Hotel sarakina - Unnamed Road

Enjoyed an excellent family holiday first two weeks of August. Myself, Hubby our 5 year old and Grandad. Nikos, the owner could not have been more welcoming and helpful. The apartments are basic and the self catering aspect is on a par with any other greek apartments. You cannot compare self catering in other European countries to Greece as it is well known that it is much more simplistic. We ate at the restaurant on a couple of occasions and we couldn't fault the food or service. Not only did Nikos go out of his way on more than one occasion but also one of the excellent cleaning ladies did too. The pool and bar next door were also a plus, especially when the new sunbeds arrived. The snack food there was also great. Their own named burger and omelettes were delish - all cooked by a wonderful lady called Clementine. We also loved the fact that the bar staff and hotel Sarakina staff were animal ie dog friendly. We found it easier to either take the free bus provided or get a taxi €6 to nip down to the strip and purchase huge amounts of water (€1.32 for 6X1.5 litres) etc. We didn't find walking along the strip at night too problematic as I don't think most of the younger peeps go out till the rest of us are in bed. Food wise we actually preferred more of the restaurants in Kalamaki to Laganas. The Sarakina experience would definitely benefit from the hotel having their own pool, bar etc as there was a lack of somewhere to socialise at different times of day/evening. Also, the history of the hotel could be advertised better and maybe the addition of a microwave to rooms may quell the catering critics. All in all, we loved it and will definitely return.

Stayed for one week. Very comfortable two bedroom apartment. Self catering facilities limited but as we expected. Kettle, toaster fridge and hobs. Views okay over mountains. Slight breeze but welcome. Pool small but not busy. Attached restaurant pleasant with live music every night. Moderately priced more expensive than restaurants in Laganas. Twenty minute walk to nearest supermarket and restaurants. Hotel owner runa a free bus service during day specific times. Overall good value and placement.

I just spent a week in beautiful Grece more precisely at the SARAKINA hotel to be honest I didn't expect more but hope is always with us what really bothered me was the fact we were abandoned there no one at the reception ever I wanted AC after first night, all week in the morning lunch or in the evening I checked the reception no one to help us with anything rooms show their age ,but the cleaning should be 100% done correctly to come back after a day at the beach when the room was closed and to smell the sewage from the mop water ?? towels were not changed we requested a double bed and they offered 2 separate beds uncomfortable and strange to sleep with your partner on holiday like that wonderful village ,I don't recommend the hotel ?

They said it was a family friendly holiday with self catering apartments. There is no oven or microwave just a tiny little double hob. One of which is only suitable for a tiny pan. There was two small pans. They do this in my view to 'encourage' people to eat at their restaurant. That will cost! On the first evening I went their with the wife and 3 kids and it cost a lot! The strip, which is definitely NOT child friendly (as the holiday was sold) was a tip. Everywhere there is stacks of rubbish and crazily drunk teens. It is also over a mile to the strip which is where you have to go to get water!! Every day we had to go down to purchase several bottles of water on a little van/bus. That alone was anoying, as the owners could very easily keep large supplies of water for the guests (AT THE SAME PRICE AS THE SUPERMARKETS! ) I honestly had the worst holiday EVER here and will NOT be returning.

