Matoula Apartments

Matoula apartments are excellent - very clean and spacious. Maid service daily except Sundays and we were never disturbed by maids although we were rarely out before 11.30 am.

Walls are very thin - we heard next door neighbours when they were using the toilet!

The pool bar was ok - we were there the first two weeks in October and they didn't serve food after 5pm and the bar was closed by 9pm. Spiros, the bar manager, had complained to fellow guests that people didn't use the bar - but as most people had gone out for a meal and were not returning before 9pm what did he expect? We had a few lunches at the bar and quality was fine - prices average.

The resort itself was very, very quiet. We don't like lots of noisy night life but the place was almost dead. Only a handful of people in the restaurants. The central bar had live music on a Friday evening which we were extremely grateful for.

Hired a car for 3 days and the island is beautiful. Corfu town was vibrant and colourful. Old fortress there offered spectacular views. Lovely sandy beach around 10 kilometres from Acharavi - called Kalamaki beach. Lovely and ideal for children.

Lots of lovely tavernas - beach front ones we found to be the friendliest, best value for money, and the best food - Faros and Woodys our favourites. Worst meal was at the Pumphouse - food cold, beef over cooked. Poor quality and over priced. I know it gets a lot of positive reviews, but that was our honest experience.

Mosquitoes are a problem. They are relentless! Still got bitten a few times despite being covered in tropical strength repellent, spraying the room at night, taking garlic supplements and using avon skin so softly! Some poor fellow tourists were covered in bites and one lady had an allergic reaction and was blistered.

Overall a relaxing holiday - spectacular thunder storms - but we won't travel near the end of season again.

I've just returned from a week in Corfu at the Matoula Apartments and seeing as I found this website so helpful before I went away, I thought I'd add a comment for future holiday goers.

The Matoula apartments are great. Clean rooms and spacious with a terrace/balcony. You did have to pay for the air conditioning but apart from that they suited us for what we needed. The only problem were the maids! They obviously wanted to get their job done but forgot the rest of us where on holiday! They knocked early and wouldn't take no for an answer - be warned.

Reception was friendly but closed on Sundays no good if you have a safety deposit box! The pool was clean and plenty of sun beds available. The famous Spiro's (the bar manager) was polite and friendly although we didn’t have much to do with the pool bar we went out and about every evening.

The beach was a 2 min walk away and was beautiful. You do have to turn to your right and walk for 10 mins to get sand but it is well worth the effort. Water sports and sunbeds and a very polite ice cream man made the trips to the beach very worthwhile.

We did venture to Aqua land near Corfu town for a day. The coach trip did take a while as it picked up along the way but the park was fun and a great day out. We booked through an agent in the main Street not our tour operator they were very good value for money; I just can't remember the agent’s name!

We ate at some lovely restaurants but our favourite was the Lemon Garden. It was beautiful. The surroundings and the food, you must eat here at least once. We never had a bad meal - we also eat at the Pumphouse, odyssey and the navigator.

Freedo's ice cream parlour is a must the girls were great and the desserts are to die for we went every night in the end!

We had an awful pick up time on the return journey, 2am! We were kicked out of our room at 12 midday so we booked a room at Faro's beach bar for 20 euro's! This way we could enjoy the beach, shower, and change, eat dinner, and even get some kip before we got picked up. Maria and Funis are very helpful and served great breakfast as well!

I would go back to Corfu and the Matoula apartments it was a great little holiday - Enjoy.

Just returned from Matoula again this year - and we do thoroughly recommend it. The owners have made some improvements to the facilities in the last year - now most if not all the rooms have a hair dryer provided, plus - -a big bonus - the safety deposit boxes are now free. The 'night watchman' is now an ex-pat Brit, so there are no problems with understanding about rooms and things when you turn up in the early hours, as many do.

The accommodation is good, clean, and well maintained. The rooms are the biggest we have been given in many years of going to Greece, and the maids are all friendly when they come to change linen, towels, sweep, and clean. The place is still effectively unstaffed on Sundays, which means you must have enough money out on the Saturday to cover you - but that is little hassle if you plan ahead.

The internet is becoming increasingly available there - although not the swiftest of connections, and subject to the odd power cut. Nireas apartments, next door to Matoula, offer it, as does Faros down on the beach road. I'm sure others do too, but those I noticed.

Temperatures this year were around the mid 30s - although we were told July had been a lot hotter. The wasps were a nuisance - not stinging us, but just coming around when you were eating - particularly things with ketchup on, it seemed! A point to note- 15th August is a festival day, so the large supermarket is shut or certainly has shortened hours. This supermarket Demetria is in fact a real boon - between that and the bakery we self-catered very nicely during the days, and ate out in the evenings.

