Olympic Palace Resort Hotel and Convention Center

Amazing massages ! They are very attentive , great atmosphere

The best experience I’ve ever had

We’ve been coming to the Olympic Palace for over 10 years. We love the hotel, we love the staff, we love the people, and this is our review of our 2026 visit.

Overall, we had another very enjoyable stay and we would absolutely return. The staff remain one of the biggest strengths of this hotel. However, having visited for so many years, there are a few things we noticed this year that I genuinely feel need addressing, particularly for a five-star hotel.

Eighth-Floor Cocktail Bar

Unfortunately, this was probably our biggest disappointment.

The cocktails simply weren’t good enough. It was quite clear that some of the basics of cocktail making were missing. In fact, after a couple of sips, we left the drinks because we simply didn’t enjoy them.

The strange thing is that the hotel already has staff who make excellent cocktails. Go down to the ground-floor piano bar and the difference is enormous. The cocktails there are far superior.

My suggestion would simply be to give the eighth-floor team some additional training alongside the experienced staff downstairs.

Service was also surprisingly slow considering the bar wasn’t particularly busy.

Sadly, based on this experience, the eighth-floor bar is somewhere we probably wouldn’t return to unless things improve.

Our Room – Seventh Floor

Our room itself was a treat.

For the first few days we had no air conditioning, but these things happen. We mentioned it to reception and they got it fixed, as they always do. Fantastic service.

There is, however, one longstanding issue that I really wish the hotel would address: the noise of furniture being dragged across the floors.

When someone above, below or beside you moves a chair, the noise travels terribly. We were actually woken at around 1am by furniture being dragged.

The frustrating thing is that the solution is incredibly simple. Put felt or rubber pads underneath the chair legs, or place a polite card in the rooms asking guests to lift chairs rather than drag them.

I’ve mentioned this before, so I’m surprised it still hasn’t been addressed. Staff probably don’t realise quite how bad it can be because they aren’t sleeping in the rooms, but I’m sure we aren’t the only guests who have noticed it.

We also experienced an issue with the bath drainage. If you release the bath water fully, it comes back up through the bathroom drain and can flood the floor. We discovered that releasing it gradually solves the problem.

Again, either the drainage needs attention or guests need to be advised to release the water slowly.

Restaurant – Some Fantastic Staff

Irene was absolutely phenomenal, as always.

Mariela, the lovely young lady who has been there for a few seasons, was brilliant too. Both understand what good hospitality is about.

The food this year was also excellent and, in my opinion, noticeably better than last year.

We enjoyed the different themed evenings, including Greek night, international night and Chinese night. There was plenty of choice and overall we thought the kitchen did a great job.

I do have one slightly humorous piece of advice for the chef: shrimp does not need to be in the egg fried rice!

Several people commented on it. If somebody doesn’t eat seafood, suddenly they can’t have the rice either. If you want to offer shrimp fried rice, that’s fine, but perhaps have ordinary egg fried rice alongside it.

Apart from that small point, we thoroughly enjoyed the food.

Restaurant Service and Training

There were a few occasions where some of the newer staff appeared to need more training.

At breakfast, if guests are sitting waiting, someone should approach and offer coffee rather than waiting for the guest to call somebody over. On occasions when Irene and Mariela weren’t present, I found myself having to ask for coffee.

There also seemed to be quite a few people in suits walking around the restaurant. At busy times, however, the waiting staff could clearly become stretched.

One day it rained. The forecast had already predicted rain, so naturally far more guests were going to remain inside the hotel rather than head to the beach. The restaurant was therefore going to be much busier.

At times like that, either additional staff need to be scheduled or management need to step in and help the team. That’s hospitality.

There are also a couple of basic hygiene and service points that I think should be included in staff training.

When turning coffee cups over, please use the handle rather than touching the rim where somebody is going to put their mouth.

The same applies to cutlery. If you’re handing somebody a knife, fork or spoon, hold it by the handle rather than touching the part that will come into contact with their food or mouth.

