Atlantica Aegean Blue - All Inclusive

Fantastic service from Chrystal this evening. Very helpful and genuine! Food was heavenly! Fabulous setting xx thank you

We arrived at midnight and upon arrival felt a little underwhelmed on entering the reception, we expected it to look upmarket and classy but it was rather basic. We are a well travelled family and have stayed at several 5 star resorts in the Greek islands before along with countless other holidays in Europe and were really looking forward to this holiday (as we have always wanted to visit the hotel) but feel it just didn’t deliver. It definitely is not a five star resort more like 3/3.5 star. I feel the hotel has the potential to be 5* but at the moment it is a long way from that and needs some changes. Rooms We were meant to be upgraded to a family room with sliding partition to give us more space and privacy (we originally had this booked but our dates of travel were changed) however due to overbooking of the family rooms (as confirmed by reception) we were placed in a double room. Although advertised as a spacious room you will find that it is approximately no more than 12 sq ft (excluding bathroom and balcony). This was totally unsuitable for 2 adults and a 17 year old and reception confirmed that really the room is only suitable for 2 adults and a cot, so would advise if you are travelling with a child over the age of 10 you do need to upgrade to a bigger room when making your initial booking. Cleanliness The hotel just doesn’t feel clean, bed linen and towels contained stains. Cups and glasses in the restaurant were chipped and cracked but still being given to guests. Plates in the restaurant were often dirty. Housekeeping teams don’t have carts and carry all items in bags so there’s bags of towels and bedding and rubbish everywhere which is collected at the end of the day by the maintenance team. Dining room The dining room is chaos. You are not able to find a table yourself you have to wait to be escorted which means at busy times there is often a lengthy queue. There is not enough staff to service the guests efficiently and the layout for food means that there are people everywhere, with small children being left to roam freely. For some reason you are only allocated two spoons (why?) when the table is set so we had to request a spoon on each occasion. One time my husband asked the waitress for a spoon and she couldn’t be bothered to get one so said take it from another table! Food This has got to be the worst AI food I think we have ever had. The choice is very limited and there is no variation at breakfast. There is no fresh omelette station (which is unusual as they have the facilities) porridge wasn’t cooked and a limited pastries were offered. There was plenty of cake/donuts. The quality of the food supplied was poor, resulting in tasteless dishes and cauliflower and broccoli were offered for breakfast, along with raw bacon. Fresh orange had to be pulped yourself (which is fine) and although it said children mustn’t do it (due to risk of amputation) this was not policed (one day I had to cut up oranges for a child of about 8 who was sent to get juice but wasn’t allowed to use the knife!). Staff bring you tea/coffee at breakfast but do not have fresh milk only UHT - if you want fresh milk you have to get it yourself. Snack bar This seems great for 1-2 days until you realise that the menu for items offered never changes. It could be so much more with better offerings and different products offered, but each day along with the burgers and chips there was a fruit bowl, Greek salad covered in so much basil it was inedible, the same 3 sandwiches and plain greek yogurt (with or without granola),tasteless noodles and cardboard pizza. Again it has potential to be a great addition if it had a changing menu and offered different products. A la carte We only dined at the Italian after the rave reviews. We love Italian food and have never had such a terrible meal. We arrived 10 mins early to be told they operate a strict seating time as our waitress would be serving the guests for the previous slot and we may be able to sit at the bar to wait ( there was maybe 5 other tables dining) The food was simply awful and the pizza was so salty it was not enjoyable at all. We had to pick our starter, main and dessert straight away - the ice cream was the best thing about the whole meal. The tiramisu was inedible and looked like it had melted. Drinks The drinks supplied by the hotel (cocktails, soft drinks etc) are poor and sugary/syrupy. All the spirits used are local spirits which is unusual in 5* hotels. The hotel supplies filtered water from machines for guests. You are left 2 bottles of water each day for your fridge and canned drinks are replaced every two days (Pepsi/7 up and beer). Beach The beach is nice if you go in at the Aegean Park section (you need to go through the automatic door) as it is rocky on the entrance near the infinity pool. The beach is mainly pebbles on both the beach (not overly sandy) and as you enter the sea, so swim shoes are a must (cheap to buy at the supermarket around the corner). The sea goes quite deep quickly so be careful with young children but it is great for snorkelling. You can hire loungers for €7.50 each from the man in the drinks truck. Pool/Towels The main pool doesn’t feel very clean; both the main pool and the kids pool with the sail shade has a lot of sand on the bottom (this is because there are no showers around the main pool areas and people are coming from the beach areas and unable to shower) This also makes the water feel greasy as people are not washing off suncream before entering the pool. Unusually there is no towel hut to get and return towels . You are given a card and have to go to the spa to get the towels, they then stamp your card to show you have changed them. You also have to return them at the end of your stay and get your card stamped otherwise they will charge you €20 per towel when you check out - so don’t lose your card! Waterpark This is the best thing about the hotel. It is clean and ran well. They have first aiders and lifeguards constantly blow whistles to alert guests if they are doing something wrong. They also have plenty of lifeguards on duty. It feels clean and safe and was great fun. Staff I do not feel that the staff are particularly friendly in this hotel. The reservation manager was supposed to come back to us about our room change and we ended up needing to chase this up with them. It looked like they had forgotten to book our taxi to the airport when we checked out but this did get resolved. I feel they are rather curt in their approach with guests. The golf carts are a nuisance, they travel way too fast on the guest paths to the rooms. My 17yo son was nearly knocked over by one driving excessively fast and he had to jump in the bush to avoid being hit. The driver did not stop to check if he was okay or apologise. This could have been a serious accident if it was a small child. Activities/Entertainment The activities seem to be primarily aimed at children rather than families unless you want to play volleyball or water polo. The football pitch is useable but has holes in it probably through wear and tear but could do with being updated, and the basketball court has no hoop. We did not watch the evening entertainment so cannot comment on this. Eating out If you are looking for a change from the hotel Michael’s out the back of the hotel is a lovely Greek restaurant and Rosso di sera in the town is a fabulous family run Italian restaurant. I would recommend both of these restaurants for food quality, service and price. Overall, we wouldn’t return as feel we didn’t get what we were sold. If you’re marketed as a 5* hotel guests should have a 5* experience. We feel that in some areas it seems a bit tired and that they are overfilling the hotel and can’t really cope with the number of guests. I feel that the price paid was expensive in comparison to other 5* hotels in Greece in which we have stayed which are much better. We did visit the Aegean Park next door which is a spectacularly beautiful and clean looking hotel with a much better layout. It is also part of the atlantica chain and shares the waterpark. Despite the issues we still had a lovely holiday, after all it’s about the people you are with and the memories made but we wouldn’t go back.