Best lace we have found for evening meal was Faros down on the beach road near Fuego. A small place, run by Maria and Fannis, and 'aided' by their nephews/daughters(?!), but the food is wonderful and comes in generous portions. They are a lovely couple, and work really hard - and it shows by the number of returning customers whether English, German and Greek, that you see at the place.

Overall - a great holiday.

This was my first visit to corfu, and i enjoyed it very, very much. My mum and dadwould somtimes go for a walk out to the beach, worrying about how i would react to getting up and finding them not to be there. They came back and i was sitting reading Harry Potter and eating one of spiros's fantastic breakfasts. For 5 Euros you get Orange juice or tea, sausage, beans, egg (fried) and bacon.

Acharavi deserves 10/10 because it is a friendly, warm, jumping with life little town. I enjoyed nights out at Valentines, Woody's, even snorkling in the ocean and then back up to the deck chair to get dried off, then up for a milkshake at Woody's.

The restraunts at Acharavi are also very friendly. (May i recommend Valentine's Meat Lovers Pizza) Everyone is friendly. Spiros is a brilliant and funny man, who is always welcoming you. He even ordered in Irn-Bru for us Scots who love it.

I loved riding on the quad bikes too. There is a small quad bikes/scooter rent place just a bit more up the path from the restraunts. We all had fun getting ferried to and from a beach just a few miles away, on quad bikes. There is also a hill which is rideable on quad bikes just up from The Pumphouse.

One of the last days we were there, we went on a boat ride, it was fantastic.

All in all, Acharavi is one of a kind of a place. I would recommend it to anyone that is going on holiday. If you want a fun-filled holiday, then acharavi is your place.

These apartment are situated close to beach and main street of Acharavi.

They are very family friendly.

They are clean and well kept - there appears to always be space around the pool too. We didn't eat there so cannot comment on the food nor did we attend any of the night time activities.

Apartment was decent size with all you need to make basic meals. Maids come everyday and safety box is free.

Achariavi is good for families with most places catering for children. Although Acharavi is not that small - there a good 20 or so places to eat and drink, it does seem awfully quiet all the time with only a handful of people in each place at a time. Maybe it will get busier through end of July and August but good for people who want some peace and quiet.

You can walk for 15 mins to the slightly livelier resort of Roda - which doesn't really have a beach though. And Sidari is a short car journey away.

It also gets some lovely sunsets.

Overall - friendly quiet place - low key night-life with only one bar 'Yammas' being busy after 12 ish. Roda appears to have a couple of places that stay open later - we managed to stay till about 2 ish one bar.

Oh and yes there are swarms of mozzies out there - we used that 'Jungle Formula' roll on stuff which seemed to work coz on the last evening we didn't put it on and got bitten dozens and dozens of times.

The apartment was big and very clean but a bit basic. The maids cleaned the rooms and made the beds 6 days a week and changed towels and sheets twice to three times a week. The bedroom had two single beds which were a bit hard, but we got used to it and it had air con which costs an extra €4 a day.

There was no toaster or grill/mini oven in the kitchen so we had to buy breakfast from the pool bar everyday which opens at 9.30am. This was only a problem on our last day as our coach picked us up was at 9.00am.

The pool area and the bar are well maintained and there were plenty of sun beds. There was also a Jacuzzi which for €1 you could turn on for about 20 mins.

The bar also has two pool tables. Drinks were cheap in the bar, especially if you make friends with Spiros the barman as he gave us a few free ones and lots of discounted ones! The staff are all friendly.

The location of Matoula apartments is excellent. It is a 3 minute walk to the beach and beachside bars and restaurants to the left and about a 5-7 minute walk to the right to the main strip of restaurants and bars. There were many nice restaurants however two that stand out are Alex's on the beach front and the Pump House in the main strip.

The beach in Acharavi is mostly stones, however after about 5 meters into the sea it is sand. Most tourist shops do sell shoes that you can wear in the water though if you cant bear the painful, very un cool looking walk into the sea!

There are thousands of mozzies in Corfu, we used 2 cans of insect replant spray and still got bitten so take plenty of spray and apply it thickly at night, and also take some antihistamine cream to put on any bites.

