Philoxenia Hotel

I am writing this review literally just over a week after returning home. For anyone looking for a very special holiday away from everyday stress then the philoxenia hotel in pascoudia halkadiki is the holiday destination I would choose again and again. I am well traveled, and have stayed in so many hotels and the philoxenia hotel for me is a holiday I will never ever forget and I will return next year with my husband whom ide left home on this occasion as went with my friend for her special birthday. Everyone, the staff, the bar staff, the restaurant team, even the life guard George were just amazing and couldn't do enough for my friend and I. The food was just beautiful and the rooms were modern, clean and just heaven of an evening Sat on the terrace in such beautiful surroundings. The beach is a short walk through a wood and although psakoudia is only a small town, the people that live and work in the little shops and bars are what I believe to be a breath of fresh air and how I imagined Greece to be. Even the guests at the hotel were all lovely and my friend and I met some friends for life. The pascoudia hotel is only a small complex and not like your huge resorts it is a place to relax, to leave everything at home behind for a little while and just take a breath and enjoy. There is cats at the hotel and in the area as there is all over Greece and other islands. The five cats at the hotel one we names tippy were born at the hotel and animal lovers we never ever saw any member of staff misstreat any of the animals and they are part of the family there we came to know and love very much. The cats are fed by the hotel staff and cats being cats are friendly to all , but also leave you alone if you're not a cat person. They aren't skinny, flee ridden or anything of the sort they are friendly and because grown up at the hotel don't venture into the roof top restaurant as they get fed just below which we witnessed ourselves. For anyone thinking of going to stay here if you're not looking for a huge resorts and nightlife and want to experience a genuine family Greek hotel in an unspoilt, unbuilt up area of Greece then I hope like us you enjoy as much as we did. Another must when you visit is afytos by night trip . And the blue lagoon cruise and beach bbw at banana Island. Thank you so much to everyone at the philoxenia hotel we will be back very soon . Ps if you can't cope with any more stress and need to recharge and feel a huge weight lifted off you then without reasonable doubt this hotel is for you especially just coming out of season jenny Newman

Not a great experience at all. We are an easy going family. My husband, daughter (2 years old) and Mum went with me on holiday. Upon check in we were told that we were being "upgraded" to their luxury suites. T hey are outside of the hotel grounds, you walk past the dump site which stinks and has bin juice running down the road. The suites themselves are lovely decorated, at first glance they are very attractive but once you shower and discover that the drains are completely blocked, your whole bathroom floods! The smell that fills your apartments / rooms after the first shower is like a rat has died in the drains, my Mum had to sleep with her air conditioner on the entire time to try and blow the smell out. They would constantly only put enough coffee for 2 people when we were 4 people. Then we would have to deal with the reception staff who are so rude. All in all we got a feeling that the Greek people don't like tourists - honestly some of the most rude people we have ever encountered and it took every ounce of "biting the tongue" each day to not retaliate. The restaurant staff are RUDE! You will be spoken to like a child in boarding school. Water is not even included with dinner, you will pay £3 for a bottle! The real issue with this hotel... the food, absolutely terrible! The locals told us that they are embarrassed by the food that is served at the hotel as it is not a real depiction of Greek food. It resembles cheap canteen food at the best of times and for the last 4 days, I had coffee and pastries for breakfast because I could not stomach the thought of eating their food. Super underwhelmed with this hotel.

I rarely go back to the same hotel twice but had such a fantastic time last year so we ( 4 girlfriends) returned this year! Seriously the staff that were there from last year greeted us with such a warm welcome. Namely Aristeidis Drossas, ioanna Bliouka in the restaurant and Fortes in the bar. All are so attentive, friendly and do their jobs incredibly well! It was like we were coming home ! Other people that deserve a mention are Lucie, Evi and Victoria and the lovely Mya in the kitchen- breakfast cook with a ready smile. The rooms were cleaned daily and kept spotless the food great and varied enough for most palettes. Santiago was an amazing Aqua Zumba instructor also making the classes great fun you wanted to join in! We will definitely return to the Philoxenia and will look forward to seeing the wonderful staff mentioned . They all are worth their weight in gold.

2nd year visiting this place , feels like home from home , the staff are always so friendly and accommodating. The restaurant staff especially Aristidedis and Ioanna are a credit to the hotel and always make our stay that little bit more special. The rooms are always clean and functional and the pool activities such as Aqua Zumba & Aqua Gym are excellent fun. The location of this hotel is great only a short work to the beech, shops and bars. My friends and I will definitely be returning.

A 4 star hotel that should not even be a 2 star hotel. The rooms are poorly maintained, the cleaning is scarse. The food at the buffet is horrendous, not a singel dish was eateable. There are 2 pools but you have only access to one of them, and that pool is in a really bad shape as lot of the others areas on the hotel. The hotel uses pictures from their luxury suites which is an other concept and has nothing to do with the rooms at Philoxenia. The staff barely understand any English, something they brag about on their website. There was never a day that we didn't have to wait nothing less than 20 min to even order a drink by the pool, even when we were the third couple at the pool area. We brought our complaints to the manager but he wasn't serviceminden enough to even do something about our complaints. So as you could imagine, we left the hotel earlier than planned.

Hotel its self is lovely, rooms are spacious and clean. We stayed in C block which has use of a smaller dedicated pool which is lovely very quiet and peaceful, only down side to this is the young lady who is the lifeguard as she was constantly on at us about various things which lots of other people were doing the same for example drinking water provided in rooms by pool, we popped to the room for 10 mins to use the loo and was told not to reserve sunbeds this happened multiple times, my other half suffers with eczema and on the last day he had a flare up so stayed out of the pool she came over and asked if his eczema was sticky and told him not to go in the pool which he hadn’t all day and she even watched us all day so she knows we didn’t, closed the umbrella whilst we were sitting under it when I said please leave it she pointed me in the shade of the building and said sit there, closed the pool at least 20 mins early most days when it doesn’t shut until 7pm. I feel this individual ruined our holiday slightly because every time she approached us we thought what now? Drink service was slow at times and it often took a lot of perseverance to get someone’s attention but once we did there were no issues. Food was good we found something to eat every night and it was always fresh and plentiful, I found the drinks expensive for example 250ml cola is €4. This is an ideal break if you are looking for a quiet holiday destination, there is not much around the hotel and the bars on the seafront are quiet.