Hotel Platanista

Spent two weeks at the Platanista. From check in to check out was great. Staff on reception speak good English and were very friendly, room was average size, clean, newly refurbished, would benefit from a fridge instead of a mini bar, and tea and coffee making facilities which we missed for a four star hotel. Food in the restaurant was excellent with a good choice, majority of staff were very pleasant and polite and polite. You can have pool towels from the reception but there is a charge of 3 euro's a week but you can change them as often as you like. Safe behind the reception charge of 15 euro's a week. Spacious grounds, two large pools one with a jacuzzi and swim up bar, plenty of sunbeds, one umbrella for every two. Across a busy road to a good footpath that takes you into kos town, well lit at night and a pleasant walk ( approx 30 mins into Kos ) It's a change to walk through the marina on the way. Bus stop at the bottom of the road runs frequently. Beaches not very good, mainly shingle, there are areas of beach with sand where you can hire a sunbed and umbrella 5 euro's a day including 2 bottles of water. All in all a good holiday and will return.

Just back from a week staying at the Hotel Platanista - 15th to 22nd September. Below are the good and bad points........ Hotel Good Points ------------------------- Recently refurbished so everything looks new Very clean and well run hotel Helpful and friendly staff Activites arranged for most days...darts, keep fit, table tennis etc.. Two big pools with plenty of sun beds Air conditioning in the room works very well Hot water always available Room cleaned and maintained every day Hotel gardens are well maintained and kept clean The food laid on at the restaurant was varied and good The waiters in the restaurant were attentive and fast Hotel Bad Points ---------------------- You have to pay 14 euro per week for the use of a safety deposit box You have to pay 3 euros for the use of a pool towel for the duration of your stay The pool is not heated at all so can be cold when first getting into it ! There is not much located within the vicinity of the hotel The beach across the road from the hotel is horrible You have to pay additional 40 euros if you want to keep your room for longer on the day of leaving. The cost of drinks are a bit more expensive than walking to one of the local bars It is a 40 minute walk into Kos town Other Points ----------------- The bike car hire just outside of the hotel is great. Make sure you hire a go cart and quad bike....fantastic, fun way to get around the island. We went with Thomson and their rep was great. Always available for advice and to answer questions. We chose not to do any of the Thomson trips but hired the go cart/quad bike and did them ourselves..... cheaper and much better/more fun! Make sure you visit the hot springs...about 15 minute from the hotel by motor bike. Make sure you drive down to the spring and do not park at the top..it is a 400 meter walk down to the spring which I assume is a very horrible walk /climb back up afterwards in the heat. Tingaki beach is great. 6 euros for two sun beds/umbrella for the day. The beach is white sand and the sea is safe and shallow for a long way...no fish in the sea though ???? did not sea any fish while snorkelling ?? Pyli is a typical greek white housed village up in the mountains worth visiting with great views and shops selling local goods. Asklepion and Zia are worth a visiting as is Kos harbour in the eveining for a walk around all the shops, bars and restaurants. Kos airport.....people said this would be a nightmare..but other than being very busy with lots of poeple arriving or leaving the country...we found it very efficient. That's about it !! Hotel was great and I would recommend it. However, It is NOT a hotel for young people wanting loud music until the early hours of the morning with lots of noise and things going on. If you are looking for a well run, clean hotel without the 18-30 crowd...you cannot go wrong with the Platinista.

We only booked our holiday 2 weeks before we jetted out but we couldn't have had a better, more relaxing week in the sun. I'm five months pregnant so convenience and relaxation were top of our list of requirements. From when we first arrived at 3am to the minute we left staff were friendly but not over bearing.Room was clean and of a really high quality. We had a pool room which was literally 5 steps to the pool and same again to the beautiful terrace restaurant. Meals were high quality and queuing was minimal. Its location is perfect for Kos Town (only ten minutes by bus) Pool area is clean and well maintained with enough beds to go round with a quiet, relaxed feel during the day. The entertainment team were fun and polite and the program of events was just enough to keep you entertained without too much disturbance to guests who just want to chill out! Music at the bar finished about 11.45pm each night (and even before this time its not loud) giving all guests a chance to a good nights sleep before another day of relaxation! Would definatly recommend this holiday to families and couples alike.. You won't be disappointed!

