Halkidiki Palace Hotel

4 readers found this review helpful

Our 8th year at the Halkidiki Palace 15th year with the Papaterpos family. We have been visiting this hotel since our daughter was born & would recommend it to people with small children. The hotel is lovely, always home from home. The family always welcome us & make us feel part of them.
Swimming in the pool is always a pleasure & loved by all children & adults. The hotel is spotlessly clean & nothing is too much trouble.
The food in the restaurant is exceptional. A standard choice of about 10 items plus 2 traditional choices for the more discerning visitor. That's a 4 course meal for only 9 euros. The food on greek night (at the sister hotel the Hilltop) is really nice. The greek night is always fantastic with traditional music followed by a disco.
There is a short walk to the beach but not too far. The beach is always quiet even in July! We like it to be quiet although if you prefer a busier beach there is the main beach in Hanioti or use the sunbeds at the Alexander the Great down the road from the hotel.
We will definitely be back next year - if we won the lottery we would be back sooner!! I would recommend this hotel to anyone - unless you prefer Blackpool!! We are part of a group of 18 people who are repeat visitors & have been for a number of years. We are only friends because of the Papaterpos family!!!

A pleasant 20-30 min walk to reach bars and restaurants, not for us it wasn't. To actually make the walk you had to cross and walk approx 250 yards down a major (and I mean MAJOR) road. You then dropped on to the beach road (bins,abandoned toilets and not a lot else)
The Thomson 'schpiel' said you may have slight road noise and that was all it said. If we'd have had small children there is NO way I would have been able to relax by the pool.
To get to the beach you had to cross the afore mentioned 'trunk road', you then stepped on to a beach which was shingle, totally deserted and when we went..............littered.
The hotel itself was....different. The room was fine, the bar and restuarant(apart from the flies on uncovered food), was fine apart from the note on all tables saying:
do not enter bar or restaurant wet
do not sit on chairs with suncream on
do not put your feet on the table
do not recline!!!
and do not eat or drink in your room (then why advertise fridges for hire at a cost??)
Don't get me wrong no way would I do most of the above, I respect others home as I would my own but to meet people (after we'd moved to another hotel) that actually hid wine etc in their rooms I have to ask myself, 'Is this a holiday???'
Thankfully we were able to move (at a cost, which we are disputing) but be aware if you use the 'courtesy' bus to go to Polichrono or Hanioti it will cost you....
All in all don't bother...........................

