Eagles Palace

We were picked up at the airport by the hotel minibus, the driver had our name on a card and was waiting for us and another couple in the arrivals hall. It was approx 1hr 40 min drive from the airport to the hotel on quiet roads and through great countryside scenery of pine forests and olive trees. On arrival at the hotel we were given a warm welcome and a choice of cold drinks, the chilled glass of sparkling wine went down very well. We were then given a quick tour of the hotel before being shown to our room, a superior Seaview room on the first floor. For a 5* hotel the room and bathroom were quite small. It was though nicely furnished with the usual bathrobes, slippers, complimentary toiletries, vanity kit etc. The towels in the bathroom although nice and thick were only standard size not bath sheet size which I expect for a 5*. I did notice there was a distinct lack of a dressing table with mirror for me to do my make up. The tv was on the wall above the desk and the large full length mirror was in the corner of the room behind a chair so quite dark and hard to get to. I had to wait for my husband to finish in the bathroom and the mirrors to de-mist before I could put on any make up. The mini bar had a selection of drinks, snacks and an ice tray but the items were very expensive as mini bars often are. €10 for miniature spirits and €5.50 for mixers/Evian (no tonic). We’d bought our own gin and ended up getting some cans of tonic in the nearby town for €1 each. 2 small bottles (50cl) of complimentary water were provided each day. The bed itself was very comfortable and had a memory foam topper. What was strange was that we had 2 single duvets as the covering rather than 1 large duvet. Air conditioning worked fine but only went down to 19c. We did also have a couple of nights when we got back to the room and there was an awful smell of drains coming from the grated drain cover in the bathroom. We did mention it to reception but not sure if anything was done and we just ended up spraying body spray / perfumes around. These were my minor moans about the room now on to the more positive aspects. The hotel itself is fabulous, plenty of seating areas inside and out. It has its own beach which is gorgeous, plenty of sun loungers, well maintained umbrellas, bar service to your lounger, several stands with pool towels, iced water jugs and plates of fruit, huge red apples, nectarines and peaches. The staff that service the beach are very efficient clearing away rubbish, abandoned towels and putting the beds back in place. The beach has a quiet zone free of children and music which was the area of sea where we saw the most fish. The sea is very calm and clear. There is some shingle and pebbles on entering the water but it’s fine sand afterwards. There’s also an active beach the other end of the hotel with all the water sports and this is closest to the beach bar which has a great vibe and does a great pork gyros with Greek salad for lunch, big enough to share. The middle bit of the beach is in front of the pool and beach restaurant and has piped music, more chillout than heavy rock. There are several restaurants in the hotel the beach one becomes more seafood and fish at night with an open coal grill going and tables out on to the jetty which is very pretty at night. There is an Italian on the road up to the villas, the fine dining behind the main hotel bar off reception and this has an amazing terrace overlooking the coast line. We ate here on a special 5 course menu night with 5 accompanying wines and it was superb. €50 pp with €15 pp off as we were on the HB package. The €15pp discount applies to all the a la carte restaurants. I was a bit peeved that the €50pp price included the wine but not the still water and we were charged €7.50 for that. Drinks in general were expensive €6.80 for 150ml glass of wine, €5 for a small beer, €14 for a g&t, €13.50 for a cocktail. They did have a happy hour but this wasn’t 2-4-1, cocktails were €10 and a glass of sparkling wine €6. It all got a bit confusing on which bar had what on offer. On an evening we thought the main bar had offers on only to be charged full price €27 for 2 cocktails and €28 for 2 G&Ts. When I queried it, we’d picked the wrong cocktail or gin! The beach bar only did small draught beer but the pool bar and beach restaurant did large. The buffet restaurant did offers on some wines 25% off a bottle and 20% off bottled beer. We did find the 25% off a bottle of wine was cheaper than buying it by the glass and they would store the leftover wine, if you didn’t drink the whole bottle, in the fridge for the next night. The food in the main buffet restaurant was fabulous, a great choice at breakfast and dinner, there was always a great choice of vegetables too, dishes were always being refilled and if one was empty you didn’t have to wait long for it to be replaced with a full one. The desserts and pastries (sweet and savoury) were to die for and all very well presented. The chefs often came out and talked to the guests. One night we couldn’t get in the buffet restaurant at 8.45pm as it was full and we were then told about the 2 sittings 7.30-9pm and 9pm-10.30pm. I’d read about it in the literature but we weren’t informed of this when we were shown round only that it was open 7.30-10.30pm. All other days we didn’t have a problem going in between 8.15-8.45pm our preferred time. I also didn’t see anything about dress code and men were wearing shorts even in the fine dining. All the staff are lovely and very friendly saying kalimera or kalispera when they see you. They can’t do enough for you. Back to the hotel itself and location. It’s about 10 min drive out of Ouranoupoli, the hotel does provide a free shuttle bus 4 times a day 10am, 2pm,6pm and 8pm. If it’s full it will come back for you. The return trips from the town are 10.10, 14.10, 18.10 and 20.10. We paid €10 for a taxi during the day. We did contemplate walking but the road has many sharp bends and the majority of it doesn’t have any pavements. It’s not an overly busy road but we felt a taxi was safer and not so sweaty in the heat of the day. We did walk the other way along the beach to the small port at Tripiti (about 50 min walk) and caught the ferry (car and foot passenger) across to Ammouliani island for €2.50 pp each way. It only takes 15 mins. We wished we’d hire a little boat to go round the islands as this seemed very popular and those that did it were raving about it. Something we’ll have to do next time. One thing I haven’t mentioned is the evening entertainment. This is very low key, some nights nothing at all. It appeared to be every other night whilst we were there. The Greek folk singers weren’t really my cup of tea but the 2 lads singing British hits were good and also the American hits night. There isn’t anything else around the hotel to wander out to and had we stayed longer we might have ventured into Ouranoupoli one evening. Can definitely recommend this fabulous hotel.

