Summer Palace Hotel
(Hotels in Kardamena)
OMG, all you people are SNOBS. The Summer P is amazing, anyone wanting to go to Kos, I would strongly recommend it . Most of the rooms share a pool with about 10 others and also there are afew main pools and an indoor pool but you do need to go out and get a sunbed at 7am . Beware, the weather is HARSH . The lift down to the sea is a good idea, the beach is made up of pebbles. The food is good, although it is quite repetative, there is a wide choice . The Italian restraunt is VERY good . Amazing pizza . I would say though the SP is not for the unfit or disabled. Very Hilly. The disco bar at the bottom of the hill is very good . Doesnt look up to much on the outside but inside it is all english and very friendly . The bar has superb air con We loved it so much were heading back out in October | |
very much needed . The fast food is good and non-expensive. It opens at midnight . The disco was also very good and plays all the best music . The bars/clubs in Kardamena are amazing ! As the Summer P is quite far out there are regular busses, some free. Taxi's too and from Kardamena cost 8euros50 . Our rep Kim was very helpfull . We went out with her most nights and met so many people, including another rep Tom, who was soooo nice . The PR's for the clubs are very pushy but promise them you'll go back and they'll leave you alone . All the locals are very friendly, just like all other foreign people wanting you to go into their restraunt . | unknown unknown (Saturday, August 11, 2007) | 1 post by unknown unknown | |
 - UK |
 | 3/10 |
I have just returned from this hotel (26/06/2007) Rating for this hotel should not exceed 3.5 star the most. Food is boring, poor variety and quality.
Restaurant staff is rude and unhelpfull. Hotel is located on very steep hill (lift does help a bit if it works).
Rooms are of acceptable quality , but tired. Prepare to book your sunbed at 7 am the latest especially near swimming pool, seaside is better - more beds
If I only read comments on this hotel before I went there...
regards
Adam
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| Adam Sierant (Monday, July 02, 2007) | 1 post by Adam Sierant | |
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Omg me and my friend abi are sat here right now yelling at the screen because of your insults of our favourite ever holiday. It was superb! the drinks especially were awesome so ill be hearing none of that thank you very much Maybe the problem is that your all a bunch of old people staying in a rather more hip hotel alright? Get wiv it! xXx | ||||||||||
| chantelle davison (Monday, October 30, 2006) | 1 post by chantelle davison | |
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 Don’t waste your money, go self catering!
We arrived the at We were then told a porter would take our bags to our room, out of our 2 cases and 2 bags he took the lightest case leaving me to carry the rest up a rather steep hill, he virtually run up this hill while I, loaded with luggage, tried to keep up with him as he kept darting off in between apartments. (The complex is a big place and a bit of a labyrinth until you’ve had a couple of days there) He then took us into our room, showed us the balcony and muttered something about the land you could see on the horizon and then stood waiting for his tip. (we later found out that the land was The room was nice, clean and had everything you’d expect. The one complaint was that the “double” bed was 2 singles pushed together but you seem to get that everywhere abroad. Double beds obviously don’t exist in Europe outside of the The room was nicely air conditioned but the TV had no channels in English. The next day we went down for lunch about 12 as we missed breakfast. The restaurant was quite nice, you could sit on a terrace with the view of the sea and then I have to say the food they served at lunch time was of an extremely poor quality. There was a lot of salad type stuff which to be fair wasn’t bad, but to accompany the salad were “hot” trays of dishes e.g. spaghetti bolognaise, or some Greek stew type dish, or a selection of cold meats and cheese. Well the “hot” dishes were luke warm at best and the quality of some of the ingredients was appalling. The stew thing looked like someone had opened a bunch of pedigree chum tins, I was looking around to see if they had any dog biscuits to go with it and the spaghetti bolognaise was blatantly out of a tin, rather than having had a chef stand and make it. The cold meat and cheese wasn’t much better, the ham & chicken etc was that kind of plastic, processed stuff you get in the Tesco’s value range and there was only ever 2 cheeses, feta and some other Greek cheese that was a bit like Edam but greasier. Remember this is supposed to be 5 star, where was the ham off the bone, the sliced chicken breast, the cheese board and a proper chef doing