Hotel Costas Golden Beach

This is a fantastic family run hotel where you are sure of a welcome and nothing is too much trouble for Dimitri or his staff. The hotel is scrupulously clean and the food is wholesome and tasty. This was our first visit with our son and his wife and two teenage children and we were impressed. The TUI rep was very pleasant and particularly helpful. However, we booked the Island Tour with TUI and were very disappointed. It is clear the trip is geared to getting as many tourists onto a large coach and making as much money out of the trip as possible rather than focus on giving tourists a day to remember. My husband and I did this trip many years ago and were thrilled with it. Back then it included a visit to Kassiopi, Achilles Palace, lunch (inclusive) at Paleokastritsa as well as a boat trip and visit to the monastery and to Bella Vista with ample time at each. This time the trip seemed to promise the same and so 6 of us eagerly booked. The current trip is nothing like the old one. We were picked up at 7.35 am and by 10.30 am we had done nothing more than pick up other guests and have a toilet stop. The trip did include a visit to Achilles Palace, but the group was so large that many of us could not be in the same room as the guide so could not see what she was talking about. From there we were taken to Mavromatis, a kumquat distillery although it was now well into the afternoon and we had not had lunch. We finally got to Paleokastritsa around 3 pm for our lunch and were told to be at the boats by 3.55 pm if we wanted to go - though this would cost extra. This meant a very hurried lunch with no time to visit the monastery. The coach left at 5.10 pm and took us to Bella Vista where we only had 15 minutes. Before getting back on the coach we asked the guide to order us a taxi back to Agios Georgios which we knew was only 5 miles or so away. We did not want to go through the long rigmarole of dropping all the other guests off again. The taxi was not possible, but several other guests had also complained and made the same request and we were transferred onto a separate bus which got us back in about an hour. We arrived back at our hotel at 7 pm and worked out that out of the 11.5 hour day we had been on the coach (which was quite cramped) for 7.5 hours. I would not recommend this trip to anyone. There is insufficient time to enjoy the places you are taken because it takes so long picking up a large number of people.

We arrived at the hotel on the 2nd August after a Tui Adriatic Cruise. Having been to various parts of Greece over a number of years it was nice to be met by the family of Dimitri and by the man himself. We felt at home as soon as we entered the hotel and were shown to our room by Dimitri himself. The room was very inviting with a view of the whole beach and bay from our balcony .(221). The hotel was very well appointed and the staff went out of their way to be helpful.When it came to food the fresh home grown vegetables from Dena;s garden were very welcome and the home made soup served by Anastasia was a delight, none of your packet stuff. We thank Dimitri and his team for a wonderful time. Lots of Love from Tatyana to Anastasia