The resort town of Kallikratia is quite developed. There are three supermarkets, many cafes, bars, taverns, etc. Excellent coffee and delicious pastries are sold on the main street near the church in the "Frecso" bakery, and those who want to leave for Thessaloniki on their own are just opposite the KTEL bus station. The best tavern (in our opinion) is Pirat, located on the embankment, a little further you need to go behind the pier. The incredibly beautiful sea with many blue shades is always crystal clear, there is no wind in this area, so the sea is also calm. For a drink, a sunbed is purchased for the whole day. Once we went to the village of Irakli to the Sahara beach bar, where the sea and the beach are even more beautiful. And the final moment . . discos. We took a taxi and went to Thessaloniki, the club district of Ladadika, choose any place there, more than 30 entertainment venues.
Northern Greece is a peaceful, measured place, and after a huge metropolis, rest here will help you forget about the senseless troubles that accompany us in everyday life.
A week ago, my family and I rested in Greece, in Halkidiki, in a small cozy town of NeaKallikratia. A really small town, in 2 hours you can get around up and down. We spent our vacation at the SecretParadiseHotel&SPA. A very good hotel, corresponding to its category, both in its style and high quality of service. Friendly, smiling staff! I would like to give special thanks to the chef, Yorgos, who impressed us with his skill in preparing dishes of national Greek cuisine. All meals are delicious and filling! And also I would like to thank Alexandra, Irina, Anastasia - an employee of the administration, who is ready to help at any moment, for any questions. It is very nice when on vacation, in a foreign country, you feel such special attention and care! Thank you everybody!
I would also like to note the work of the SPA - salon. At the end of the holiday, we were a little unlucky with the weather, it became cool, it was raining, but our mood was raised by spending time in the SPA salon. Bliss! The girls are very good specialists, masters of their craft!
A wide range of services, choose what your heart desires.
I liked everything very much: the country, the hotel, the sea, the sun, the people living here! Thank you all for a perfectly organized holiday in a sunny country!! !
In principle, the hotel is not bad: clean, tidy, with a very nicely decorated lobby, with polite staff. It is wonderfully located: 100 meters from the beach, next to the park, not far from the center of the village of Nea Kalikratia, but at the same time away from noisy cafes and party places. The rooms are newly refurbished, beautifully decorated, the cleaning was very good, towels changed every day. The rooms have large balconies with sea views. The food is plentiful but not very varied. I think that for a dozen tourists in the off season, they did not really try. We took All inclusive meals. The hotel has a small spa (sauna, jacuzzi, small pool, gym with 6 machines), which can be used strictly according to the hours assigned to each guest in order to avoid crowds in this mini-spa complex.
Probably, in the summer it is a sunny and hot paradise, like everywhere else in Halkidiki. And at the end of February - also a paradise, but different: there are no crowds of tourists, everywhere is very quiet, calm, everything is already blooming and green. My husband even swam in the sea. It is very pleasant to come from Moscow -17 to Greek +17! We rented a car for a week and traveled a lot: Thessaloniki, Athos, Kastoria, Kassandra. In general, enjoy nature and weather. Special thanks to the hotel administration for organizing early breakfasts: for us it was just a gift. We planned to leave for Kastoria, Mount Athos, quite early, around 6 o'clock in the morning. And they provided us with a full breakfast. By the way, lunch boxes were also provided as compensation for the missed meals for us on the road. It was very nice.
Well, now about the tar: the hotel administration, with all its benevolent attitude towards the few guests, allows itself strange actions.
During the week of our stay at the hotel, holidays were organized twice in the evenings: once for pensioners, another time for children. And we, hotel guests, were politely asked to clear the lobby area of our presence. Despite the fact that we have "all inclusive" and we have the right to use the services of a lobby bar (and there is simply no other bar in the hotel, and there is simply nowhere to sit with new friends, have a cup of coffee or a glass of wine in the hotel)! Somehow, this shocked us. And there was one more unpleasant nuance: the husband loves dry red wine, and in the bar he was offered only semi-sweet red wine as part of the All inclusive. Then he brought his bottle from the room, bought in the supermarket, to drink in the lobby, sitting at the laptop. The staff demanded to remove the bottle! What a theater of the absurd!
Probably, this fly in the ointment in a whole barrel of honey is not so significant, but nevertheless it is there ...
I don't want to end on a sad note. After all, it's not 5*.
And we didn't pay for 5*. So, have a great rest, bright meetings and unforgettable impressions!
Secondly, the weather also let us down... For all the time there were only two warm days when it was possible to sunbathe, and we spent one of them on excursions in Athens, and on the second we already burned out to the fullest. But there is nothing to do, we walked around this village in warm apartments, such a beach holiday.
