Helea Family Beach Resort

You’ll have a good holiday but this is not close to a 5 star hotel. Explained fully and fairly. The hotel itself is very aesthetically pleasing with nice pool areas and rooms and the beach area is lovely. The rooms are aesthetically nice, however uncomfortably warm, we were told due to hotels environmental policy the air con cannot go cooler than 22 degrees, this is absolutely nonsense and definitely not cool enough after a long day in the sun. We asked reception if they had another fan we could use and were almost laughed off the suggestion. This is not really acceptable, and to state it’s due to an environmental policy even though every light in the room is left on all day after the cleaners have been into the room just makes a farce of the statement. Also the hotel are unable to provide an iron unless you want to pay for an ironing service, this is ridiculous considering you get irons in some 2/3 star hotels. All the bars other than the lobby bar are intent on serving all drinks in paper cups or plastic cups, this makes it a struggle to get a good drink anywhere and the draught beer on offer is cheap and nasty and always flat which is poor considering the great Greek beers that could be on offer. The food options are pretty decent with a medium size buffet selection and 4 speciality dining venues. However the food quality at these “speciality” venues are absolutely bang average and not any better than what’s on offer at the buffet.. EXCEPT FROM LAERMA, laerma’s food was some of the best Latin American food we’ve had, it was the biggest and most pleasing surprise of the full holiday! On the other hand matsi, the Italian, was depressingly average Italian food and the street food hubs ‘Asian fusion’ evening menu was just a selection in pre cooked food items served lukewarm. Both extremely dissapointing. We would definitely not recommend wasting your all inclusive meals anywhere other than LAERMA! The pool area is extremely busy and the hotels policy of no reserving sunbeds is an absolute farce. Good luck getting any beds after 9am, the pool area next to the street food hub had people leaving their towels overnight from the day before!!! I went one morning at 7am expecting to get whatever bed I wanted and found every bed in that area taken. This was just ridiculous and was never challenged by staff. The only saving grace was the beach area was brilliant with extremely clear and clean water and plenty of beds. It did seem like the hotel was screaming out for more staff due to long waiting times in many places including getting seated for breakfast and getting served for drinks at all bars, there was also no waiting staff taking orders for drinks at any lounging areas or bars other than the lobby bar, this is not 5 star experience. The staff themselves in all bars and restaurants were lovely! However the staff at the reception were abrupt and very rude from any dealings we had with them, almost as if they felt they were better than the rest of the staff. All in all, we had a good holiday here but it is not worth the prices they are charging as a 5 star hotel. If it wasn’t for the beach area this would be seriously struggling for a good review..

We arrived at the Latin American restaurant, the staff was smiling and pleasant. We were served by a wonderful and charming waitress named Mika. The food was a feast for the eyes, and the taste was excellent. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Amongst a number of issues, by far the most disappointing about this “luxurious interior deluxe sea view room” was the fact we have had no hand soap / wash in our room for 4 days. Despite raising this on 5 separate occasions, with 5 different members of staff. This is despite our room being “cleaned” each day. To note, all staff members were helpful at the time of each conversation but nothing came from it which is the most disappointing.

