Calimera Ermones Beach

We have just returned from the Ermones Beach Hotel and can honestly say it is the worst holiday we have ever had. If you don’t believe me take your old flares out of the closet and get your David Cassidy Cd because yes your returning to 1972!The place is an absolute nightmare and its hard to know where to start. Who on earth ever rated this hotel 4 star I will never know its basically 2 star if that. We've been to 4 star hotels before and do have an idea of what to expect.
We got there at 6.30am in the morning only to be told by a German family waiting to leave how bad it was. Taken to the room by the porter who has had a personality bypass and left to find our room down a dark dirty passage. The smell of damp was overpowering, balcony light didn’t work, shaver power point didn’t work, hair dryer was old, yellow and you've guessed it - it didn’t work. Wardrobe doors were split and falling off it was awful.
Next day was a trip to the restaurant. If you like your food with the added bite of a wasp on top then feel free to explore these culinary delights,- don’t worry if you miss anything the first time I guarantee it will be there the next day and the next and the next. The lamb was the best for me even a dog couldn’t have got any meat off it, - it was all bones.
Swimming pool was okay apart from being very cold and the constant hordes of wasps everywhere.
On a night the entertainment was chronic and the staff eventually walked out leaving people to play cards al as there was nothing else to do. Oh and play the same songs over and over again.
Staff were unfriendly, on five different occasions they used abusive language towards guests when being told how bad things were.
All this above is quite true but on a serious note the complete lack of health and safety was shocking. It was a disaster area and I would seriously urge anyone planning to go to this place to reconsider. Don’t waste your money there are plenty of other place you can go and not have to put up with this. Holidays are what you work for and the time you earn is little enough as it is. Don’t Go! You have been warned!

After reading the reviews me and my friend were slightly worried about our visit to the resort but felt that we knew what to expect. It turned out that we loved this hotel and didn't want to leave. We loved everything about our holiday the unforgettable views, the lovely friendly staff and the wide selection of food. The bar staff never skimped on the drinks so watch out how much you are actually drinking not that that’s a bad thing.
The cable car became apart of out holiday and a chance to see the views and talk to other guests. The hotels surroundings are lovely but if you want a chance in scenery then you can get on the bus that stops right outside the hotel and in half an hour you’re in Corfu town. Or for a fun day for all the family get on the Corfu bus for only 10 mins and you’re at the aqua park.
The entertainment was really funny with something for all the family both day and night. Me and my friend loved every minute of our holiday this is the ideal holiday for you if you like to laugh, meet people and getting involved. We will definitely be returning to this hotel in the near future.

