Вся правда об отдыхе в отеле «Paradise Bay Resort Mediterraneo» The whole truth about holidays at Paradise Bay Resort Mediterraneo

This hotel is located in Greece in Halkidiki on the peninsula of Kassandra. Our tour operators have given this hotel 3*, although in Greece it officially has no stars at all. This hotel is located 3 km. from the village of Polichrono and 2 km. from the village of Kriopigi between other hotels and private villas of the Greeks, and not at all among orchards, olive groves and pine forests, as many tour operators write. All these gardens and groves behind the fences of the villas. Although the territory of the hotel itself is not very large, but very well maintained. Beautifully trimmed lawns (nice to walk barefoot), a few pines and palm trees. The view from the rooms to the sea and the pool is not even bad, but on the other side the view is not on the mountains, as the tour operators write, but on the road in front of the hotel and the garden of the neighboring villa, behind it is another road and only then hills overgrown with trees, which cannot be called mountains. And besides, the sun almost all day fries just from the side of the road.
We traveled from July 6 to July 16.2010 on a last-minute ticket from Solvex-Tourne. Two adults plus a child 13 years old for 44400 rubles. The price included air travel, transfer to the hotel and back, hotel accommodation with 3 meals a day. At the airport in Thessaloniki, after passing through customs control, we were already met with signs by representatives of the meeting party from the Olga Tours company. We were seated in a large new bus "Setra" with air conditioning and after 1.5 hours we had already landed at the hotel. We arrived at the hotel at about 9 am, left our suitcases at the reception and went to breakfast, then, having changed into bathing suits right at the reception and received beach towels for a deposit of 20 € each, we went to the beach. At 13.00 we went for lunch, after which we received the keys and settled in our room. Although we paid for a room with a view of the "mountains", we were settled with a view of the sea, which we were very pleased with. Throughout our stay, Russian-speaking tour leaders from Olga Tours Arosarova Olga or Dmitrieva Olga were at the reception every day from 7 to 11 and from 18 to 20, ready to answer all our questions and help. I would like to thank them and the company "Olga Tours" for the fact that they met us so well, were there throughout the rest and saw us off, almost to the gangway of the plane.
About the room. One large room with two single beds, one extra. bed wardrobe, bedside table, table, large mirror and a small refrigerator. All the furniture is new, but I didn’t really like the spring mattress on the bed - it’s hard. Therefore, out of habit, it was uncomfortable to sleep. The toilet is combined with a shower, but the shower tray is very small, so the curtain did not help much, and after washing, puddles of water from the toilet were dragged around the room behind your feet. The plumbing itself is not very good, and leaked. The room also had a hair dryer, a telephone and a small TV with 5 satellite channels. Among them are "Planet RTR" and "First". Linen was changed every other day, the room was also cleaned, although for some reason the sink in the toilet was not washed.

