Overview and initial impressions
We have just returned from a two
week holiday in Alikanas, Zakynthos. We
had a nice time; lots of relaxing but not much resting if that makes sense,
largely due to the noisy location of the accommodation. Alikanas is a small holiday village, with a
beautiful sandy beach, a gorgeous shallow bay ideal for the less confident
swimmer and breathtaking scenery – as can be seen from the photo below. (More photos at: http://sdrv.ms/17QpYKr ).
When we fancied a break from the sunbeds, it
was very easy to do something else – catch a bus to Zante town, book a boat
trip from the tiny harbour at the edge of the bay, take a walk along the
shoreline or river, or hire a bike.
Now that I have
painted a background picture for you of this ideal holiday location, let me go
on to describe the accommodation which was far from ideal, not only because it
was located on the main road and quite close to a couple of noisy bars, but
also because it was, in a word, grotty.
As we had booked
a last minute ‘flight ‘n’ hotel deal’, we had the same rights as if we’d booked
independently which is to say, absolutely no come-back at all - you pays yer
money and takes yer choice as they say. But I did feel sorry for people who had
booked an expensive package – I spoke to a Welsh guy who’d paid Thomas Cook
£1,200 for a week’s holiday for himself and his wife! Needless to say, there were complaints but I
daresay to no avail.
We actually
thought at the time of booking that we had done quite well for a last minute
cheapie. The hotel looked lovely on the
internet (marketing genius somewhere behind the scenes obviously). When we arrived, we were impressed by the
aspect of the main hotel with a bright airy reception and nice looking
facilities.
However, our
initial good impression lasted literally seconds as the grumpy hotel owner
(reminiscent of Basil Fawlty) kept us waiting, after we’d been travelling all
day, while he chatted to various mates.
He also immediately tried to sell us extras such as air conditioning (which
he admitted didn’t work but he had a crack team of expert Greek mechanics
working on the problem!) Eventually, we
got checked in (even though Basil didn’t seem to know how long we had booked
for) and a man of very small stature grabbed my suitcase and led us at
break-neck speed out of the main hotel building, across the road and into the
annex building (I know this isn’t very PC but he really was a ringer for Manuel
thus reinforcing the initial impression that we had indeed booked into the
Greek equivalent of Fawlty Towers). It was obvious to us that the annex building pre-dated the hotel by about four decades and the lovely picture on the hotel website belied the fact that it presented a very stark exterior (see photos below), fronting onto THE main road of the island, with traffic almost constantly whizzing past between Alykes and Zante Town.
We did
consider moving hotels but we are living on a reduced income these days and I
didn’t much like the idea of spending more money on accommodation. Instead, we decided to put up with it and get
on with enjoying ourselves. As the
fortnight wore on, it actually became a bit of a running joke to be honest and part
of the fun. Hence why I decided to record some images for posterity and post this blog.
3. And here is a photo I took of the actual annex exterior:
Where are the
trees? Where’s the nice fresh-looking
decor? It’s not even the same building, is it?
Interior
And now for
the inside...let me just say upfront for those of you who think I am being
picky, that I am well used to basic 2 star Greek studios, having stayed in them
about a dozen times. I am even used to
different standards of cleanliness, sometimes just because the owners don’t
really know what us first world tourists expect, but the general dirtiness and
tatiness of this particular gem took the biscuit, and it was obvious from our
encounter with Basil that he didn’t give a monkeys.
Let
me take you on a tour. First
the kitchenette:
Okay, you
always get one of these hilarious 2-ring communist-era cookers, but check out
the rust on this one! Also, the knob for the smaller ring fell off when you
twisted it and it was impossible to know if it was on or off. In the past, we have managed a Greek bacon n
egg fried breakfast on such equipment but I wouldn’t even attempt anything more
daring than boiling an egg on this damn thing.
This picture
of the ice box in the fridge was taken AFTER we hacked off half the ice so the
blasted thing would shut! I felt like
charging the hotel for our labour but as it was obvious from our first
encounter that Basil didn’t give a toss about anything apart from making a
profit, this would have been futile.
The
main sleeping/living area was just generally tatty and dirty as can be seen
from these examples illustrating peeling paint, cracks, mould and dust:
Cracks in the ceiling...
More cracks in the ceiling...
Mouldy
pillow (this was a spare so not used)
Filthy floor tiles – despite
us cleaning in-between the maid cleaning, it was impossible to get the place clean
The general
impression that the building had not seen a lick of paint since it was built
several decades ago, continued out on the balcony:
Cracks and rust on the balcony
More balcony cracks
Balcony
floor - not cleaned once during our stay (except by us)
And
the view from the balcony of the loverly pool wasn’t much of an improvement. Okay, it may not look too
hideous, but note the cracked tiles along the far edge of the pool and the debris in the
water. To be fair, someone did make an
attempt to clean the autumn leaves out on our last night. (That’s if you count someone holding a pool
vacuum cleaner - which wasn’t even plugged in correctly- in one hand and a mobile
phone in the other and ineffectually sweeping up and down whilst whingeing to his
mate as ‘work’). It was tempting to shout
down ‘you need a net to get leaves out!’ but instead we just watched from the balcony and laughed.
And
now, for the piece de resistance... drum roll please ... the bathroom!
Bathroom
window - filthy and broken
Toilet seat - with rust
marks from leaking cistern
Pipe
beneath bathroom sink - encrusted with limescale
Bathroom
mirror - not cleaned once
To conclude
Last Thursday,
towards the end of our holiday, I bumped into a Cosmo Holiday Rep and got into
a conversation with her about the awful state of the accommodation and the
obvious indifference of the Hotel owner. ‘Well, he’s Greek’ she said, as if
that explained his rude and uncaring attitude.
She told me there was an English/speaking receptionist who it was worth
talking to (a bit late, I thought).
The
next day when we returned in the evening to get washed and changed, there were
notices taped up around the Annex:
Again, I
thought, it's a bit late now, but my partner decided to go over to the main hotel
reception and find out more. There was
no sign, yet again, of the mythical nice English lady so he got to ‘talk’ to grumpy
bollocks again who grunted something about ‘maybe tomorrow’. As we were due to leave in 2 days’ time, we
felt this was a complete waste of time and in fact, decided that the notices
were just some form of cruel joke to add insult to injury.
Well, it’s one
to put down to experience. We obviously did not do enough research into the
hotel before we booked and we had chosen poorly. Looking back at these photos it actually looks even worse than it did at the time - it's amazing what you get used to isn't it? I would definitely go back to Alikanas but I
would avoid this hotel like the plague!
There are plenty of nice-looking studio apartment buildings opposite the
beach and towards the quieter Old Alikanas which would make for a much more
peaceful and pleasant stay.