We chose this hotel because on the Thomson website, it had very high recommendations. Transfer time to hotel from airport was about 1.5 hours and on arrival the hotel owner got everyone seated in lounge and gave a lecture about the basics of the hotel, location, mini bus service and meals - which was appreciated. He is quite a character but you get back what you give out – we found him very helpful and he arranged us excellent car hire rates for example Thomson/Europcar was E260 for 4 days – he arranged us Citroen C3 via Sun Cars for E147 for 4 days. Big saving.
Remember that tour operators use a wide angle camera for their websites and brochures and take pictures from the best angles. The pool is no where near as big as the picture suggests.
You have to ask at the desk and pay separately for a fridge in the room and also pay for safety deposit – but both costs are reasonable. The bar is good, it serves excellent coffee and there is a very good library, a games room (huge range of board games only) and internet facility.
The hotel runs a regular mini bus service to Hanioti at Euro 13 per room per week, which is good value. But both Hanioti and Polichrono are just a pleasant 30 minutes walk along a quiet beach road in each direction. The beach (accessed via a rough track between the beach road villa’s and the Alexander the Great beach bar) is fabulous. You almost have a mile of empty beach to choose from, which make a huge difference from the packed beached in Hanioti and Polichrono.
The room we were allocated (207 in main block) was small but clean and had a good pool /side sea view. Beds are comfortable and pillows are the best I have ever encountered in any Mediterranean hotel. Maid service is excellent. Hairdryer in room is good. Wardrobe is good size and has loads of hangers, but drawer space in room is limited. Balcony is very good size and also has ‘airers’ installed for each room to dry beach towels and clothes (about 4-5 bars).
Bathroom is small and my only gripe was that the narrow bath was about 3 foot long and one of these ‘seat’ versions. Therefore shower has to be used with caution. I am only 5 foot 6 and normal build yet found the bath very difficult to get in and out of – an elderly or infirm person would find the bath and shower impossible to use. No hand rails are installed either. The other strange thing is that, although wheelchair access to the hotel and main areas is good – there was a step up to the bathroom.
The dining room is arranged so that two rooms share each table (like being on a cruise – it forces you to talk and mix with other guests) and you have to be ready for dinner at 7pm – as everything is cooked to order.
If you are not half board (just bed and breakfast) you can pay at the door for an evening meal – and it is so cheap – about E7.50 per person for a three course meal. This saves a ½ hour walk into the nearest town to eat (or limited mini bus times) – but beware.
Breakfasts are fine – but you have to like eggs if you want anything hot. The buffet is cereals, yogurt and honey, toast, rolls, jams, chocolate spread, cake, cheese, hams, tea, coffee and orange squash. Then we have the hot stuff - cook/waiter served eggs mostly - in many disguises. Fried eggs on bread, eggy bread, scrambled eggs on bread, cheese and ham toasties, fried eggs with scraps of bacon on bread etc and only a choice of one each day. Breakfast is served late (from 9am) but get down at 8.30 as it is open and not so busy then.
The food in the evening is the only let down – you have to order the evening meals by 2pm each day from a list of 2 specials and about 12 regular dishes. They prefer you to order at breakfast time – but you can delay until 2pm.
Starters (buffet style) are a soup of the day – actually these are quite good, or salad. The salad is a mix of only three dishes and it is not great.
As to main evening meal (waiter service) Forget about vegetables here – they are chips, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes and a tablespoon of rice. I could not eat the Mousakka nor the chicken in hollandaise sauce - I nearly threw up. For the chicken think of half a plate of large KFC crispy strips bashed thin and then covered with a ½ pint of egg sauce, served with roast potatoes. Several people returned meals to the kitchen during the week we were there, or just declined to eat them. Apart from the specials the rest of the menu is the normal café fare of chips with anything. Vegetarians/Vegans would have a problem here.
Desert is certainly unusual, very small portions and you have no choice – only one item each day, so there is only take it or leave it. One night it was just ‘grapes’, another night honey cake, another lemon cake, cold rice pudding, chocolate ice cream scoop on a piece of cake etc. The hotel does not let you take in any food from the outside.
I cannot fault the friendliness of the hotel and it offers an excellent calm base from which to explore both Kassandra and Sithonia by car. Roads are excellent. It also would be excellent for those seeking a get away from it all beach based holiday with no pumping music etc and yet all of that is nearby if wanted. The only let downs are the awkward bath/shower – and the food. I have stayed in other three star half board hotels in Greece (islands) which have had far better food. But considering that a half decent ‘main course only’ at any restaurant will set you back around Euro 6 minimum – the half board charges here are VERY cheap.

Overall, it was a really nice hotel. The staff were all friendly, the rooms were clean and because the hotel's quite small, people got to know each other quite well. The hotel seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, the nearest towns in either direction are about 30mins away - to walk that is. However, taxis were easy enough to get and the hotel offered a shuttle bus that ran into the neighbouring town of Hanioti.
My only real complaint was the food. The toast at breakfast was as hard as the plates they were served on and the meat served at dinner was questionable (one night we ordered turkey and it could only be described as a cheap version of spam). But that aside, I would recommend it!!

A great place for a relaxing break. Yes the hotel is out of the main town but it is a lovely walk which only takes twenty minutes at a slow pace!
All areas of the hotel are spotless and rooms cleaned every day, towels changed twice in a week.
The food is of a good standard, quite traditional. All of the staff are friendly in this family run accommodation.
The pool is a good size and very clean and there is a lovely private beach area two minutes away!
A fab place for total relaxation!