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| Submission date: 2007-08-01 - Date of Stay: July 2007 |
| Submitted by: N/A - From: N/A |
| Type of Traveller: Young Couple - Age Group: 26 - 30 |
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| Lovely hotel, peaceful surroundings |
| My partner and I have just returned from a wonderful holiday staying at the Hotel Coral in Skala Rachoni, Thassos. We booked with Thomsons Holidays as a last minute package deal, although this hotel can be booked independently. We stayed for a week during the school holidays from July 22nd to July 29th 2007.
THE LOCATION and FACILITIES
The hotel is literally 180 metres from the sea (less than 5 minutes walk) and is set within beautiful olive groves with a spectacular mountain backdrop. The small resort centre of Skala Rachoni is about 1km away along the seafront, and the village of Rachoni is 4km inland.
There is plenty of parking available at the hotel and a lovely swimming pool with pool bar. The swimming pool, which is a decent size, is set within the olive groves and so the surroundings are totally peaceful. My only gripe is that there were not that many sunbeds, although because the hotel is fairly quiet (even during high season), we were able to get a sunbed everyday.
The hotel offers room only, bed and breakfast or half board stays, although if you book through Thomson, the only option is room only. Although we didn't eat in the main hotel dining area, the food appeared to be of good quality and certainly smelt good! For those staying on a room only basis, the pool bar serves low cost snacks (although limited in choice) and is open until very late at night. The pool bar plays a good variety of music and because it is situated at the end of the hotel building, none of the rooms are affected by the music from the bar. There is a happy hour between 5pm and 7pm when cocktails and beers are reduced (cocktails were 4 Euros at this time), and the pool area is beautifully lit by the fairy lights in the trees.
ROOMS
There are 38 rooms: half of which have a mountainous view and half of which look towards the sea. However, if your room is facing the sea, unless you are on the top floor you will only have a glimpse of the sea, as you will mainly see the olive groves. The mountain view really is spectacular and so if you plan a stay here, I would recommend that you request this view.
The rooms are basic but the furniture is of good quality and not at all shabby like some of the places I have stayed in in Greece. Our room had twin beds, a refrigerator (much appreciated), a colour TV and en suite bathroom. There was plenty of strorage space, and air conditioning is available at a surcharge. I would say that air conditioning is essential during high season, as temperatures reached 43 degrees during our stay. The surcharge on the air conditioning was 35 Euros but well worth the cost.
STAFF
The staff at the hotel are friendly and very helpful. The reception desk appeared to be manned 24 hours, as everytime we went there (even in the early hours of the morning), there was someone on hand to help.
CLEANING
My main complaint with the hotel was the cleaning service we received. The cleaners actually come around everyday and change your sheets, clean your room and restock your toilet paper. If you are still in bed, they will not disturb you. This is good, but they do not return later on. So if you are a late riser, like we were, then your hotel room can go uncleaned for days. In the end we had to request that the hotel room be cleaned because there was sand all over the floor (from beach trips), and our bins were overflowing. However, if you are up before 10am, then this should not be a problem because you will be out of your room before the cleaners arrive. Despite this gripe, I was still impressed with because I have stayed in some places in Greece where cleaning once or twice a week is standard and the option of a daily clean is not even there.
SURROUNDING AREA
This hotel really is set away from all the hustle and bustle. There are a smattering of tavernas within walking distance and the resort centre is about a 10 minute walk, although there is very little there. There are two supermarkets within the vicinity of the hotel: one is at the far end of the resort centre, and the other is along the main road. You can get to the main road by turning left when leaving the hotel and walking to the top of this road. At the junction with the main road, turn right and the supermarket is about 50m away.
At first, the isolation was a little overwhelming and I wished that we had booked somewhere within a typical resort centre. However, after the initial surprise of this, we soon began to appreciate the tranquility of the surrounds.
We had visited in high season. Whereas most resorts would be packed with tourists, Skala Rachoni maintained much of its traditional Greek charm and there were only a smattering of tourists. The pool area at the hotel was never busy, and the beach was never crowded. The Tavernas were quiet although had enough people eating there to ensure a good atmosphere. The resort was a good mix of German tourists, British tourists and Greek locals.
LOCAL TAVERNAS
We counted 9 tavernas within walking distance of the Hotel Coral. When you exit the hotel, you turn right and walk along the road towards the beach until you reach some crossroads. At the crossroads, you can either turn right and head towards Skala Rachoni resort centre, or turn left and walk away from the resort centre. Either direction will lead you to a smattering of tavernas, within 500 metres to 1km of the Hotel Coral.
Within Skala Rachoni resort centre there are 4 tavernas, all serving a variety of Greek cuisine: Gorgona, Geko, Olga's Place and one other which I did not get the name of. We ate at Olga's Place and Gorgona. Gorgona has a lovely setting on the beach front and the food is of good quality although nothing special. Olga's Place was recommended to us by a number of different people, although when we ate there the food was very poor! My partner's meal was cold and he had to have it sent back to be reheated.
