Greece Travel Guide
Tags: Killer View / Greece Hotels / Beach Hotels / Crete Hotels / → All Tags
Avoid a Lohan Meltdown By Soothing Yourself With This View
We are suckers for a room with a killer view. We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.
Have you ever wanted to have a young-celeb-lady freakout? Trash a room, tip off the paps to your crisis, storm the hotel suite of an ex-lover, hotbox yourself in a bathroom and take some scandalous photos that may or may not leak in Star magazine? Maybe engage in a little head-shaving and eyebrow-raising trysts with bodyguards and things?
No? Never wanted that? Okay, let's ask the question a different way: have you ever felt so stressed that you were absolutely certain you were going to have a meltdown of Lohan proportions pretty soon? Okay. Yes.
We ask because we want to help — and because we're pretty sure gazing out the windows of a hotel room at the Petra Mare Hotel in Crete may help soothe your troubled soul.
This shot comes to us from mfoord, and it's a view of the balcony of a room — and, according to the website, most of the 227 "spicy" (hehe) rooms have sea views like this. Nice.
[Photo: mfoord]
Tags: Hotel Contests / Greece Hotels / Beach Hotels / Tablet Hotels / → All Tags
Opa! J. Crew and Tablet Hotels Giving Away a Greek Vacay
If you fail to see a connection between prepster-outfitter J. Crew and the country of Greece, pause for a moment and think of this: White. Linen. Pants.
You're on a balcony in Santorini; the wind's in your hair as you gaze out onto the sparkling sea... while you're wearing a royal blue shirt and white linen pants from J. Crew, naturally. Or a white cotton sundress and a big floppy hat, even! Forget the cashmere, cardigans and suiting of the Connecticut-country-club J. Crew you're thinking of; J. Crew is also known for their killer beachwear.
And, appropriately, they're teaming up with Tablet Hotels to give you some of that beachy stuff — plus the opportunity to wear it on your hotel balcony in Santorini. One lucky (seriously, seriously lucky) winner will receive a $2,000 J.Crew gift card, round-trip airfare for two to Greece and a 5-night stay at the ultra-luxe Tsitouras Collection Hotel in Santorini.
You can put yourself in the running for the sweepstakes here, though it's only open to residents U.S. and Canada and, um, only one person wins the grand prize and a lot of people will probably enter. But! They're also giving away those cute J. Crew metallic passport covers every day, so you can always shoot for one of those.
[UPDATE]: There seems to have been some confusion about whether Canadian residents could enter the contest or not. Sadly for our friends up North, the official word from Tablet: "The Sweepstakes is not open to Canadians - we apologize for any confusion."
Tags: Hotel Pools / Greece Hotels / Sexy Hotels / → All Tags
Greek Danai Hotel Doesn't Play Fair With Gorgeous Pools
You can sway our hotel booking decision with a sexy pool any day. Put the pool on a sunny Greek peninsula and you won't have much trouble convincing us to come stay. So the Danai Beach Resort and Villas at Chalkidiki has just scored itself a pretty big thumbs up from us.
We admit this admiration is purely superficial and based only on a fantastic-looking pool, but the rooms sound okay too--air-conditioned, internet access, and a marble bathroom and marble floors. Most of the pools attached to suites are heated, so even if our Greek holiday isn't at the height of summer, we'll be able to go swimming. That's important.
Unfortunately, poolside luxury doesn't come that cheap. For the smallest pool-inclusive suite we're looking at €1,100 ($1,430) a night in high season (basically that’s June and October), rising to many thousands of euros for the larger villas. But oh … the pool …
[Photo: TRC OFF]
Tags: Fairmont Hotels / Greek Island Hotels / Hotel Hype / → All Tags
Fairmont Catches Our Greek Island Fever
We figure you can't go too wrong opening a hotel on pretty much any Greek island. It looks like the Fairmont Hotels gang think the same because they've just announced a new property called the Fairmont Corfu Resort & Spa. No prizes for figuring out it's on the island of Corfu, okay?
Riots or not, we have faith that Greece is a great place for a relaxing vacation. Just imagine this for the setting of a resort:
Bordered by olive groves, cypress-forested areas and sandy beaches with views of the Ionian Sea and the surrounding mountains.
