment right. The local town isn’t the Greece you’ll see on postcards and Halkidiki is a comparatively rainy part of Greece. We actually enjoyed our walks around Nea Moudania – it may not be the most picturesque Greek town, but it felt like real Greece. We also did a day trip to Mt Athos, which I thoroughly recommend (£50pp through TUI). It may not be a perfect resort, but the staff really did give us a perfect holiday, and we are hoping to return next year if they don’t raise their prices too much! Overall, the staff couldn’t have looked after us better. My husband is very difficult to please, and I was worried we would waste a fortune, but he loved every minute and can’t wait to go back! Thank you, Oceania – your staff work so hard to keep everyone happy and you make memories that will last a lifetime.