Nido Mar Bella Collection

We have recently returned from 12 nights at Nido. We had an absolutely fantastic time from start to finish. We had a deluxe room with a hot tub which was brilliant, everyday we sat in the hot tub with a drink admiring the view. The hotel is very calm and peaceful, no rush to get sun beds in the morning. The grounds are immaculate, everywhere is so clean. We had housekeeping twice a day, all with fresh towels, bottles of water and chocolates in the evening on our bed. The food is good, we dined around the à la carte restaurants within the 3 hotels. All were amazing apart from our evening at the Asian restaurant at Marbella but the problem was promptly rectified. The staff at Nido and all 3 hotels were amazing, nothing was too much trouble. We enjoyed a fun evening at Greek night and we also had a fantastic day to Paxos and Antipaxos on a catamaran which was organised by the hotel. A special shout out to Aris who was very friendly, professional, polite and an outstanding representative for the hotel. The only negative thing I can say is the beach is not very appealing,we thought it was dirty and could do with some improvement but saying that I would definitely recommend this hotel.

We recently had a 7 night stay at Nido. The hotel is beautiful, unique and the grounds are amazing. We had a room with a hot tub which we used every evening and took in the amazing view. The breakfasts were really good with eggs to order and service was excellent. We spent most of our days at the pool where the service was the best, a special mention to Irene who was so professional, always checking on guests and providing excellent service. The housekeeping staff with 5 star leaving us water and turning up in the evening with chocolates and more water. The buffet in the evening was hit or miss, we do feel the food let the hotel down. it would have been nice to have grilled prawns, grilled octopus, most things seemed to be in sauces. The beach area is very poor, a shingle beach and it did was not private we saw people turn up with their towels and sit on beds. However, the taverna on the beach was lovely and we had some amazing lunches there. we visited Marbella hotel one evening but the food was not very good and certainly not worth the extra. we had the speedboat to Corfu one day and that was a lovely day, Corfu town is beautiful and lovely to wonder around the streets and buy little gifts. we found the evenings a bit of a let down, there was nowhere to walk to, there was no atmosphere and we ended up spending our evenings on our balcony playing cards. the lounge area near reception was always empty, it needs a complete re-design maybe some soft sofas, nice lighting and maybe a happy hour which would encourage guests to visit and maybe stay. on leaving the hotel, a 5 star hotel would have staff to help you put luggage in the taxi, this was not the case, there was no-one there to help us or the taxi driver. Overall the hotel is beautiful, the staff excellent but the food is not 5 star and we do not think it is worth a 5 star rating. There are little changes that could be made to make it a 5 star.

Hotel Nido

I have given Hotel Nido the full ‘5 stars’ but not without some hesitation. I have remarked before that rating hotels out of 10 rather than 5 would allow for a lot more nuance. In this case, a rating of 4 would feel a bit mean, the 5 rating perhaps a little high. 9 out of 10 would be my preferred score, for reasons I wil go on to explain.

First of all, the very good bits. The hotel is built into a hillside and this enables every room and every public space to have great views of the Ionian sea and the Greek mainland on the horizon. We booked a suite with a jacuzzi. It was clean, spacious and very private. The jacuzzi proved to be an unnecessary luxury as we soon decided that the pool area was a much better place to spend our days in the hot sunshine. The infinity pool was a good size, there were plenty of sunbeds and the food and drink service was excellent.

In fact the service throughout the hotel was of a really high quality. The customer facing staff were efficient, friendly and low-key, rather than ‘in your face’. And the army of back-room staff - the cleaners, the gardeners, the maintenance staff and the buggy-drivers - all worked diligently to maintain high standrards throughout the hotel. The buggy service worked really well to avoid steep walks down and particularly up the hotel’s pathways.

We ate twice in the hotel’s ‘fine-dining’ restaurant, ApaggioLots, and the food, the service and the setting were all great. The hotel also has a gym, a spa, a selection, albeit limited, of activities, water sports and a large reception with a helpful team.

So, why then the hesitation on the 5 stars ? Three things. First, we went half board and therefore used the buffet restaurant every day for breakfast and three times for our evening meal. The food and service were very good but the offering was a bit predictable and lacked variety through the week. The exception was the spread of desserts in the evening which were really delicious but rather highlighted the less ambitious aspects of the rest of the buffet. Twice we took advantage of the ‘dine-around’ option, enjoying good evening meals in the French and Italian restaurants in the neighbouring, sister Mar Bella Hotel (the only downside of this is that the Mar Bella is an unapologetically ‘family friendly’ hotel and it’s a bit of a culture shock when you leave the ‘adults only’ serenity of the Nido). The other slight irritation is that the dine around’ package only makes an allowance of 20 euros per person which (a) doesn’t buy you very much in the other restaurants and (b) doesn’t place a very high value on the buffet restaurant which is free on ‘half board’.

Second, the area between the Nido Hotel and the Mar Bella is, frankly, a bit scruffy and unkempt. It is all part of the same estate so it’s a shame there is not the same pride in the space as there is in the immaculte hotel environments. Also, the small beach at the front of the hotel is not exactly a haven of luxury.

And third, we enjoyed a complimentary sunset boat trip with drinks one evening. We were though lucky. For some reason, this is only offered on two nights of the week and there is huge competition for places on the small boat from the guests at the 70 rooms at the Hotel Nido and the 280 rooms at the Mar Bella. It’s inevitable that lots of people will be disappointed. There are similar limitations with the boat taxi into Corfu Town. Why only 1 a day ? I’m sure the demand is there.

So, a few, relatively small things, let the hotel down and deter me from giving a full 10/10 rating. Nevertheless, we had a fantastic 8 day stay and, on balance, it’s fair to give it the full 5 star TripAdvisor rating which many other guests have done.