Louis Phaethon Beach

We stayed at the Louis Phaethon Beach as a family with our 3-year-old daughter and my parents.

Overall, we had a lovely holiday thanks to the fantastic staff, great food and relaxed atmosphere. The service throughout the hotel was excellent, and it’s easy to understand why so many guests return year after year. However, the hotel itself is in desperate need of modernisation, and we felt the photos don’t accurately reflect the condition of many of the facilities.

The rooms are much as pictured, and one thing we absolutely loved was how comfortable the beds were. We all slept really well. However, the bathrooms are in desperate need of renovation. The doors look like they’ve been painted over countless times and are visibly battered.

The room layout could also be more flexible. The two fixed single beds are obviously useful for families of four who need them, but for couples or smaller families like ours they take up a lot of floor space and make the room feel much more cramped than it needs to. It would be great if the hotel offered different room layouts or removable beds to make better use of the space depending on who is staying.

The corridors also need attention, with tired woodwork, cracked plaster and a general worn appearance. The lifts are very old too. They worked fine, but they definitely didn’t inspire confidence! 😂 Even the signage throughout the hotel feels like it’s been there since the 1990s, which all adds to the dated feel.

The main restaurant was easily the highlight of the hotel. The food was consistently excellent with plenty of choice, and we genuinely couldn’t fault it. The Chinese restaurant was also fantastic. The pool snack bar served good food too, but the area itself feels neglected. It looks old, dated and unwelcoming. The bar almost looks permanently closed, despite having a very friendly barman serving drinks. It all just feels a bit tired and forgotten.

One thing that felt quite odd was the bars around the hotel, excluding the main reception bar. They all have cocktail menus, but that’s about it. There are no bottles on display like you’d normally expect, so at first glance they almost look as though they’re closed. The staff were always friendly and happy to serve, but the bars themselves feel very bare and dated, which gives them an unwelcoming atmosphere despite the good service.

The pool areas are lovely and we really enjoyed them. There’s a little maintenance that could be done here and there, but nothing that affected our holiday.

The biggest disappointment was the entertainment area. It’s located downstairs and honestly feels more like you’re walking into a service corridor than an entertainment venue. The best way I can describe it is that it feels like a dungeon. The entertainment team worked hard and the show we watched was enjoyable, but the venue completely lets them down. There’s another small bar tucked away that also looks permanently closed, giving the whole area a strange, cheap atmosphere. This isn’t something that can be fixed with a coat of paint. It really needs completely rethinking.

Unfortunately, the spa suffers from exactly the same problem. The indoor pool and jacuzzi are lovely, but everything around them feels tired and unwelcoming. The treatment rooms look more like converted staff rooms than a relaxing spa, so it’s no surprise it never seemed particularly busy.

A special mention to the TUI Kids’ Club, which was brilliant. The team there did a fantastic job and our little one loved every minute.

One thing that could definitely be improved is the information guests receive on arrival. We were told about the restaurants, but that was pretty much it. There wasn’t a welcome pack or information leaflet in the room, so we ended up having to figure a lot of things out ourselves. Simple things like where to collect pool towels and other useful hotel information weren’t explained, which made the first day more confusing than it needed to be.

Finally, a huge thank you to Ahmed, who was absolutely brilliant from start to finish. He welcomed us when we arrived and remembered us throughout the entire holiday, always taking the time to stop and chat and make us feel genuinely valued as guests. We mentioned that it had been our daughter’s birthday the week before, and he went above and beyond by arranging a special meal for us, decorating the table with balloons, providing a bottle of sparkling wine for the adults and a mocktail for our daughter. It was such a thoughtful gesture that made our holiday even more memorable. Ahmed is a real credit to the hotel and a true asset to the team.

This hotel has so much potential. The staff are genuinely wonderful, the food is excellent, and there are plenty of positives. I completely understand why people return year after year for the service alone. Unfortunately, the facilities simply aren’t what we expected from the photos or the hotel’s rating. We came away feeling a little catfished, if I’m honest.

Would we return? Sadly, no. Not because of the people. They were fantastic. The condition of the hotel doesn’t justify what we paid. It’s also made us much more cautious about relying on hotel photos when booking future holidays. With some significant investment, this could easily become an outstanding hotel, but until then it feels like the staff are carrying a property that deserves to be brought up to the same standard as the service they provide.

A difficult review to write and keep fair, but I’ll try my best. Having been somewhat blindsided by the numerous positive reviews, I felt it important to leave a realistic one.

Firstly, as lots of other reviews highlight, yes the food and the staff are fab all round. The food is of a good quality and nice range for this type of all inclusive, I’d say it’s very Brit focused but still has variety with new dishes to try. The main restaurant area seems newer than the rest of the hotel and is very nice. The drinks are okay, but nothing to shout about. Lots of ‘pre mixed’ juices and cocktails, albeit typical of all inclusive but some do it better than others.

The rooms. We have 4 in our group and they’re all much the same. They are dated, on the small side, not the cleanest and the air con isn’t very powerful (can’t get the room below 25). They lack simple features we’ve come to expect from travelling often such as plugs beside (or at least near) the bed, a decent sized TV, a hair dryer actually capable of drying hair. But there is at least a mini fridge and some basic soap/shampoo in the bathroom.

Noise. This is a noisy hotel. By day there’s disco/pop tunes playing by the pool, by night there’s discos, dancing and live music in several places. The corridors have been routinely noisy until around 1am, and proximity to the airport means loud aircraft noises into the early hours too. Also if you have a room in the main ‘core’ of the hotel above the lobby, it will be loud all day every day and night. My parents who are with us like a little more peace, and are not at all impressed.

Pools. There are two main pools (and some kiddy splash pads and a little pool). One is much newer and nicer than the other. They also restrict floatys and toys to one pool which we really appreciated. The life guards are fab and very attentive, the pools are kept clean and the slides are fab too, again well staffed and kept safe. Sun loungers are padded and comfy. Some sun loungers also face towards the sea which is a much calmer spot than anywhere else.

Summary. For the right price and person, this hotel is genuinely fab. If you like a more lively atmosphere, don’t spend much time in the room and aren’t too offended by noise (or are a noise causer yourself!) then I’d highly recommend it. However. If like us you’re a well travelled ‘all inclusiver’, then you’ll most likely be disappointed with this hotel. It doesn’t meet the standard for this price point that we’ve come to expect from countless other properties we’ve stayed in.