That's what the new Fairmont Corfu is promising and we've got to say, it sounds like something for us. The resort will be a 240-roomer with a large spa center and a choice of six spots for drinks and eats.
Only drawback? It's not even slated to open before 2012, which is a long way off. But if you're really hankering for an exotic Fairmont location, hit up the Fairmont Cairo which will open in 2010.
[Photo: steve_99]
Tags: Raffles Hotels / Greece Hotels / Hotel Hype / → All Tags
Raffles Olympia Resort Not A Place To Train For The Olympics
Raffles Hotels is planning to open the Raffles Olympia Resort in 2011 in Greece but you can forget anything associated with the Olympic Games or athletics for that matter. This hotel is strictly going to be a luxury resort.
The resort will have a couple of pools, four tennis courts and a golf course. Note: They are proud it’s unusual to have a golf course in Greece; we are thinking it’s weird to have a golf course in Greece.
A large Raffles Amrita Spa is also planned as is a long private beach, so if relaxing ever becomes an Olympic sport then this will be the right place to train.
Currently, the easiest way to get to the site of the Raffles Olympia Resort is a 2.5 hour drive from Athens. The hotel is relying on the nearby Andravida Airport opening its passenger terminal as promised in 2010 to make it easier for guests to arrive when the resort opens in 2011.
We’re not sure the Greeks are renowned for getting their building projects finished on time though, so we’ll check up on the Raffles Olympia again and see if they at least make it open before the next Olympics in 2012.
[Photo: Jason-Morrison]
Tags: Mykonos Hotels / Hotel Retail / Hotel Restaurants / Kimberly Murgatroyd / → All Tags
Jet Set Girl Dines Next to Nobu at The Belvedere Hotel in Mykonos
Once again, Jet Set Life's Kimberly Murgatroyd returns with another VIP Hotel Review. You may recall her last visit at the Don Carlos Resort in Marbella. This time she's chillaxing in Mykonos at The Belvedere Hotel. Enjoy.
Some jet-set destinations come and go, but Mykonos has actually been an island getaway dating back to the 11th century BC. This island is so sexy that even Zeus fought over it! Enough history, let's get to the good stuff.
My husband and I did a two week stint for our yearly honeymoon during mid-July when the season, which in my opinion, is perfect. The weather is warm, yet not humid. The island is crawling with a mix of weekend visiting Athenians and the beautiful Italians.
For those in the know,The Belvedere Hotel is the only hotel on the island that delivers the kind of service, vibe and consistently chic attitude that you want from your Greek island getaway.
Tags: Anti-View / Athens Hotels / → All Tags
Room With an Anti-View: Athens King Jason Hotel Not Fit For A King
You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
When you're on your honeymoon, you're hoping not to come up against any hotels worthy of our anti-view series, but even though a guidebook recommended the King Jason Hotel in Athens, Greece, to the (unlucky) boeke, that doesn't guarantee a great view. As proven by this particularly grotty view out of the King Jason at night.
Tags: Movenpick Hotels / Crete Hotel Reviews / Mediterranean Resorts / → All Tags
Crete's New Mövenpick Mixes Swiss and Greek Together
About eighteen months ago we mentioned that the former Candia Maris resort on the beautiful Greek island of Crete was being taken over and turned into the Mövenpick Resort and Thalasso Crete. In fact, they've spent a good two years doing renovations and are finally open for business.
With all that time passing we're figuring the new resort won't resemble the old one very much. The Mövenpick people are advertising the new Crete resort as being upscale and modern, with some particular cultural characteristics, including an:
exquisite combination of typical Greek hospitality and the traditional Swiss passion for efficiency, reliability, punctuality and precision.
They have a huge seawater spa known as the Aegeo Spa Center which includes a range of seawater baths, a sauna, solarium and steam baths, just to name a few of the ways you can relax there. The resort also includes several restaurants with various dining styles, including the open-air "Taverna" which fits the Greek surroundings well.
For all the talk of being upscale and fancy, Crete's Mövenpick seems very reasonably priced. At short notice, we'd be able to book a double room for tonight for just €95 (US$150); we're not sure if it's opening teething problems or solid bookings, but online availability of rooms from mid-May through the summer is non-existent at the moment.