If you hire a car, don’t get one from the reps, walk into the town and save yourself some money.

well it was really good 2 be there weather was hot spiros is really great he lets me play pool nice food nice clean rooms hope we come there soon we met freindly people coming bk in august 2009

We booked the holiday as a last minute deal and had never heard of Acharavi, but the holiday didn’t disappoint. The Matoula was very good – large clean apartments with regular maid service, lovely swimming pool and bar with excellent host Spiros – don’t believe anything bad you have seen written about him, he works all hours, is great with the kids and is a credit to the place!

The Matoula is in an excellent location – 2 minutes to the beach in one direction and 2 minutes to the shops/bars/supermarket etc. in the other.

I would recommend it for all ages - there were young couples, older people and a lot of families and everyone we spoke to thought it was a great place to stay.

It is about a 30 minute walk to Roda where you will find lots more bars/restaurants. The town is more developed than Acharavi and seemed to cater to the “Brits abroad” a bit more, but is worth a look and is a nice walk along the sea front.

I would also recommend the bus service – the bus stop is right at the top of the road in the village and they were on time and air conditioned! We took the bus to Kassiopi which only takes 15 minutes, and was really picturesque.

In Acharavi itself there are quite a few bars/restaurants on the beach front – ones I would recommend are Valentines restaurant – to the left about 10 mins walk. On a Friday night they have Greek musicians who come and sing to you at your table, they are excellent!

Also if you walk in the other direction about 10 mins there is Maistros with very good fish. Just on the right hand corner as you get to the beach you will find Fuego Bar – this is open till the small hours (they threw us out at 4 one night!) and is an idyllic setting right on the beach.

Very friendly despite the fact that we were the only English people in there every time we went in – I don’t know why but if the Greeks go there then it must be good. The food is very good as well, I would thoroughly recommend this place.

In the village itself, the Acharavi Park was good and we ate there twice.

Take lots of mosquito repellent with you and you will have a great time – the mossies were out in force, especially on our last night!!

We have enjoyed Matoula so much that we have stayed here 5 times. Everything is just a stroll away. Restaurants are good and welcome children. Love it so much we have booked again. The staff are very friendly and Spiros is always working so hard to make your stay perfect. The apartments are cleaned every day apart from Sundays.

We have always enjoy our stay here, we have been to other places but nothing compares to the friendly people of Corfu and Acharavi. See you next year Liz.

My family and I have just returned from a great holiday in Acharavi. It was our first visit and certainly will not be our last. We loved the pace of life, the quietness, the weather etc.

We had a lovely 2 bedroom apt which was serviced every day except Sunday. The complex is of a high standard and its facilities were good. The one draw back was the lack of air conditioning - it was expensive at 6 euros per day! However, fans can be rented from shops for 1 euro per day.

The restaurants and bars are very good and always friendly - try Valentines where the 2 Costas will make you very welcome - good food and hospitality!

We will be back!

Me, my husband and our 2 kids were staying at the Matoula for a week in June 2007
it was great, the people are so friendly there and there is lots to do. Spiros the bar manager was great he went out of his way to help you if you were having any problems with anything or if you needed anything. Me, my husband and my dad stayed at the matoula for a week in 2006 also it was great thats why we returned in june 2007 with our kids they really enjoyed it too. Me and my husband are returning this year again in june (2008) with my sister and brother-in-law this time. It is a great place to stay and the people are great. They have everything you need to help you enjoy your holiday.

Me and my boyfriend have just come back from 2 weeks in Corfu.

The accommodation was very clean and nice to stay at. The pool was always clean and maintained well.

The town and nightlife is only 2 minutes walk from the apartments and so is the beach. (you must check out the watersports if they are there!!).

Aqualand is only an hour away and well worth a visit!

Spiros, the bar manager, made our holiday...he makes Matoula the way it is and the place to be!! he’s fun, happy, and willing to help anyone, and will try and make friends with everyone!

He gave us many games of free pool, made new cocktails and nothing was too much to ask!! He goes out of his way to make sure you are having a good time!! He made it a fantastic holiday and has made it the reason we will be returning next year!!

Just beware...I got eaten by the mosquitoes....make sure you take a good repellent!!

My fiancé and I have just arrived back from staying in the Matoula Apartments and Studios and found them to be fab! We stayed at the apartments from 29th September till 6th October, we had a studio which was very clean and spacious. It had everything you needed. Showers are a little weird as they have no shower curtain so the water goes everywhere, luckily there is a drain on the floor so the water can go down that!
Everyone during our stay at the Matoula Apartments was very friendly, nothing was a hassle. All wanted to make you feel welcome. I find personally the Greek people in general are very friendly and do what they can to make your holiday even better.
The pool area was lovely, not too crowded. Alot of free sunbeds. Pool area is very clean. The bar area is great, lovely cheap food. And Spiros is a good guy! And I can see why he has so many fans! But overall I find Matoula apartments and studios to be clean, friendly and is in good location.

