Plaza Pallas

So having been to Tsilivi for past 15 years we do know resort very well, we have stayed in many different properties and all fine, did a last minute to Plaza Pallas and paid the upgrade to a Swim up (which is not a Swim up it is a plunge pool??) and I have never been so disappointed in all my years going to Tsilivi. Having read an earlier review about this room type and the person mentioned room 110 that had issues - I emailed ahead to hotel expressing my concerns about being allocated this room. Katerina came back and said not to worry all is fine it is just 1 persons opinion ! .... Well turns out the opinion is spot on. I am going to list a few Cons and they may seem petty but when you pay around £1500 -£2000 extra for a Suite with Swim up you expect it to be ok at least. Shower has no curtains or protection so water everywhere - need at least 3/4 towels on floor to not flood or slip. The aircon is in the middle room - no where near to the bedroom (seem like a makeshift wall has been erected so they can say separate rooms?) No plug sockets near dresser / mirror so had to dry hair in bathroom which is dangerous near water. Absolutely no storage for underwear or T-shirts - they only have a put together metal rack with a few hangers. Nowhere to dry swimwear or towels after being to pool or beach - no maiden or anything - soo all damp unless you hang on internal doors. Fridge doesn't cool water and pop came out Luke warm - Freezer bit didn't work at all. Scum around plunge pool edge. There are many other issues but I am not listing all - I want to get this out there so others don't fall for the ridiculous amount you pay for a basically a dirty pond ! Also on last day the lady who was on duty was terribly rude and made us feel very uncomfortable. Having worked in travel industry for 25 years I tend to do my research - but having been to Tsilivi for some many years - I assumed the hotel would be ok Lesson learnt and will go where I know is clean and value for money

Firstly the pros. The hotel was right in the middle of Tsilivi strip so the location was perfect. The staff at the hotel were lovely especially the waiting staff who always smiled, enquired about our day and were attentive to our needs. The pool area was a lovely area, well kept and without the need to fight for a sunbed(helped by the fact that they sell 3 large cabana beds at an extra cost (and extra costs were a bit of a theme at this hotel!!) Our room was big enough and equipped with a kettle and twin beds pushed together. The beds were comfortable and storage was just about ok. Now too the cons...and unfortunately for me they outweigh the pros. Aircon....the aircon was indeed lovely and cold, no issues with the actual unit but we paid €6 a night for the aircon so €66 for our stay(which in fairness we knew about before we booked) the issue is that you're only given 1 room card per however many people are staying in your room......now I realise that you're only given one card to stop people from leaving the aircon on in the room all day whilst your out but my argument is that you're paying extra for the privilege so should be able to leave it on whenever you want. Also don't think about using your own makeshift card to try and keep the aircon on as they must have a chip in their cards and their card is the only card that works. If you want to go out separate to the people that you're sharing a room with and ask for another card you'll be charged €20 on top of the already €6 per night! Showers.....I did not manage to have even ONE warm shower the whole of our stay(11 nights). The water was cold every night and that was without exception! The Half Board set up.......This was the biggest disappointment of the stay for me. On the night of our first dinner we were given a menu on a plastic card with a choice of 5 courses...amazing you'd think? Unfortunately not! The choices were soup of the day....a standing joke because soup of the day was actually soup of the season as it never changed our whole stay apart from the last night. It was chicken soup every night for 10 nights.....on the menu it says...soup of the day(ask your waiter) we asked and every night it was the same answer...my argument is that that then is not soup of the day! When we enquired why does it never change, we were told simply "It's the favourite" Also if you're a vegetarian then that's the soup option gone for you. You got a choice of hot or cold appetiser but the inconsistencies with the appetisers were bizarre....if you ordered cheese pie for example...sometimes they were hot...sometimes they were stone cold...sometimes you got 1...sometimes you got 2....a couple of times we even got 4 each. You got a choice of 3 different salads...nothing negative to say but some days the same salad varied in size and quality. There was a choice of maybe 14 mains....sounds reasonable I know but many of them were just the same meal but with a different meat so for instance Chicken Slouvaki was one meal...Pork Souvlaki was a different meal on the menu......Chicken Risotto was one meal but Mushroom Risotto was another so straight away thats 4 meals on the menu which are basically the same thing which means the choice of 14 different mains isn't really 14 different choices just a different variation. Once again the inconsistency was an issue because some days we'd order Chicken Slouvaki and be served skewered chicken, chips, pitta bread, salad and tsatziki other days just the skewered chicken and chips....never 2 days the same. Desert of the day was exactly the same as the soup in as much as it altered only twice the whole time we were there...it was Kadaif every night for 10 nights but on our last night we were offered a choice of brownie, cheesecake, kadaif, bizarre! The restaurant is owned by the hotel and it's got a separate Al A Carte menu and all that you're offered on your half board package(which wasn't cheap) was a measly 10% off voucher to eat Al A Carte. There was also no free complementary drink per meal and strangely enough no table water offered...I've never known this before. My advice is that if you are going to stay at the Plaza Pallas, stay only bed and breakfast as the half board menu is very monotonous and the inconsistency in size and quality from one day to another is tedious. The TV.......I know we were on holiday in Greece and don't get me wrong the tv might not be a thing for everybody but my husband and I like to doze off to the radio(even at home) but the Zeppelin radio station and most of their other tv stations just broke down everytime we tried to tune in....the signal was appalling. The Sambucca bar. Very loud music until 3am. I can sleep through an earthquake but it did on occasion affect my husbands ability to sleep and weirdly enough it was at it's very loudest from 1am til 3am. All in all, Tsilivi is a lovely bustling resort and I would return but for the reasons outlined I would not return to the Plaza Pallas. It wasn't horrendous by any means but it wasn't great either.

