Atrium Hotel in Pefkohori

After our long transfer, My wife and I were both quite travel weary. We were greeted at the Hotel Atrium by very pleasant reception staff. They advised that due to the restaurant closing in half an hour, we should have our lunch before we checked in. After lunch we paid our Room tax which was ten euros per day. We were informed that our luggage had already been taken to our allocated comfort double room, number 314, which was up spiral external stairs on the third level. The room was basic, it had a double bed, television, a small refrigerator and a safe. There was a small clothes rail with hangers. The curtained shower was a little small but adequate. There was a good sized balcony overlooking countryside, which had a table and two comfortable chairs and a clothes drying rack. We spent most of our holiday in the beautiful pool area where there was always plenty available sun loungers. Each day the pool was open from ten o’clock in the morning until eight in the evening. There were always lifeguards on duty. We enjoyed watching the children having amazing family time here. There was only one bar with a limited selection of drinks that were included in the all inclusive package. The bar staff couldn’t have been more friendly and efficient. The hotel restaurant was quite small and busy. The staff here were pleasant and well organised. We occasionally needed to wait outside until a table was available. The tables were a little too close to each other, making it awkward for us to carry food to our table. Unfortunately, we found the hotel food bland and repetitive. The hotel’s free courtesy shuttle bus service, to and from the beach ran each day except Sundays; every hour from ten o’clock until six in the evening. Our biggest disappointment was the poor air conditioning system in our room 314. We later found that in about half of the rooms, the old inefficient air conditioning system had been replaced. Unfortunately, the old system in our room just seemed to recirculate the warm air, regardless of what setting we tried it on. Although the bed was comfortable, due to the very hot weather and difunctional air conditioning system, our sleep quality was very poor. We tried opening the doors during the night to cool the room down. However, by doing this, we invited pesky mosquitoes into our room. My wife and I would not rate this hotel as four star. We would rate it as a two star hotel, with a four star pool. We enjoyed meeting some lovely people during this holiday. The hotel staff couldn’t have been more pleasant, friendly and efficient. We would recommend this hotel for families with young children. However, I doubt that we would return here unless we were guaranteed a room with efficient air conditioning.

hotel is generally clean with daily room cleaners, fresh towels and bedding etc. there are some renovated rooms, and some which are dated, which is just luck of the draw I believe. There are no lifts and a lot of steps, especially if you’re not placed on the ground floor. This hotel isn’t the best for disabled people, mobility issues or people with pushchairs/ prams or very young children. One comment on hygiene/ cleanliness that I have noted is that there is absolutely no hand wash / soap or any HOT running water in any of the toilets for guests to use. I found this alarming, especially in the Restaurant and bar toilets where handwashing should be promoted. The hotel is situated on a very steep hill around 20 min walk from the town. WOW WOW WOW getting back up that hill is not for the faint of heart…. or unfit people… there is a free daily bus that goes to and from the beach numerous time each day, except on Sundays when the service doesn’t run. This is great, but the last bus back is at 18:15, so not great if you want to go to the beachfront for dinner or drinks, as the only was back after this time is to walk, or get a taxi, which would cost around €10. Around the pool and pool areas are also clean, but rarely hosed down (there was a spilled Coke on the ground near the pool for the whole 2 weeks we were here and never washed away). There is no sunbed wars or reserving sunbed which is also a plus. Food is very repetitive, breakfast - your usual Greek continental, plus eggs, bacon sausage, tomatoes, beans. (No pancakes or waffles, despite being advertised as “American breakfast”). Lunch and dinner - always chips on offer, and spaghetti bolognaise, a couple of forms of meat, but nothing like you should see in other 4 star hotels. No fresh BBQ meats, or accompaniments to meals, Eg, no burger buns for burgers, and no pitas for gyros pork. At dinner time, just around 8 Bain-marie hot options, and around 4 salad options. The lunch snack menu offers a ham and cheese croissant, sometimes a small bread roll sandwich and the driest cake you’d ever taste. Also to note that the snack bar (consisting of 3 meagre offerings) isn’t self serve, you have to request the bar staff to serve you what you want, which is generally very slow service, considering that they have to also serve drinks on the other side of the bar. Also to note that it’s clear the bar staff dislike English (especially the stocky-man with dark hair and dark beard, and the slender girl with long brown straight hair - generally working together and spend their whole day shift flirting and chatting), as when you request food from the lunch snack station, they also hand pick the driest end peaces of cake for English, and when I felt the cake, and gave it back as it was dry, the girl just rolled her eyes and put it back into the display to give out again - I hope this wasn’t a reflection on her food and bar hygiene. The manager is like a hawk at meal times, watching over staff and r