We visited the hotel with our baby late June. I can confirm that The hotel has a beautiful aesthetic Rooms are clean Lots of pools to choose from Beautiful beach with amazing sunrise views Buffet restaurant has lots of choice and is delicious Staff very friendly and helpful in the restaurant and pool bar area Negatives Taxi arrangement The hotel has lots of young families with young children, infants and babies. In Greece you have three options should you require a child seat Bring your own along with all other luggage Hire a car with one provided Two- prearrange taxis with child seats On arrival we were told you can only arrange transport with thevhotel with a child seat to and from the airport for your transfers. No other information. As such for days out we found a separate 3rd party company that could arrange these within 2 hours of  ordering. We chose to use the hotel's airport private transfer service to make our flight home as we needed a larger vehicle for luggage. I requested the transfer the day before our flight but was told you need to email 24 hours before. The only option was to come to desk the next day and within 10 mins of needing a taxi. Having a baby and lots of luggage this made me nervous but  the concierge reassured they can order within 5-10 mins of ordering. On the morning of our final day I went to guest services to request a taxi within 10 mins. The lady at the desk made a phone call and said one would be here within 10  mins. I asked how we would know when it arrived and that it was for us and not another guest -she seemed flustered by this and simply asked for our full name then said "the driver will come in and they will shout your name" I went to get my family and we waited in the lobby. 10 mins past so my husband checked with the lady again who advised taxi was on its way. Waiting outside another 5-10 mins past at which point I went to same guest services desk spoke to another different woman  who checked and said we should have been given a taxi "code number" and that the taxi had been and gone! At this point this is less than 2 hours till our flight- bearing in mind we have baby and lots of luggage! This different lady ordered another and advised would be another 10 mins. Cue the longest 10 mins of our life before the taxi arrived. The taxi driver was very helpful and got us to the airport 1 hour and 10 mins before the flight. Having put trust in this 5 star hotel it was very stressful to nearly miss our flight. I can only take from this that the lady in guest services did not know the protocol and so fobbed us off. Especially as another colleague explained she  should have given us a  taxi code number! At a 5 star family hotel with young children and lots of luggage this is especially important in terms of flight departure organisation as you are that mich slower Overall a lovely looking hotel- really good food, drinks and pool choice. Staff are very friendly at the main restaurant and pool bars however perhaps training by all staff (especially in guest services) to ensure a uniform approach  to transport services is needed to avoid this. It should also be explained airport transport service requests have to be sent at least 24 hours prior to. Ultimately please advise to pre book taxis days ahead or hire care if you are travelling with babies and require car infant seat.

Overall we had a great stay at Helea! We encountered a big issue on day 1 as the hotel chose to put us in a room in a block which is on the grounds of the sister hotel Elissa (the same block we stayed in when we stayed at Elissa the year before). We were not happy about this as it meant walking 5 minutes mostly uphill to use the Helea facilities, which was a problem for us personally for multiple reasons but the hotel were very quick to change us after asking for a switch. The hotel grounds and rooms are modern and aesthetically very nice. The facilities are good, with a private beach, comfy cushioned sunbeds and padel/tennis available at no extra cost. The staff are really friendly, particularly Vasilis at the lobby bar and Michail at the snack bar. The food options are great, particularly during the day, as there is a snack bar and beach bar serving really nice food like burgers, crepes, gyros etc. There are also 3 a la cartes at the hotel, although the quality of ‘Matsi’ was questionable. They use branded alcohol and coffee syrups so the quality in this area was good. The location is also good - it is 15 minutes by bus with a stop right outside the hotel to Faliraki and Rhodes Town. The bus links also go down to Lindos, but car rental services are also available nearby that are reasonably priced. There a two main negative points to this hotel from our experience: 1. The pool is freezing!!! It’s almost unbearable even during peak heat like stepping into an ice bath. The hotel should regulate this to a much higher temperature, as a lot of fun is missed out by not using the pool on holiday. 2. The queues / wait times at the bars are ridiculous!!! There were occasions where I waited more than 30 minutes at the pool bar and more than 45 minutes at the lobby bar in the evening. The hotel really needs to add a 2nd pool bar and 2nd lobby bar to cope with the number of guests. 500 rooms and 1 bar with 3 waiters is not a good ratio! Other more minor issues include a lack of storage in the room, queuing for breakfast (caused by the fact the hotel feels the need for every person to be taken to their seat by a waiter rather than just walking in and picking their own table - really isn’t necessary) and the mini bar not being restocked (may be unintentional but it seemed like if they did restock it they’d fill it with the ones you don’t drink rather than the ones you’ve clearly been using). The cocktails were also not the nicest, mostly just sugar, syrup and alcohol mixed together rather than adding fruit juices and mixers into it. Despite there being some negatives, the positives definitely outweigh this and we really hope the hotel takes our points on board, particularly the first two negatives, as we will definitely be returning, and hope these aspects are better in the future.