Athina Apartments

Just returned from here, have to say was alittle put off by some of the reviews from last year saying it was noisy, seems the situation has changed from last year never heard anything infact it was very quiet the hostal was closed. For a greek accommodation they were well equiped with TV, hair dryer, sandwich toaster, coffee maker, there was even soap in the bathroom, washing up liquid provided and a bottle of water in the fridge on arrival. The studios are cleaned every day and are spotless. The pool area is small but we never struggled to get a sun bed even though the apartments were full some days we were the only people around. The apartments are in a great location just a couple of minutes walk to the church square, and some great little restaurants. Will definatley be back next year as we couldnt fault a thing and as a travel agent I will certainly be recommending the Athina to my clients one thing I would say is don't take children here.

My wife and I spent 2 wks at these apartments in August this year ( 2010 ).
To say we were unhappy is an understatement.
We paid 1250GBP for our holiday ( Thomas Cook ) and it was a sad waste of money.
When we booked we were asked if we had any "special requests". Obviously we wanted a sea-view, a balcony and a first floor room - doesn't everyone ?
What we WEREN'T told at the time of booking was that these requests weren't GUARANTEED. We were left to find that out for ourselves when we shown into a cramped and dingy little room no bigger than my garage at home. This room looked nothing like the picture in Cook's brochure. When we complained to the rep., she said the "small print" explained that requests couldn't be guaranteed. This poor customer service - to me, shysters and crooks fall back on the excuse of "the small print". A huge organisation and former state-owned business like Cooks shouldn't need to use excuses like this - they should train their agents to spell-out all the details at the time of booking.
The travel agent must have been deaf. Outside our "kitchen" window ( and I use the word kitchen in it's loosest possibel context ) was the W.C. for the swimming pool. No doubt when we asked for a "sea-view", she thought she thought we said "W.C. view".
The size, space, quality and facilities of the kitchen and bathroom would be perfectly acceptable in a 1970s touring caravan.
Opposite the Athina Apartments, the Italian Army were practising life-fire assaults on a drum factory. At least that is what it sounded like. Hordes of noisy, laughing, screaming and shouting Italian teenagers occupied an apartment block and woke us up every night with their celebrations. When 3 or 4am came around they tended to end their nightly Bacchanalia with a sneaky dip in OUR pool !!
Perissa is a miserable little resort. Dirty, dusty and rubbish strewn. Very little to do unless you like lying around in 42deg heat and eating over-priced low-grade food. Very little to see other than acres of abandoned half finished buildings - the vast majority victims of Greece's financial armageddon. These latter-day equivalents of the Acropolis are everywhere, as are rusting construction machines, stacks of building materials and old cars. Weeds and trees grow through the ruins. Which in itself is surprising - Santorini is so dry, dusty and arid, I was surprised anything grew at all.
Prices are outrageous by British standards. In all the local "supermarkets" reckon to pay between 2 and 3 times what you would in Britain. There is a LIDL in the capital, Thira, and a trip here to stock up on food and drink will actually pay for the hire of a small car or quad-bike in terms of money saved compared to the local shops.
Restaurants are expensive and quality is poor. No-one we spoke to was impressed with the standard of the food. We had a "green-Thai curry" which looked and tasted like the potato and cabbage stew my grandma used to make during the war.
Only one guest went on one of the advertised excursions when we were there and they were very disappointed. The "Sunset Cruise" promised a beautiful cruiser with high quality cuisine for only 45 euros each. They said the cruiser looked like an "old pirate ship " and the food was awful.
So. Back to the Athina.
Can't fault the cleaners - did a superb job and changed the bed linen every 2 days.
If you do go here, be aware of their "day-of-departure" procedure. A notice pinned to the apartment door states that the time of departure is no later than noon.
At 10am, my wife and I still in bed, the owner/manager ( nicknamed "Grumpos" by everyone as he was very unfriendly)
walks into our room without knocking, switches off the fridge and takes all our towels. Obviously to stop us having a last dip in his Olympic-sized ( joke ) pool.
At 10-30, a cleaner also walks in without knocking and tells us to get out. When I point out the noon departure time stated on the door notice, she gesticulated wildly at me, jabbered away in Greek and wrote "10-30" in the dust on the bedside table. Needless to stay, we stood our ground and didn't move, although Grumpos tried to charge one woman 8 euros to stay in her room till noon. And she needed the shelter from the sun for as long as possible as her daughter had been ill.
My advice to anyone planning to go here is to have a week in a 4-star hotel in the Cotswolds. It will cost half of what we spent and there will be much more to see and do.
Santorini is for sun-worshipping enthusiasts of prison-grade food, dust and rubbish who have money to waste on over-priced shops.

8 readers found this review helpful

Stayed at the Athina Apts in July 2009 and the weather for our fortnight was very hot,
The Athina is very well kept both inside and out,my family of 4 found them to be spacious and comfortable,ours was a maisonette and had a spiral staircase leading upstairs to 3 beds,1 bed was downstairs for some strange reason,the cleaner seems to be always there.
The apartments are situated in a small *cul-de-sac* and are very pretty to look at,they are well equipped and even had hair dryer,Iron and sandwich maker.
Perissa Town and Beach area is a couple of minutes walk away.
Overall we had a nice holiday but there are a couple of negatives.
Remember the cul-de-sac i mentioned earlier..?,well dont let that fool you into thinking its quiet.
Directly adjacent to Athina Apts is "Vivi studios" which is currently being used by Backpackers,Due to their Nocturnal habits,the Athina guests were kept awake for most of their 14 day holiday by noisy quad bikes,loud music,screaming,shouting and Yob behaviour untill well after sunrise most days.
Air Conditioning was priced at 50 Euros per week which we thought was expensive,many hotels now include the air con and we saw this charge as a little greedy.

