Sophia Apartments

5 readers found this review helpful

Just returned from the Sophia apartments after 2 fabulous weeks. The rooms are the cleanest you will get, towels and bedding immaculate, take your own tea towels.
so peaceful except for the dog next door and the cockerel waking you up every morning. We were delighted with the location and would highly recommend the Sophia for a chill out holiday for couples, nothing much for kids though. The Dinos is a 2 minute walk away and you can use the pool there, this hotel is again spotless and the staff are lovely. The beach and town centre and minutes away.
The Manos rep is next to useless, and is never there when she says, always an hour before according to her, many complaints about her. Luckily we did not need her assistance.
Buses to Zante town are cheap but unreliable, from Zante bus station you can get around the island, we went to Laganas for the day with no problems at all.
This was our first holiday in Zante but would definately go back and would pick the Sophia without hesitation.

6 readers found this review helpful

During our stay, we found the Sophia to be a basic but well maintained, peaceful apartment, only a short walk from a nice beach, small supermarket and town centre. Val (who stated that she was the cleaner) was in fact more than that and she kept a kindly but firm eye on everyone and everything, seven days a week. She cleaned the apartments and changed the beds/towels regularly, collected the rubbish daily and made sure there was always a supply of toilet rolls! The only negative points were that the cooking facilities very limited (Hob but no oven, few dishes, not even a vegetable knife and pans that had seen better days) I only mention this because the apartment is classed as self catering and not everyone wants to or can afford to eat out every day! The shower room was very compact and can't say I liked the fabric shower curtain or the broken shower head very much! We had to pay extra for air conditioning (Fans not permitted) and had to pay for a safe, which should be included.
We didn't want to spend two weeks just lazing on our local beach so decided to hire a car. It was a great experience and toured the whole island and finding lots of lovely beaches, views and restaurants. It was lovely to drive through the deliciously scented pine forests in the North, with the hot summer air blowing through our hair and to stop at a relatively quiet beach, swim in the clear, warm water, breathing in the salty unpolluted air. Though beware of the Caretta-Caretta turtle beach road that ends up at Dafni Beach in the Gulf of Laganas. It is no more than a very dusty track that twists and turns alarmingly down a steep hillside...To which once committed, there is no turning back! However,once you have recovered from the hair raising journey, the beach is well worth the effort, we were there for nine o-clock, when we had the choice of covered sun beds and were lucky to see a baby turtle, which had just hatched. In the summer, the beach is constantly patrolled by members of the society for the protection of the caretta-caretta. One of them found the baby turtle trying to make it's way to the water at the wrong time of day so she picked it up and put it back in the nest (Which are protected by a sort of metal cage)
Going back to car hire, in general, wherever you drive, be careful. You will need eyes in the back of your head and it's almost a matter of first come first served, along with high speed manoeuvres, quite often punctuated with a lot of shouting and it appears perfectly normal to stop suddenly as long as you put your hazzards on...
We did find that while most people were very polite and reasonably helpful, some were very rude and just didn't like the 'Tourist' Generally everything quite expensive. There were also some lovely people. We found that if you try to speak some Greek, even if it's just please or thank you, people seem to open up and we even got complimentary fruit in one restaurant and special fried bread in another for our efforts!
We enjoyed stopping at the bakery, which sells lots of creamy and delicious cakes. We are now addicted to spinach pies...Not good for the waistline!
Unfortunately the disposal of household waste seems to be a problem and while we were there, sewerage leaked out onto the road several times, which was rather stinky!
My Daughter got upset because we kept finding animals that were tied up in hot fields with no water or cover. Her long suffering husband climbed down a steep slope, braving long grass, prickles and possible snakes to give a goat with a very dry throat some water. We don't know how long it had been there tied to a small stick. A group from out apartment were upset because some horses were in a hot field all day with no water or shade, however one of these people got badly kicked while giving them water. Probably these animals are used to this way of life and we should not interfere?
All in all, we had a fantastic holiday and as I look out a our grey, wet and chilly British weather, can't wait to book next years summer break...Most definately somewhere in Greece.

3 readers found this review helpful

we recently stayed at the Sophia and we couldn't have asked for a better location and apartment!It was really clean and we were well looked after by Val! we liked it so much we are going to go back next year!!

4 readers found this review helpful

Have been to Tsilivi on 4 occasions stayed at Tsilivi beach hotel and the hotel up the mountain they don’t compare to the Sophia in any way really.
Peaceful so clean and friendly I will be back 21/6/07, can’t wait please give it a try you won’t be disappointed.