Exotica Hotel and Spa by Zante Plaza

Been back home a week now after staying at the Exotica in Kalamaki. This was our fourth stay in the resort, which we love, but our first stay at this particular hotel. We don’t normally go AI but we had a go, as we were taking our granddaughter. Never again! The resorting Kalamkai might be great but the Exotica was very disappointing and is definitely not 4star. The room was very basic, shower was cold and the aircon was on its last legs. The maids on a morning were very loud from 8am onwards. They slammed doors and talked loudly to each other. The food was also very basic. We struggled with breakfast and lunch and went out every evening for our meal and drinks. The pool was desperately in need of a makeover. The pool bar was a self serve coffee machine, self serve water and beer and a bar with cheap booze and soft drinks. Don’t expect to get milkshakes or frappes. You won’t get a gyros or pizza for the kids. I definitely won’t return and I won’t be recommending. This hotel is a 2star at most.

Disappointing for a 4-Star Hotel

We are currently still staying at this hotel and, unfortunately, there have been a number of things that have left us disappointed, particularly for what is advertised as a 4-star hotel.

The biggest issue for us has been the swimming pool. The pool doesn’t open until 10am and closes at 6pm, which feels very restrictive when you are on holiday, especially with children. Children under 12 are also required to have an adult in the pool with them.

Our 9-year-old daughter is an excellent and very confident swimmer. She has been happily swimming for the last three days, with us supervising her. We have been in with her on and off, but today the lifeguard asked her age. When we said she was 9, we were told that we either had to get in the pool with her or she had to get out. We completely understand the importance of pool safety, and we have no issue supervising our daughter, but we don’t feel it is reasonable to expect us to be physically in the pool with her for the entire holiday when she is a capable swimmer.

What makes the situation even more confusing is that there is another girl who is 12 but is clearly a much less confident swimmer, yet she is allowed to use the pool without an adult. There is also another pool on the complex which isn’t supervised by a lifeguard, where children are allowed to swim unaccompanied throughout the day. The rules therefore feel very inconsistent and difficult to understand.

Unfortunately, the pool isn’t the only disappointment. The food is very basic and doesn’t feel to the standard we would expect from a 4-star hotel. The drinks are often warm, which is particularly disappointing in the Greek heat.

There is also very little in the way of comfortable evening space to relax with a drink. There isn’t really a bar or lounge area where you can sit and enjoy an evening drink, meaning guests are essentially left sitting in the restaurant if they want to stay on-site in the evening.

Overall, we feel the facilities, food, drinks and restrictions around the pool do not meet the standard we would expect from a 4-star hotel. We have tried to make the most of our holiday, but unfortunately, we would not choose to stay here again and feel the hotel needs to seriously review the experience it is providing to families.

We have just returned from a week’s stay at Exotica Spa Hotel, and unfortunately it did not meet the standard of a 4-star hotel.

From the start, some of the reception staff were quite rude and unwelcoming, which didn’t create a great first impression.

The pool opening hours were very restrictive, only opening at 10:00am and closing at 6:00pm. Drinks were not available until the pool opened, and the bar stopped serving at 11:00pm. When drinks were available, many of them tasted watered down.

The food was disappointing throughout our stay. At breakfast, the hash browns were so undercooked that we had to put them through the toaster ourselves just to make them edible. We also witnessed several examples of cross-contamination in the kitchen, particularly involving raw meat, which was concerning from a food hygiene perspective.

The bar service was extremely slow because there was often only one person serving drinks, even during busy periods. This resulted in long queues and unnecessary waiting.

Housekeeping was also disappointing. Despite having our “Do Not Disturb” sign displayed and still being in bed one morning, a maid entered our room without knocking. We regularly had to ask for fresh towels, and the cleaning staff were often very loud early in the mornings, making it difficult to rest.

On our final day, while relaxing by the pool, the lifeguard suddenly instructed everyone to leave the pool and immediately started placing chains around it without explaining what was happening. We later discovered someone had been sick at the edge of the pool, but there was no communication about the situation or when the pool would reopen. The lifeguard simply left the area, leaving guests confused.

Overall, this hotel fell well below our expectations of a 4-star resort. Between the poor customer service, disappointing food, hygiene concerns, lack of communication, housekeeping issues and limited facilities, we would not choose to stay here again and unfortunately cannot recommend it.