Mitsis Family Village

Be warned – this hotel isn’t quite what it appears to be.

We arrived at Mitsis Family Village with really high hopes after hearing great things about the Mitsis brand. Unfortunately, our experience fell well below expectations, especially considering the price we paid and the fact the hotel is now classed locally as a 5-star property.

The biggest issue for us was the noise. The rooms have very poor sound insulation. You can hear everything from the room above, conversations in the corridor, doors constantly banging and people walking past at all hours of the day and night. If you’re travelling with young children and hoping for restful naps or early bedtimes, this is incredibly difficult.

One incident completely shocked us. We witnessed a couple having sex on the sun loungers directly outside our room in full view of the surrounding area. We reported this immediately, only to be told that security hadn’t seen anything during their patrols. Regardless of whether security witnessed it or not, this simply isn’t acceptable anywhere, let alone at a hotel marketed towards families.

The food was another disappointment. Breakfast was average, but lunch and dinner became very repetitive. There was very little variety for children, and many dishes weren’t labelled, making it difficult if you have allergies, dietary requirements or even just a fussy eater. Desserts were particularly underwhelming, with the same cakes and baklava appearing meal after meal.

The one food highlight was the dessert bar at the main bar, where you can get freshly made crepes and ice cream. This became our children’s favourite part of the evening and, on more than one occasion, made up for a disappointing dinner.

The hotel itself is extremely hilly and quite isolated. Anyone with reduced mobility or travelling with a pushchair should be aware of this before booking. There isn’t really anywhere within easy walking distance unless you’re prepared for some very steep hills.

The beach is accessible via a golf cart, which was useful, but the beach itself is very stony, so definitely pack swim shoes. The beach bar serves the same drinks as the main hotel bars and also offers gyros, which were ok, but otherwise there’s not much else to mention.

One thing worth noting is the spa. It’s advertised extensively throughout the hotel as being available at Blue Domes, but it’s almost impossible to book a treatment once you’re there. If having a spa treatment is important to you, I’d strongly recommend booking before you travel using the concierge link on the Mitsis website, as there appears to be little or no availability for spontaneous bookings.

The rooms themselves are spacious, with a good layout for families. Our children had their own single beds separated by a partition, which was a nice touch. However, there is no curtain or divider to darken that section of the room, so it doesn’t offer much privacy or help with children’s sleep.

Another frustration was housekeeping. They arrive very early in the morning, and there are no “Do Not Disturb” signs provided. If you don’t answer the door immediately, they will simply let themselves into your room, meaning early wake-up calls became the norm.

We were also disappointed with the kids’ club. A daily programme was displayed showing the planned activities and timings, but during our stay not a single activity on that schedule actually took place. We only allowed our daughter to attend twice, and on both occasions she came back covered in pen after the staff had drawn all over the children “for fun”, which unfortunately stained and ruined some of her clothes.

On a positive note, the reception staff were genuinely lovely throughout our stay. They were friendly, helpful and always did their best with tennis court bookings, spa enquiries and resolving room issues. On arrival they also gave our children colouring activities and a bucket and spade, which was a lovely gesture, although unfortunately the stony beach isn’t really suitable for building sandcastles.

There is a small shop in reception selling essentials, but it’s quite expensive. There is a supermarket further down the hill, although it’s a steep walk back, especially with young children.

Overall, if we’re being completely honest, we struggled to find enough positives to justify what we paid. Between the room noise, disappointing food, poor kids’ club, lack of available spa appointments and some unacceptable experiences during our stay, it simply wasn’t the relaxing family holiday we had hoped for.

With the recent increase in resort tax following the hotel’s local 5-star classification, our expectations were understandably high. Sadly, we don’t feel this hotel delivers anywhere close to a genuine 5-star experience, or even what we’d expect from a strong 4-star family resort.

We wouldn’t return, and we’d encourage anyone considering this hotel to do plenty of research beforehand, read a wide range of recent reviews and make an informed decision before booking.

We had a lovely holiday here due to a couple of reasons. Our room was lovely, a 2 level superior maisonette. Plenty of room for 5 of us and great having 2 bedrooms. The special part was having a swim up pool which was lovely to use and gave great views over the sea. The second reason was the staff, they are such a hard working and friendly bunch. Always a smile and nothing was too much trouble. The person I want to mention is a guy called Thanasis. Literally couldn’t do enough for us. Always there with a friendly smile and providing drinks around the pool, he is an absolutely credit to the hotel and made our holiday. We really noticed a difference when he had his day off. The food was ok, quite samey and got a bit repetitive. My kids loved the pizza but a lot of the food I had was lukewarm and the scrambled eggs looked undercooked and sloppy. The themed nights were nice but really only added a couple of dishes to the menu. A cook to order omelette station would be nice. Drinks are great at this hotel. Wine was drinkable, Prosecco was good and the cocktails were all freshly made and not from a mixer. Have to say best AI drinks I’ve ever had. It is hilly here but never really bothered us. The beach was nice and never took long to get a gyros or drink down there. There’s watersports available for an extra cost. It’s a bit of a trek into kardamena and the buses aren’t that regular so to make sure we got home on the couple of occasions we went out we would bus in and cab home (which the friendly reception team booked for us) but a round trip cost €40 doing it that way. The entertainment team work so hard and there are lots of activities to do during the day. Peter, Mia and Gabriel are great! The evening entertainment runs on a 7 night rotation and was only average. If music was played and you could have a dance that would make it much more fun, this did happen on a couple of nights we were there but we got the impression it wasn’t the done thing. No sunbed wars which was a bonus. We were told you couldn’t get a sunbed until 10 or they would take the towels but we never saw them remove any. We used to go down at 8 and sit for a couple of hours with a book and a coffee and it was never a problem. Overall a nice holiday. Would I return? No.

Very disappointing! spent half the holiday in queues, food mediocre, drinks watered down more like 3 star! No entertainment for the kids just a mini disco at the beginning of the night, been here 4 days and seen no entertainment team doing anything so poor! Will not be visiting again this hotel really does need a shake up!