1 reader found this review helpful

Very pleased with Athina apartments in Perissa. We stayed there June/July in 2009 for two weeks. Apartments are spotlessly clean and are done so daily with sheets and towels changed every 2-3 days. They are large with plenty of storage space and everything you need. Pool area is lovely, not crowded and grounds are very picturesque.
Although the staff cannot speak very good english they are very friendly and go out of their way for you. Bottled water in the fridge for you when you arrive. To obtain a safe it is 10 euros and air conditioning is optional. This is a great place to stay if you want a relaxing holiday. It's close to beach and town centre with a little shop with most things you need only 2 minutes walk away.
Perissa is in a nice spot as it is shielded by the cliff from strong winds, was late 30s in temp when we were there. I recommend getting a scooter/quad bike out to explore the island and go on some of the excursions. Takes about 1 hour to get from Perissa to Oia on quad bike. I didnt think Perissa was expensive either. In most bars it was 2 euros for a big Mythos!
Overall, I think it should be rated as more than a 2 star because of the high quality of the rooms and pool area. Lovely place and island.

1 reader found this review helpful

My friend and I thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Athina Apartments. It was spotlessly clean and the maid came each day (even the day we arrived) to clean our already clean apartment. The pool area was clean and it was not packed around the pool if you wanted to go out and lounge with a book.
As we did not pay for a high cost holiday we were pleasantly suprised and thought we definately got value for money (Don't expect the Ritz if your only prepared to pay for a travel lodge). I enjoyed that it was tucked away and a very quiet resort (no bar, so no noisy stupid entertaining for tourists that can't entertain themselves with the island sites), but only a 5 minute walk to the main street (closer to the local shop and bakery). We were 2 single females, but it felt safe walking back to the apartments at night when returning from tours.
While we went self catering, the range of crockery and pots wasn't wide, but there was enough for us to cook the few nights we stayed in, (prefering to go out and watch the sun set in Oia and also Fira) plus the standards (kettle) to be able to breakfast and lunch if we wanted. The staff (when you could find them) were super friendly and more than willing to assist.
I would definately recommend Athina Apartments if you go on holiday for a quiet relaxing time, but would possibly avoid it if you prefer the nightlife and clubs.

2 readers found this review helpful

Good Points.
1. Exceptionally clean.
2. Regular (every2/3 Days) linen change.
3. Nicely decorated, pleasant gardens.
4. Very clean pool area.
5. Short walk to beach.
6. Some very fruitful Fig trees nearby!!
Bad Points.
1. The only bad point is the close proximity of some "backpacker" accommodation from which we experienced a lot of noise, beginning at 1am and ending at 5 am.

We took a party of four to stay at Athina hotel in September 2006, two adults, 1 child 16 years, and 1 child 9 years. We stopped in the self catering studios, which are set apart from the Hotel Athina, in two blocks of two apartments high. We arrived late afternoon from our transfer of about 30 minutes, which was good, our first impression was ok, doesn’t look too bad. The main hotel is quite large, the surrounding gardens were scruffy looking and unkempt, we booked 2 studios adjacent to one another which are a bonus when you have kids, inside they are quite spacious and fairly clean, not exactly luxurious, but as we are frequent Greece visitors, you get used to it. The self catering equipment was not adequate in either studios, one kettle was missing out of one, cups, plates, forks not enough for a family of four. However we did two meals on the 2 ring cooker, as long as you can boil in a pan and warm up or fry in a frying pan you are ok.
The pool at the Athina is big and spotlessly clean at all times, to which our youngest enjoyed as she was the only child there on holiday, the reception staff were very polite and most helpful, however the bar man in the hotel was a bit ignorant with us, he seemed to favour the German guests, to which we didn’t know the hotel was mainly booked by them as it was still their main holiday weeks, so be warned!
Over all the whole hotel looked tired and worn, probably looked stunning when first built, but I wasn’t impressed even for a 3*. We spent most of our nights next door at the Ideal apartments, we ate out most days in Lambi, plenty of choice, highly recommend The Blue Phoenix, excellent food and customer service. We hired bikes for a week, this let us escape from the Athina , local transport very good, we love Kos town been twice before, the athina is a good 20 minutes walk, so catch the bus! We probably wont stay at the Athina hotel again, there are many apartments about run by Olympic Holidays far better than the Athina, just choose carefully, you have been warned!

My partner and I have just returned from Santorini. We stayed at Athina Apartments in Perissa and found the accommodation to be clean, comfy and friendly.
The apartments are very close to the beach, shops and tavernas but tucked away in a quiet side street away from the minimal noise. The apartments also boast a lovely swimming pool, sun loungers and umbrellas as well as beautifully kept grounds.
We cannot recommend highly enough visiting there, Oia, Kamari (by water taxi) as well as hiring a quad bike to see these spectacular views.
Visiting the Volcano by boat and climbing to the summit is also well worth the effort.
We will certainly visit Santorini again and Athina Apartments.