Have just returned from 10 days at the Venus Hotel - for findings, please read on:
HOTEL
The Venus Hotel was a very nice, relaxing place to stay. The staff are super friendly (particularly Nick), and they are more than happy to do anything they can to help you. Our room had a fairly dire view, but the service manager offered to change it for us after we got chatting to him one night - although to be honest we weren\'t fussed as it was nice and near to the bar!!
The rooms aren\'t as basic as some Greek hotels I\'ve stayed in. Our room was cleaned daily by a very efficient maid, and towels/sheets were also changed each day. We didn\'t need the air conditioning (end of June), but I suspect it would be a must come the ...
end of August. TV in the room was all Greek channels, and we didn\'t have tea/coffee facilities in our room, though I believe they are available on request (we weren\'t fussed).
The hotel doesn\'t have a restaurant as such, just the pool snack bar (open 10am - 6pm), which served very good food at reasonable prices, and a bar (open 6pm - 2am) where typical prices were 2 Euros for a beer and 2.50 Euros for a cocktail. Breakfast each day was buffet style, and with a choice of orange juice, tea, coffee, bread, jam, cake, ham, cheese, peaches, yoghurt with honey, cereals, sausages/eggs (every other day) or pancakes with syrup. We found the breakfast fine - you can pay extra to have a Full English if you want to.
The pool was on the small side compared to some hotels I\'ve stayed at, but on the plus side, it was very clean, and there was NEVER a problem getting a sunbed each day. The hotel kittens were an added attraction! The beach was about a 15 minute walk away, and the main Kalamaki strip was about 2 mins walk.
The only real entertainment in the hotel was the quiz night, the Greek night (good value at only 8.50 euros) and a karaoke night. This is a small run family hotel, and not really the place to come if you like to be entertained each night like in the large Superfamily hotels.
Only real complaint about the hotel was that it was rather noisy at night, due to various drunken people staggering in during the wee hours of the morning along marble corridors (why can\'t people be considerate?!). However, we had come prepared with earplugs, and so weren\'t unduly bothered by this.
MISCELLANEOUS
It\'s possible to book to stay at the Venus directly, via their website www.venushotel.gr. If you do this, you get safe, air conditioning, and fridge thrown in as standard. Nick apparently makes it very simple to book directly - and many people seem to go back year after year. You can even join Club Venus if you are likely to go back time after time, which qualifies you for a 10% discount on all sorts of things.
Overall, a good holiday was had by all, and we would recommend the Venus to anyone, so long as you don\'t expect 5 star luxury - this is Greece, after all!
Read MoreTour Operator: Thomson
Recommended: Yes