Kosmas Apartments

This year I spent two weeks in Roda at the Kosmas 1. First, the good news is that the rooms are of a fair size and the furniture is in good condition and the walls looked freshly painted. The theme throughout all the apartments I looked into was the same, i.e. pine furniture white walls and tiled floors. The kitchen was basic but functional. The shower room had everything required of it including a shower curtain (a rare site in Corfu). The pool to the rear of the building was large and clean, and was a joy to swim in. Sun beds surrounded the pool and we never had any difficulty in finding a sun bed to use regardless of the time of day. The Kosmas 1 also has a covered area that houses a bar that also serves food throughout the day. The bad news can be summed up in one word NOISE! The Libra brochure states that some noise may be heard at times. This is quite comical as the noise level is constant and very very loud. The hotel is only about thirty feet away from the main Sidari to Roda road and mopeds speed up and down this road 24hrs a day, every day. And as most Corfiot kids seem to take pride in having no silencers fitted to these bikes the decibel level is extreme. The large waste bins were noisily collectedfirst thing every morning, and as this is a main road the sound of ancient diesel engines rattling past the hotel could be heard at all hours of the day and night. Although the rooms have double glazed patio doors, we just found it just to hot to leave them closed. If the hotel owners paid out a little extra cash to fit ceiling fans or better still air conditioning, I would gladly go back for another stay as it is I would not use them again. Another problem was the road itself. Although the Libra brochure is quite clear in stating that the Kosmas 1 is over a Kilometre from the beach, I did not realise that I would not have a path to walk on to get to this beach.Walking along the edge of a busy road is fine if you are an adult and have your wits about you I however would not be happy if I was walking along this road with young children though. The staff at the Kosmas 1 although not rude in anyway were not friendly and did not make an effort with the guests at all. On our last day they even tried to get us out of the room before our allotted leaving time, so the newly arrived guests could move in. No entertainment is provided and the food and drinks were at the top end of the local price levels. As for the Libra reps ours was called Andy and was not of much use. We had a very boring new arrivals talk from him. Andy knew next to nothing about Roda. Andy spent more time talking about other parts of Corfu that no one had any interest in. The real reason for this 'talk' was of course to sell us trips. Do not buy any from him. The Libra trips are double the price of the ones available in Roda itself. We used N.S.K for three trips during our two week stay and had no problems with them at all. Andy even had the cheek to say that they trick you and send you to different destinations than the ones advertised. The family in the room nest to ours had a cock up with N.S.K. and the collection after a visit to Aqualand was messed up N.S.K. sorted it out and sent a taxi to collect them, you can't argue with that can you?The best trip we had was to Aqualand the biggest water park in Europe. Food and drink is expensive though so take a large bottle of water and a packed lunch with you if you can. We also went on the day trip to Albania. I am reluctant to rubbish this trip because it is an experience you will remember, but it is far from being a pleasurable day out. Albania is desperate for tourist money but they are not yet equipped to deal with us yet. The town we went to was a concrete jungle and you will have a miserable and possibly frightening time if you do not take the optional tour. The tour is quite good you see some fantastic Greek and Roman sites, but beware of the mosquito'sI got bitten five times during the tour. Lunch is provided during the tour but you do not get to eat it until three in the afternoon (the coach picks you up at around eight in the morning, so it's a long time to wait for it) Albanian hygiene is not up to a very high standard. The restaurant that our buffet was served in smelt of sewerage and the salad was covered in flies. A lot of people could not bring them selves to eat much, or did what I did and scooped the top layer of food away from the top of each plate to eat what was underneath it. Most soft drinks in Albania cost the equivalent to 60p the tour of the town centre revealed how poor the locals are.Building and road maintenance is non existent and the locals live an almost feral existence. Beggar children do get annoying and disabled people try and shame you into giving you money by waving their stumps at you! It made me appreciate what I have available to me in the UK. The cheapest trip we had was an evening trip to Corfu town. The town is beautiful but not much better than Roda for shopping. Every shop sold the same as the next and prices were slightly higher than Roda. The Luxury hotel bar prices were virtually the same as London bar prices so be ware of the places you choose to stop at. Back in Roda we enjoyed spending our mornings at the Roda Blue pool bar. This was about 100yds down the road from the Kosmas 1. The sun beds were more comfy and the atmosphere was better (drink and food was a little cheaper too). Further down the road is the Pegasus hotel. This is a more upmarket hotel and has a fantastic pool it was the only main road hotel that was really busy. If you are looking for a nice place to stay and you have kids I would recommend taking a look at this hotel it was a bit pricey I believe though. Further down the road is a local store called the Market the young guy that owned it was really friendly and works very long hours so give him some trade