Marilena Hotel

Visually this hotel looks good, especially the lobby. As far as I am led to believe it has been renovated for a few years now.
The rooms are not bad either, always clean, nice an modern, however there were some problems with the air conditioning, which for me was bad as I cant sleep when dripping with sweat. But more importantly is there lack of individuals who can fix or at least come and help you with it.
We went all inclusive, as did, well, everyone else it seemed. It looks as though the whole hotel is all inclusive, maybe due to the reasonable price it offered. But, you didn't really get much bang for your buck. All inclusive really means free food and drink, which you got I suppose, but the food lacked variety and is probably more catered towards the German holiday makers, so if you come from Germany you may like the food. The local free drink provided was poor and I genuinely questioned the level of alcohol in it. We ended up buying our own spirits and mixer and just sitting in the bar area. Another point worth mentioning is that there is only ever one bar maid on at night, and its unlikely to change anytime soon, this as you can imagine caused problems when waiting to get served.
During the day however the pool bar/snack bar was open, some how the beer and drinks tasted better there, but maybe it was down to the several smiling, attractive bar staff that manned it. The service was excellent and they also do lunchtime snacks, like omelets, chips, salads, you have to pay but were talking 4 euros max, and I personally had no problem paying and if the proprietor ever read this they would be wise to take note. People would rather pay for the quality I think.......
There is no entertainment, which was fine I suppose, however the travel agents supplying the venue are led to believe there is, then a letter is sent saying there is none. This wasn't a problem personally, we enjoyed going out at night around all the shops and enjoying each others company. Some of the surrounding hotels do entertainment, so you could probably head over there, whether there would be an entry fee is unknown. We had a small child and probably could of benefited from some kind of play area. There is a local bar just east of the hotel, Marios Pit Stop, he does excellent cocktails and has a large area to play with lots of toys, some old ones but effective none the less, he also has free wifi........
The beach is a hop, skip and a jump away and literally littered with bars and sun loungers, that's a good thing, there are open sand areas, but emphasizing that you can go for a beer and food and lie in the sun all day is important. Its one of the only holidays I have been on were the beach as a daily visit is really good.
Over all its was a reasonable stay at the Marilena, the area is lovely and the people are really friendly, so friendly in fact that I would look forward to returning to see them.

Most of the staff were helpful and pleasant - a big thank you to Katerina in the poolside bar and to Soula in the restaurant who both made you feel welcome. The rooms were cleaned daily with fresh sheets each day. All areas of the hotel were very clean and tidy. The childrens' play area was very basic but there was table tennis and a basketball court. The pool was cleaned every day and the surrounding tiles were pressure-washed during our stay. Both the poolside bar and the outside area of the hotel bar only had a canvas cover. When it rained everything got wet. The food was reasonable, bearing in mind that they were catering for British,Italian, French, Dutch, German,Russian and Czech tourists. The brochure said entertainment, there was none except for background music. Most signs were only in Greek. Most staff were multilingual.

1 reader found this review helpful

Good things:
The rooms are wonderful, the air conditioning is fab, we had a lovely sea view, had no problems with neighbours and they were cleaned reguarly.
The staff at dinner, and day time reception are friendly and will do anything to help.
The beach is wonderful, apart from risk of the sea things which if you stand on can be extremely painful.
However,
The pool was filthy, there was an oil/grease mark round the pool and was evident it hadnt been cleaned in god knows how long. It was constantly full of sand, and the area around the pool wasnt cleaned either. Towels were left on sunbeds for days and over night and they were not removed.
The breakfast is shocking. Half of it consists of salad, there is no toast, bacon, cheese etc.
Lunch is not much better, there is not much choice, again, half is salad, and everything is either egg or covered in cheese practically.
Tea is honestly not much better, choice is pathetic, and food is often cold. Ran out of plates countless times and desert was often the same and covered in flies.
'Snacks' consisted of a dry bread roll if you was lucky, and cake was madeira without fail, left open on the side of the bar free for any insects to go on. Coffee was almost impossible to get.
To say the staff at the bar took their time to serve would be an understatement of the century, and the barwoman at the main bar had atrocious manners to be frank. On average between about 7 and 9o'clock, it would take around 20 minutes or more to get drinks with only about 5 or 6 people in front of you. We were told off for forgetting drinks, or asking for sugar.
The internet facilities were a rip off, and four times dearer than most places in ammoudara.
Many people were made to checkout of their room hours and hours before leaving, some 17 hours.
The rep failed to do her job, and was not interested in anything either of us wanted to say.
The hotel is fine if you are room only, breakfast or even half board, I would not recommend all inclusive here.

My partner and I, both 26, travelled to Amoudara and the Marilena hotel on the 15-29 June 2010. The hotel itself was very modern, with excellent room facilities. Having booked HB the only downside was the price of the drinks, extremely overpriced. According to other holiday makers the AI was good, however the bar was always extremely overcrowded with only one staff member working.
The staff at the hotel were lovely, and work so hard for 12 hour days. The hotel itself had very little English speaking tourists, and many of them rude with poor manners. My suggestions would be to be early for breakfast and dinner due to greedy guests with no consideration of others.
Amoudara was nice, but had very little to do in the evening. The hotel also did not have any entertainment, which would have annoyed us more if we had been AI. The beach was lovely, with a nice breeze to keep you cool.
I would recommend going to a livelier resort, or hiring a car.
Try the Knossos excursion - we did it for 6euro, compared to Thomas cook who were charging 30euro pp!
Overall a nice hotel experience, food lovely, pleasant staff, modern decor, wifi access, large pool and 5 min walk to beach.

We arrived at the hotel at two in the morning with three kids one of only 7 months. When showed to our room there was 4 beds all pushed together from one wall to the next. We could not open the door to the balcony. No cot for baby that had been requested, when I asked for a cot they said they had no spare ones available. Eventually a cot arrived but with no mattress. My wife was in tears we had saved all year for this holiday. After 3 days we got moved to another room which was bigger but could not go on balcony because railings were rotten not fixed to floor and had spindles missing. The staff were very rude there attitude was find another hotel. Food was poor, drinks hard to get at bar. We did end up having a good holiday because we met some good friends, all of them with stories to tell about the Hotel Marilena.