More Traveller Reviews of Iberostar Plagos Beach
Lovely with a couple of caveats!
from Susie-Lincs
We visited Plagos Beach earlier this month and overall, the hotel was good. The staff (with the excpetion of a barman who complains at Olympic levels) were lovely, helpful and very efficient. We stayed all inclusive and the selection and quality of food available was very good. The pool and surrounding area is good and there was never any need for sunbed wars. The hotel is seperated into the main building which houses the reception, lobby, bar and restaurant with several seperate blocks of rooms around it. There were quite a few steps for us as the superior rooms are on the sea front and furthest away from the main buiding. This didn't concern us but if you have mobility problems, don't book superior. The entertainment staff at the hotel were exceptional and managed to cater for the wide variety of age groups staying at the hotel. They are very warm and friendly. All of this said, there are a couple of things to watch out for: 1 Superior Rooms - Whilst they do have a very good sea view, the rooms are quite shabby and it is a stretch to call them superior. We learned while we were there that all of the standard rooms have recently been renovated but the superior rooms had not and would benefit from a re-fit. Also, although they are sold as being slightly larger, ours had a double bed and a single bed in it so there was not much room at all. 2 Toilets In the Main Hotel - These are grim! They smell very bad and could do with the same overhaul as the superior rooms. 3 Zakynthos Airport - When you arrive, you go through the new airport and all is well. However, when you leave, you depart from the old airport which, at best, I would call an experience. It is only because of the various reps that there is any organisation at all and they do a very good job of keeping things moving. You queue outside (mostly under shade) with your cases and are brought into the check in area about ten at a time. There were two check in desks running when we were there and it is a slow process. Once you have checked in, you are sent back outside to a second queue to go through passport control. There is only one and these queue takes a very long time indeed. Once in the departure lounge, there are v expensive refreshments and duty free (cigs etc as cheap in duty free as in the shops) is not bad but there are too many people and not enough room or seats. Also the toilets in the airport are astonishingly bad. I have tried to be fair and give the good with the bad. if you have booked, I hope have a lovely time. The bit about the airport is to prepare you - nothing is too bad if you know what to expect. If you are planning to book, I wouldn't book through 1st Choice again as their trips were more expensive than the other tour operators and the reps themselves were not great.
Relaxing Holiday
from WestyCheltenham
10 of my family went in half term age ranges from7 - 70! We had a lovely relaxing time. The food was good the hotel clean and the weather excellent. Plenty of sunbeds and plenty of umbrellas and shade provided which we found very useful. One of party is disabled. The hotel is not the best hotel for someone with mobility problems - and if you do have some trouble getting may be give this hotel a miss as the paths are not always even quite a few stairs and not all staircases have hand rails. The hotel staff though were fantastic and even had hand rails fitted to a staircase near my mothers room on the first day of our holiday!
Loved Zante, hated the airport!
from NottinghamPoppet
My partner & I had 2 lovely weeks here in May. The hotel was just as we expected it to be. Lovely quiet location. We had no trouble getting a sun bed at any time of the day, either around the pool or on the grassed area facing the sea (where it was especially peaceful). There is no beach directly in front of the hotel but there is a jetty to enter the sea for a dip! A little trek across a few rocks brings you to a lovely quiet little beach where sunbeds are available for only 4 euro all day! Our room was really nice & spacious(we booked superior room)and was kept lovely and clean throughout our stay. The food was better than we expected. Evening meals ther was loads of choice for even the fussiest eater. We always found something nice to have for lunch although choice was more limited but salads, pasta, meat & fish were always available. The waiters were great, helpful and attentive. As for the bar staff - they made every evening enjoyable, they were such great fun and really looked after you. The entertainment team tried there very best to do just that - entertain you! There was always something going on in the day but if you did not wish to join in there was no pressure. In the evening they tried very hard and put a show of some kind on every night - it was never boring! We definitely did not want to go home! All in all we found this a great value holiday. Zante is a beautiful island but until something is done about the awful airport we will not be going back! I had read the reports but it was worse than I ever imagined! Such a shame!
Great Hotel if you want to relax
from Whites2088
We stayed at Plagos Beach for 2 weeks at the start of June 2007. We were most impressed by the staff who were very helpful. We stayed on an all inclusive basis which was great. The hotel is alittle isolated but great if you like a relaxing holiday. The food was good although some things were repeated. Try the milkshakes from the pool bar they were pure heaven. There are Saga guests staying at the hotel but we found them quite friendly. The only negative points would be no beach and there is not very much sound proofing between the rooms. I would request a high storey room to cut down on noise. The animation team tried very hard but the shows were alittle strange! I would recommend this hotel for families with young children and couples. Zante airport is awful but worth putting up with for a lovely holiday
nice hotel nightmare airport
from BlackpoolTourist01
Just returned from the hotel today the hotel it's self is very pleasent we had a sea view room which was very nice and great value for money.All rooms are very clean and kept to a high standard complete with robes slippers and all the trimmings. The food is well cooked but nothing ever seemed to go together to make a proper meal and for a hotel of this standard the choice is very limited and while the entertainment team did there best it's not what you can call gripping we went out every night not what you expect on an all inclusive. All the staff are very polite and helpful in every way the only downside is you are about a 30 minute walk away from the small village of Tsilivi it costs 7 euros each way in a taxi from the hotel and theres not a great deal going on when you get there.The hotel caterers for a large number of saga guests that are not what you can call over friendly and don't seem to take to kindly to anyone else been there. The worst part of the holiday is your trip back from Zante airport the place is a nightmare be prepared from standing around for hours mostly outside as there are only 2 check in desks when you get into the depature lounge there are know where near enough seats and you are all crammed in like cattle and whatever you do take food and drink with you there is a small snack bar in there nothing has a price on it we ended up paying 20 euros for 2 stale sandwiches and 2 small cokes.To sum up the hotel we could not fault great the island there's very little to see or do and the airport well i'm pretty much speechless i've never seen anything like it in my life.Needless to say this was our first and last visit to Zante.
