Alykanas, Hotel Letsos Review

Overall Rating

Fairly good location.

Almost everything!

If you do not wish to read my essay below, -though it will make your mind up if pondering to stay at Hotel Letsos in Alykanas- then take my advice of not staying here.

After visiting Greece for a good number of years, I have not come to expect to stay in luxury. I find that all you need accommodation for is sleeping and showering, but this time I was totally disappointed. Firstly - we hired three rooms, and in each the showers were broken or so weak that I prayed for rain to have a wash in. The bathrooms overall were filthy and had not been thoroughly cleaned in about 5 years. The ventilation system consists of air ducts running through the building, through which you can actually see into the next door bathroom. This system meant that sound and smell traveled far too easily from floors above and below (pray you stay on the bottom floor). We also found a problem with the pipes, running tap water brought on a leak which also brought a ghastly smell, so I brushed my teeth with the dribble of water that came from the showerhead which was supposed to be on full blast.

Secondly - through the years I've come to expect a better maid service in Greece. I have seen that 20 years ago, the service would come round once a week, but as time went on, the Greeks became more aware of the tourists desire to have fresh towels and sheets on a more regular basis. At the Letsos hotel, we took a trip back in time and our towels and sheets which were bloodstained and filthy when we arrived were changed a week later after our complaints to the staff.

Which brings me on to my third point - The staff were very unfriendly for Greek people (except those at the pool bar). It seemed they didn't want to even try to use English. I do not expect them to speak English, after all I was in their country, but to be so unfriendly is in my experience unlike other Greek family run hotels I've been to.

If you do stay at this hotel, I would recommend self catering. Even though the fridge did not work and was almost as disgusting as the bathrooms, (as we had the pleasure of finding out because they had overbooked and we had to be relocated on arrival) I would have rather have used it than sampling the so called 'rich buffet' which in my opinion in no way lived up to that name.

Through years of staying in Greece I could just about tolerate this hotel, and I still had a good holiday thanks to the rest of the resort, sunshine and good company. But this place is not for the feint hearted. In other words, if you have never been to Greece before, you might think after staying here that you had just been on a third world missionary holiday to the outer reaches of Mongolia. But even if you have years of experience in Greece, and think you could take on the challenge and bear it - don't bother - I would strongly recommend an alternative hotel that does not bring Greece back to the way it was 20 years ago - like Hotel Letsos did for me.