We spent a week at the Platanista and enjoyed our stay a lot. The hotel is immaculately clean and the staff very friendly (although one of the ladies on reception would benefit from smiling now and again). They helped us rent bikes and also a car for a day. The food was excellent, way better than we had expected. There is a large breakfast and dinner buffet. The latter changes every day (apart from the choice of salads and fruit), so we never felt we had to choose from the same 3 pots, so to speak. The weather was exceptionally hot even for Greece during the week we were staying and the staff were very hard-working and coped very well. After the first 3 days the number of guests seemed to nearly double and as another reviewer before us mentioned, these were 'all - inclusive' guests, sporting unattractively labelling pink wristbands. The pool area became quite a bit louder due to all the families and at mealtimes there was a queue. Still it all worked out quite fine. There is an animation team working at / for the hotel. They were friendly and not too much 'in-your-face', so saying no thanks was easy for those of us not into the offered activities. The evening events were entertaining, but if you are under 30 yet over 18, you might want to head outside the hotel for the nightlife. The trip to the town of Kos took about 25 minutes on foot. You walk along the main road so it is not incredibly interesting after you have seen it once. Renting a bike or even car to go and explore the island is well worth the cost. Especially the beaches around Kardamena are worth a visit since there are way less people than at the other places. Book with ease & enjoy your stay!

I stayed at this hotel between 10th - 17th June 2007. Had a twin room, which has been newly renovated to a great quality and standard. There are 2 fantastic big pools, with Jacuzzi and lots of sun lounges. Also had immediate access to shingle beach at Psalidi, which is across the road and very quiet. The buffet food was excellent morning and night. The staff were exceptionally helpful and friendly. The pool barman and the evening entertainment team did an excellent job, in getting us into the spirit of things. Thoroughly recommend the Greek night, loads of fun if you like to dance. The local bus service to Kos Town is frequent and the 30 min walk is very picturesque at a slow pace. I thoroughly recommend a day trip to Tagaki and Paradise Beach too. Hourly bus services run from the bus station in centre of town and much cheaper than taxis - 1.60 euros each way. Also Lampi beach is good for water sports and Bar Street is main place for night life. Kos is a beautiful island and I will be returning to the same hotel in September. In a nut shell, a superb family run hotel with excellent facilities and fantastic staff.

We have just returned from our second holiday at The Platanista, this is a fantastic hotel in a great location not far from town, a short bus ride or 20 minute walk away. The staff at the hotel are extremely friendly and do all they can to help. All areas of the hotel are very clean and a lot of refurbishment work has been undertaken on rooms etc. the pool areas are also very good plenty of room and lots of sun beds. The food is very good particularly the breakfast. Just down the road from the hotel on the way to town is a really great bar called the Europe Cafe Bar, the staff here are fantastic and they have entertainment nightly and show English football on the big screen, the bar is right on the beach and the sunset from here is the best, cocktails are buy one get one free, what more could you ask for. We are thinking of making a return trip here in September its that good and the people in Kos are really friendly too it's the best Greek Island we have been to and the only one we have been to more than once.

My boyfriend and I ended up staying at the Platanista hotel after this was our hotel allocated on arrival when we did the Thomson price breakers deal, we new the names of the hotels we could be given so we had a rough idea what to expect. The hotel itself is lovely and the grounds are beautiful. Our room (459) was extremely clean and was a good size for the 2 of us. The reception staff were very helpful and spoke good English. The food became a bit 'samey' as we were there for 2 weeks, and the waiters can appear rude however every morning the chef makes fresh pancakes and waffles!! The pool area and entertainment team were excellent, there were a range of activities in the day time from water aerobics to bowls to water polo. Each night there was also fun entertainment on e.g. Comedy night, men vs women games etc. Well done to Macho and Tina who worked so hard!! We booked several excursions through our rep Yota who will do anything for you to make your holiday perfect. We went to 'bubble beach' which was excellent, 'Sunshine Cruise' where you stop off at 3 neighboring islands, this was amazing as you get to jump of the boat etc, 'Lido Water Park' which was empty so it meant no queuing and we went to 'Zia' a village in the mountains to a fabulous restaurant called Orome Don. It is the best place to see the sunset. Independently we visited the ruins in Kos town and the ruins of a hospital which you can get to by the blue train from Kos town, lastly we visited the thermal springs which are truly fascinating!(A bus comes every 15 minutes from the road 150m from the hotel). Thoroughly recommend Tingyaki beach which we went to twice, a bus does go there but we got a taxi. Very clear shallow water and white sand. There is also a good restaurant called 'Spitaki' near the marina which we ate at. We would recommend Kos to anyone as there is so much to do and see, the only thing we would worn you about is the amount of stray dogs and cats. Also at night time alot of children busk and beg, a little girl rubbed my back and then asked for money. Overall a superb holiday and the Platanista hotel is good place to stay and it fairly central.