About the hotel. As in reviews of other hotels, this one has very poor soundproofing. I think it has to do with construction technology in Greece in general. The walls are made of 20 cm aerated concrete, puttied, painted and that's it. But they are not hot. While it was no higher than 30 ° C outside, the door to the balcony was constantly open during the day, the air conditioner was not turned on and it was quite comfortable.
At 10 m from the hotel there is a good swimming pool up to 2.9 m deep, then a children's pool. But when it became very hot outside, the temperature of the water there became like that of fresh milk. The feeling of such a bath is wet, but not refreshing. Behind the pool, after 20 m, the beach begins. But the beach is not sandy, as tour operators write, but sandy and pebbly, so walking barefoot is not very pleasant. Entry into the sea is also small pebbles, and then sand and the complete absence of stones, which are very fond of sea urchins. So you can not buy slippers from hedgehogs, there are no hedgehogs in the area of ​ ​ u200bu200bthis beach. The water is very clear, warm and much saltier than in the Black Sea. Therefore, you can swim without straining like in a pool, the water keeps you on the water even vertically, it’s enough to barely move your arms and you won’t dive deeper than your neck. There are practically no living creatures under water, unlike the Black Sea. In other places in Greece, I don’t know, I didn’t swim, but on the beach of this hotel my fins and a mask with a snorkel were useless, there was nothing to look at, I didn’t even see elementary crabs. The beach has free umbrellas and very comfortable sun loungers. But the declared water sports on the beach are, but not at this hotel, but 150 m on the beach of the Kassandra Palace 4 * hotel. We took a 4-seater catamaran there for 12€ per hour. The hotel has WiFi for 3€ per hour. It seems that there is a bike rental, but we didn’t use it ourselves, since there is nowhere to ride, you can only go along the road along the coast, but the road is narrow, and the Greeks drive cars very quickly. They generally break the rules almost always and everywhere. You can rent a car from 43 € per day, but we did not take it. The nearest shops and taverns are only in neighboring villages. From this hotel there is a free shuttle service daily at 11 o'clock in the village. Polychrono, and at 13 o'clock takes back. So in a couple of hours we have time to go over the souvenir shops, to the supermarket and the Lemoni confectionery shop. Prices are approximately the following: a fridge magnet 1.5-2€, olive oil from 2.2€ depending on the volume, Greek vodka UZO from 2.5€, juices from 1.2€ for 1.5l, wine from 1.5€ for 0.5l Retsina, watermelons from 0.35€, melons from 0.99€, grapes, peaches, pears from 1.6€, ice cream 1.5€ per scoop, milkshake 3€, famous Greek coffee Frappe 3€. Although there is nothing special about it. Plain instant Nescafe in cold water, whipped and topped with pieces of ice and ice cream. From entertainment in the hotel only on Fridays Greek evening. This is a festive dinner around the pool with music and songs performed not very well by the wife of the owner of the hotel. They didn't even perform sirtaki. We listened for a bit and went to bed.
About nutrition. Breakfast: hot boiled eggs, sometimes cheese, not tasty sausages and ham, butter, sesame hamburger buns, fresh cucumbers, custard not very tasty coffee, tea bags not tasty at all, juice-like drink, milk, water , flakes, muesli, a white substance similar to soft cottage cheese (with the addition of peaches in syrup it turned out like yogurt with fruit) and not very tasty cookies, sometimes dried apricots and prunes. Lunch: soups from a package (like Galina Blanca) sometimes with croutons, green salad, pickled red peppers and beets, white and red wine (we saw it in the supermarket, it's the cheapest about 6.5€ for 5l, it tastes so-so), tea , beer, water. Dinner: very tasty pork, fried sausages, potatoes in sauce very tasty, sometimes pasta, rice, tomatoes, cucumbers, green salad with cheese, sometimes stewed vegetables appeared. Sometimes fish. For dessert there were either watermelons or nectarines with apricots, once jelly and once in glasses a two-tone very sweet dessert. Water, wine, tea. Slowly, for lunch and dinner, they unfolded the sheet from the juice machine and poured juice for the child, otherwise he had nothing more to drink. The conclusion on nutrition is this: breakfast is acceptable, lunch is very poor, dinner is too full and late at 20 o'clock. But most importantly: no one has ever had an upset stomach. In the photo from the hotel website, there were such rich tables for dessert. In fact, we have not seen such tables.
On Saturday and Sunday, the area around the pool and on the beach fills up with Greeks coming to relax. They are provided with our sun loungers and umbrellas for any orders at the bar free of charge. So it gets pretty crowded and noisy. And the fact that this is not convenient for hotel guests, the owners do not care, they just need to replenish the cashier at the bar.

We went on two excursions: to the cave of Petralona and to the ruins of the ancient city of Dion at the foot of Mount Olympus. The overall impression is good, the buses are comfortable, but we would like better guides, and the prices for excursions are not very humane (for three people, 90€ to the caves, and 130€ to Dion).
General impression: for this money we had a great rest, in our south or in the Crimea I think that it would be more expensive and less comfortable with the road. This hotel is recommended only for a beach type of holiday, if you want to go somewhere in the evenings, then it is better to choose a hotel in the village or where entertainment is organized.