Mitsis Family Village

When I booked our holiday, I think I must have meant to book one of the other Mitsis hotels in Kos rather than Canvas! Anyway, it turns out that this hotel is part of a much larger complex made up of several Mitsis properties.

Having worked in the industry in the past, I would personally class this hotel as more of a 3-star plus, or perhaps a lower-end 4-star. That said, the setting is absolutely beautiful. With the mountains behind you and the sea in front, the views are genuinely stunning.

For me, the staff are what make this hotel. They are warm, friendly and incredibly caring. I also noticed that the hotel allows staff to eat from the hotel and provides transport for them, which I thought was a really positive thing to see.

Our room was lovely. It could do with a couple of tweaks and updates, but nothing major and I think with a little investment it could easily feel modern and brought up to date again. Our minibar was replenished with soft drinks every other day, which was a nice touch.

One of the hotel's limitations is the restaurant. It's a relatively small space and, unfortunately, there isn't an outside dining area. The buffet concept also feels a little old hat now. I appreciate, though, that given the layout and available space, I can't really see how this could easily be improved.

Unfortunately, we did become unwell during our stay, which collectively wiped around three days off our holiday. Obviously, that's not necessarily something I would attribute to the hotel, but it did affect our overall experience.

The hotel is definitely in need of some TLC. Some of the reviews mentioning maintenance issues are correct. There were broken grilles around the pools, and I also noticed some black mould around the grates in the waterslide pool. The sunbeds weren't in the best condition either. We did struggle to find space around the main pool on some days, although once our children discovered that the main pool was freshwater, they insisted on going to the waterslides most days instead as that pool is chlorinated.

We went to the beach a couple of times. The area allocated to the Family Village is noticeably smaller than the areas provided for some of the other Mitsis hotels, and the sunbeds aren't quite as nice or comfortable as those elsewhere. Nobody likes feeling like the poor relation!

The gyros on the beach unfortunately wasn't great, and the pizza comes in a paper bag, meaning that most of the toppings end up sticking to the bag rather than staying on the pizza! Having said that, the pizza itself was still lovely once it had been reconstructed out of the bag.

We really enjoyed the bus service into town and took the opportunity to escape for dinner a couple of times. We didn't particularly want to eat at the Tex-Mex or Asian evenings, although I completely understand that the hotel is trying to cater for a wide range of tastes. The food on the Greek or Mediterranean evenings was better.

The crepe bar and ice creams, however, were delicious and an absolute hit with our children!

The sea is another highlight — crystal clear and absolutely stunning. I would say, though, that it isn't particularly suitable for smaller children to paddle in as it gets deep quite quickly. Adult supervision is definitely a must, even with a lifeguard on duty.

All in all, we did have an enjoyable stay. In fact, one of the most useful things about this holiday is that it helped us realise what is actually important to us as a family.

This was our first time abroad with our children and we deliberately chose an all-inclusive because we were worried about the cost of eating out, the inevitable constant requests for ice cream, drinks, snacks, etc. We'll probably revert to our more traditional style of holiday in the future — a smaller, hotel with B&B. We prefer the feeling of being somewhere more personal rather than part of a huge system, even when that system is run as efficiently as this one is.

For future visitors, I would probably say that, in terms of the children's experience, I'd recommend this hotel more for families with children aged around 8 and over. Younger children may find some of the facilities and the sea less suitable.

I hope my review comes across as a balanced one. It's certainly not intended as a dig at the hotel. There are plenty of positives, particularly the wonderful staff, beautiful setting, sea, ice creams and the overall smooth running of the resort. I just think it's important to give an honest account of both the good and the areas that could be improved.

A nice location, a nice selection of food 3 times a day, staff all friendly, rooms clean, pools nice, good evening entertainment we would happily come here again.

This is a lovely hotel. The scenery is beautiful, the whole complex is spotlessly clean and the staff here really are wonderful.

We stayed for a week from 1st September, with a swim up room which we loved. The views from the pool and balcony were amazing, and the cleaners kept the room spotless.

Food - the buffet has a good selection each day of meats, pasta, sides, salads and desserts. There is a theme most nights but usually plenty of options. During the day, pizza and gyros down at the beach were particularly good. My teens loved the creperie, which is open till late and very good.

There is a good selection at the bar. Of an evening this was waiter service and the staff were good at coming round frequently keeping you topped up and remembering your favourite drinks from one day to the next - special thanks to Brenda and another chap who worked during the day and were particularly good and took the time to chat with us as well.

The beach is shingle/pebble so beach shoes recommend but in no way takes away from the enjoyment. There were always plenty of loungers at the beach and it’s fantastic for snorkelling, particularly to the left where it’s rocky on the sea bed and we saw parrotfish, rainbow wrasse and even an octopus!

The entertainment team work very hard, long hours but always a smile for the guests and extremely friendly even encouraging reluctant teens to join in. The evening entertainment was generally pretty good, with the South African Tenors being excellent.

There are no sunbed wars around the pool. The general atmosphere is relaxed and friendly. We wouldn’t hesitate to return here.

My one criticism would be that, over the week, there were a number of meals where there were no glasses available to get drinks for a while (self service). It’s a small criticism but an easy one for the hotel to fix.