We were allocated this hotel on arrival in Kos as part of a 4* Thomson Pricebreaker package. As one of 3 named hotels, we had researched it before booking and were delighted that it lived up to the generally favourable comments made by others. The hotel is found up a small road, about 150m off the main road Kos road and, hence, is very quiet with a mountain backdrop and views over the Turkish mainland. At 180 rooms, it is a medium sized hotel that had mainly UK and Italian guests with a mixture of Belgium, Dutch, Greek and a few Germans making up the cosmopolitan mix. During the day the hotel felt much smaller as most of the Italian guests (who were mainly couples) chose to leave the hotel. As a consequence, the poolside was never crowded and you could always find a sunbed either at the pool or in the grounds if you preferred. There was none of the “towels on the sunbed by 6am” syndrome so prevalent in other hotels. There is access to a small beach on the other side of the main road. We chose not to use it as, like most the coast line around Kos Town, the beach was pretty poor. You needed to travel further to the North and West of the Island to find the bigger and better beaches (e.g. we loved Paradise Beach). We were initially allocated rooms on the ground floor with a main thoroughfare outside our window and no views. We did not like the lack of privacy and light and asked to be moved. The hotel management were very accommodating and moved us to much better rooms with a mountain and sea view as well as a great sunset. Generally the hotel management were very responsive. They booked cars for us (at competitive prices) and the facility to rent towels cheaply (3 euros – changed as often as you like) for the 2 week period was useful. Generally, we were very pleased with the food. It is buffet style as always but there was a good variety of well cooked food that never felt too “samey”. We over ate. Initially the service was excellent. The waiters were relaxed, friendly and attentive. However, after about 5 days, a good number of the waiters and some of the guests became ill with gastro problems. We were not affected but the hotel struggled to staff the restaurant for about 5 days and the service, particularly at peak times, plummeted. It could take up to 20 minutes to get a drink with your meal. The waiters that were left were brilliant though and worked really hard. The service did return to normal for the last few days of our holiday. We very much enjoyed work of the Animation team made up of Michaela, Tina and Matt. They engaged with the guests both in and out of work and our 2 teenage daughters had a great time mixing with the team and other guests. Everyone was very friendly and joined in. As a consequence, there was a lot of good humour and familiarity between the guests that gave the hotel a great atmosphere. Perhaps we were lucky with our fellow guests, but we had a really fun time and the girls made some great friends. Overall, we had a very enjoyable stay at the Hotel Platanista. We wanted a relaxing and fun time and, despite a few niggles, we got it.

We stayed at the Hotel Platanista in late May 2006. It is really lovely, airy, exceptionally clean and with a quiet atmosphere. We found the food particularly good and the staff very efficient and helpful. There are awards on the wall behind reception going back years and years from various tour operators who have been using and praising the hotel for a long time. I think you can book with confidence! Have a good time! This holiday in Kos was one of the best we have been on.

If you want a quiet and relaxing hotel then the Hotel Platinista is for you . Very good pool area where you can always get a sunbed . Most of staff very friendly and helpful . Everywhere very clean and maid service excellent . Food very good in general but sometimes choice a bit limited and predictable . However probabley due to the fact that most guests are 50+ of different nationalities . Although outside Kos town frequent bus service or easy to walk in 30 minutes maximum . Not near what you would call a beach . Would have to have a very vivid imagination to describe near by rocky bathing areas as a beach . Would say that evening entertainment is very limited and exclusively for those 50+. Staff do their best to get people to participate in events without ever being over bearing . If you are 50 + and want a quiet and relaxing holiday in a very comfortable hotel then ideal . If like me 40 + independant type is an ideal comfortable base that is relaxing when you fell like doing nothing . If young and lively with children then would be unsuitable . If I was to stay in Kos again I would stay in the Hotel Platinista because if standards remained the same I would have another good holiday .