We were a little concerned about the reviews we read prior to our holiday, but really enjoyed it. I believe a lot of the reviews are by people who have not been on an all inclusive holiday before, have incorrect expectations of what a 4 star hotel is or who haven't researched before they booked.
All inclusive holidays are always buffet style, the only drinks included are always local beers, wines and spirits. Many stop all inclusive drinks at 11.00pm the Ermones continued till midnight.
The standards for a 4 star hotel (in the UK) are - "Attentive staff provide a very good level of service. At least half of the rooms will have an en suite bath and a shower. At least one restaurant offering a good range of hot and cold skilfully prepared food. An attentive and welcoming service. Breakfast is prepared using fresh ingredients with a high degree of care. Rooms have comfortable beds and furnishings of high quality." During our visit the Ermones accomplished all of this and more.
There have been a lot of complaints about the stairs - the complex is built on the side of a ravine - what did you expect? Photos on their website clearly show this. The fact that they have a cable car would indicate it is steep. If your tour operator/travel agent didn't warn you before you went then I suggest you take it up with them as they have a legal responsibility to.
We arrived at the hotel at 2am and were welcomed by the receptionist, promptly given the keys to our room and then taken there, with our cases, in a small van. The room was basic, but pleasant with air conditioning and a nice view from the balcony. It was cleaned everyday.
We were towards the bottom of the ravine and so needed to use the cable car to reach the restaurant and bar. We find it quite adequate for our needs. It was only not working one afternoon for about 1/2hr when 2 teenagers decided to climb on the track.
The food was very good, there was always plenty of choice. Always 2/3 different meats and fish, 2 vegetables, roast potatoes, chips and toasties. Often rice of risotto. Always Pasta and 20 or so excellent salads made with really fresh ingredients. The chef often came out to check how things were going and to talk to people.
There were a lot of wasps, but the hotel had many wasp traps hanging in the trees to try to alleviate the problem. Unfortunately a lot of people decided to take drinks out to the pool, often spilling them on the way or leaving the glasses lying around which only made the problem worse. We found there wasn't a problem with them on the beach, probably because drinks aren't allowed there. If we ate in the outdoor area we were bothered by wasps so we ate in the restaurant. I really don't see what else the Hotel could have done about this, it's just nature. If you go to the tropics expect snakes and spiders. Olives are a major produce of Corfu they will draw insects in.
I have read many comments about the staff being unfriendly and I wonder just how friendly the holiday makers were to them. I was ashamed of a few of our fellow British holiday makers and their lack of manners. They seemed to treat the staff like servants and very rarely said please or thank you, particularly when ordering drinks at the bar. They were often very rude and displayed behaviour that wouldn't have been acceptable in any British bar. After a few "good mornings", a smile or two and always a please and thank you from us and the staff were always friendly and helpful and would often stop for a chat.
Others have complained that the drinks weren't strong enough to get drunk on. We found the drinks to be of normal strength. Them not being able to get drunk every night must have been a relief to the other people holidaying there.
On our last day we checked out at 12.00 but our flight wasn't until 2.15am the next day. The receptionist told us to leave our cases in the room and then arranged for them to be brought up. We were provided with a free courtesy room in the evening for 1/2 hr to shower and change. Which meant we could still sunbath and swim all day and were not left in limbo. Despite having checked out we were encouraged to continue with the all inclusive (food and drinks) until we got our taxi to the airport at 11.00pm. There's not many hotels that would do that. We were really grateful for that especially as they had a Greek evening, which meant all the usual food in the restaurant and a large BBQ outside with ribs, kebabs, meat patties, sausages etc, Greek dancing and a really fantastic atmosphere. A great way to end our holiday. Yammas

I had an absolutely fabulous holiday at the hotel. I thought the food was gorgeous, the only thing id say is there wasn't enough bacon on the breakfast but the evenings were brilliant, I might be biased because I love Greek food, they made a real effort to change the main meals each night and chips weren't the main dietary substance!, my friend who I went with is a very fussy eater and she was happy enough!
Many may not like the fact that it is a very German orientated hotel, however we made very good friends with the "Team Animation" the entertainment team and they made every effort to include us in all of the games!
The only thing that lets the hotel down is that it does have a problem with wasps, however you do get used to them, and we used to get one drink for ourselves and a drink for the wasps!
Many may not like the sparsely populated rooms, however they were always clean, and the bed were made every day with clean sheets! I found the whole cable car thing very quaint and despite my claustrophobia I enjoyed it, the views you get while heading up & down esp. in the evening (we were right at the bottom!) are absolutely spectacular - just make sure you don't let the Germans push you into overloading the cable car because they will try it!
All in all we had a wonderful time and would definitely go back, 2 weeks £500 all inclusive you can't go wrong, also hire out a car as opposed to a quad as you can get around the Island in a couple of days south one day, north the next. I had my best ever holiday here and def recommend it!

Pros:
1) The views from the hotel/rooms are amazing. (Try to get a sea view room with balcony)
2) Although there are many steps to the rooms, there is a cable-car-lift and a little bus, the lift looks a bit scary-but it is fine.
3) The food is lovely, I liked the fact there were plenty of Greek choices, rather than pizza and chips (I recommend the mousakka!)
4) The staff are very nice and helpful (as long as you are polite)
5) The rooms are cleaned everyday.
6) The outdoor pool is huge and clean......................although freezing! Best to be brave and jump in, made it easier!
7) Aqua land is definitely worth a visit.
Cons:
1) Wasps and Hornets! Zillions of them, it made it quite tricky at times to get at the food and drink. Did not get stung fortunately but a few others did.
2) Do NOT come here if you have any kind of mobility problems.
3) The beds were terribly uncomfortable and did smell a bit strange!
4) The beach is shingle, therefore take sandals as to be able to get in the sea.
5) The buses are very unreliable and change destinations and routes as they please.
6) If you are after a good nightlife, don’t come here, it is out in the sticks!
7) Jacuzzi was broken but looked dirty anyhow.
8) Definitely hire a safe as there was a room robbed whilst we were there.
9) Was told we could organise a transfer but turned out to be impossible (with not much help from the rep)
10) As with lots of foreign destinations, lots of mosquitoes and stray dogs (roaming around the hotel complex)
So in conclusion this hotel is more like a 2/3* if you are expecting luxury this is not the place to come, if you are happy to rough it a bit then its fine.