the cooking?!! We then spent an afternoon by the pool which was quite pleasant although I later suffered an ear infection as the pools weren’t overly clean and had no smell of chlorine what so ever. Later that evening we decided to go down for the evening meal, to our amazement, the food that was put out was identical to that of lunch, and I mean identical it literally was exactly the same. So we abandoned that and decided to eat out. However the hotel is quite out of the way so we had to order a cab to Kardemena. While we waited for that we though that now would be a good opportunity to sample a couple of the all inclusive drinks. There was only one bar and you had to queue for quite some time to get served. When you finally did the staff were grumpy and treated you like you’d just spat at them or something. I ordered a couple of cocktails which were served in 2 cheap glass tumblers with dry water marks all over them and the cocktail tasted nothing like it should have from when I’ve had it before in both England and other countries. I later went up and ordered the same cocktail and got something completely different to the first one’s as a different barman made them. Later on in the holiday we got them again from another barman and again they were different. It’s obvious that when you ask for a cocktail, they really do just make them up as they go along depending on who’s working. The bar’s terrace was nice though, again overlooking the views but is cheapened by the fact the glass topped tables are full of chips. The next morning we attended the “American buffet” for breakfast, well I’ve been to I’d say in general, when you first walk into the restaurant it doesn’t look bad, it’s only when you start eating it you find out how awful it is. Even the deserts were nasty, they all looked very attractive but all tasted exactly the same. After the first 2 days we did all of our eating and drinking out, away from the hotel, so we still had a good holiday but obviously we spent far more than we’d originally planned which kind of defeats the whole point of going all inclusive. Oh we did have one more evening meal at the hotel, there is an Italian restaurant which you have to book the day before. This ended up being by far the worst meal of the holiday. When I ordered a salad for a starter which came with a mayonnaise dressing, the waiter said quite abruptly “We run out of mayonnaise, for you this is no problem” I replied “Excuse me?” to which he replied rather surly and unpleasantly ”we have no mayonnaise, you have salad without dressing, you eat, this is no problem, yes?” I then said “Well if you haven’t got the dressing, I’ll have something else” and then ordered a different salad. We then both ordered a pizza each and the waiter then snatched up the menus and said to me almost shouting “you love mayonnaise so much!” Anyway the salad was nothing special but the pizza was without a doubt the worst pizza I have ever had in my entire life anywhere. When it turned up it looked like something a 6 year old had made in cookery class. The cheese wasn’t mozzarella it was that greasy cheese from the main restaurant and mine was supposed to be ham or something and my girlfriend’s was supposed to be pepperoni but it was the same tinned meat they used for the bacon at breakfast cut into cubes on mine and circles on hers! Our pizzas tasted exactly the same even though they had completely different ingredients on the menu. We ate about 1/3 each before leaving but even that was a mistake as we both had upset stomachs for 24 hours starting at about 3am that night. I did actually complain to the hotel manager about how rude the waiter in the Italian restaurant was. I don’t know what the outcome was but we did witness the hotel manager shouting at this waiter in Greek and he didn’t look happy!! On the whole the hotel was ok but the food, drink and service from the staff was awful. In fact the staff were just plain rude, especially the ones behind the reception desk. The staff in the main restaurant were the only ones we found to be polite. One last thing, we went with Sunstar and our rep was this Scottish guy called Doug or Douggie. He was absolutely useless and he was just as rude and obnoxious as the hotel staff. We hired a car through him which never turned up, fortunately I was able to get hold of the hire company’s number and get a car at short notice but it was some tin can as that’s all they had left, rather than the Jeep we’d originally booked. Also we booked a trip to By the way went to Nisyros and On the whole we had a good holiday but would not recommend this place. It wasn’t only us that thought it either, we met a few other couples of shared our view about how cr*p the food and service was and how useless that Douggie was. Don’t waste your money, go self catering! | ||||||||||
| Chris Smith (Tuesday, July 04, 2006) | 1 post by Chris Smith | |
