Not only was this our honeymoon but it was the first time my new husband had ever flow, he'd never been abroad and there was a little uncertainty in his mind about what he'd find in Greece. Our flights were very late and slightly delayed and we arrived at the hotel at almost two in the morning, the last to be dropped off. The reception area was awe inspiring, beautiful marble, gold and black tiles, and at the reception desk we were welcomed with a warm smile. A little golf like buggy was organised to whisk us up the hill to our room as it was so late and we were soon delivered to the door of our room. Our room was a family room, spaceous, clean, with airconditioning, fridge and ensuite bathroom. A large basket full of fruit and a bottle of bubbly awaited us. The bed was a king size and very comfortable. In the morning we opened the curtains to the best sight we could of had to start our Honeymoon. They'd followed our request to be put high up on the hil perfectly, our balcony view was across the whole complex and out to sea with Pefkos in the distance, hills and mountains to the side and behind us, a glorious temperature of between 29-32 this was how our weeks weather was to stay, beautiful.
I'm sure you'd all like to know about the food. Well, if you can't find something that you like from the massive selection on offer, everyday, hot and cold, then there is something wrong with you. My husband and I filled our plates every breakfast, lunch and dinner and couldn't find fault with any of it. The only thing I will say to those of you travelling for the first time, like my husband, be prepared at meal times, especially if you are dinning in a buffet type dinning room, that certain nationalities do not know how to que, can come across very rude and you will get pushed out of the way if you're not confident and assertive. Please don't think there was a food fight every day cos there wasn't but when you have 1000 people all dinning within a three hour period you're going to find busy times and you may feel a little caught up in the hussle and bussle. Saying that the staff went out of their way to keep everything well stocked, everything hot that needed to be and wine and beer flowing, the dinning area was kept clean and the waiting staff were always happy to take your picture, I confess I got them to do that a lot for us... well, we were on honeymoon.
The beach is not sandy, it is mainly small shingle with larger smoother stones in amongst it. The hotel have put boards down to the water so you don't have to walk on it. The water was almost bath temperature, amazing. There are sun loungers on the beach but you do pay a couple of Euro's to use them. The watersports on offer are well worth a look. My husband went parasailing (35 euros) and loved ever minute of it. There are jet skies, banana rides, speedboat rides, glassbottom boat rides (20 Euros) and there's a ferry that goes to Lindos/Pefkos and back twice a day. Further up the beach are more sandy secluded coves and there is a stables if you want to go for a ride along the beach. You will also, no doubt, hear the sound of the little train. This is a road train that travels round in a loop for about an hour passed all the hotels and some very tourist type shops. It gives you a good idea of the surounding area and for only 5 Euros each person it is worth hopping onboard for a little look around. It goes from outside the hotel door every two hours.
Pools. There are three pools at the hotel. The first, the Activity Pool was up the top of the hill and the closest to our room, in fact it was just across a lawn from our door. There are also tennis courts and a childrens play area behind this pool. This pool had slides and watershoots, music and water activities, there is also a buffet lunch served at the pool side bar if you don't want to go to the main dinning room and snacks in the afternoon. Strangely we didn't use this pool, we preferred to head to the main pool in the middle of the complex behind the main building or the Relax pool a smaller, quieter pool that looked out over towards the beach and sea. The water of all the pools was very clean and apart from spotting a couple of small missing tiles in the main pool we were thrilled with facilities offered. Each pool had a bar and there was another bar on the beach. There was an indoor pool and gym, sauna and steam room. There's also an amazing selection of massage and aromatherapy treatments on offer, which we made use of and can totally recommend.
Evening entertainment. There is very little if you're an english only speaking person. Obvously we were on honeymoon and evening strolls on the beach and cocktails in the bar were all we really wanted from our evenings. There was kiddies entertainment in the bar for about an hour and then there was a duo that sang very well to entertain us. The Bravo reps (Italian/Russian) put on performances in the ampitheatre but as I've said these were performed in italian or russian. There is a couple of clubs in Pefkos and Lindos a 20 Euro taxi ride away if you want roudy nightlife... but we didn't so our evenings were exactly want we wanted. The bar staff were so happy and friendly and always creating new cocktails for us we made sure we said a special thank you and goodbye to them when we left at the end of our week.
Hotel staff. Nothing was too much trouble. Eva, the hotel relations manager was a total star! she met with us on our first evening and told us a bit more about the area and things we could do, gave us bus time tables, maps and was on hand to answer any questions we had pretty much 24/7. The reception staff were just as helpful, friendly and spoke very good english. All the staff, from the cleaners in the morning to Eva and the reception staff team, the waitresses, the bar staff... can't fault them, truely lovely people.
A couple of things. Beech towels - you will need to hire these yellow towels from the hotel. It works like this. For 10 euro's you get a card from reception. You take it to one of the pool bars and they will exchange the card for a yellow towel (if there are two of you you will need two cards so that's 20 euros and so on). At the end of your swim, once the towel is used, you can take it back and exchange if for a clean one and keep it with you until the next day. You can do this all week long and then at the end of the week exchange your towel back for the card and return it to the reception for a refund. Another thing is the Lindos Imperial is not a Brit hotel. We were there with Thomson Holidays and didn't see our rep once, if it hadn't been for Eva and the staff I think we might have felt a little let down. We were one of only three british couples in the hotel at that time, although we were told there was usually more. So if you're looking for an all british speaking hotel this isn't it. Finally, the hotel complex is on a hill. We were at the top of the complex and on the first day did wonder if we were going to keep up the hike up and down to our room, but we did. There are a few lifts dotted here and there to help if you really are struggling. The best advice I can give you if you have joint problems is when making your booking request a lower level room, you don't need to miss out on this lovely hotel just because of a hill.
Having said all the above, we would like to you to know that this hotel, it's staff, the food, the facilities, the surrounding area were all WOW! my husband and I totally intend to go back, maybe as an anniversay treat. We totally recommend the Lindos Imperial. Enjoy you stay :)
Room Tip: We booked a standard room but they upgraded us when I emailed the hotel direct to request a higher l...
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
