On 19th October to 26th October 2011, my self, wife and son (11 y old) went to Rhodes Aldemar Paradise Mare Hotel.
Two sides to a story, first the good……
Upon arrival the hotel reception was helpful in checking us in fast, explaining where breakfast, lunch and evening meals would be held along with the theme nights.
The safe was 3 Euros per day.
Whilst showing us to our room, our bags had been put on a trolley and brought up to our room.
Bedroom – found to be large, two single beds and a double, these we found not to be too bad for us, depending on your liking of mattress.
3 tall single wardrobes with 5 hangers in each, I would well advise getting a high pool view / sea view room, the view is something to behold.
Very clean and in excellent condition, fridge was clean with a bag of welcome sweets and a large bottle of water. Also, glasses where provided.
Plenty of plug sockets.
TV only had CNN for us Brits / English but we did not spend too much time in the room any way.
Long dresser table with large mirror to view yourself.
Main door to your room and room power work off a swipe card, we got two so kept one in for the air con / fan to keep it cool (not freezing due to time of year).
Bathroom – large, full size bath and shower, big bath towels for each of us (including our son), medium size towels and hand towels for each.
Complimentary soap / shower gel and shampoo, shower cap and vanity set containing ear buds, cleansing pads and a sewing kit.
Large sink unit, again clean and no sign of mould / dirt or last guests tooth paste residue as you find in some hotels.
Balcony – nice secure wood rail built in to the frame of the hotel so safe for my son to look out at the view, table and three chairs as all rooms look to have. There is a small drying rack also.
Food – Breakfast – 7am to 10am - We found it very nice, usual cooked food and cold meat, pasteries and cereal, bacon was very good, not much fat that you sometimes find in hotel food.
Lunch – 12pm to 3pm - only there for a week but was ok, always fresh Pizza being made in front of you and if you ask, they will make you what you want, cake every day, jelly and ice cream for the kids all day every day.
Evening meal – 6pm to 10pm – Best part of the day, roast meat was fantastic, the Lamb was something else, always looked to have pasta and bolognaise sauce.
For the veggie people amongst us, not the biggest range but there was always something put on we found, plenty of salad.
Kids have there own section from 6pm to 8pm with a member of staff on hand to help them out whilst you got yours, always a nice touch.
Both the lunch dinning room and the breakfast / evening meal dinning rooms were found to be clean with the staff happy to help if you make the time to say hello and thank you, otherwise they go about there routine.
Food was always warm, not the hottest we have had but never cold, always fresh and cooked through.
Pool – one word to sum up the out side main pool….COLD… but if you go in October I guess you should expect that otherwise clean, shallow of 0.9m up to 5m at the other end so be aware of your kids getting in trouble.
It can get a bit slippery around the pool edge as my son found out on day two when he slipped, banged his knee and fell in; we then had to drag him out.
No life guard so be warned.
There is a pool towel service where you can get a fresh beach towel daily, which was handy.
Indoor pool – very nice, room warm and pool at a nice swimming temperature.
Pool slide – only open from 10am to 2pm, not sure what that was all about as plenty of kids there and no life guard to employ?????
Other pools – No comment – they had all be closed and drained off so could not swim in them, expect they would look nice in summer when the hotel is fully up and running.
Sun beds – plenty when we went, we found a lot had been stacked up and put away for winter (to be expected) but we got up for 9, had breakfast, back to the room for sun cream them pool by 11, never had an issue.
Private beach and sea – Beach was gritty and you walked on pebbles, sea is very rocky (advised to wear aqua shoes when sea swimming), warm in sea and you can get a bit of a way out as an adult and stand up in it.
(Please note, the type of beach and rocky sea is not the hotels fault and not a criticism on there part, it is very common in Greece to have a pebbly beach).
Alcoholic drinks – all actual branded drinks, very rare to find in an all inclusive hotel.
Hotel location – 6 Euros to Rhodes town by bus, at this time of year, the taxis will take you from the hotel to town for the same price, you may have to haggle a little but its part of the experience.
The bad bits…….
Entertainment – we picked this hotel due to the comments of the entertainment staff, ok, we went two weeks before the hotel closed for the winter but please, if I pay for all the hotel facilities, I expect to get them.
No day time kids entertainment, only water aerobics and zumba / yoga.
Other reviews say they are great with kids, but we can’t comment on this as we never saw an example.
There was one night of a kids mini disco, this was on the third night but as our son had a bad leg from falling in the pool he did not go so cannot comment on how good / bad it was.
I was told that the hotel night club is a mix of euro pop 80`s and 90`s [not in English] and it took a group of guests [all English in the club that night] to give a list to the DJ for her to reluctantly download and actually play.
Room – The sheets where only changed on the 5th day of our stay, not very impressed with that. Any of the complimentary items we used where never replenished.
Cocktail bar – Staff the worst I have every met, they should not be employed at any hotel, any where, every, I got a grunt one night and milk thrown at me another night.
They are only interested in being nice to you if A) you are a man (lucky for me I guess and this is only if you tip them about 5 to 10 Euros per night!!!!) or B) like another guest did, had to be held back due to the bar man offending his wife to the point where the guest snapped. Snacks where available after this from 10.00pm to 11.00pm in the cocktail bar [if the grumpy bar man brought them out on time, more like 10.30pm some nights!!].
Pool Bars – only place to get a drink was the lunch bar restaurant that was kept open until 6.00pm to enable you to get ice cream and drinks.
All other bars shut up. Therefore no alcoholic drinks available until 6.00pm. Except wine and beer in the lunch bar restaurant. On our arrival day the beach bar near the bottom of the children’s slide was open but after that it was always closed.
We had paid for all inclusive but we didn’t get it.
Theme Restaurants – We booked the Greek night only to be woke up at 08:20 with a porter banging on the door with a note to advise it had been cancelled due to low attendance…we paid for it so we wanted it!!!!! We where extremely disappointed about this as was our son. Chinese still went ahead with low numbers, we was on a flipping Greek island, get a grip, if I wanted Chinese, I would have stayed at home!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, a fellow guest had advised us that the Chinese was not good.
Overall – We would not recommend this hotel in the summer, we had been told by staff it gets very busy and the hotel has over 900 rooms and can hold in excess of 3000 people, can’t say it floats my boat, maybe for this time of year on a good deal, yes we would say give it a try.
4*+ TUI rated, Premier Families, not sure this is justified.
For us, we went to the Sun Palace last October 2010, 3*+, 10 min on the edge of Faliraki, this is where we are looking to head back to next year, at the lower rating you seem to get nicer staff and better, more authentic Greek food.
Feel free to ask questions, happy holiday.
Room Tip: Ask not to be near a lift.
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
