Grape Vines Apartments

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The Resort - Alykanas:
Alykanas came highly rated and we can't really disagree. A small town, mostly centered around the main street, with lots of restaurants, bars and shops.
People were friendly, food was nice (Dionisos, La Caretta , Mantalena and the Chinese/Indian in Alykes were all good value for good food) and the cocktails in the Catacomves were great!
Special thanks to the Mantalena, who kindly stayed open for an extra 2 nights to feed us and a few others still left in the resort.
We say this because unfortunately we arrived a few days before season end and the town was rapidly closing up for winter.
In fact half the restaurants, shops and bars were already empty and padlocked when we arrived and by Saturday there was only the Mantalena and 1 small supermarket left open.
We went for a wander to pass some time on the Tuesday, before our coach arrived to return us to the airport, and the term "Ghost Town" is no exageration!
It was like that scene from 28 Days Later (for those that have seen it) where he wakes from a coma to find the population mysteriously wiped out and the streets of London empty.
We would recommend the island and resort (very pretty and we didn't tire of seeing the mountains every day) but would strongly advise not to go at the end of the season. The locals say September is best.
We were lucky with the weather and had 4/5 lovely days of warmth and sunshine and the lack of tourists was nice but when Alykanas shuts, it really shuts!
The Accommodation - The Grapevines Apartments:
We booked The Grapevines based on great reviews from previous visitors.
I can only suggest that the George and Christina, named and highly complimented, had been kidnapped by space aliens and replaced by 2 people who didn't speak, didn't smile and everything was too much trouble!
On the good side, the room was clean and the cleaner was a regular visitor and thorough.
The pool was nice, lots of sun beds and brollies. The pool bar was very pleasant and location nice and quiet.
On the bad side, the room was small (yes, I said "room" because apartment would be stretching the truth), the pool was freezing (ok, not the owners' fault!), the brollies got packed away after a few days, there was no food and probably very little drink in the bar and just pouring 2 cokes seem to be a real hassle for Christina.
To be fair, we arrived in the last week of the season but they were packing up around us (literally putting the whole place away for the winter and locking up) and we waited the last hour outside with our cases as they'd finished and gone, leaving us with no shelter, no loos, no nothing!
Would we go back to Zante and Alykanas? Yes, but earlier in the season.
Would we go back to The Grapevines? No! Not until the space aliens bring back the happy couple!!