The area of Acharavi is lovely in general but I little to quiet. 2 minutes to your left of Matoula Apartments is the local beach, it’s a pebble beach but must say was lovely. To the right hand side of the apartments 5 minutes walk takes you to the strip area, lots of bars, restaurants etc.. Nice little area. Some great eating places and the locals really make you feel welcome!

I would advise people to hire a car, you can do this from Matoula Apartments. It’s a great way to see the BEAUTIFUL Island. This is the first time me and my partner have done this and I will for sure be doing it again. Roda is about 15 minutes away and is little bit more lively. But a must see is Sidari it’s the new Kavos people are saying. Lots of great bars there, most playing films that are in our cinemas in UK. Lots more shops and also lovely beach there aswell, I’d advise anyone to see Sidari.

Last but not least the bugs.... where do I start. This is the only one thing that spoiled my holiday. I took boots own brand repellent and I didn’t get bit once from the dreaded mozzies but they were out in force. They didn’t bother me one bit, but the wasps were another story. The were so annoying and you could escape them. I tried to sit out by the pool and they were all around me, so didn’t bother. But I warn you about them!!

To sum up this holiday at Matoula I’d say its clean, basic, friendly.... what more do you want???

The two bedroom apartment was spacious and clean. After 2.5 days of thunder and rain, the road near the apartment was a small river... the sun came out and the weather just got hotter and hotter. We were not keen on Acharavi beach, as the sea was cloudy and you have to go quite far out to be able to swim without hitting your knees on the sand bottom. As we prefer to snorkel, we hired a car for three days and drove to Paleo, Agni, and Nissaki, all beautiful shingle beaches with clear water, octopus, sea cucumbers and assorted fish. It is worth getting away from Acharavi during the day and onto a better quality shingle beach.

Unless you like to spend your time in a bar that reminds you of home with a pool table, TV, and football shirts around you, keep out of the Hotel bar with a miserable Spiros and venture into the small town for a cocktail or two.

Food, yes Acharavi Park, Lemon Garden and Pump House all really good and tasty food, just don't be put off by the tacky surroundings (waterfalls!) or the blue rinse brigade populating them.

Mosquitoes, I got eaten alive whilst my partner managed to avoid them, so go armed with lotions and potions as previously suggested.

Finally, we were due to be chucked out of our room at noon on Monday but were not due to be picked up until 2:50am on Tuesday! I asked the first choice rep what she suggested and she was no help at all and seemed completely uninterested. The hotel also said they were full and unable to offer us any accommodation, which I find very hard to believe at this time of year! I am astonished that the rep didn't show a bit of initiative and arrange a few places she could recommend. It could be a handy bit of cash on the side if she got a deal worked out with a few local places...

However, having read this website before going away we went and saw the owners of the Faros Bar on the beach front. They were very helpful and offered us a room for 15 euros so we could fully enjoy the final day of our holiday, have a shower, go out for a meal and managed to get our heads down for a few hours. We also enjoyed a few cocktails and food (They do a great breakfast and omelet so well worth eating there too)

Yes I would go to Corfu again but would avoid Acharavi and Roda and find somewhere with a cleaner sea.

Having originally booked a holiday in Sidori for 2 weeks with First Choice following last minute deal and reviewing their brochure, we decided to check on the hotel with this website. I can only say it is with great relief I read this website and the comments of Sidori being over commercialised glorified Blackpool was correct! Used this website to pick a new location and hotel, of which we picked Matula Studios in Acharavi.

The accommodation was first class, high standard, clean & friendly. Location great, in between the beach and road with all the bars & restaurants it was excellent. If hiring a car for your holiday from England with your travel agent don't pay the 12 euros for delivery of the car to the hotel because all the car hire places are on the main road of Archive 5 minutes walk from the hotel.

Mosquitoes are a problem in Corfu, would make sure you take good quality repellant with you as a lot of the 'Citronella' repellents you buy in the tourist shop aren't fully mosquito proof & chemists only really sell repellents for after the bites, not preventing.

Roda is only 45 minute walk away or 5 minutes in a cab for 5 euros. If you want a different range of bars and restaurants and bars that show more football, film & re-runs of Eastenders and other soaps you will enjoy a visit to Roda!