Olea All Suite Hotel

It’s a beautiful hotel, an oasis of tranquility. The food is delicious, both at breakfast and at the Flame restaurant. What’s really too bad is that the water in the pool is freezing cold, so nobody swims there. We had booked a swim-up room, but we might as well not have. Because of the cold water, we went to the beach every day—the seawater was at least 10 degrees warmer.

A few reflections on my recent stay at Olea All Suites...

Pro's

• The dinner buffet had a great variety with good quality produce
• The cleaner was friendly and did a perfect job
• The pool area is visually very beautiful
• Reception rang our room to ask for feedback mid-stay, which we appreciated
• Some members of staff were very charming & made an effort to build rapport, though this was not consistent & others were elusive

Con's

• Our "welcome drink" was a welcome dessert which we could not eat. We were offered a coffee as an alternative, and only given alcohol drinks once we pointed out it was stipulated in the package of our booking. Big mistake from the hotel in my opinion not to offer a proper drink after a long journey, it set the tone for the rest of the trip
• Check-in was inattentive, left waiting in a corridor for ages. Could have used the time to show us the hotel facilities etc. We weren't informed on where any of the facilities were & the layout wasn't intuitive. A map would have been helpful
• Had to change rooms as our 'pool view' room had no view of the pool, just a big tree. No apology from the hotel staff & delayed unpacking for another 24hrs.
• The pool is freezing cold, despite the weather being good. They are not heated - and as such barely got used by guests. This was a huge disappointment as the pool was a big part of the reason we chose this hotel
• There are 3 parasols across the entire pool area, so you have to commit to either sitting in the sun or the shade. This became increasingly frustrating as the week went on. A lot of the loungers are also lay-down only and can't be adjusted
• Both the room towels & pool towels are not of an acceptable quality for a 5 star hotel. They are tiny, frayed and rough material
• Poolside service is non-existent. Often pool towels (left on the side for you to help yourself to) didn't appear until after 10:30am, so we had to sit on sunbeds with no towels. No one comes round to offer drinks
• The poolside bar/restaurant is obscenely expensive. 9 euros for bread & butter, no choice but to go into town for even a light snack
• Backlog of coffees at breakfast each morning - they clearly need more coffee machines to cope with the capacity
• The hotel is directly under a flight path, with planes going over approx. every 30mins in the peak of the day
• The local town of Tsilivi is trashy and down-market, with a steep walk up the hill to get back to the hotel
• The beautiful views advertised from the breakfast & dinner room are covered by plastic screens which are in desperate need of a deep clean, cannot see through them. We appreciate they are needed to block the wind, but they are not maintained well at all
• No vibe to this place, you can hear a pin drop most of the time - we found the evenings in particular quite depressing. No effort made by the hotel to create a sense of atmostphere

After reading so many positive reviews before our stay, we expected so much more from this hotel. It looks great in the pictures, but the reality was quite different. We felt it really didn't reflect value for money & wasn't anywhere close to the service and quality we've experienced from other 5 star resorts.

RECEPTION. Greeted at the entrance and escorted into the hotel. Shown to comfy chairs whilst the staff took our passports and credit card details. Offered a mousse, water and a cold towel. Then told about the hotel amenities. Then escorted to our room which was close by so did not need the buggies. This hotel built into the hillside. Buggies are available to move you around if needed and to transport you into Tsilivi and back. (The walk back from town is steep).

ROOM A good size room. Large 'king' bed...comfortable. Good storage, although the bedside units are basically tree trunks so no storage there. TV (maybe 6 or 7 English channels ...news). Coffee machine...Nespresso. We did ask that coffee capsules be changed to decaff, but they only managed to do this on one day. Water is replenished daily. Dressing gowns, slippers, clothes steamer hair dryer all in the room. Double sink in the bathroom,separate shower. Could do with a towel rail screwed to the wooden shelf as the hook provided on the wall was used for dressing gowns. Toilet separate room. Don't forget...this is Greece. Toilet paper in the bin. We had a swim up room with patio,chairs and table plus sun loungers (double). My bugbear with the sun loungers were that they were just mattresses on the ground, no adjustment was available. So you were either prone on your front or back. No good for reading.

BREAKFAST The usual type of offering you find in many hotels but done to a better standard and better presented. Food on offer...fresh fruit, breads, cereals,pastries, cold meats, cheeses. Some fresh hot food available but do not expect to make full English with the food on offer. There is a 'a la carte' eggs menu should you wish to try. The big let down at breakfast was the hot drinks. Well I say hot but that was the problem ...the coffees were luke warm at best.(Yes I know coffee is not made with boiling water). But when I asked for a breakfast tea, guess what that was also luke warm. If you asked for hot milk with your Americano...well you were lucky if you got any milk at all. A big let down on the drinks situation.Also breakfast is served until 1030, so when we asked for coffee at 1010 we didn't expect the reply that the coffee machine had been closed down! It seems the barista is a law unto themselves. There was also a bit of a problem with wasps wanting to join you for breakfast.

We did not use the main pool area but noticed that some of the loungers were adjustable for sitting on but only a few.

We used the Cocoon bar for drinks a couple of times and had a meal there also. Food when it arrived was cold. It would help if the food was served on hot plates. The most annoying thing about this bar was the music. There was a constant 'thump,thump, thump' base beat to the music. Not sure if it is classed as dance music but it was so annoying. If I had been staying in a room close to the bar I would have asked for a move. This hotel is supposed to be for relaxation, hence the 'sound bath' experience, the yoga sessions (my wife enjoyed those), and the spa etc. There is no daytime or evening entertainment at this hotel.

We had room service a couple of times. The service was prompt and the food hot and tasty.( 15% tray charge)

The staff are very good. Shout out to the Irish lady on breakfast duty. This hotel shuts down in the middle of October.