Now about the hotel. . . If the hotel was also miserable, then such a holiday could be anathematized!! ! And so lucky: the staff is very friendly, Russian-speaking for the most part. At the hotel in the morning and in the evening there are guides from the Muuzenidis Travel company (with which we flew): without them, one could have completely disappeared. We also rented a car (the cheapest Chevrolet Matiz with a manual transmission costs 45 euros for a day and 80 for two), and went on excursions. We drove by car to Thessaloniki, it's forty kilometers. But you have to be prepared for unrealistic traffic in the city. Maybe for Muscovites it will seem ridiculous, but for us, Belarusians, accustomed to good streets and normal traffic, it was very difficult: all the streets are narrow, filled with cars from all sides, you can barely squeeze through, there is nowhere to park your car, you can hardly find parking, half of the roads are one-way, our navigator went crazy with our ride : )
It is very far to go to Athens, all night by bus. . . And it costs 90 euros per person. But you need to go, because this is the cradle of culture! We visited the ancient city of Dion (ruins in the open, but from the whole city - streets, baths, houses, even public toilets! ), in the tombs of Philip 2 in Vergina, at the Thermopylae crossing. But the most relaxing and really giving an idea of the rest was a trip to the waterfalls of Edessa (though they only give about forty minutes to walk through the most beautiful places) and to the thermal springs of Aridea. It was great, considering that we didn't manage to swim in the sea because of the cold weather - hot springs were a great solution to the problem. This, by the way, is very close to Nea Kalikratia, if we had known this before, we would have gone by car there.
Let's go back to the hotel. We liked the food. We took breakfast and dinner. Always a buffet. For breakfast there were dry cereals, eggs of various preparations, dried fruits and nuts, fat-free yogurt, vegetables, tea-coffee and Yupi. For dinner, various meat dishes (chicken, squid, lamb), pasta, potatoes, various vegetables, olives, gherkins, pickled peppers, balazhans... And much more... Drinks for dinner are paid (we were ready for this, so almost everywhere in Europe). The biggest drawback of the "restaurant" is that it is located right in the lobby of the hotel. Yes, yes, you come in with suitcases, go to the reception, and people are sitting nearby eating... Unusual.
The hotel rooms are ordinary, without frills, the standard is called. Everyone has a view of the pine forest. With hot water, however, the trouble was very rare. But in the SPA, in the basement of the hotel, there is always. Hence the conclusion - everything pours out below, there is no more left upstairs. Here in the SPA you can spend gloomy days. There is a hammam, and a sauna, and a mini-pool, and exercise equipment.
Summing up all of the above, I can say that the hotel is quite decent, considering that there are probably two hotels in Nea Kalikratia : )), thanks to the staff for a good rest, because the heavenly office let us down. And for the future, we already know that May is not the best time for Greek resorts, at least in Halkidiki.
The transfer is convenient - the hotel is located 20 min. drive from the airport in Thessaloniki.
The sea is very close, walk 5 minutes, just gorgeous, perfectly clean. Very nice sandy beach.
In general, the hotel can be put 3+
The staff here is Russian-speaking, almost all of them come from the former USSR. You feel like you are somewhere in the Crimea (in terms of communication).
The hotel has a spa area. we took all inclusive, but the cost of the spa area included only the use of the pool and exercise equipment. Sauna, hammam and jacuzzi - for a fee (10 euros per day per person).
The breakfasts are rather monotonous, but the food is delicious.
Lunches are modest, for dinner a small selection of dishes. Fish and seafood were given only 2 times a week.
The room has everything you need, cleaning every day.
Disadvantages:
1. there are a lot of stray dogs near the hotel, some of them are sick, generally unpleasant.
2. Water does not leave the shower cabin, the floor is constantly wet.
The hotel does not pull on its "4".
but overall I liked it.
1) you are traveling with children who need to sleep at night;
2) you are elderly people with sensitive sleep and also want to sleep at night;
3) newlyweds;
4) people who highly value their privacy.
And all because in the hotel there is a flimsy door between the rooms, through which you can hear not only absolutely all the conversations, but even every sound in the toilet. It is unrealistic to open a balcony at night, as debilitated young Greeks ride motorcycles at maximum speed, specially revving under the hotel, or debilitated older Greeks with a forward flow and a subwoofer, at full speed and music, or dogs in huge numbers hanging out under the hotel, lured compassionate aunts. And the air conditioner stinks because no one cleans it. The food is very even, there is no pool, or rather there is, but for beauty, there is no territory, although there is a nice little square in front of the hotel.
Nea Kallikratia is a large village. It is better to go to Kassandra or Sithonia.
A separate topic is a buffet. Only a healthy stomach can withstand! Those who have gastritis, ulcers and colic - please do not disturb! Day after day - the same thing, heated an infinite number of times. everyone! The only plus is watermelon every evening.
The service leaves much to be desired: garbage is not taken from the rooms every day, and towels can be taken away, but new ones cannot be left, they explain that new ones did not come from the laundry. The food is the same every day, and it seems as if they serve something that is not ate the previous evening.
There is no animation in the hotel, so be prepared to spend evenings in local taverns - the only entertainment for local youth. But in all of Kalikratia this is the best hotel.