We stayed in this hotel for 2 weks in July.
Not by any stretch of the imagination could this hotel be classed as Four Star.The rooms are tiny.The beds are not comfortable.It was like sleeping on the floor.Our fridge did not work properly.The room mirror was broken.
Our room was over the shop and faced on to the road and pub.
The cleaning service was fantastic though.The towels were changed every day and the bed sheets every 2 days.
The staff at the reception desk were curt and rude.We had a problem with air conditioning and got no satisfaction at all.The staff in the resturant were unfriendly, unhelpful and uninterested.
We were half board.The food was ok.It all began to taste the same after a few days so we ate in the resort.
I would never stay here again.For the price we paid it was daylight robbery. The resort itself is lovely.Just don't stay in this hotel.

We have just returned from a very expensive all inclusive holiday to the CARAVEL HOTEL in Zante. We booked it through "on the beach.com" and what a complete and utter let down the travel company were for their service leading up to it, and the hotel itself!

I did actually read the reviews of other travellers before we went (after I had booked it!!) and was dreading it. Our first impression of the hotel was great. We were checked in by a very nice receptionist and given our keys and wristbands (which would turn out to be our downfall). The room was a good size considering what we have stayed in before and was of ok decor, so far not bad, and I thought what were all the reviews about - must be people just whingeing and fussing about nothing - PHEW i thought. BUT they were absolutely right.

Once you start meeting the rest of the staff and using the services you start realising that all those bad reviews are ABSOLUTELY right and completely justified. Nothing was made clear as to what was covered in the all inclusive and to be honest I think they just made it up as they went along.

We took our 2 boys aged 11 and 8. The first week we were there they met 2 other lads and they had a great time but once those lads went home there was absolutely no-one for them to play with and nothing for them to do onsite. Everywhere you looked there were Germans, rude, arrogant and just completely unfriendly. We even had to lower ourselves to reserve our sunbeds by leaving our towels on them 24/7 for the whole 14 days we were there because that's what they were doing - how bad is that!!!!!!
The food became very boring and the times were just not long enough. The children were not catererd for at all in the restaurant and the snacks were pretty much non existent. You had a big choice of chips, toasties and hot dogs!!!!! Quite often though we were told they had run out only to turn around and see paying guests eating what we had just been told had run out!!! The soft drinks were always flat. The all inclusive guests were treated like second rate citizens and what they fail to get is that we have actually paid for all our food UPFRONT!!!!! The staff are so rude and unhelpful, they never smiled (other than the female receptionist, oh and the inside barman) and their English is terrible.

On a good point TSILIVI was great. We did end up eating out a lot of the second week and all the bars and restaurants nearby were lovely and the staff were so friendly it was like being in a different country!!

All in all I would recommend Tsilivi to people but would definitely NOT recomment the Hotel CARAVEL - especially on an all inclusive basis and if you have young children.

I would not recommend "On the Beach.com" for a tour operator either.

Having recently returned from the Caravel Hotel, Tsivili on the beautiful island of Zakynthos I decided to add my comments to those already made. My husband and I travelled with two 16 year olds and we stayed half-board at the Caravel.

Positive points: Hotel accommodation is generally good with an excellent maid service including clean bedding and towels every day. The location is ideal for access to Tsivili town with many bars and tavernas and the beach. Reception staff are very helpful and most of the staff speak very good English.

Negative points: The restaurant. I was hoping for fresh fish, fresh vegetables, fresh seasonal fruit and a variety of cheeses, but I was very disappointed. The chef is obviously very experienced and some of the dishes were very nice. Unfortunately this was spoilt by the fact that all vegetables were frozen, the fresh fruit was non-existent (with the exception of melon served every day) and the cheese was limited to two varieties. The fish was not freshly caught and was obviously the frozen variety. There was also an absence of dried fruit.

The restaurant turnaround was very slow with some tables not being cleared at all. Service was very slow and quite often we were half way through our meal before drinks were served. The choice of wine was also very limited with huge differences in price range. The restaurant staff, with notable exceptions, seemed unhappy and morale appeared to be low, this showed in their service. Only one knife and fork was provided, so we had to use the same set for each course (spoons were available for soup and dessert).