| - UK |
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Me and my boyfriend recently spent a week in The food was defiantly not 5 star food, it was all inclusive, so it is understandable that they have to cater to a wide range of tastes, but that is no excuse for serving luke warm food, which is both the same for the lunch and evening meals. There was one time when the food was fairly hot, but that was when we went for lunch at the beginning of the sitting, if you went half an hour after it had started then it was getting cold. There was a good selection of food, although vegetarians will have little more choice than a salad, and the deserts all tasted the same just in different colours, i.e. pink for strawberry and brown for chocolate etc. We chose not to eat the buffet for dinner, but decided to give the Italian restaurant a go instead one night. That was a mistake, you had to book for it, although it was included in the all inclusive package, so we thought it would be quite nice, but the cheese on the pizzas was greasy and not mozzarella and even though we had different meat on our pizza, one was supposed to be pepperoni and the other ham, they were both the same meat, which was the same as the meat that was served at the buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The waiting staff in the restaurant were also not particularly welcoming, one told us that there was no mayonnaise to go with a salad, but that was ok, because we didn't need mayonnaise with a salad, he actually told us what we liked and disliked, the other waiter had a bit of B.O. problem, which frankly put me off my meal even more. The Staff in the hotel were not all that polite, when we arrived in the middle of the night, the man on reception didn't want to answer any of our questions, just kept saying they'll be able to tell you tomorrow and the day staff on the reception weren't much better, they never smiled and answered in the minimum amount of words to any question that you asked them. The waiting staff in the restaurant were a bit better though, greeting you with sort of smile and getting your drinks as soon as you sat down, but apart from that they didn't do an awful lot. Overall we found the locals not very accommodating or friendly. The hotel drinks were not all that good either, they were served in barely dry tumbler glasses, even the cocktails and there was only one main bar, so in the evening you had to queue for your drinks and this was not even in high season. The actual seating area to enjoy your drinks was pretty nice, there are balconies with comfy seats with little tables and tables and chairs in the restaurant area looking out onto the sea and the surrounding islands, although there were lots of birds that flew down if you left any food on the tables. The rep was not really that helpful. We had a welcome meeting on the first afternoon that we arrived and he told what was available to do on the island and took us through the trips that were detailed in our welcome pack, but if you asked him a question he didn't really answer, just sort of shrugged you off and told you not to worry or he'd sort it all out for you. He didn't though. We booked a hire car through him, we gave him the details and then he said that when he got back to the office that he would book it all up for us. Well we thought that we'd check the day before, just to confirm that the car was coming the next day, they had no record that we wanted a car, so he obviously hadn't done his job. Luckily the rental company, Katarina, had the car that we wanted available and we were able to book it. Although, if you do use this company keep on eye on the fuel, they wanted it returned with a fuel tank, but only gave it to you with a tank that was about 7/8 full. We also booked two trips through him, one worked out no problem, the trip to Nysorros and the other a trip to Turkey meant that the tour company needed our passport details to get our boarding passes, so once again, we gave the rep our details for him to pass on, and he didn't. It wasn't a problem, as our guide for the day was able to sort it all out at the port, but it wasn't surprising that the other couple from our hotel that had booked through the same rep had to give their details again to the guide at the port. So all in all we were not very impressed with the rep at all. The two trips that we did we're both through the same company and on both we had the same guide, Steve, who was really good. On the Nysorros trip he explained everything really well to us and came round on the boat on the way home to check that we had all had a good time and answered any questions in great detail. He spoke to us for a good half an hour. The second trip to We defiantly had a good holiday, but I wouldn't recommend more than a week on the island unless you really like doing nothing but lying on a beach or around the pool.