Great place to relax
from Freddie47
Stayed for a week across end of September, beginning October. Our room was a Superior with Sea view, and looked directly onto grassed area with Sunbeds, with the sea beyond. Room and public areas nicely decorated, and kept spotlessly clean. All staff, from Reception to Restaurant and places between, were friendly and helpful. Being near the end of the season, we had no problems reserving sunbeds, and generally being able to relax. Suspect things might be very different in high season. Plenty to choose from at breakfast time , and starters for evening meal. The dessert display was a cornucopia of delight. But we found the main courses repetitive: pork and chicken featured prominently. This isn't the place to come if you are a Night Owl: Tsilivi would be a better choice for those who want 'Boom, Boom!' To eat out, walk to the Amboula Restaurant above the beach, fabulous food, friendly owner. Great value for money, too. If you don't mind the poor signposting, hire a car: makes it possible to see far more than organised trips offer. Don't miss the famous shipwreck over on the west coast: the sea is a shade of blue to take your breath away.
wow! what an amazing hotel!!
from wezzie_lass
wow! this hotel is by far one of the best ive stayed in! as soon as you arrive it looks incredible with an amazing reception and all the staff are very helpful they couldnt do enough! the animation team were amazing and martin is hilarious! probably not the best hotel to visit if you have teenagers as it is a bit out of the way and not alot for them to do but other than that it is an absolutely amazing hotel and definately worth a visit! the food is amazing with such a wide choice there is something for everyone and as for the food at lunch time been covered with flies this is untrue there are a few flies and wasps flying around but what can you expect?? and they are never all over the food!! definately one of the best holidays ive ever had and probably will have definately worth a visit!
Great place
from A TripAdvisor Member
Stayed at the Plagos for the first week in June and was very impressed.All of the staff were fantastic and the whole atmosphere was relaxed and friendly.The hotel is well laid out,well maintained and is in a peacefull location.As has been mentioned the entertainment on site is low key but this suited us.The food and drink was of a very high standard with more than enough variety to please everyone.On a previous review it was stated that the lunchtime food was fly covered leftovers.Not only was this untrue i watched every member of staff,including the the managers,eat the same food as the guests in the pool bar at lunchtimes.We had family staying in Alikes at the same time - they were so impressed when they paid us a visit that they want to book the hotel later this year for a birthday treat.Definately on my list of places to pay a second visit.
Great Hotel
from A TripAdvisor Member
Our party had 4 adults and 3 children ,we were slightly worried about what may greet us due to some of the reviews which are on here. Well from the moment we arrived till we left we could not really fault anything apart from the odd cloud but hey you cant control the weather!!!. The rooms where great everything that you need ,the pool was fantastic, the entertainment was a little low key but like most people we just wanted to relax and chillout. The food was of good quality if a bit reptative by the end of our stay, the staff could not do enough for you they where extremley good with the children. We went on this holiday on the all inclusive basis and we thought it was fantastic value for money even the house lager Lawnbrau. Overall a great holiday and we would not hesitate to go back .
Don't expect a beach!
from A TripAdvisor Member
We stayed in the Plagos beach hotel in August 2005 and although generally happy I would not describe the hotel as a 4* more like 3*. All of the staff were very friendly & helpful, couldn't have been better. The food wasn't fantastic, pretty much the same kind of food everyday and your evening meal seemed to consist of some of the food served at lunch at the pool bar which is by the way fully exposed to the flies! We paid extra for a sea view room and when we arrived found that our balcony faced another block of rooms and we could only see the sea if we looked across to the left and even then you could only see the water, no view of the beach etc as they didn't have one as advised in the brochure which stated 'the hotel is located on a quiet stretch of beach', basically if you follow the path down from the hotel you will reach some rocks and a wooden pier and that's it, no sandy beach, just rocks! We stayed all inclusive which was really good, weve been to other all inclusives where you can only get your own drinks etc but they were really relaxed about it here and we quite easily took it in turns to get rounds of drinks with friends we made. The entertainment was our main problem, the hotel is a little bit out the way from bars etc and unless you wanted to pay for a taxi to go into Tsilivi town (which is abit 'blackpooly'!) the only entertainment they had at the hotel was the children's animation team which ended around 10pm, it would have been nice if they had a bar with atleast some music but there wasn't really anything for the adults. We found straight away that the only way that we could get a sun bed was by setting the alarm for 6:30am to put our towels on a couple of beds, any later than that and you don't stand a chance!!! Overall we had a very good holiday but I think the hotel needs to have more entertainment especially with being out of town.
More hotel photos
went in sept hotel was great food fantastic great entertainment at night and day round pool ian and anita were fantastic at there jobs trying to get every doing things all staff very friendley ian was esp good at kissey kissey would recomend this hotel to any one trev