What can I say? This is a wonderful hotel with lots to do for the family. I have 2 boys, 8 and 12. Both loved the pool and the waterpark and the sea which you can walk straight into was the clearest sea I’ve ever seen. However, what I was most impressed with was the food allergy procedure in this hotel. My youngest child has coeliac and so finding a hotel that can cater for him safely is my first priority. This hotel didn’t let me down. In fact it really impressed me. Upon arriving at check in I notified the reception staff of my son’s allergy and they said to speak to either Cindy or Jessie in the restaurant. From there these two wonderful girls sorted everything for us. Each morning they took my son’s breakfast order which could include gluten free pancakes, waffles, croissant, cakes, biscuits plus the normal eggs, baked beans etc. All were cooked in the kitchen and brought out for him so removing the cross contamination risk of the buffet. At the same time they brought out a form and pen for me to complete to say what we wanted to order for his lunch and dinner. We could select from the multiple options they had but we also write down extra things such as chicken nuggets, chips, pizza etc. An added bonus was that we could ask to have his lunch brought to the pool bar if we wanted. Some meals my son had for lunch and dinner included Napoli past, pasta bolognaise, pizza, nuggets (he’s quite fussy) and a multitude of desserts including cheesecake, chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, and his favourite marble cake! When we booked the a la carte restaurant they asked at the time of booking if we had an allergies. Upon arriving at these restaurants the staff informed us what we could have gluten free. We only ate at the Italian and all but one starter and one main could be made gluten free. Nothing was too much for the staff working in this hotel, particularly Jessie and Cindy. They are a huge asset and really did take the stress out of what is sometimes a very worrying experience for myself and my husband. Needless to say our son didn’t get sick once and was probably the best fed member of our family!!! Special thanks also goes to Lefteris who, when we could t find Cindy or Jessie (as they were serving others) would always be on hand to support them and help us with our order. Thank you again for a wonderful stress free holiday !