if you can! The first bar you come to is the Compass bar on the corner of the road. This bar was always fairly busy and favoured by the English especially the over 40's they did a very good English breakfast but I found the lunch we had was very mediocre. Once you are passed the Compass you are effectively now in Roda it's self. The next store we found friendly was on the opposite side of the road it is called Agas and was run by a mother and her daughter. Prices were ok and they were friendly people. Two doors down from here was our second favourite restaurant called Drosia. This restaurant is very ordinary looking with a roughly hand painted menu outside it, the food though was great my partner's Mousaka was huge and very tasty my T-bone steak was superb. They did the best English breakfast as well. Further down the road all the bars start to thicken up a bit you will find bars and restaurants that cover most tastes if you like your sport you will find plenty of sky sports bars, the same goes for karaoke bars. If like me you would pay not to go into these places, you can stick to local tavernas, restaurants and movie bars (bars showing pirated films that are not yet out in the UK). Our favourite restaurant was the Odysseus I recommend you try the sixteen course Meze. Other places we ate at included of course Maggie's I had intended to eat mostly local food during this holiday but You really should try the fish and chips here they are first class. Maggie herself works many of the tables meeting and greeting and making sure everyone is happy. my partners order was cocked up Maggie immediately offered to buy us a round of drinks on the house by way of apology needless to say I recommend you give her a visit (her steak meals were a touch over priced though). On the subject of Greek vs. English food, if you are on a budget like we were you would be wise to stick to cereals in your apartment or the English breakfasts available at every restaurant. They are generally cheap and large and will keep you going until your evening meal. If you fancy a lunch time snack I recommend you try the Gyros available in the smaller Greek grill bars they are basically a Greek style pita (more like a small nan bread) to this they add some kebab meat salad and a few chips they then wrap it into a cone shape. They taste great and cost around 1.5 euros. Continental breakfasts are not easily available or very good and the traditional Greek yogurt and local honey is surprisingly expensive. You would be mad not to try the local food on at least a few occasions; it would be hard to eat exclusively Greek at the same time though. Other restaurants we ate at included Nikos, the food here was good and the atmosphere was lively. The Roda Park next door was also busy; the staff were also chatty and friendly. The food though was not great though. The Roda Park was always busy, so maybe it was just a poor choice of meal on my part. We also ate at the Aphrodite hotel the steak meal I had was very average but it was very cheap so I can't complain.The hotel was busy and popular with us Brits I would consider staying here if I go back to Roda. I had a very average English breakfast at the Roda Inn look, out for the Greek night here though as it is free as opposed the ninteen euros they charge for it at the Roda oasis. The Newport was another lively place to eat the owner is a bit pushy trying to get customers off the street (we nearly never ate here because we avoid that kind of thing) the food was good though and fair value for money. The only bad meal I had during two weeks in Roda was at the Wave the order was badly executed the correction was messed up and the attitude of the staff was not good. To top it off it was not cheap. The worst bar we used was Roxanne's (draught woodpecker cider my arse). The best was Big Bens.Fosters lager was very cheap and they do nice ice creams and slush puppies. It is not the kind of bar to spend the entire night in but was a lovely bar to have a one drink in before heading back to the apartment to get changed for the evening. The beach at Roda is not great; it is very narrow so is damp all the time. It is also quite pebbly.The people who rent out the sun beds and umbrellas tend to be the ones who look after the small section of beach they operate from. I recommend the English guy who works opposite the Roda in. He looks after his bit of beach and is a couple of euros cheaper than some of the others (as he is connected to the Roda Inn you can use their toilets too). The sea is warm clean and shallow. Sadly they do not have any shower facilities along the beach so my number one tip for you is to use the tap hidden among the trees opposite the Kava market to clean your hands and feet with. I found Roda surprisingly quiet for the time of year, but that suited me down to the ground. The weather was perfect for the entire holiday. And although you had plenty of guys in football shirts around, I did not see one bit of yobbish behaviour for the entire holiday. Roda is best suited to couples over twenty five or families. Roda does have a night club called the Sound Factory but it is away from the hotels and bars so you will not be disturbed by it. We purchased the holiday through Airmiles for £460 each for a fortnight, flying from B'ham airport. We spent about £900 between us during the holiday in total.Prices in Corfu have shot up since Greece adopted the Euro 7e is worth around £5. Typical prices were: Local beer 2.4e Wine (per glass) 1.5e Fanta 1.6e Cocktails 3.0e English breakfast 3.0e Meals were not bad value 3.75e for a starter and main courses were around 7.50e on average. British beer was around 3.5e a pint. Would I go back to Roda again? Definitely, I may sound hyper critical but I enjoyed Roda a lot and would be glad to go back for another visit. I may even try the Kosmas 1 again but not without earplugs!