In many ways staying at the Mastichari is a bit like trying to buy a BMW. You kind of know what you're going to get before you drive it; you are surprised by how little you get in the base package without shelling out on some options and you have to put up with an awful lot of German standards. The good points for me were the service at the restaurant, where the food was of generally good quality and easily available via the buffet service, and the extremely helpful staff. The bad points were all around the blatant penny pinching by the management. We stayed half board which was a good deal - but although the food was free we had to pay for our drinks separately. Want internet access or the key to your rooms security safe ? More money required. But by far the worse offender was the A/C system. Despite being the height of the summer, the Air Con was only available between 15:00 and Midnight. In addition it switched off when you were out of the room or if the balcony doors weren't securely shut. if you came back a bit late from the bar then you often had less than half an hour of cool air before you found yourself waking up in an oven in the early hours.

In general the other guests were mostly German and the Kids club is basically for them only (unless your child is fluent in the language). But to be honest the other guests were very polite and the anticipated stereotypical fight for sun-beds around the pool did not occur.

The location of the hotel near the village (and more importantly the village public beach) is excellent which was just as well since the hotels beach again was done on the cheap with the sand stabilised by a screen of rocks and seaweed.

We booked this holiday indepedently and had plenty of worries as we turned up at reception, this being our first holiday as a couple we wanted everything to be perfect!! And it was!
We turned up very late at night and although there were some initial problems with the room booking (all my fault!) the night manager Antonios did everything he could to make us feel welcome and found us a room anyway.
The only thing I would say is that we were a bit concerned about the smell in the bathroom, but it seemed to dissappear after a day or two anyway! The room was very clean, although I wouldnt count it as four star; there wasn't a kettle with any tea or coffee and our bed was two singles pushed together, they kept coming apart which was annoying! Also the air-con only works a very odd hours of the day, when you are least likely to be in the room, and will only work when the electric is on...
We have no other complaints about this resort! The rest of the Hotel is definatly Four Star!
Our little balcony had a great view, I think it would be difficult to not have a good view at this hotel, it is surrounded by beautiful gardens! The whole place is very well kept and clean clean clean!
The beach is right on your doorstep and is very quiet which is lovely. There are rocks going into the sea but this did not bother us as they had a long jetty to jump off during the day for a dip in the sea and makes for a lovely night-time wander aswell.
The food at the Hotel is good, although there could have been a few more labels explaining the food, as I am vegetarian I had trouble deciding!
Now onto the staff. They were one of the main parts to our brilliant holiday! Everybody was extremly friendly, we were worried that, being a mainly German Hotel there would be a bit of a language barriar problem or that staff would favour them when problems arrive ect. But not so! All the staff knew some English and we learnt some Greek/German aswell. We made plenty of friends and often spent the evenings having drinks with the staff after their shifts.
The entertainment at the Hotel was very cheesy but so lighthearted and extremley funny! Big cheers for the Childrens Club entertainers, especially Andre and Uri (have a drink with those guys!) they seemed to keep going all day, never getting tired or looking fed up!
Cocktails wernt too expensive although spirits wern't as cheap, when we go back we will go all inclusive!
The village is just across the road and is just as good as the Hotel, the beach isnt busy at all and the sea is blue. All the taverns serve traditional greek food which was brilliant. We especially enjoyed eating at the little tavern right at the other end of the village, poking out onto the sand.
Also worth a try is a place called The Bar which is the first bar you get to as you cross the road out of the Hotel. Its has lovely friendly english owners, but they have live music from greek locals a few nights a week, and also themed nights, Reggea night was fabulous! You can easily drink far too many cocktails there, as they are very good value for money!
This is not a place to go if you love Clubbing every night as there are no close clubs, but we found making friends with the staff helped as the could show us the closest parties/ clubs to go to with them!
This was the best holiday we have been on and we will definatly go back again. The whole area is so picturesque and very relaxed and out of the way. Beautiful!

If you don't expect much you'll be pleased with this hotel. It's ok- the grounds are pretty and the staff are friendly. I thought the pool side entertainment staff were great- they were really funny and i loved their hotel song. The waiting staff in the restraunt were very nice too. I enjoying the refreshing coolness of the pool (a nice contrast to the scorching heat) and the buffet food in the restaurant was nice (although it started to become repetative after about a week). But the downside to the hotel was the rooms which clearly are the most important thing. The air conditioning is controlled by a central system meaning that you cannot turn it on and off when you desire. the 2007 greek summer was abnormally hot (I don't know how much more so than usual) but anyway this was a major problem. The other appliances weren't great either. the fridge doesn't always work and wasn't clean and I'm not one who watches a lot of television whilst on holiday but in between doing things and whilst sheltering from the heat or in the evenings, only having one english channel is annoying. On top of this the bathroom had a horrible smell and the beds were rock hard. I didn't have a night of good sleep whilst staying there. Instead I would recommend the nearby Neptune beach hotel. I've not personally stayed there, nor have I seen the rooms but I stopped off there to get some money and having seen the other facilities it seemed like a much nicer place

We booked a standard room only to find that these are actually "ground floor" rooms or in some cases, below ground level. So we asked for a room change and quickly paid a small supplement (28 Euros) to upgrade to a sea view room and had incredible views across the harbour and bay to Kalymnos and several other islands and could watch the ferries and fishermen going in and out on a regular basis. We too had problems with the shower and whilst this was promptly attended to, never totally rectified. The hotel is set in superb grounds with accommodation mainly in 2-storey units throughout the grounds.

The clientelle is mainly german-speaking . The food was of a good standard and served buffet-style. There was always a good choice, even if it was not always labelled clearly. The beach is disappointing because although it is sand, there are huge rocks at the waters edge so they have built a jetty over the rocks to enable you to get into the sea. There were not many sunbeds on the beach itself and as we never got down early enough to get one of these, didnt bother. Just a short walk away is the main resort beach which is sandy, has loads of sunbeds (2 beds and umbrella for 5 euros) and stretches for what seems like miles.
There is a big problem with seaweed in this resort . For our first few days it was fine but then it got windy and piles and piles of black seaweed were dumped at the waters edge which in places were about 5 feet wide and 2 feet high - making getting in and out of the sea an unpleasant experience.
There is no ATM cashpoint in the resort but there is a money-exchange and you can also change money in the hotel.
Would not rate the hotel as 4* but it is an exceptionally good 3* and as we loved the resort, would probably return again