Marmari Palace Hotel, Mastihari, Kos
Hotel Information
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Hotel Description:
This hotel is a brand new five-star complex located in the area of Mastichari and right on the beach. The design and architecture is outstanding, and gives the appearance of a small village. It was built in 2004 in stunning Aegean design, and occupies 50,000 square meters overlooking the sea. There are main buildings, plus bungalows built in villa-style, and all are beautifully set amid lovely landscaped gardens, with an outstanding 5,000 square meter swimming pool. loading...
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Marmari Palace Hotel Reviews
" Marmari Palace 2007 - 15th August to... "
Submitted By: Mr M Taylor
Marmari Palace 2007 - 15th August to 29th August
Our second visit to the Marmari Palace, the first being in 2005 and the year after it first opened. Needless to say we were impressed with the holiday in 2005, and decided to return.
This time we chose "all inclusive" and a "suite" rather than a double room. Booking through YouTravel, we found a good price for the suite, noticing that the suite was cheaper than the junior suite.
The room:
Our suite allocated at the hotel was in fact a junior suite (perhaps no surprise) - spacious, two rooms plus bathroom. Our daughter’s bed was the sofa in the living room area with sheets thrown over. Both areas had independent air conditioning units.
The decor was good. Half way through the holiday we found a kettle and coffee/tea delivered to the room. We were not sure why, and assumed it was based on other guest comment that Deluxe 5* hotels usually supplied this. There was no water supplied with it, and we were a little bemused as this meant we would have to buy water to use it.
All inclusive: (AI) actually included free tea / filter coffee from all bars at all times and a kettle therefore seemed a little superfluous. The next day (about day 8), wine/water, and fruit appeared. A fine chance to try out the kettle, and we did. The two milks gone in the first two cups, and finding that new supplies did not materialise in coming days, we returned to the bars, where the coffee was in fact much better anyway!
Wine was also free on AI form all bars and the wine too seemed an unusual "gift" in the room therefore.
The pool area:
This is the hotel's great forte. The expanse of pools is enormous. They are fresh water. They are very clean and there is plenty of space for sunbeds and ample sunbeds for all guests. There are four bars from which drinks can be purchased during the day and at some, snacks, and meals (Not AI). The beach bar doubles as the specialist restaurant.
A very nice touch is the delivery of a small plate of fresh fruit to those around the pools each morning at about 11:00.
The Beach:
The beach is sandy, with just a few pebbles as you enter the sea. It is literally the next thing after the many pools that stretch from the main Hotel building down between the rows of bungalow style rooms on each side.
On both visits the sea has had periods of being fairly rough, as high winds can appear, but usually only lasts for a day or two. On our first visit (2005) the sea was spoilt with large amounts of seaweed in it. In 2007 there was none to be found and swimming in the sea was a daily activity.
For some reason the hotel choose to charge 3 Euros/day for each sunbed on the beach. We didn't use them therefore. There are no water sports in the vicinity, but sailing etc. did seem to be available from further down the beach to Marmari – but perhaps too far to walk, certainly for us in the heat of the day.
Sunsets are stunning, looking out over the sea to the island of Kalymnos.
Restaurant(s):
There is one main restaurant where AI breakfast, lunch and dinner is served. It is buffet style. All can be taken on the terrace overlooking the pools and looking out to sea and Kalymnos. Breakfast choice is extensive, but the “cooked breakfast” was not to our liking: fried eggs seemed to be sitting around for a while.
Lunch for AI was a slightly unusual affair. A reasonable but repetitive salad bar similar to that at dinner was followed by a mainly pasta main course every day. On occasions and if timing was right some meat / fish dish might be available, and rarely, chips (odd as chips even appeared at breakfast!). For desert there was always a choice of 4 flavours of ice cream and 3 or 4 local Greek deserts.
Dinner was similar to lunch (salad and dessert) except the main course choice was far greater and rather more varied, although we have experienced much greater variety and choice at other hotels. AI/HB guests are given a 12 Euro contribution towards a specialist evening meal at this restaurant when they forego their AI evening meal in its preference.
Drinks:
A wide variety of drinks/cocktails are available, and are reasonably priced. The hotel owner also owns a vineyard and perhaps not surprisingly the wine (rose/red/white) are pretty well limited to wine from this.
AI:
...Or not? I suppose that this was the biggest area of disappointment. There seemed to be little that was actually AI. Our recollection of the 2005 visit suggests that the inclusions have diminished greatly.