Other than our arrival the reception was pretty much abandoned for the time we were there, the other guests we saw did comment on this and said it was “the norm” - no staff. They did however charge us €200 for air con for the 2 weeks we were there. I discussed this with a member of staff after we were forced to move hotel and thankfully did get this money back. This did take some chasing about for a while. On arriving in the rooms we were disgusted with the condition of them, generally grubby/dirty didn’t really seem like they had been cleaned before we arrived. Room one: Broken Toilet, absolutely filthy floor in the bathroom, disgusting fridge. On advising the staff of this (after locating them) a young lad arrived on a scooter with a dirty mop, no cleaning fluids, no disinfectant simply an old mop. Surely this has just moved the dirt around. Room Two: Film of what appeared to be grease on the toilet roll holder, everything needed wiped down, another terrible fridge and what appeared to be insect dropping or damage along the skirting in the room and marks on the sheets. Clearly another room that hadn’t been cleaned prior to our arrival. You would think that rooms being cleaned before new customers arriving would be a top priority even more so with what’s going on now, seems the Sarakina Owners didn’t have the same belief. I could see my wife was utterly disappointed in this but decided that we should just have a sit down and relax. We went to go to the small children’s pool… EMPTY not a drop of water in it and pretty much sealed off. I did manage to locate a member of staff and ask about this and we needed to go “Next Door” to their taverna and use the pool there – yes a pool attached to their pub NOT the hotel. We went to the pool, very small and open to all whilst rather deep, shallow end just shy of 1m. We had with us a 3 and a 5 year old child – I really don’t understand why we weren’t advised that the children’s pool was shut as without this there was literally nothing for the kids to do at the hotel and it was sold to us as great for children. So we sat around the pool for a couple of hours, had a couple of drinks and snacks. which were extortionatley priced and very sub par on the food front. No stores at all within a short walk so you're at the mercy of then charging whatever they feel like. During this time we watched the pool area generally get fuller and fuller with no social distancing only to realise that this was pretty much a public pool, anyone was allowed to use it. More people arriving and I didn’t see one person get turned away, so much for limiting the number of people in a single space to prevent the spread of COVID. Another issue was the songs played around the pool on repeat. These were explicit and totally unsuitable for children to hear e.g. repeated uncensored tracks being played at full volume! In the early evening we escaped the Sarakina apartments and decided to go take a look at laganas main resort. Despite our travel operator selling both the location and hotel as "a bona fide family destination" neither were anythign of the sort. We were forced to move hotel, which pretty much ended up costing me double for our length of stay (14 days). We booked the apartments for 14 days, were there for 1 night and haven't seen a penny back from the travel operator. Despite us leaving less than 24 hours of arriving and having paid for the hotel for the full 2 weeks they were fast enough to chase getting their keys back. Not even an apology from the hotel just "keys back please" Please don't let any travel company persuade you otherwise, this simply isn't family friendly nor a nice play to stay. I've paid substantially less money to other places for a week or two and they've been light years ahead of this I referred to this place as a Hovel and I do stand by that. I was almost in tears when my 3 year old asked "Daddy why you bring us to a dirty hotel" I'm sorry but if the place is clearly unacceptable to a 3 year old what would most people think?

Beautiful family run apartments. The owners and staff were lovely and friendly and nothing was too much trouble for them. The rooms were big and clean with maid service everyday. They are a little way out from the main strip but they have a free bus service which does have stated times but they are quite flexible. Well worth a visit as the views are stunning

We booked in to Sarakina with TUI, who said this is a self catering family apartment hotel. TUI claimed this is only a 10 to 15 minute walk to Laganas, which it is not. The location is nice, but too far to walk to town unless you are prepared to sweat! The free minibus is hit and miss, not always running... Sadly these apartments are showing their age and the whole place would benefit from a refresh. The shared pool looks tired and the sunbeds are worn out. Self catering is stretching it too far. There is a fridge and a single ring hob, with very little in the way of cooking utensils. A cup of tea, some soup, maybe hot dogs, that's about as much as you can cook here. Still, there is a the Sarakina Taverna... Sadly we ate here once, just once. The food was below average, service slow, way more expensive than eating in Laganas and when we wanted to pay by card we were first told they cannot accept card payments, so I said we'd have to pay cash the next day, all of a sudden they could accept card payments? The old boy behind the counter was very rude cursing in Greek. A party of 6 lads and another party of 5 lasses, where up for a party, playing music before a night out, fair enough. It was the shouting and puking at 3 to 5 am that was really too much. Family friendly right? We were here for 14 days, far too long. There were ants in the bathroom, no toilet seat, not enought chairs for a family of five, a tiny table in the kitchenette, with only two chairs, charge extra for aircon, and to use the very insecure 'safe'. Clearly the room we were in was designed to be a one bed apartment for 2 to 3 people max. When we checked out the manager actually went up to the room to check the fridge in case we used any over priced water etc... very rude. No I do not recommend. Zante is beautiful, but if we ever go again, we'll stay in a private villa.

Booked a last minute, week stay here as a family with 3 young boys. It was fantastic. The apartment was basic but huge! We had 2 huge bedrooms, with a separate kitchen/diner, bathroom and 2 separate big balconies. The owners were brilliant, friendly and would do anything to help. Set back a 10-15min walk from the strip/mayhem of laganus which was great for us as a young family. Free transport from the owners into town and back. And a brand new pool for 2020 which was a must for the boys! A fantastic week even during these covid days. Cheers, yamas!!