There are plenty of positives about this hotel. We were picked up by the hotel's shuttle mini-bus, and on arrival at the hotel we were greeted warmly, personally, and efficiently. Room was superior sea-view, but smaller than we expected – and we have stayed in many hotels worldwide. Pleasant view, with a nice balcony, but for the first 3 or 4 nights we were woken by the baby in the next door room followed by an hour of shouting parents. After this family left, we were disturbed by the couple who replaced them. In a hotel of this quality, there should be satisfactory soundproofing. I am not complaining about the crying baby – just the soundproofing, which makes it hard to relax. If we could hear everything next door talked about, I assume they could do the same for us. The buffet restaurant was noisy. Music played far too loud. Helpful friendly staff, but did not enjoy the food. Hot food was frequently cool and seemed far too salty. Plenty of fruit. We eventually decided to eat out rather than use the buffet. However, the presentation of the food was good – but just hugely disappointing. The Kamares gourmet restaurant was very good – but expensive Boat trip to a private beach was shockingly overpriced. The "private island" to swim off had about 6 other boats there, and no way was private. Packed lunch was provided but disgraceful value for 70 euros per head. Many guests were repeat visitors so they must have liked it all, as did many of the reviewers here. Sadly we didn’t.

We had a wonderful week at Eagles Palace. The hotel is a high class hotel and prices are according to this. If you book a last minute package at an attractive price, be aware that the side costs are according to a five star hotel. For exampel a glass of prosecco costs 11 euros. People working at the palace are very friendly and professional. The sourroundings of the hotel, the interior and beach are beautiful. We enjoyed the dine arround package and were very happy with the special restaurants and excellent food. Upgrade for a junior suite is pricy but the views are wonderful. It was a little bit annoying that the holder of the shower head did not work. The problem was reported by us to reception desk three times but unfortunately didn´t get fixed. Would we stay again at Eagles Palace? Most probably no. Not because we didn´t like it, but more for the reason that we are not the type of people for a 5 star holiday in Greece.