Top notch hotel with good size pool, adjascent restaurant and bar/nightclub. All you need in one place in this town centre location.

I’m going to divide this review into sections, as some elements (such as the staff) deserve a much higher rating, whereas some elements we found to be substandard - therefore it would not be fair to group them together. It will also be a long review, I am aware there are lots of people who return to this hotel year after year as regulars, and I just find these people to be rather biased and defensive when it comes to this hotel, so wanted to offer a fair description from first timers. For context, we travelled as a group of four. Myself and my girlfriend stayed in a “swim up suite” in room 110. My Mum and Dad stayed in a deluxe double with pool view in room 409. Staff - We cannot fault them. The waiting / dining staff were especially friendly, chatty and kind. They ensured we were comfortable and refreshed at all times. The reception staff were friendly enough albeit a language barrier at times made some communications difficult. The owner of the hotel (gentleman) gave us a free shot at the sambuca bar, we didn’t have any other correspondence with him so cannot comment on his demeanour. The other owner (lady) chatted with us once and seemed friendly. Room - we overall do not believe we had value for money. Overall decor modern enough. We paid around £2,000 extra for our room (110) compared to my Mum and Dads room (409). For starters, the drainage was awful, the bathroom flooded every night, with soap suds coming up through the drain and all over the floor (see attached pictures). The shower situation was ? Bizarre. The worst shower set up we have ever had on holiday. You have the choice between a rainfall shower head (awful pressure) or a handheld shower that faces towards the wall - so as you can imagine - if you are not washing your hair, this is your only option, so either keep the shower facing towards the wall, and be cold, or , try to face the shower towards you, where it will point at your stomach and totally drench the toilet and floor. The shower in our room (again see picture attached) has no screen. You have glass panel to your right but to the front it has nothing meaning you have no choice other than to allow the water to drench your floor and toilet. Funnily enough, during our stay, our neighbours next door in room 109 left, and after the cleaners cleaned it, they left the doors open, so we had a quick look, and they had a fully enclosed shower cubicle? No idea why we didn’t have this design. Oh, and the shower was always luke warm - NEVER hot, even on the hottest setting. The last shower I had, was actually cold. The storage was abysmal. Two rails to hang clothes. Not a SINGLE shelf. We immediately asked reception for a solution but were advised they couldn’t do anything. We had to rearrange the room to make things work and find places to keep our clothes. The room we had paid 2k more for, seemed to actually have less storage space than the room my Mum and Dad had. I also wouldn’t describe our room as a “suite”. It was barely any bigger than my Mum and Dads - just had a wall partition. Me and my girlfriend don’t watch TV on holiday, my Dad however likes to listen to the radio, especially the Zeppelin channel - the TV never worked, constant awful signal and it would crash all the time. The TV wasn’t worth watching at all or even worth trying to listen to the radio. The actual plunge pool itself was ok - nice to float in there with an inflatable but unable to actually plunge yourself in due to what I can only imagine are lack of cleanliness issues. Very strong chlorine smell. Actually made my face sting. Quite gritty and dirty inside. Aircon was great, not too loud, very cold. The food - again the most bizarre food we have ever came across. We stayed half board. Can’t comment on the breakfast as we never had it. The half board evening meals were so inconsistent it was actually laughable. You chose your options from a set menu (see attached photo for the menu), this menu by the way never changes. The hotel also provides an à la carte menu, you have the option of a measly 10% off if you wish to try this menu, but you never get it complimentary. On the first night, we advised the staff that I was a pescatarian and therefore I found the menu was extremely limited for me. I was offered some adjustments for the main courses, such as a cheese pizza, or vegetable risotto (which on one occasion was the saltiest meal I have