Firstly the lunch buffet was, as mentioned above, virtually the same every day and based on pasta. The drinks that you could get were limited to Ouzo, local brandy (NOT even Metaxa), beer, wine (of course as this is produced from their own vineyard) and fizzy drinks from the mixer machines.
In our opinion not a huge choice and minimalist compared to other AI hotels. Again, sunbeds on the beach were not AI. The bar in the specialist restaurant (near our room) stops being AI at 18:00 – interestingly when I discovered this by asking for a glass of wine one evening, the manager who happened to be sitting in the room noticed my annoyance at being asked to pay, and then declining the drink, and chased after me to insist I have a free drink of anything I liked!
Ice cream from a tub was available from 16:00-17:00 but only from and if you were sitting around the “Pool Bar.” Sunbeds on the beach are 3 Euros each.
Entertainment:
An Animation team organized activities during the day – volley ball, water polo, Boccia etc. -, and put on shows at night – sketches, bingo, music quiz, etc.. - And there were some outside entertainers brought in too – Paris Dancers. The team also ran the mini club.
The surrounding area:
The Marmari Palace is not in a "town" location. Hotels to left and right, and a small restaurant over the road could be the most accurate description. However the only two other neighbours are well worth a mention.
In easy walking distance (5 mins along beach or road) is the Tam Tam Restaurant and beach which is well thought of and worth a visit - particularly for a sunset meal. A recent addition is the new water park or Lido, perhaps less than 5 minutes walk away, which is clean and has many different water slides suiting all levels, plus a huge wave pool and "lazy river". Entry 17 Euros per adult/day.
Food/drink is not allowed to be taken into the water park, but there is ample opportunity to buy this inside at reasonable prices.
Overall:
The overall standard seemed to have declined since 2005. The attention to detail, customer focus, and congeniality of staff seemed to have diminished. It is still a lovely hotel and great holiday and knowing what is not going to be included in AI and what to expect would avoid any disappointment of finding out first hand that some things that you would reasonably expect to be provided are not.
Our second visit to the Marmari Palace, the first being in 2005 and the year after it first opened. Needless to say we were impressed with the holiday in 2005, and decided to return.
This time we chose "all inclusive" and a "suite" rather than a double room. Booking through YouTravel, we found a good price for the suite, noticing that the suite was cheaper than the junior suite.
The room:
Our suite allocated at the hotel was in fact a junior suite (perhaps no surprise) - spacious, two rooms plus bathroom. Our daughter’s bed was the sofa in the living room area with sheets thrown over. Both areas had independent air conditioning units.
The decor was good. Half way through the holiday we found a kettle and coffee/tea delivered to the room. We were not sure why, and assumed it was based on other guest comment that Deluxe 5* hotels usually supplied this. There was no water supplied with it, and we were a little bemused as this meant we would have to buy water to use it.
All inclusive: (AI) actually included free tea / filter coffee from all bars at all times and a kettle therefore seemed a little superfluous. The next day (about day 8), wine/water, and fruit appeared. A fine chance to try out the kettle, and we did. The two milks gone in the first two cups, and finding that new supplies did not materialise in coming days, we returned to the bars, where the coffee was in fact much better anyway!
Wine was also free on AI form all bars and the wine too seemed an unusual "gift" in the room therefore.
The pool area:
This is the hotel's great forte. The expanse of pools is enormous. They are fresh water. They are very clean and there is plenty of space for sunbeds and ample sunbeds for all guests. There are four bars from which drinks can be purchased during the day and at some, snacks, and meals (Not AI). The beach bar doubles as the specialist restaurant.
A very nice touch is the delivery of a small plate of fresh fruit to those around the pools each morning at about 11:00.
The Beach:
The beach is sandy, with just a few pebbles as you enter the sea. It is literally the next thing after the many pools that stretch from the main Hotel building down between the rows of bungalow style rooms on each side.
On both visits the sea has had periods of being fairly rough, as high winds can appear, but usually only lasts for a day or two. On our first visit (2005) the sea was spoilt with large amounts of seaweed in it. In 2007 there was none to be found and swimming in the sea was a daily activity.
For some reason the hotel choose to charge 3 Euros/day for each sunbed on the beach. We didn't use them therefore. There are no water sports in the vicinity, but sailing etc. did seem to be available from further down the beach to Marmari – but perhaps too far to walk, certainly for us in the heat of the day.
Sunsets are stunning, looking out over the sea to the island of Kalymnos.
