Hotel Caravia Beach

The hotel disposed of a very beautiful garden with big palms, fully grown olive trees etc. The beach was directly connected to the hotel.
The pool chairs and umbrellas at the beach were available for payment. But we prefered to stay under the shade-giving trees in the garden, not only because we safed money with that. You could get a pool chair from the pool area and look for a nice spot. During the season we were there, it was wonderfully quiet. The beach and the ocean were just perfect.

We don't want you to understand us wrong. We really enjoyed our holiday there, but there were also certain things we didn't like so much. We never experienced the fact that a Greek hotel only had one local server in the restaurant. There was one Albanian employee, besides that, the rest of the staff was Polish as far as we could see. Except for the two friendly men, we didn't have the impression that they were qualified employees. You had to smile first if you wanted to get a smile from them. The servers stood next to the tables of Polish guests and talked and laughed. Since they were able to speak English, they could have talked to other guests too. Cutlery, napkins, drinks, we had to get everything ourselves while the ladies stood and watched. The table was only set when you were the first one in the restaurant, apart from that the staff only cleared the tables. We know that from other Greek hotels - even with all inclusive. The rule not to wear shorts for dinner wasn't followed, some men came in shorts. Polish guests came in gym shorts and one of them even wore bathing shoes, that happened twice. The staff didn't react to that, not either when we requested this. The lady at the entrance even told us that is would be difficult since it was the father of a colleague. And we were supposed to smile and enjoy our holiday. That shouldn't happen. After all, we were in a 4 star hotel and not in a hostel. The second day, we complained more instently and the lady went over to them, reluctantly. They smiled at us later so that it was quite clear that the server also said who complained. That's ridiculous. The second time, we informed the Greek server. He settled it discreetly without putting shame to the guest.
The staff of the pool bar were very friendly and obliging. Among them also a Polish server.
The staff at the reception and the maids were always very attentive and friendly.

The quality of the food was good but not very varied. The meat was a bit tough at times, but okay. The pasta was excellent. The many salads were very delicious. The best things were the fruits offered. Usually water melons, red plums, Granny Smith apples and oranges. The variation at the fruit area was that the order was changed every day. Well, that was a bit extreme. During the last week, the oranges were replaced by Gala apples and then by red or green grapes.
The cleanness was completely okay. The food made an appetizing impression and got constantly refilled.
A shortcoming was that you had to pay 2 euros for a cappuccino and an espresso. That has never happened to us before in all inclusive holidays. We can't say anything about the alcoholic drinks.
The red house wine (much too cold), the white wine and the ouzo were available without extra payment.

We can't say much here. We never took part in the evening entertainment. We liked the hosts very much, they were friendly, funny, warm, but never obtrusive. Very pleasant. We took part at the water aerobics and the stretching. It was fun, even if you weren't a jock. Both pools were very big and clean. The beach was also spotlessly clean.

The rooms were big and light. Somewhere in the hotel, we read something about a luxurious bathroom. But I guess that was a matter of taste. For us it was a normal bathroom with bathtub, shower curtain (that's probably not that luxurious), toilet, sink, big mirror, storage area. A fly screen would have been nice too. Because of the mosquitos, you couldn't leave the windows open at night and through the shutters, there was not much air coming through. Since the air-conditioning was off, it was quite warm in the room, but you got used to that.

You could buy a phonecard for 3 or 5 euros in the supermarket. With that you could call home also with the phone in the hotel room (first a 9 for a local loop). Our opinion of everything together: someone who is looking for peace is in best place there. But in a Greek hotel we actually expected Greek staff.