Rhodes 2022 - Honeymoon
– We travelled from Birmingham to Kallithea in Rhodes in April 2022 for our Honeymoon, just as the world was coming off the back of COVID. We had a lift to Birmingham Airport so no need for parking. We had to make sure we had all 3 vaccines and had to wear a mask on the plane, in the transfer and around the hotel. We booked through TUI and stayed at The Kresten Royal Euphoria Resort and Spa which was a 5* ultra-all-inclusive resort. It was roughly 35-minute transfer from the Airport and has a sister site attached to it that was The Kresten Palace which offers half board or self-catering.
The Hotel on arrival was stunning, clean and open. The reception area was huge, with access to the pool area and a champagne bar towards the rear of the building.
Our room was located on the ground floor with the patio area leading directly to the top pool and bar. This was convenient as it meant we could have drinks in our room of an evening if we didn’t want to go up to the main bar, which was located above the main restaurant. The room was quite a good size, we had a jacuzzi bath in our bathroom. A queen size bed, with a pull-out sofa bed, coffee table and dressing area. It was nice and light.
There was a little shop on site that sold snacks, drinks and gifts. There was Spa that you could book into for an additional charge. There were also Reps on certain days and a vehicle hire company.
The top pool was so nice. Not as big as the other two pools, but relatively big int eh shape of a circle with the hotel’s logo at the bottom. It had plenty of sunbeds and a bar. Which was convenient as I was lay there with a book in hand, relaxing. We did go in on one of the days, but it was freezing cold so didn’t bother the rest of the week.
The second and third pools were located a little walk from the main building, but easily accessible. There was a small children’s pool by the snack bar and then a larger pool off to the left which had plenty of sunbeds. The snack bar was open 10am -6pm and offered sandwiches, pizza’s chips, Gyros and burgers. They also had unlimited ice cream and one of the flavours was banana – which we absolutely loved. The drinks on offer were any cocktail from their own range of spirits, locally sourced beers and wines and then soft drinks. For branded spirits or premium cocktails there was a surcharge.
The beach was a few minutes’ walk from this area. This was a shingle beach and only very small, with a larger beach just a little further walk away. We did venture down to this, however, we preferred to sit round the pool
The main buffet restaurant was phenomenal. They catered for breakfast, Lunch and Dinner with a wide variety of items available. They had themed nights such as Chinese, Indian, Italian, Seafood and many more. We got to try so many different things, including three different varieties of shark. They also had a traditional Greek A la Carte restaurant that was included in the cost of your booking. You could make a reservation for this at reception. They also had late night offerings of crisps and sandwiches. We opted for the buffet every evening as this gave us a better variety of food. Our waiter was nice too, by the 2nd night he already knew our drinks order and would get it for us for when we got there.
The main bar was located above the restaurant and had indoor and outdoor seating. It was the same drinks menu as the pool bar and snack bar, except they were served in cocktail glasses not paper cups. The main bar had live entertainment every evening and this varied from comedians to musicians. There was a saxophonist who played beautiful songs while we were sitting out on the veranda in our swinging chairs watching the sunset. We tried quite a few cocktails including the Singapore sling, the Manhattan, Mai tai, Pina Colada they were all great.
Venturing out was easy as there was a bus stop right outside the hotel. The only issue, having to climb the huge hill to get to the bus stop. Also, as we had gone in off peak, the busses were not on time. The cost was roughly 3.80 € each way. Twice we ended up getting a taxi into the old town with other people waiting. There was a huge Lidl on the way, which we walked to on one of the days.
Rhodes old town was wonderful, did you know it is the largest surviving medieval town? We went without any prior knowledge and just winged it. We went to several historical sites on a ticket we purchased for 12 € at the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes this also included entrance to Palace of the Grand Master, The Street of The Knights and two others. Individually the entrance cost for each was 5-8 €. So, we did save a little bit of money.
Rhodes airport is small there isn’t much to offer in the way shops or food outlets other than a small duty free and a few places to eat. Make sure your bags are not over the allocated weight as when we were checking in on our return flight, we were charged £90 as our cases were over by 3kg. The lady at the check in desk would not hand our passports over until we had paid the balance.
The total cost for this trip (excluding spending money) was £1354.22. We went out of season but would highly recommend staying at this hotel if you ever get the chance. It is aimed at adults not children, but there were children there when we went.