Tags: Greece Hotel Guide / Chios Hotels / Monica Guy / Family Friendly Hotels / → All Tags
Greece Hotel Guide: A Family-Friendly 'Medieval' Stay in Chios
Our far-flung correspondent Monica Guy has once again slapped together a guide to a place we have only dreamed about visiting. This time, she's summing up various hotels in Greece. Got a tip, question or suggestion about where to stay? Send it our way.
Hotels generally assume you'll be travelling in a couple. But what if you're in a huge family or a big group? Who sleeps with who and who gets the fold-down cot? Can you find a hotel that offers everything everyone wants to do within a short distance? Nightmare.
Save yourself the stress and irritating compromise on Chios, the fifth largest island in Greece and just five miles off the coast of Turkey in the Northeast Aegean sea.
The port of Chios is big and boisterous and full of commercial ships and traders selling the island's speciality sticky resin mastiha. Avoid it.
Instead, pick up a car and drive down south over to a tiny little medieval village called Mesta.
There you'll find the 14 family-owned "Medieval Castle" suites, newly restored 14th-century buildings scattered throughout the village. Ignore the cheese factor--these suites are great.
Tags: Greece Hotel Guide / Kefalonia Hotels / Monica Guy / Luxury Hotels / Beach Hotels / → All Tags
Greece Hotel Guide: Emelisse Hotel on Captain Corelli's Island
Our far-flung correspondent Monica Guy has once again slapped together a guide to a place we have only dreamed about visiting. This time, she's summing up various hotels in Greece. Got a tip, question or suggestion about where to stay? Send it our way.
Odysseus made the Ionian island of Ithaki famous - it was his home town, says Homer - but it was the rather lesser hero Captain Corelli who put its huge neighbour Kefalonia (Cephallonia) on the modern-day map.
Avoid the capital Argostoli and head straight for Fiskardo, the only town in Kefalonia saved by the gods in the 1953 earthquake and now a sparky sailing and fishing port lined with Venetian-style houses.
And when you get there, follow the signs to the Emelisse Hotel for the ultimate in Greek-sunshine luxury.
Tags: Greece Hotel Guide / Spetses Hotels / Greek Islands / Monica Guy / → All Tags
Greece Hotel Guide: The Orloff Resort in Spetses
Our far-flung correspondent Monica Guy has once again slapped together a guide to place we have only dreamed about visiting. This time, she's summing up various hotels in Greece. Got a tip, question or suggestion about where to stay? Send it our way.
If you're in Athens and fancy a bit of island-hopping without having to hop too far, you'll be heading to the islands of the Argo-Saronic, right near Athens.
Aegina, Poros and Hydra are three of the best, but they're becoming more and more overrun by foreigners and tacky tourist shops. And we wanna be with locals, no? So escape to Spetses, a 2-hour trip from Athens by ferry and a favourite weekend spot for Greeks.
There are only a handful of cars due to strict regulations, and most people pop about the place by horse and carriage. No really, not just for the photos. And the place is packed full of citrus trees and pines - smells like you're in a perfume factory (or a just-cleaned toilet).
The 22-room Orloff Resort is a hip and quirky and as off-the-conventional-tourist-path but convenient as Spetses.
Tags: Greece Hotel Guide / Santorini Hotels / Fira Hotels / Monica Guy / → All Tags
Greece Hotel Guide: The Aigialos Hotel in Santorini
Our far-flung correspondent Monica Guy has once again slapped together a guide to city we have only dreamed about visiting. This time, she's summing up various hotels in Greece. Got a tip, question or suggestion about where to stay? Send it our way.
One HotelChatter reader had a bad time on the island of Santorini (Thira), Greece.
It's a shame, because Santorini has tons to offer. It's unlike the other islands in the Cyclades in that it's a volcanic island, with black sand beaches, a huge caldera (parts of which you can swim in), and some of the most fantastically clear light you've ever seen (or seen through) in your life. Volcanic soil is also fertile and Santorini makes some of the only good Greek wine you'll drink.
There are donkeys all over the island. In fact, if you reach it by ferry you'll take a donkey from the port up to the main town of Fira, which is perched high on the rim of the caldera. Despite the large number of tourists that flock there, Santorini's a must-see on the list of most visitors to Greece.
You can skimp on the other islands - here, in the town of Fira at least, it's worth paying for luxury. The Aigialos Hotel is the place in which to pay for it.
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