In the opposite direction, turning left at the crossroads, there are 4 more tavernas. You can see the first taverna when you are on the beach. We did not eat here as the menu was very limited. The other 3 tavernas are located next door to one another and are an extra 5 minute walk away. They are also on the beach front. You will see signs for them as you walk along the road. We only ate at one of these tavernas (the second one that you come to) but we had an excellent meal here. On a Saturday night they cook a Greek special which is lamb that has been cooked in the sand. I would recommend this taverna.
Finally, there is a Pizza restaurant along the main road. At the main road, turn right and walk about 500m to reach the pizza restautant. It is called Valentinos. The pizzas were ok but they used tinned toppings (e.g. tinned ham, tinned mushrooms) which was very strange indeed.
For a more varied choice of restaurants, you will have to head into Thassos Town. Thassos town is a typical resort centre with an excellent selection of bars and restaurants. There are buses that run between Skala Rachoni and Thassos Town, approximately once every hour and half. The bus stop is about 200m from the hotel, along the main road. There is a bus timetable in the reception of the Hotel Coral. However, the last bus is at 7:50pm and so you would need to catch a taxi back which costs 10 Euros.
NIGHTLIFE
There is no nightlife in Skala Rachoni! There are a smattering of bars dotted around as you walk towards the resort centre. However, they were virtually empty and lacked atmosphere. One or two of the bars did not even seem to want to serve us, despite having very little custom, and so we walked out after standing at the bar for a few minutes. However, the bar at the Hotel Coral had a good atmosphere and always had a reasonable number of guests there.
Alternatively, you could head into Thassos Town. If going into Thassos town, I would recommend the bar called Island, situated on the town beach. Here, you can sip your drinks sat right at the water's edge, and happy hour runs from 7pm to 11pm.
My partner and I are both young and into our nightlife. Although the lack of bars within the hotel vicinity was a slight disappointment, it did not spoil our holiday whatsoever, and there were far too many plus points to the hotel and the location to let this be a problem.
THE BEACH
The beach, which was 180m from the hotel, was truely wonderful! The undeveloped nature of the resort meant that the beach front was unspoilt and completely undeveloped. There is one beach bar to the right of the beach, which sold drinks. There is a small taverna to the left of the beach where you could have lunch. If you walk towards the resort centre, the beachfront becomes more developed and there are a handful of snack bars along the seafront.
We stayed at the beach closest to the hotel. The sand was white, the sea was blue and clean, and the backdrop to the beach was the spectacular rugged mountains. The beach remained uncrowded, even though it was high season. There were no more than 30 people on the beach and the nearest person was some 15m away. There are very few sunbeds on this beach, although there are a few available for 2 Euros per day if you ask at the beach bar.
The sea is calm and safe to swim in, and remains shallow for about 100m. The only downside to the beach, was that the seabed was full of seaweed. This was such a problem for me, as I like to know what I am stepping on. However, I bought some sea shoes from the supermarket and this made the situation manageable!
EXCURSIONS
The only excursions available within the resort, were those offered by the Thomson's rep, which were very overpriced. If you head into Thassos Town, then you can book excursions from the tour operators located there. The island is very undeveloped and so the main excursions appeared to be either a bus trip around the island or a boat trip around the island complete with BBQ lunch. You can also catch water taxis to the nearby and popular beaches of Makryammos and Golden beach.
If you choose to take a trip around the island, then I would recommend doing it by yourself and getting a hire car for the day. There are plenty of hire car firms in Thassos town and this is much cheaper than booking through the Thomson's rep (via Europcar). We booked a car with Potos Travel and this cost 35 Euro for the day. It is well worth taking a trip around the island as the scenery is truely spectacular. You can follow the coastal road around the island and it will take you about an hour and a half - although longer if you stop off at places en route. The island has spectacular mountain scenery and lots of beautiful coves, accessed via steep cliff paths. The island is very green and there are many delightful beaches to be discovered.
We also ventured inland to the ancient capital of Theologos on the south side of the island. This was a typical Greek village set within the mountains and the views from here were fantastic.
OVERALL
We had a fantastic holiday and I can honestly say that Thassos is the most beautiful of the Greek islands that I have visited. The resort of Skala Rachoni is very quiet but perfect for a 'get away from it all' holiday. If you are after an abundance of facilities and nightlife, then this resort would not suit you and you would be better staying at Skala Potamias, Golden Beach, Potos or Thassos Town. However, we appreciated having the option of nightlife in Thassos Town, or the tranquility of Skala Rachoni.
The Hotel Coral was a perfect place to stay. The setting, close to the beach, within the olive groves and besides the mountains, was amazing. We passed a number of other hotels in Skala Rachoni and none of them appeared as nice as the Hotel Coral.
I would definitely recommend this hotel, resort, and the island of Thassos to anyone.
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