Restaurant(s):
There is one main restaurant where AI breakfast, lunch and dinner is served. It is buffet style. All can be taken on the terrace overlooking the pools and looking out to sea and Kalymnos. Breakfast choice is extensive, but the “cooked breakfast” was not to our liking: fried eggs seemed to be sitting around for a while.
Lunch for AI was a slightly unusual affair. A reasonable but repetitive salad bar similar to that at dinner was followed by a mainly pasta main course every day. On occasions and if timing was right some meat / fish dish might be available, and rarely, chips (odd as chips even appeared at breakfast!). For desert there was always a choice of 4 flavours of ice cream and 3 or 4 local Greek deserts.
Dinner was similar to lunch (salad and dessert) except the main course choice was far greater and rather more varied, although we have experienced much greater variety and choice at other hotels. AI/HB guests are given a 12 Euro contribution towards a specialist evening meal at this restaurant when they forego their AI evening meal in its preference.
Drinks:
A wide variety of drinks/cocktails are available, and are reasonably priced. The hotel owner also owns a vineyard and perhaps not surprisingly the wine (rose/red/white) are pretty well limited to wine from this.
AI:
...Or not? I suppose that this was the biggest area of disappointment. There seemed to be little that was actually AI. Our recollection of the 2005 visit suggests that the inclusions have diminished greatly.
Firstly the lunch buffet was, as mentioned above, virtually the same every day and based on pasta. The drinks that you could get were limited to Ouzo, local brandy (NOT even Metaxa), beer, wine (of course as this is produced from their own vineyard) and fizzy drinks from the mixer machines.
In our opinion not a huge choice and minimalist compared to other AI hotels. Again, sunbeds on the beach were not AI. The bar in the specialist restaurant (near our room) stops being AI at 18:00 – interestingly when I discovered this by asking for a glass of wine one evening, the manager who happened to be sitting in the room noticed my annoyance at being asked to pay, and then declining the drink, and chased after me to insist I have a free drink of anything I liked!
Ice cream from a tub was available from 16:00-17:00 but only from and if you were sitting around the “Pool Bar.” Sunbeds on the beach are 3 Euros each.
Entertainment:
An Animation team organized activities during the day – volley ball, water polo, Boccia etc. -, and put on shows at night – sketches, bingo, music quiz, etc.. - And there were some outside entertainers brought in too – Paris Dancers. The team also ran the mini club.
The surrounding area:
The Marmari Palace is not in a "town" location. Hotels to left and right, and a small restaurant over the road could be the most accurate description. However the only two other neighbours are well worth a mention.
In easy walking distance (5 mins along beach or road) is the Tam Tam Restaurant and beach which is well thought of and worth a visit - particularly for a sunset meal. A recent addition is the new water park or Lido, perhaps less than 5 minutes walk away, which is clean and has many different water slides suiting all levels, plus a huge wave pool and "lazy river". Entry 17 Euros per adult/day.
Food/drink is not allowed to be taken into the water park, but there is ample opportunity to buy this inside at reasonable prices.
Overall:
The overall standard seemed to have declined since 2005. The attention to detail, customer focus, and congeniality of staff seemed to have diminished. It is still a lovely hotel and great holiday and knowing what is not going to be included in AI and what to expect would avoid any disappointment of finding out first hand that some things that you would reasonably expect to be provided are not.
-
- Date of Holiday:Aug 2007
- Board Basis:All Inclusive
- Tour Operator:YouTravel
The rooms were very nice indeed. Electronic safe as standard. Room cleaned every day, the maid was very friendly and would do her best to have a conversation with you (english was obviously her second language)
There are loads of pools at this hotel, we generally used the one next to our room, which is also where we met the only other english couple in the whole hotel! Everyone else in the hotel was German. Staff spoke Greek, then German, then, if you were lucky, English.
When you are having a lazy day by the pool, the staff will bring out plates of fruit, different everyday, all free of charge
We were initially Half Board but decided to pay extra when we got there and go all inclusive. Lunch consisted of a variety of pasta or fruit. Hardly worth 240 euros!
The hotel is boring after 10pm. Everyone goes to bed and then you are left alone with the bar staff, yawning away. We ended up going to the nearby town and finding an excellent bar, covered in geraniums, where the bar staff spoke english and we didnt feel like foreigners.
We did enjoy our stay at this hotel. It is very nice, clean and modern. However, we wouldnt stay here again as we would like somewhere a bit livelier