Alykanas Beach Grand Hotel by Zante Plaza

We stayed at the Alykanas Grand Beach Hotel end of September 2024. I think it bills itself as either a 4 or 5 star hotel. By UK standards and many other worldwide standards, it really isn’t that. As a holiday resort hotel I’d probably place it at a high 2 or low 3 star. First of all, the plus points. We had a ‘superior apartment’. This consisted of 2 generous sized bedrooms. One room had bunk beds and a single. The other was a double. All the beds were very comfortable and the bedding appeared clean. Each room had very efficient air conditioning and each room had Samsung smart tv’s. In the double room there was a kettle, some sachets of instant coffee, sugar and teabags but no milk. Cups and glasses were also provided as was a small fridge with a small freezer compartment. The double room had a patio sliding door with access to a large balcony with 2 seats and a table. Views were a little restricted. The other room had a window with views to the front but also a walkway in front of it. Each window had curtains and net curtains plus an electric metal blind (excellent to helping to keep the heat out when you’re not there. There was a large marble tiled bathroom with a good sized shower, large sink unit, plenty of clean towels and toiletries such as shower gel, hand soap and shampoo provided. There was also a spa bath, which would have been ok except there were no controls and no taps!! There was however a shower over it. You can, if you like, have the rooms cleaned every day. The downside of the rooms. There were no chairs in the room and no mirror, so it was the bed or nothing. That was the same for both rooms. The bathroom, well apart from the useless bath, the shower would flood the bathroom every time it was used plus there was a very strong smell of drains all of the time. There is a safe and unlike most hotels which are 4 or 5 star (as the A G B states it is ) where the use of this facility is free , this is not free. So you will have to pay to keep your valuables safe. In the main part of the hotel itself there are some communal areas and an area with information from some of the travel companies. There’s a pool table and few games for kids maybe plus a few pricey game machines (there’s a claw machine, you know the ones where you grab a very cheap looking toy, don’t bother with this, we tried it out and I can tell you you don’t have a hope in hell of winning anything on this). If you want to weigh your luggage, there’s a set of scales in the lobby, but guess what, you’ll have to pay! The communal areas look tired and somewhat shabby plus they smell strongly of stale cigarettes. Let’s move onto dining. As most people go all inclusive breakfast is served from 7.30 till 10am, lunch from 12.30 to I think 2pm maybe 2.30 and dinner from 7.30 till 10pm. Between this snack and drinks are served. Overall the 2 dining areas (in one is located the buffet) are kept clean and tables are cleared. There is air conditioning but a lot of people forget

I stayed at this hotel in October with my two teenage sons. My first trip abroad in 10 years and I was only able to afford it having been bereaved of my mother earlier in the year and left a small amount of money, so needless to say I did lots of research before deciding where to go. We were not disappointed, the hotel was everything I wanted it to be. Our rooms (we had an interconnecting suite on the first floor) were spotlessly clean and comfortable. The bathroom is a wet-room but the shower drained quickly and it was quite possible to keep most of the floor dry with common sense about how long a shower to have, and how to angle the shower head. The setting is stunning, beautiful beach, safe, shallow a long way out, crystal clear blue water, no more than a minute’s walk from our room, with a view of green mountains to one side, and Kefalonia to the other. The village is friendly with a good selection of bars, tavernas and shops in easy walking distance. Lots of sun loungers to choose from and I’m pleased to share that I encountered none that were broken, dirty or uncomfortable. I enjoyed the music being played at the pool bar. If you want to sunbathe directly on the beach, the sand is comfortable to lie on, and there is a beach bar a little way along that charges 5 euros per sun bed and then leaves you alone, no hassle to buy food and drinks although we did eat here a couple of times and the food was good. My boys were able to go jet-skiing from the beach, reasonable hire price and I was impressed with the approach to safety of the people we hired them from. My favourite thing about the hotel, was the all inclusive buffet. Lots of choice at breakfast; full English if that’s the way you roll, my boys ate it every day, big selection of things to drizzle, spread or sprinkle onto yoghurt, toast, and pancakes. Cereals and also cheeses, hams and vegetables. Lunch and dinner, big selection of salad vegetables, and cooked vegetable dishes, traditional Greek meat stews, grilled meets and chips, etc. I was pleased I got to try some Greek dishes I haven’t had before, including Zakynthan rabbit stew, loukoumades and spoon-sweets. Everything was clean and most guests were exercising common sense about how to circulate around the buffet and respect buffet etiquette and hygiene. To sum up, if you want to visit a fantasy-theme park version of Greece, where you get to sit in the hot sun, eating porridge and looking at emerald-green grass, and don’t have to encounter Greek cooking styles, shower fittings or insects, go somewhere else. And if you want to go somewhere where most guests are English, you will find that elsewhere in Zakynthos. But, if you want a holiday where you actually feel like you are in Greece, you will find a safe, comfortable, and authentic experience here.

I wish I had read the reviews on this hotel before booking, but I didn't because people moan about the slightest of things so I like to make my own mind up. This was hands down the worst hotel I have ever stayed at, both myself and my son was really poorly with the dreaded diarrhea and sickness bug. The hygiene standards was very poor, tables being wiped down with dirty clothes after each serving, the only time you see them clean with any cleaning product was when all the guests had finished and they were tidying up. Hand sanitiser was avaliable but I didn't see many guests use it. The staff all seemed to be wearing the same clothes all week and I never once see any of them wash there hands. I sat and watched the bar tender sit with his friend smoking and drinking, he never washed his hands and went back to serving the customers with there drinks. A stray dog was around the pool most days, they were being given water out of the white beakers that our drinks were being served in. The drains absolutely stunk by the restaurant and also in our room. I had to put the bin over the one in our bathroom to try and stop the smells coming through. We wasn't the only family suffering during our stay, I feel absolutely robed of a well needed holiday. Talking to the jet2 rep they said that they knew the resort had a realy bad bug, I asked them why there still letting there guests travel there and why are they not asking the hotel to pick up there hygiene standards. This hotel isn't realy worth a 1 star so why jet2 think it's a 4 is beyond me.