Turtle Beach Hotel - ex Arkadianos

“ In the first instance, we arrived, via taxi from the airport, at the hotel gates only to be ushered away by a workman in overalls and taken to the property next door ‘Lithakia’. We were told Arkadianos is closed you stay here. No explanation – no choice – no holiday rep.

The room we were eventually shown to, an hour later, was accessed via a dark and dingy passageway. The bathroom and kitchen areas were miniscule and the standard of cleanliness left a lot to be desired.

It was evident from the outset that the manager was not happy about having us in his building and he made sure that all the staff did not give us any special treatment. We felt as though we were being treated as outcasts.

Meal time was absolutely deplorable, considering we had paid for all inclusive. A plate of food was brought to us and the only choice we had was ‘eat it or do without’.

We did make several phone calls from a pay box to complain about the situation we were in and asked for a Rep to come and see us. We were told that someone would ring us but as we did not have mobile phones with us they would contact us on the hotel phone. We are still waiting for our calls to be returned. It was a complete travesty.

Two days later, staff at The Arkadianos opened up 5 rooms for the guests that had been booked into their hotel but the room left a lot to be desired. The high ceilings were covered in large cobwebs the entire time we were there; the kitchen area was infested with ants; the windows were filthy with dirt splashed up by workmen using high pressure jet washers to clean down external areas; we had great difficulty in opening the rusted shutters so accessing the balcony was difficult; there was a dead bird and what looked like a dead rat on the lean-to roof below our balcony; there was mould all over the bathroom ceiling, which was leaking through from the room above when the occupants used their bathroom.
For the first couple of days in the Arkadianos, if we wanted any drinks during the day, we had to go to the Styrkos to get the drinks and carry them back down to the Arkadianos. We also had to return all the bottles and glasses used. We would have thought that Arkadianos staff could have done that but then they did not even tidy up bottles and glasses once they got their own bar open.

The hotel grounds continued to be a building site from start to finish of the holiday. There were workmen chopping leaves down off the palm trees using an extremely suspect hand-made tool, which was a pole with a blade lashed to the end of it. We witnessed workmen pulling a balcony to pieces and breaking away all the rotten wood, which was coming down on top of us while we were laid on the sun loungers around the pool which contained green water. Obviously all the debris fell onto us and into the pool. The workmen covered over the rotten wood with a piece of plywood then welded some metal on the balcony in a vain attempt to secure it. They used sunglasses instead of a safety visor whilst welding.

The furniture around the swimming pool was in a very poor state. The umbrellas were dirty, ripped, had spokes sticking out at all angles and they all had black mould spots on them. The grounds round the pool and the poolside shower area were never swept or cleaned in any way all the time we were there. It has always been our experience that sun loungers and grounds round the pool are hosed down each morning before the guests use them. Workmen, however, used high pressure jet washers on a daily basis to clean down other areas such as the gardens and pathways and roadside where they had been working, which only resulted in more debris ending up round the poolside and disturbing all the flying bugs, which in turn disturbed those of us ‘RELAXING’ by the pool.

Two of the lamp stands round the poolside were broken and laid on the ground, where the remained the entire time, right in the path we had to walk in order to get to the Styrkos. The inflatables for the Water Park (which was supposed to be an activity included in our ‘All Inclusive’ package) were also just dumped at the edge of the pool setting, once again all in the way of our walk to the Styrkos.

The Water Park still had not opened when our holiday came to an end (I use the term holiday very loosely). In fact, we had no activities at all, i.e. no pool table, no beach volleyball, no table tennis, no children’s playground, no bicycle rental, no traditional evening, no local culture night – I could go on and on – please see the listing below regarding the ‘ALL INCLUSIVE FACILITIES’.