Stayed here for a week in October 2024. The pool area is great. Rooms were nice and clean. Food was okay. There is no "sandy-"beach directly in front of the hotel, only stones. But you can take a small walk to the left or right of the hotel, where you will find a beach. Overall a good experience, however stayed in Rhodes in places with better food/drinks. Great is the waterpark. - For us the water in the lazy river (in October) a bit chilly.

Worst hotel. From terrible drinks, awful food, the rudest staff, vomit at the pool side, to run down facilities. How this is rated as a five star hotel I will never understand. Very disappointing given cost

We travelled as a family of 5 and what a lovely time we all had. Hotel is clean and welcoming. Staff were all great. The lady at the ice cream parlour really stood out, she has a lovely demeanour and was great with my kids. The hotel was full when we stayed, so the pool did get a bit full, but you could still find a sunbed. The buffet was so good, theme changed every night, food was always good. We ate at all the a’la cartes, all great! The chap at the Greek is lovely. We stayed in block G and had a swim up room. I loved the quietness of our location, and the view of the mountain was amazing. We had massages at the spa, treated the kids too and they loved the experience. My son and hubby also did a scuba dive and really enjoyed that. If I had to be picky, some of the towels have seen better days. But they were always clean. Oh and they won’t serve coffee to any kids/teens. Entertainment was the same for the 10 days we were there so rotation needs to be looked at maybe? The day we left the ‘drifters’ were on and my mum was gutted to of missed them! She would have loved to have seen them once, let alone twice! So thank you to everyone at AAB for memorable break!

The hotel is overall in good condition and very clean. However, you can tell that quite a few years have passed since its last thorough renovation. The food is excellent, but in my opinion, the main downside of the hotel is the alcohol. All the cocktails taste the same and feel like they contain hardly any alcohol. The wine, honestly, is below any reasonable standard. The entertainment is generally good for kids, and the service is extremely friendly and pleasant. Overall, it’s a very good hotel. The main thing I believe should be improved, especially considering it’s an all-inclusive resort, is the quality of the alcohol, which is currently well below expectations.

Great family hotel. We had the perfect room location in a premium family swim up room in E block. Close to all the entertainment and snack bar but nice to retreat to our shared pool. Big shout out to Iga in the med ents team who made it such a fantastic holiday for our son. Also Petuola on the ice cream stand who always greeted us with a smile and remembered my son’s order! Evening entertainment- my son (age10) loved the mini disco. But the external entertainment could do with being improved. Also maybe a 2 weekly cycle rather than repeating the acts after one week. We loved Mike’s water sports on the beach. Also did a trip to Rhodes old town- the hotel lays on a coach to take you there and pick you up for €12 per person. Lindos also very picturesque and worth a visit.

We had such a wonderful family holiday! The management went above and beyond to sort out a booking issue, which made all the difference. The staff were so friendly, everything was spotless, the facilities were excellent, and the food choice was amazing. Truly a holiday to remember!

I had the best massage with Dimitra. She was very friendly and professional. I would definitely book a massage with her again.