actually ever eaten, well actually I couldn’t eat it). The advertised “soup of the day” became a running joke between our group, because every single time we asked for it (funnily enough aside from the last night when we were finally offered vegetable), it was chicken. I don’t understand how an advertised “soup of the day” doesn’t change for 10 nights. The advertised “desert of the day” once again and weirdly enough, until the last night, barely changed. Kadaif every night. On the last night we were offered a chocolate brownie, cheesecake or baklava? This was the first time we were offered a variety of choice. I’m unsure if the staff had realised we were fed up at this point so finally gave us some extra options as a treat, but every other night was only one option. Food variations were crazy and bizarre. One day you would order a cheese pie starter and you would receive one on its own. One day you would order a cheese pie starter and would receive two cheese pies. One day it was actually four cheese pies! Cheese pie roulette! Similar pattern with all of the other dishes. Some days souvlaki served with chips, other days with additional salad, pita and tzatziki. I don’t understand why the chefs changed the meals so much. You never knew what you were getting. You don’t get any complimentary drink with your evening meal (always have at previous hotels but don’t normally stay at 3* so maybe 3* is different). No table water given. Overall quality of the food varied day by day, but was generally mediocre. Restaurant always empty too at all times of the day. We did eat out a fair few times. Location - Perfect. In the middle of the strip. The area, strip and surroundings are lovely, lively, vibrant, friendly. The beach minutes away. The hotel has its own Sambuca bar attached, we had read extensive reviews prior to arriving regarding the noise, but we are the type of people who can sleep through noise. Most nights we could deal with the noise and constant beating. Some nights it was excessive and did keep us awake until 03:30ish. I think most of the issue comes from the sambuca door being left open when people leave to go to the toilet etc. Overall wasn’t a massive issue for us, we are late sleepers anyway but can imagine it to cause big problems for others. Pool - The pool area was lovely, it really was nice. There was never a rush for sun-beds, and the beds themselves were comfortable and well maintained. Staff walk around and take food and drink orders and deliver to your sunbed. Large enough pool. Nice atmosphere. Not crowded. Clean. No music playing which we like for a nice relaxed vibe and means you can also listen to your own music via earphones if you wish. You can buy a cabana style bed for 15 euro (you get two towels to rent and 2 bottles of water) or 20 euro and you get the towels, water and a bowl of fruit each. We loved the cabana beds and purchased them a few times during our stay. Overall, we had a great holiday. Tsilivi is fabulous. We did some amazing day trips. We had amazing beach and pool days. The hotel was alright, but the issues I have described mean that we would come back to Tsilivi, but not to this hotel. You are able to have a good holiday at the hotel, but the inconsistencies and variations in service are not enough, and unfortunately seem so easily fixable. I don’t see what we paid nearly 2k extra for. The shower was awful. The storage was terrible. We still had to pay for air-con. I understand we got a plunge pool, but we would have never have paid an extra 2k for that pool alone. Not value for money at all. So if you’re considering a plunge pool room- my advice is don’t. You don’t even have sun-beds, just two single chairs and a tiny table. We only got one keycard for 2 people? I understand that the hotel wants to prevent people leaving the aircon on - but when you have to pay for it anyway this is ridiculous and restrictive.

I highly recommend the Plaza Pallas, this was our 2nd stay at this hotel and will not be our last as we would not stay anywhere else. We stayed in the family suite which is spacious with very comfortable beds and a good sized bathroom and shower, the rooms are cleaned daily. There is a fantastic relaxing pool with plenty of sun loungers. Breakfast is lovely, so much choice and very good quality. But the best part of the hotel is the staff, everyone of them from reception, bar staff, the girls at breakfast and the ladies doing all the cleaning, they are all so friendly and helpful. We can't wait to return next summer.