There was supposed to be 24 hour reception and I never once saw anyone in attendance at the reception. There was a Young Man who arrived at Arkadianos as 6:00am on Monday 23 May and there was no-one at all to greet him. The first thing he saw on his arrival was the Green water in the swimming pool and because there was no-one to show him to a room, he had to lay down on one of the sun loungers until a member of staff came to the Hotel at about 9:00am.

For the first five days at Arkadianos we had to ask for the hot water to be turned on then we were told that we would have hot water every day between 6:00pm and 8:00pm. Bearing in mind that we had to attend for our evening meal between 6:00pm and 8:00pm, it did not allow us to get ready in a leisurely manner.

Meal times were an absolute joke. We were supposed to be dining in the Maestro Restaurant, which is based on the Arkadianos hotel grounds but because the restaurant was not yet open we had to go up the road to eat at the Styrkos restaurant. The Maestro Restaurant did open on Saturday 28 May but we were not allowed to dine there, we had to continue going to the Styrkos. Apparently the Arkadianos owner had leased the Maestro Restaurant out to someone else and it was not to be used by the Arkadianos guests.





When making the booking the following descriptions were taken into account. Please note ‘Our Experience of’ column, as follows:-

Your description of All Inclusive Meals:- Our Experience of All Inclusive Meals:
Breakfast Buffet
(Maestro Restaurant: 7:00 – 9:30) No Maestro restaurant had to go up the road to Styrkos Restaurant 8:00 – 10:00
Lunch Buffet
(Maestro Restaurant: 12:30-14:30) No Maestro restaurant had to go up the road to Styrkos Restaurant 12:00 – 14:00
Dinner Buffet
(Maestro Restaurant: 19:30-22:00) No Maestro restaurant had to go up the road to Styrkos Restaurant 18:00 – 20:00
SNACKS Pool Bars: 10:00-12:00 No snacks
Afternoon tea (Pool bars: 15:30-17:30) No Afternoon Tea
DRINKS Bars: 10:00-23:00 Bar sometimes opened between 11 and 12 in the morning if we were lucky but we could only have drinks if they were in stock and they only stocked up one bottle/carton at a time and regularly ran out.

Your description of All Inclusive Facilities:- Our Experience of All Inclusive Facilities:
AI Bracelet We had to look for them ourselves.
Beach Volleyball There was no beach volleyball.
Coffee We could only have coffee if we paid for it.
Local Alcoholic Drinks Regularly ran out of drinks such as Metaxa so we had to do without.
Local Beer Regularly ran out of beer so we had to do without. The Greek people who drank at the bar (free-of-charge) were given bottled Mythos beer but we were only allowed to have the draft beer if they had any available, there was no way they would serve us with the bottled beer.
Local Wine Regularly ran out of wine so we had to do without.
Pool Table There was no pool table.
Soft drinks Regularly ran out of soft drinks so we had to do without.
Tea No Tea.
Traditional Evening No traditional evening

Your description of Hotel Facilities:- Our Experience of Hotel Facilities:
24 hours reception No reception at all.
A la Carte Restaurant No Restaurant at all we had to go up the road
Bar(s) One bar – poorly stocked and poorly staffed.
Bicycle rental No bicycle rental.
Café(s) No Café(s).
Car Rental No car rental.
Children’s playground No children’s playground
Currency exchange service No currency exchange service as there was never anyone on reception.
Local culture night No local culture night
Mini market No mini market
Parking Maybe for one or two cars.
Ping pong No Ping pong
Pool Bar One and only bar – poorly stocked and poorly staffed
Pool table No pool table.
Restaurant(s) None
Safety Box Never offered one but saw signs for safety box 2 days before we were due to leave
Shops No shops
Snack bar No snack bar
Swimming pool for children No swimming pool for children
Swimming pool outdoor – fresh water It was certainly fresh water – they did not even fill it until we had been there for 3 days.
Taxi service. Only if you paid for the call and only if there was someone available at reception but because reception was never manned there was no taxi service.
TV lounge. There was a TV lounge – only problem though – there was no TV.