Sunshine Rhodes

Sunshine by name, a washout by experience

Sunshine Hotel in Ialyssos was a huge disappointment. The name promises sunshine; our room came with its own indoor rain.

The rooms were old and dated, and the whole hotel looked worn out and desperately overdue for refurbishment. There’s retro charm, and then there’s furniture that looks like it’s still waiting for the Berlin Wall to come down. This was firmly the latter. It felt more like a tired hostel than a holiday hotel.

The food was awful. The most enjoyable part of dinner was leaving. Choosing what to eat felt less like browsing a buffet and more like deciding which disappointment to try next.

Then our room leaked, ruining loads of toiletries. Apparently an indoor water feature was included, although nobody mentioned that when we booked. We received no apology, and the mess wasn’t even cleaned up afterwards. We were left with damaged belongings and the hotel’s impressive impression of “nothing to see here”.

There wasn’t even complimentary shower gel. They supplied the water through the ceiling, but apparently soap was asking too much.

I wasn’t expecting a palace. Decent food, a maintained room and an apology when your belongings get ruined would have been enough. Instead, the best service we received was from the door when it let us leave.

I’d honestly rather sleep on the street than spend another night here. At least I’d expect to get wet outside.

Never again

As a regular traveller to different destinations every year, I have never written a review before but felt like I needed too with this one. We usually pay around £3,000/£3,200 as a family of for for all inclusive 10 night stays in 4 star venues. This holiday was the most expensive at £3,600 so we were expecting good things but it was the worst to date and we feel very deflated. I'll start with the positives. We stayed in the new Hermes building after reading awful reviews about the general state of the rooms in the main building and whilst I can't comment on the rooms in the main complex, judging by the surrounding grounds, I'm so glad we did! The Hermes building is new, clean, quiet, bright and well kept, the private pools and bar were excellent. Youlia behind the bar made our stay 🫶. A couple of negatives however, the pools were absolutely freezing and we all had bright blue toes/feet and stained blue swim clothes from the paint in the pool. Also, we were there for 11 days and our towels were only changed once (even though we asked a further 2 times) and the room cleaned only twice. We also had to constantly chase cleaners down to ask for more toilet paper. Main complex: Very busy which is what you want from an all inclusive family holiday with children, choice of another 4 pools which again, sadly, were freezing to the point that our 4 year old was only in the water for around 6 hours over the course of the 11 days! The beach being a footstep away was a plus and well used/beautiful. The complex/grounds itself was the biggest let down for us. It is so run down, weeds and over grown gardens making it look really shoddy and not what you expect when you pay so much money. The pools were dirty with debris and paint flaking off everywhere. Alot of the sunbeds were broken and torn. Stray cats and kittens littered LITERALLY all over the place. Inside, there were torn chairs in reception, the games room was awful with around 20 machines/pool tables and only around 5 things actually working and there were cables and broken bits lying around. Frustrating trying to play pool both in there and at the pool bar as the tables are poorly positioned so you keep hitting pillars or other fixed equipment. The snack bar food was exactly the same every single day, pizza, chips, hotdogs and ice cream. The main restaurant was the same, same things everyday with the exception of 2 new things max which they class as a "theme food night". Breakfast was okay, same things again every day but it was okay. The drinks/beer etc were great. We have never spent so much money dining OUT when we've paid all inclusive. Entertainment was poor, for the size of the hotel there was an hour entertainment 9 nights out of our eleven and it was things like opera etc, it was never busy and the pool bar was genuinely better with the bar man's playlist on his speaker. Billy the entertainer will make your holiday better, hilarious and worth his weight in gold. Some very rude bar staff and reception staff, a couple of nice, polite and memorable ones. When you arrive at the hotel you are dropped just outside where you have to walk over a little bridge to get into it and it's like a waste ground and stinks of sewerage, not a great first impression but paints a picture. We like to kick back and enjoy, relax, spend our time in the complex when we travel etc because our youngest is autistic and it's easier for him but we spent yet even more money on days out, taxis etc to Faliraki and Rhodes Old Town etc. This hotel is nothing more than 2 & 1/2 stars in my opinion and I will not be returning, nor recommending.