Princess Andriana Resort and Spa

This is a decent 4 star experience but we were disappointed after having visited the sister hotel Rhodos Princess Beach last year. Given Rhodos Princess is a 4 star, we were expecting Princess Andriana at 5 stars to trump it in some way. Ultimately the only way it is ‘better’ is in the fact it’s bigger with more à la cartes, many of the rooms have been built more recently and of course the addition of the water park.

I can’t rate this hotel poorly - the water park is a great touch for families. I’m glad I had screenshots of the website on my phone from months ago saying that the water slides were for children 8+ as all the signage when you’re there say 12+. Thankfully this was never questioned. It was quite entertaining to see the water park staff being far more attentive on the day when mysterious men in suits were watching from afar. It seems a visit from management does actually kick them into action.

The ice cream parlours at the water park is a nice touch, but again, compared to the patisserie at Rhodos Beach, this is nothing. I guess we just expected our experience at Princess Andriana to build on what we’d previously experienced.

Another area this fell short was in food. The main restaurant at Rhodos Beach is lovely and decorated with comfortable seating - did not feel like a cattle market as much as this one did. At the Princess Andriana it’s more of a square room with heavy canteen vibes and it just wasn’t very pleasant. Food was mostly the same as the other hotel though and a good standard for All Inclusive, we thought.

Unfortunately we had really valued the fact that at the Rhodos Princess you could get a freshly made gyros (made by a chef and handed to you) or freshly made wood fired pizza from the beach bar. As I said above, given we’d paid extra to ‘upgrade’ ourselves to the 5 star Princess Andriana, we just expected that this would be the case here too, but it wasn’t. Gyros stuff was available but it was in trays to help yourself - just not the same at all. During the entire stay, the only pizza we saw was square tray bake style - the version that costs £2 in Asda. We really, really missed the fresh pizzas and gyros from last year and even our kids commented on this.

The beach bar too was 100% better at Rhodos Princess. Couldn’t believe how basic it was here. The staff were great and if you’ve got nothing to compare it to, you’ll love it. But I hope you can see why I was shocked - the difference between the 4 star and 5 star was really a shock. I couldn’t believe the basics of the 4 star hadn’t been transferred across.

The à la cartes were mostly a let down. Customer services was lacking mostly - though if you’ve booked this hotel already I would say it’s not terrible, just not amazing. I really did feel like every dish we had at the à la carte could have been made from the food in the buffet… apart from the Moonlight restaurant which was the best, but still not what we expected from other reviews.

This single biggest thing this hotel could do to upgrade itself is to stop relying on its ridiculous app. My mum is visually impaired and every single menu, even in the restaurants, is accessed via a QR code. They may think they are being clever or environmentally friendly - but I think if you’re going to a 5 star hotel, you really don’t expect to be crowding around the one person’s phone, who brought their phone to dinner, to see a tiny menu that is not accessible for some guests at all. It’s a really easy fix and just screams out budget, budget, budget. There isn’t even a menu at the bar - you’ve got to scan and scroll. It’s infuriating.

I can’t fully complain - we did have a great holiday. The entertainment was decent, there was so much for the kids to do but I was left with a very clear feeling that I made the wrong decision in paying the extra few hundred to try out, what is on paper, the better hotel. I would go back to the Rhodos Princess in an instant but I would not return here until I knew the basics of the good stuff from RP had been transferred over too.

I’d recommend private transfers (it’s a very long journey on the coach) and avoiding the Indian à la carte, though the tex mex and moonlight were ok for a change of scenery.

We had a wonderful experience at this restaurant. The food was absolutely delicious, full of flavor, and beautifully presented. Every dish we tried was excellent.

The service was just as good. The staff were friendly, attentive, and made us feel very welcome throughout our visit.

A great dining experience from start to finish. I would definitely recommend it and would love to come back!