My husband and I decided to get a last minute deal for a week and this one looked fab on the internet, with a pool and a beach we assumed it would be ideal for our 7 year old son. Upon arrival I found that this was one of the worst types of accommodation we have ever stayed in, and to think they have listed it as 4 Star!
Don't be fooled, it’s a 2 star....if that! Accommodation itself 2/10. Very basic, which consisted of 2 single beds, and a bunk bed. The cupboard provided to hang clothes in would have been fine had it opened and closed! Bed sheets were filthy, and we shared our room with a lizard, ants mosquitoes and spiders - lovely! Bathroom again very basic with the shower curtain not even long enough to go into the bath so after having a shower it was more like a wet room.
The hotel itself looks presentable but you either have to walk up hill to get to it or get to a cable car which (and the only reason I have to mention this is to let you see what you'll be looking forward to) had used condoms hanging on the top! YEKH!
You'll get no diet coke as they don't serve it and orange juice is actually orange squash. You couldn't sit outside and use the sun loungers as the place is infested with wasps, I'd say about 8 to a sun lounger. Swimming pool was adequate but cold.

Food was disgusting, both my son and I had stomach upsets. I did feel sorry for the staff who were there in the morning for the breakfast and there at lunch and dinner. Completely got why they looked so miserable and unhelpful.
They gym that’s advertised - forget it! You had a running machine that didn't work, an ancient bike, old weights lying all over the floor and that was your lot! Sauna you have to pay to use. Don't even go anywhere near the jacuzzi unless you want to end up catching something, the water looked disgusting! Tennis courts looked fine and my husband and son managed to get a game but that’s because luckily we took our own rackets and balls. The ones the hotel offered to provide were useless.
We arrived late on the Monday night and I along with 4 other families had complained to our tour rep the following morning. One mother had booked through a travel agent and had come with her 3 disabled children. At no time had the travel agent mentioned that the accommodation is on a ravine and that you either need to walk or get to the cable car to get to the hotel if you want to eat and use any of the facilities.
My tour rep (Tracey from Hotels 4 U) was useless. Her response to my - this is not 4 star and lack of hygiene, facilities not working etc etc was a) 3 families out of 100 complaining was not bad. My response to this was 3 families who had paid a lot of money to get 4 star accommodation and use of all facilities to my mind was 3 families too many! b) It was good to have lizards in the room as they ate all mosquitoes. My response - I don't care much for either! c) Were the ants big or small? My response - Does it matter - I have ants crawling about on the bed, on the floor, in the bath, I don't care about the size!
She told me she could do nothing to help and that I'd be better off contacting my travel agent in the UK - Fleetway travel which I did and thank god I did! Bottom line, Fleetway sold this holiday as 4 star and all the fab trappings of facilities alongside so basically we were lied to.
Did they help - yes they did but only after numerous phone calls and having to chase to get us as far away from there as possible. They sorted this on our 2nd day and we checked out the following day and were transferred to RODA Beach hotel - this is what I would definitely recommend if you want luxury.
Yes the rooms were standard, but they were clean and spacious (plans are to update these this year to bring them up to the same standard as the rest of the resort) The resort itself was brilliant with loads of entertainment and so much to do for the kids.
Food and service was fantastic. Granted some of the dishes were more or less the same a few times but hey you can live with it when you know the rest is almost to perfection!

Well after reading all the reviews and not being able to change our hotel due to the costs involved, I was not looking forward to our holiday but it was fine. I go on holiday for the experiences and we all had a good time. The kids loved the beach.
The food was ok but we did go out a couple of times as my kids can be a bit fussy but for what we paid (just over a £1000 for the four of us) it was fine. I am a believer in you pay for what you get and I got what I paid for. It was better than staying at home.
The staff were ok and yes there were a few Germans but there were also a few English.
All in all, was better than I expected and was a nice relaxing week in the sun.

