Planos Bay Apartments

Returned Sept 4th '07. Fab resort full of friendly people. Hotel excellent; pool cleaned every evening & morning, poolside also. Plenty of sun loungers. Poolside snack bar very good; dearest meal approx 4 Euros & you get plenty for that.
Choice good - cooked breakfasts to Greek salads, pasta, sarnies, pizza etc. ALL hotel staff really helpful; ALL reps really helpful too. Entertainment very good all round & kids clubs are fantastic - thanks to all concerned there.
Plenty of good places to eat; we ate somewhere different every night & didn't have a single bad meal. Edem across the road from hotel & next door to Kaliva pub was excellent value for money - fillet steak with all the trimmings 16 Euros (approx £10) & you get plenty too.
Kaliva pub very good for children - has a large sandy play area with plenty of safe equipment & is enclosed also. The Robbie Williams tribute is very good; no comment on the others though! Mediterranean on the main road, just a few steps up from the horse & carriages, also very good.
Golden fish bar extremely cheap if you fancy British food; kebabs are very cheap here, only 2 Euros. Plenty of good places to eat & all approx the same price. You will be spoilt for choice! The Reptile House very good. We paid 20 Euros for 4 of us and were in there ages. You have a guide too & she really knows her stuff. Beaches are beautiful - very clean & the water is fantastic, so clean and clear and safe. Horse & carriage ride costs 10 Euros & will take you where you want to go into the centre of Tsilivi.
Very good value if you compare to Blackpool for example - there it costs approx £20 to travel a VERY short distance. You must try a boat trip, fab day out & very safe also. Plenty of life jackets available & the guys on the boat will make sure you have the correct size.
The artist at the top of the road by the jewellery store(opp where the horses go from) is absolutely incredible. The quality of his work is amazing. Fab holiday all round, can't wait to go back!!

The Planos Bay is a fantastic complex for families. It is situated in a prime location for the beach & Main Street for bars/restaurants.
The rooms and communal areas are kept extremely clean. The staff on site are all extremely friendly and helpful. The entertainment provided by the hotel is good but lacked a lot of participation from fellow guests.
The First Choice Kids Clubs provide excellent entertainment for the children. Trips organised by First Choice are more expensive than those offered by Tour Agents in the area so shop around for value for money deals.
Would definitely return to Zante which is beautiful.

Just arrived back from the best holiday we have ever had so far. We spent two weeks in Tsilivi at the Planos Bay Apartments, it was fantastic.
The apartments are basic but very very clean, the staff are very friendly and approachable.
Tsilivi is an amazing village with very friendly people and an ideal holiday resort if you have small children, it is not too commercialised it has enough to keep you entertained, it is fairly quiet during the day and then comes alive of an evening but doesn’t get noisy.
It was that good a holiday we are already making plans to go back again next year.

We booked this holiday last minute because we were fed up with the rain in England!. The accommodation was basic but clean and the Planos Bay is in a good position because its near enough to the centre of Tsilivi but far enough away from any night time noise.
It was very hot while we were there and I would advise anyone to pay the 5Euros a day for the air conditioning. The complex is geared up for families and there is plenty going on for the kids, the music played around the pool was a bit repetitive but if you got fed up with the pool Tsilivi has good beaches.
I preferred the quieter Planos Beach and my young son had a great time snorkelling in the beautiful clear waters.
Tsilivi has an excellent range of Restaurants and bars ranging from fast food to gourmet and some are very close to the complex.
Overall the holiday was good value for money and the Planos Bay was a good base to explore Tsilivi and the island from.
It’s not the place to stay if you want to be away from young families enjoying themselves!
If you have never visited Zante before, be warned, departure from Zante airport is an unbelievable experience! But stay calm, keep your sense of humour and go with the flow, its a small price to pay for visiting such a beautiful island.

The hotel was ok but there wasn’t much going on we never had the chance to get a lay bed as they were always gone we got told we couldn’t reserve any beds, but people left the towels out over night, so they had a lay bed the next day which wasn’t very fair.
The cleaner were good but are beds only got changed once and we had the same towels all week.
We never got told that the hotel was family based, so there were a lot of kids running about.
We also got told by the travel agent that it was a very busy resort with lots of clubs and bars for the younger people which it didn’t have there was only a handful of places and they weren’t very busy at all.
The over all holiday was good, tsilivi is a lovely place but not very good for young people looking for good nights out.