They’re small things, but small details matter in a five-star hotel.

Hygiene Around the Buffet

One thing we retained from the Covid period is being conscious of hygiene around shared serving utensils. My wife still uses a handkerchief when handling shared serving spoons, and I actually think encouraging guests to minimise direct contact with shared utensils isn’t a bad idea.

I also witnessed guests coughing or sneezing very close to food and plates.

On two occasions I saw plates being handled around this and then put back for somebody else to potentially use. I moved the plates aside myself.

That’s where I think restaurant management or supervisory staff need to be observant. I don’t expect busy waiting staff to police everything while they’re looking after guests, but somebody supervising the restaurant should notice these situations and intervene.

If somebody has potentially contaminated a plate, remove it and replace it. It’s a small thing, but again, it’s about maintaining five-star standards.

Restaurant Appearance

Another small but very noticeable issue is the restaurant floor.

Some of the tiles are chipped and damaged.

It sounds trivial, but it makes an otherwise lovely restaurant look tired and less well maintained. Replacing a few damaged tiles would make a considerable difference.

Evening Dress Code

This is perhaps a personal preference, but it’s something that has definitely changed over the years we’ve been visiting.

For us, part of staying at a five-star hotel is getting dressed nicely for dinner. Nice trousers, a shirt and making an effort for the evening.

We’re increasingly seeing people coming into the restaurant wearing shorts and flip-flops as though they’ve just walked in from the beach.

Years ago, I don’t remember that being allowed.

I’m certainly not suggesting everyone needs to wear a suit and tie, but I do think a reasonable smart-casual dress code for evening dinner would help maintain the atmosphere expected from a five-star hotel.

When you’re paying five-star prices, those details contribute to the experience.

Reception and Management – Excellent

This is an area where I really cannot fault the Olympic Palace.

The reception staff were amazing.

Whenever we had a problem, they dealt with it. Whenever we had a question, they answered it. When the air conditioning needed attention, they got it sorted.

The hotel manager was brilliant, management were brilliant and reception were brilliant.

Professionalism of the highest standard.

It’s one of the reasons we’ve continued returning for more than a decade.

The Beach

This year there had obviously been changes to the number and positioning of sunbeds on the beach.

We understood that this was connected to Greek government requirements concerning the hotel’s use of the beach area and the necessary permissions or payments. I can’t personally verify the administrative details, so I’m only commenting on what we understood at the time.

The reduction in beds itself wasn’t the problem.

The problem was that there was now quite a substantial drop from the area where the beds were positioned down onto the beach.

Guests were effectively having to jump or climb up and down.

That really should have been anticipated. Even a set of removable steps would have solved the problem.

My concern is simply that eventually somebody could fall and hurt themselves. Once the hotel knew the beach layout had changed, safe access should have been provided.

The gentleman from the Olympic Palace looking after the beach area, however, was excellent.

He was regularly walking around, checking everything and making sure the Olympic Palace area was being used by hotel guests. He was visible, attentive and clearly doing his job properly.

Overall

So, would we stay at the Olympic Palace again?

Absolutely, yes.

We’ve been coming for more than 10 years for a reason.

We love the hotel, we love the people and there are some genuinely exceptional members of staff. Reception and management were fantastic, Irene and Mariela were outstanding, the gentleman looking after the beach did a great job, and the food this year was excellent and noticeably improved from last year.

Most of my criticisms are actually relatively small things — but they’re small things that shouldn’t really be happening in a five-star establishment.

Fix the chipped tiles. Put pads underneath the chairs. Improve the training of some of the newer restaurant staff. Sort out the cocktails on the eighth floor. Look again at the evening dress standard. Provide safe access down to the beach. And make sure management are actively watching what’s happening when the restaurant becomes busy.

None of these things would require changing what makes the Olympic Palace special.

They’re simply about maintaining the five-star standards that have kept people like us coming back year after year.

We had another lovely holiday, we’ll certainly return, and hopefully when we do, some of these relatively simple issues will have been addressed.