My partner & I have travelled to many countries & this has to be the worst place I have ever been to.
On arrival on to the hotel, we were told to leave our cases outside the front, take the cable car to floor 2. So my partner & I did just that. It took us over 20 min to find our room as all the room numbers are all over the place. Our cases were later delivered to our rooms and just dumped outside the door.
Our room had cracks everywhere and smelt of damp. The maids version of sweeping up rubbish was to sweep all rubbish off the balcony & onto the ground below and just leave it there.
The hotel was dirty, including the restaurant. I changed the table cloth, every food setting as the staff were too slow to do it. The beach (if that’s what you can call it) small, dirty, had rubbish everywhere. The joke of it was that only half the beach was for the hotel, the other side was private and therefore you had to pay for sun beds. I didn't mind this as there was no room on the hotel side because the Germans got there first. I never went by the pool as the wasps liked to annoy you.
There were wasps everywhere and I mean everywhere. There were wasp nests within the foundations of the building. The wasps would annoy you during the day and eat with you at dinner. The wasps would be all in the food, especially the puddings, you just couldn't get away from them.
The cable car was a joke, constantly broke down. There were also used condoms at the bottom of the cable car, tied to the beam which were still there on our last day.
There were steps to get to and from the reception to our room, which were broken and alley ways were poorly lit.
Staff were rude and unhelpful. The all inclusive was a complete joke, only beer, wine & fizzy drinks were on the menu. If you wanted tea, coffee or water you'd have to buy these. Food in general was plain but not too bad as long as the wasps hadn't tucked in first.
The only thing I enjoyed about this holiday was that the sea was nice and clear and I could swim out for miles. This holiday was definitely the holiday from hell and I suggest to anyone thinking of going to this hotel DON'T DO IT! This was the Faulty Towers of Corfu.

I have travel to many locations over the years, but I have to say this was one of the worst. Like most reviewers have already said, it is not a 4 star hotel, probably overall, not even a 2 star.
Our accommodation was 250 steps away from the restaurant and pool area. Yes there is the Venicular Railway but this only holds a max of 18 persons and during the stay there were nearly 1000 guests! Most of these were German which meant the chances of obtaining a sun lounger either by the pool or beach were reduced to zero unless you staked your claim around 08:00hrs.
The Jacuzzi was filthy and cold, just what you want. The tennis courts were very good but the rackets were broken and the still wanted 25 Euro deposit each, they repeatedly promised to obtain new rackets which they never did. On the Saturday they closed the indoor pool as it was the guy’s day off, so with a little customer protest from several guests we forced them to re-open it. The all inclusive did not supply as advertised as there was no ice tea, ice cream or afternoon sandwiches or cake. As already mentioned the bar staff were slow and miserable. The beach facilities need pulling down and rebuilding, and here again not food was available. Not to mention the very rude man who managed it.
As to the accommodation, the beds were very uncomfortable, the sliding doors to the wardrobe and balcony were extremely difficult to open and close and at times jammed completely. The satellite TV was a joke, with very limited channels and 80% in German and if you tuned into BBC world news the transmission would fade on a regular basis making it almost impossible to watch. Don't you just love the Greek sewage system, well to add to that the temperature of the shower varied from freezing cold to red hot without notice and was not affected by the time of day you used it. They also charged you for the use of the safe key.
Then with 3 days to go all 4 of us including my 8 and 9 year old boys got a stomach virus. Whilst I cannot hold the hotel responsible for hygiene of the country as a whole, I thought the hotel would have a duty of care to its paying guests in such circumstances. Our plight was brought to the attention of reception and the on site holiday rep who just informed us that if we needed a doctor we were to ring reception. That was the only contact we had, which I think is dreadful as we were really incapacitated and any fluids were 250 steps way.
By all means take all reviews into account, but you have been warned!

We had read other reviews telling how horrible the hotel was and we were very worried. However when we arrived the only truth was that the hotel was more of a three star than a four star.
The accommodation was basic but very clean and comfortable. Our air conditioning would not work at first but it was quickly sorted out. The reception staff and porter were very kind and helpful. The food was o.k. My friend is vegetarian and there was not much choice for her but the food overall was hot and edible not much more I can say about it.
The cable car worked all of the time it was just a matter of working out where to get on and off to avoid walking up all the steps. I would definitely go back again.