Mitsis Hotel Norida Beach Review

Overall Rating

My wife and I just returned from Norida beach hotel, oh, wait, actually we were stuck in Summer Palace hotel because Norida beach hotel was oversold. This switch-up was the first in a long list of ensuing events that lead me to NOT RECOMMEND going to stay at this Mitsis hotel complex - and it literally feels like you are in a WWII war camp (not that I ever had the misfortune of knowing what that feels like...). The staff are extremely rude, the food is poor (not sure what these other folks are used to eating, but...), the beach has to be characterized as one step larger than pebble that is actually challenging to walk on in bare feet and the depth of the water reaches 2 metres in about 8 steps into it. I read in another post of a family that experienced issues related to the smell of diesel fumes, and yes, near the Norida beach hotel reception (the main reception), you can definitely smell diesel fumes, especially if you are out on the patio of the adult bar - not nice. If you are unfortunate enough to believe the majority of these postings and still end up going to Norida, the best advice we have is to rent a car from kosmos and drive every road you can find (it doesn't take that long to drive the entire island) - if you do this you will salvage your holiday investment for the cost of a car (about 30 euros/day). What this means is, you could have had the same holiday, albeit not all inclusive, for much less investment and done the same things, seen the same sights, and eaten much better food, by simply venturing out yourself. We would recommend staying in Kardemana only if you are into the bar scene - if not, go to another village on the island and find a nice hotel that is near a sandy beach (from our tour of the island it appears all other beaches are sandy, just not the one at Norida beach, err, rock slide). One last piece of advice for those who still end up at Norida beach hotel: if you want to experience good service and very good food, take the bus into Kardemena and eat at Avli. My wife and I actually ended up going there three times during our 8 days in Kos. The wait staff are super, the food is fantastic and the atmosphere is lovely.