Sunbeds were plentiful alas the free beds were taken 24/7 by customers leaving towels on the beds for the duration of their stay. This forced us to pay for beds on the beach at 3E each. Other hotels we have frequented collected sunbeds each evening and distributed them at 7:30 the following morning to ensure fairness.

The rooms were comfortable although varied in size and décor. We stayed in the ‘Apollo’ building on the 2nd floor and the room was comfortable. The balcony view however was of a car-park and supermarket with view of the hillside. The two girls however stayed in the ‘Hermes’ building on the ground floor. This room was much smaller, the interior drab and the view from the balcony was of the Apollo building. (We did request rooms together or adjoining when booking the holiday).

Our thoughts are that this used to be a 4* hotel when Zakynthos was a traditional Greek island with a smaller number. This has changed and Zakynthos has become an island for geared purely towards tourism, standards dropping and lowering quality in order to make money. We felt the Caravel should be a 3* hotel. It is very difficult to cater for ‘all-inclusive’ options as well as half-board and bed and breakfast and this shows in the quality of the services. The hotel would benefit from a refurb.

TWO warnings:
One of the girls took a walk alone on the beach just outside the hotel leaving all belongings back in the hotel room at 9:00am in the morning. Someone attempted to mug her at knife-point but ran away when he realised she was carrying nothing worth taking. She was shaken, but unhurt.

The Second warning is IMPORTANT for anyone who is using a card in an Autobank to draw cash in Europe this year.
My husband had no problems using his Switch card, however, my current account card AND my Master card (from a different bank) were both rejected (both worked in Barcelona earlier this year).
On return from holiday, we were informed that their new security policies AUTOMATICALLY blocked all transactions from outside the UK because of the level of fraud.
We were told that in future we inform them of our travel arrangements to enable account access from the destination (so telling an unknown call centre operative somewhere on the planet with access to our address details that our house would be empty. Soooo…our security is compromised but theirs isn’t….. that’s ok then,,, not).


Conclusion: After ten years of travelling to Greece and its islands on a half-board 4* only basis, the Caravel did not rate anywhere near the top. We enjoyed a nice, relaxing family holiday. Did we get value for money? – NO. Would we choose to return to Zakynthos and the Caravel Hotel? – NO

When i first came on trip advisor i thought no!!!! these people must just be very fussy!!! well i found out they were right!!
Upon arriving at the hotel , you think great it looks much nicer than all the others i've passed on my way in!!!
Brilliant!!!
I travelled with a party of 25 people for the occasion of my sister getting married.... You know the nomal delays that hold you up on holiday? Well we arrived at the hotel late.. When we got there they had actually saved us some food and ushered us into the restaurant, how nice of them.....
Well it didn't last long..............................
We were left standing at the reception with keys in hand wondering which building our room was in... No help what so ever...
When we got to the room we found 4 beds crammed into the smallest room you've ever seen in your life... We actually booked 2 twin rooms.... We never got it... I hasten to add , another family that we travelled with got exactly the same and had to pay 700 euros to upgrade even though they had already paid for this in the price of their holiday...
We went all inclusive................What a big mistake.
The priority of the staff at this hotel is to serve visitors and self catering before the " prisoners with the bands".
breakfast lunch and evening meal times were far to short. 2 hours for each, the food got very tiresome, ( always the same), you got refused certain snacks from the pool bar, then 2 minutes later you would see them serving the non all inclusives just what you had asked for..
The pool.......................... Never got cleaned in the whole two week we were there, a member of our party saw them sprinkling something in it first thing in the morning, scum all round the edges, not child friendly, and to top it off when the water aerobics was on ( twice a day) she dragged an extention cable from behind the bar and plugged her boogie box in at the pool edge!!!
It beggers belief!!! Can i just say all our children were out of the pool and on the beach when we saw her arriving.
They do have a childrens pool, however you have to trek across wasteland to get to it and all inclusives have to pay for their drinks.
The wasps round the sunbeds was phenomenal.... Probably because the floor never got washed down from all the juice and food spilt. we asked for it to be done... We got told tomorrow.. Tomorrow never came!!!
The owner of the hotel very very rude and arrogant to his guests.. and staff.
He actually raised his fist to a german man...
On the whole a good holiday had we not stopped at this hotel!!!
Greece was a lovely place however i don't think we will be returning in the near future!!