Costa Smeralda

STUNNING sea views from apartments. Best views in the whole of Sivota. Big infinity pool with amazing sea view. Private decking by the sea with sun loungers and umbrellas. Great location (a bit steep if older) Very friendly and helpful staff. Clean and comfortable rooms with balcony. Good breakfast. Would definitely stay again!

We chose a stay at The Costa Smeralda hotel in Syvota(on the mainland of Greece, north of Parga, not in Lefkada as location on this site suggests) having reviewed the location, feedback from other guests and star rating. We drove through beautiful Syvota town down a narrow windy lane arriving at the property. The property is made up of individual blocks of 4 rooms - 2 rooms x on the ground floor and 2 x rooms up a very narrow and steep staircase above. For travellers with mobility issues, this is definitely not a good choice of hotel for this reason and multiple other staircases to other levels of the hotel. The location of the property is good and as per the images. The hotel does have a great vista. However, sadly, it all ends there. Upon arrival we were directed by a member of cleaning staff to a small dirty shack / shed at the car park entrance gate. This was the hotel reception?! Our rooms weren’t ready, but the first check in agent offered to keep our bags and suggested we enjoy some lunch whilst we waited. We descended x3 staircases to a small bar / restaurant for a very basic lunch menu consisting of a Greek salad / cheese and ham toasties / toasted sandwiches & a basic pizza. The lunch was acceptable but nothing special. Along our way down, we noticed poorly covered drains, litter (cigarette butts etc) and a general lack of care and attention. A camouflage covered caravan weirdly sat in one public space. There were boxes and empty bottles piled everywhere. We then proceeded to the pool and, upon further inspection, noticed dirt, hair and debris and a layer of green slime on the tiles. The water appeared quite murky. There wasn’t any way I was going to put the kids in the pool. The loungers all around were all chipped of paint and my daughter’s chair was broken and dangerous. We reviewed the rooms after this and were quite taken aback at how small, pokey and basic they were. The hotel was marketed as a 4 *? They’re furnished to a low standard - perhaps as one might expect from a 2 * property. The furniture was functional but quite old fashioned. It proved very difficult for two people to manoeuvre around one another, never mind with two suitcases. Lugging these up and down a narrow, steep staircase was quite a challenge! The bathroom was no different- small, basic and a little musty / smelly. Otherwise it was clean. We decided after reviewing all this to check out. We spoke to the receptionist - who claimed her name was “Zoe”, the reservations manager. When contacted by *********** a few hours later she admitted to remembering us, told them her name was Celia and she was just a reception agent. This lady (whomever she was) was a quite possibly the rudest member of staff I have ever come across. After stating our reasons for an early checkout, she refused to allow us to leave without full payment for the overnight stay and when we refused because the hotel was in a very bad state and that we’d not even used our rooms, she bec

Very Nice hotel excelent breakfast . The wiew is fantastic. But the bed is not good. You need to change the bed in room 218. In the right side of the bed is a noise every time you turn around. All staff is very kind We will come back