Best holiday ever! Two kids loved the place. Very clean apartments and exceptionally friendly staff. Entertainment staff were brill! Pool absolutely spotless, also poolside cleaned EVERY morning ready for people to use.
Maid service every day and equipment in apartment was very good. Staff very friendly and helpful and plenty of people there with children, so if you are looking for a really good family holiday then this is the place!
Location good - a nice gentle stroll to the centre and harbour takes approx 15/20 mins. Some excellent fish restaurants in the harbour and also the Royal Viking just a few doors away from the apartments, very good (try the Kleftiko, its gorgeous!)
Waterworld is a fab day out and only a short taxi ride away (agree a price before you pile in - this is standard practice). Plenty to do here & not all scary water rides either; you can go on things as often as you like or you can just relax & soak up the sun.
Don’t let the idea that Ayia Napa is clubbers paradise - it is there if that’s what you want (mostly in the Square). We found it to be an excellent choice for a family holiday, especially Sept & weather is still hot. (we averaged 30 degrees each day).

1 reader found this review helpful

The hotel looks lovely from the outside however, was like most Greek places a little basic inside that said we had a great time at the Planos.
All of the staff are very friendly but particularly Armondo who after the first day knew what our names were and what drinks we liked etc. a nice personal service. Also good here was the Thomas Cook rep Joel who was excellent when a guest was taken ill and also when we had a problem with our shower.
It gets a little cramped around the pool, although it is nice, but we preferred to make the short walk to the beach where for 6 Euros for the two of us we had 2 beds and a parasol plus the use of spotlessly clean toilets a shower and a bar with snacks, the two owners of the place called The Cozy are called Stavros and Janos, fantastic location you can lie on the narrow beach or on the lawned gardens. The bathing was very safe for kiddies quite shallow for a long way out.
Eating out was great we never had a bad meal. Our favourites were Manos Grill, Fiorentina, Romioes and the ever popular Giorgios, so many to choose from and not enough nights to get them in !
There were a couple of nightclubs for the young ones but this is very much a family resort with a good variety of bars to suit most tastes.
We do not usually visit places more than once but with Tsilivi we intend to make an exception.

1 reader found this review helpful

My fiancé, I and our 2 little angels (aged 7 and 4) are just back from a fortnight in sunny Tsilivi at the Planos Bay Apartments.
What a fantastic holiday we had! The apartments were a good size and cleaned every day (except Sunday).
The entertainment at the pool side and at night was FANTASTIC, thanks to Linzi, Tara, Mick, all the kids reps and George the swim Kids rep. I can't commend these guys enough for all the time and effort they put in every single day.
If you have a family and are up for a laugh on holiday this is definitely the place to be.
For a night out try Friends Bar were Yannis and the guys with entertain you from morning till night! For eating Stamnes, Kaliva and the old Village Taverna are all great and right on your doorstep.
For shopping the best value is found further down in Tsilivi town.
We were delayed on the return home because of the terror attacks on Glasgow Airport and First Choice were BRILLIANT in their response - a big thanks to all the First Choice Reps who helped us and got us home eventually - especially Mike and Georgina!

This was our second holiday to the Planos Bay apartments and it was as fantastic as the first!
While we were there Greece was having its only heat wave in the last 110 years, and sometimes it was too hot to be sunbathing, but there was always something going on in the pool to cool you down - normally arranged by Linzi and Tara who are the hotel entertainers and a great laugh!
The kids club was fantastic and my 5 year old son still doesn't stop talking about 'rockin ryan'(he is a legend!)
The main reason we returned was because of how clean the rooms are-totally spotless.
There is a small army of cleaners who work so hard and the rooms are cleaned every day except Sunday.
The best restaurants we went to were fat olives, stamnes, and menirs.
The only downside for the Planos bay apartments now is that they have lost their fantastic people that ran the pool bar-but lucky for us they have opened up their own fantastic bar called 'friends' just up the road.
They remembered us from the last time and will make you feel like you’re their best friend.
My son needed to see a doctor and Yanni the owner even drove us to see him so we didn't have to walk!
They are all mad as a bag of snakes but fantastic people and you must try Yannis wife thesapina's spaghetti bol-it's to die for!!
All in all a fab holiday - we met some great people and our kids made lots of friends. I would recommend Planos bay to anyone!

We have just returned from a fantastic 2 weeks to the Planos bay apartments. Well... what can we say, a brilliant holiday!
The rooms were cleaned regularly to a high standard & the whole area around the complex was excellent.
Zante is a beautiful island the Blue Caves & shipwreck is a must to see. We went with our 2 kids 8 & 4 they really enjoyed the kids club so a big thanks to the kid’s reps they all worked hard.
All the staff including the cleaners were very friendly & couldn't have made our stay more enjoyable.
We met some really wonderful people who we are hoping to return altogether next June 08.
Finally, we have to say a big thank you to Linzi & Tara, the entertainment team, they were really friendly & we all hope to see them again next year, thanks to both of you.
Simon (Tarzan) & Jane.