White Olive Elite Laganas

I spent there holiday with my family. The room was perfect clean, staff superb. The food was tasty

Upon arrival, the hotel looked modern and clean, so we were initially very pleased. However, there were a few unexpected additional costs. We had to pay €105 on arrival for local tax, as well as €30 to hire pool towels.

Our room itself was clean, spacious and modern, although unfortunately our view consisted of a huge bush! We also had two air conditioning units in the room, but unfortunately only one of them worked.

There were also additional charges for coffee pods and bottled water in the room, which we found disappointing considering the price we had already paid for an all-inclusive holiday.

The hotel’s location was one of its positives. It was within walking distance of the beach, shops, bars and restaurants, making it easy to get out and explore the surrounding area.

The pool area, however, was quite small, meaning there was limited space for sunbeds and it often felt very overcrowded. Despite signs asking guests not to reserve sunbeds with towels, this still happened regularly, making it difficult to find somewhere to sit.

Food

Unfortunately, the biggest disappointment was the food, particularly the evening meals.

We only had breakfast at the hotel twice. On both occasions, the croissants and hash browns were stale, and the sausages appeared to be very cheap quality, which put us off eating breakfast there again.

The snack bar was much better. We ate lunch there on six days and generally enjoyed it. However, on one occasion my husband ordered a chicken burger and the meat was brown and red inside. It certainly did not look or taste like chicken, which was extremely concerning.

The evening meals were by far the worst part of our stay. On another occasion, my husband had a gyro from the evening buffet which was cold and had a strange chemical taste to it. Needless to say, he was unable to eat it.

We actually paid to eat out at a restaurant in town three times, which is extremely disappointing when you have paid around £4,100 for a week of all-inclusive accommodation. If our budget had allowed, we would have eaten out every evening.

I appreciate that this is a relatively small hotel, but the food selection was very limited and, in our opinion, did not cater particularly well for British guests or children. There were very few options that appealed to us, and dishes such as rabbit stew are unlikely to suit everyone.

Another major issue was that the food was often lukewarm and not all dishes were clearly labelled. As someone with severe food allergies, this was particularly worrying. I found myself mainly eating plain rice or potatoes because I simply could not risk eating something when I didn’t know exactly what it contained.

Even the labelling was not always accurate. On one occasion, a dish was labelled as chicken, but the meat appeared to be a much darker meat. This made it even more difficult to trust the information provided.

We also noticed kitchen staff bringing dishes out wearing latex gloves rather than heat-resistant gloves. This gave us the impression that the food was not being served particularly hot, which was consistent with our experience at the buffet.

Drinks & Entertainment

There were also additional charges for certain drinks at the bar. Milkshakes, smoothies, cocktails and shots were all extra, as were snacks such as crisps and popcorn. While we appreciate that not everything has to be included in an all-inclusive package, we felt there were quite a few additional costs for what was already an expensive holiday.

Entertainment was only provided on three nights a week and, unfortunately, we found it quite poor. There also weren’t enough seats available, which made it difficult to enjoy what little entertainment was provided.

Overall

There are definitely positives to this hotel. The rooms are modern, spacious and clean, and the location is excellent for accessing the beach, shops, bars and restaurants.

However, for us, the food was a major issue and ultimately had a significant impact on our holiday. Paying around £4,100 for a week of all-inclusive accommodation and then having to pay to eat out three times was extremely disappointing.

The additional charges for things such as pool towels, coffee pods, bottled water and certain drinks also added to our feeling that the all-inclusive package wasn’t as inclusive as we had expected.

Sadly, based on our experience, we would not return. The hotel has a lot of potential, but the food quality, limited choice, additional charges, room air conditioning issue and lack of entertainment really let it down.