Sorry its so long, I had a lot to say. | ||||||||||
| Nikki Bird (Friday, June 30, 2006) | 1 post by Nikki Bird | |
| - UK |
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I dont know what people are compaining about, I went there in October 2005 and it was fabulous!! We had rubbish flights but were checked in with no hassle, our room was lovely and big overlooking the sea, the hotel itself is placed in its own little village with the Family Village and Sovereign Beach and it is set up a hill, it looks very Beverley Hills & extremely different from the rest of Kardamena which is your average touristy toilet. The food was lovely, there is a little italian by the Main pool overlooking the sea if you wanted somewhere a bit private of the main restaurant serves loads of different dishes and the desserts- oh my goodness, if you have a sweet tooth you will be in heaven. The Staff were the best I have come across in 28 years of holidays, they were so friendly and funny and nice I cant fault the place at all. We are going back in 3 weeks, I expect it can get a little fraught and busy in the peak months but it is a truly stunning place. | ||||||||||
| Lorien Brogan (Thursday, April 27, 2006) | 1 post by Lorien Brogan | |
| - UK |
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| hi we are booked in at the summer palace hotel in three weeks having read the comments we are worried to say the least. should we still go???? | |
| donna lewis (Wednesday, September 14, 2005) | 1 post by donna lewis | |
| - UK |
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| My firend and i have just booked to stay at this hotel on the 14th july for one week. It looks and sounds great in the brochure however some of the comments..well they're not the best!is it really that bad??? can anyone help???? | |
| Kirsty Laing (Friday, June 17, 2005) | 1 post by Kirsty Laing | |
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We travelled with Sunstar, although there was no problems with flight going out to the resort, when we got there the check in (at 4am) was long winded and very slow the que was massive with no attempt to try and move things along (little did we know, that queing was going to be a common thing here!!) I strongly believe that if you go into a restaurant for a meal with your family, you should be able to sit down as a family unit and eat together, not que up for at least 15minutes individually just to get meal from the grill, or even a small helping of chips for the children (our daughter hated the food and so is not fussy, she could not wait to get home for a proper meal, what does that tell you!) If you wanted a drink for the bar, you had best que, ask for 3 and start queing again for the next, by which time your mouth will be a dry as gandi's flipflop (no joke!) Now, on the the rooms! great if you like the wind sailing through your hair whilst you sleep, the doors have gaps the size of at least 1/4 inch around, so please do not forget yout tube of "no gaps" rooms are not of a standard of a 5* a travel lodge in the UK offers a great deal more... no iron, the hair dryer is as useless..... and burns your hand... also it probably is a good idea to pack ant repellant as there is a problem all over with them.... the rooms are cleaned every day, but not cleaned if you know what I am saying.... the reps for sunstar were not very good at all, did not care, very poor attitude, and we didn't even complain at the resort... this was to other people who had more serious complaints than us..... the hotel staff treat you like a 2nd class citizen, mainly I think because you are there as an all inclusive guest ...very poor!!! I would class this hotel as a 3* and not a 5* delux, we tried hard for week to find the delux part of it and are still puzzled!!! if you are going here, then take your poo pills, dried food supplies, and patience of a saint, you will need them, oh... and hope that you do not book with sunstar... our 3.30 hour flight turned into 8 hours on the aircraft, going via vienna with only a half warmed up breakie and 3 drinks offered during this time....... happy vacation, i'm happy to be home!!! Sunstar changed the flights home 3 times, leaving us 1 day short of our holiday.... not a bad thought when you have had enough of the place.. but you really should get what you pay for, shouldn't you?????? | ||||||||||
| jo pither (Sunday, May 08, 2005) | 1 post by jo pither | |
| - UK |
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| We have just returned from our holiday at the Summer Palace Hotel and found our stay very enjoyable. It was quiet and out of the way of the mainland Kos but found the food repetative but enjoyable and the cleanliness was spot on. Although it wouldn't suit the lively crowd, with children it is ideal if they enjoy swimming, although on a steep incline. | ||||||||||
| Sue Ellam-Rutt (Sunday, October 31, 2004) | 1 post by Sue Ellam-Rutt | |
| - UK |
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| we arrived in kos on the 6th october having booked the summer palace only to find they had over booked and had to moved us and other guests to another hotel in kos town, we have since heard that it has been shut due to food posioning and health problems is this true?????? | ||||||||||
| mark Ingle (Tuesday, October 12, 2004) | 1 post by mark Ingle | |
| - Greece |
[Available from Thomas Cook]
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