Hi,
i just came from my vacation from Kos - we stayed in Dimitra Beach Hotel. This hotel is absolutelly the best i evere been in Greece :-) There was everything clean, nice, 3 x pools, animation program, drinks, and great personal!!! every time smilly, helpfull. My stay there was really relaxing. But if you are person who is willing to visit a club every night, than this is a bit fare to the city.... about 7 km - but bus are going to the city Kos till aprox 11 pm so its not so bad but taxis are here really cheap so dont worry about that :-) Any questions ask i am happy to replay to you. For my relaxing time this hotel was really great and i will recomended that to my friend! Any question: [--]

Have just returned from there having stayed from the 27th sep to oct 4th,to be quite honest it is a very nice hotel,the rooms were very nice we overlooked one of the 3 pools on site,had a small kithenette with all the utensils if you wanted to cook yourself,bathroom very nice,plenty of room and kept very clean.

the restaurant and eating area does get quite packed early on so i would advise you either get there when it first opens at 7 for brekky orabout 6.50 in the evening or wait about an hour ,on one occasion we were asked to hurry up a little as there was qite a queue forming at the door,the food is fairly good but mainly catering for the foreign guests,germans and italians mainly,and the german guests are very rude and pushy so be ready to stand your ground when queing.

outside in the grounds of the hotel there are three lovely pools and 3 bars next to them and quite surprisingly they do not seem to get to busy.The staff are quite friendly and helpful,there is a bus that stops outside of the hotel and takes you into kos townit runs every 15 minutes and it is slightly cheaper to buy the tickets at reception ,it costs 95 cents at reception or double that if you by return tickets,beware the bus is usually about 5 minutes early and does not wait about,but as the bus starts at the dimitra you are gauranteed a seat,as it picks up at every hotel on the way into town and is usually packed solid by the time you reach town.

So all in all we enjoyed our stay,but be warned the hotel did not have one other british guest staying there,so if you like a chat over your mealtimes or in the bars with other british guests book elsewhere,we would not have booked in here if we knew this beforehand,we should have noticed that on arrival our flag was flying right at the back of the others.

The Dimitra Beach ([--]) on Kos has a lot going for it and against it, but overall our stay there in September 2005 was good -- particularly after we saw what other hotels on Kos looked like.

Here is our experience...
We reserved a specific room type -- a two-bedroom apartment with breakfast -- because our trip was for three weeks and because there were few room choices available when we made our reservation. Nonetheless, the cost of the reservation was dependent on the room type, and we paid in advance accordingly. However, when we checked in, the unfriendly front desk staffer told us we would have the reserved apartment type for the first night, but they would move us to a smaller room the next day. Welcome to Dimitra Beach. We challenged this insisting we get the room we paid for, especially since we were staying for three weeks at a hotel where most package tourists stay 3-14 days. Fortunately, we got to keep the room.

This first run-in with the front desk staff was not an anomaly. They were consistently unfriendly, irritated or rude throughout our stay. The main hotel restaurant staff was even worse. Not only rude but also masters at setting up the first small cup of coffee, then never returning and absolutley never reacting to any eye contact, hand signal or "Excuse me" to get a second cup of coffee. And the evasive wait staff never seemed to leave an unattended coffee pot that we could serve ourselves from. This morning ritual of trying to acquire a second cup of coffee grew old very quickly after the first couple of mornings. Add to this the bland, uninspired breakfast that was completely identical each day and we soon resorted to buying breakfast goods and eating in our room, despite having paid for breakfast. Thankfully, the room had a modest kitchenette and there was a small grocery store on site for emergencies. (Of course, the supermarkets in the city of Kos had better selection and prices.)

Our room was in the newer part of Dimitra Beach called the Monte Apartments. All the furniture looked nearly new and was well cared for. Its kitchenette was small but wonderfully functional for making small meals, including dinner for two. The only dining area was on the balcony. The only TV was in the first bedroom, which was large and had a very comfortable queen bed. The second bedroom had two day beds, which we used only as sofas, and a coffee table between them. Both bedrooms had spacious storage for clothes and personal items. There was one other day bed near the kitchenette. The bathroom was well kept except for the missing ceiling panel which needed to be replaced during our stay. When we arrived we could see the blue sky through the missing panel and a hole in the roof above.

Each bedroom also had an air conditioning unit that we ran only during the hottest times. A nearly constant island wind and open windows brought in a cross-breeze that was usually enough to keep the room temperature comfortable. A big balcony with doors off each bedroom made it easy to keep the wind blowing through. We were extremely lucky to have the apartment at the corner of the building. Our view looked over the pool, the sea and an open hillside where a herd of goats grazed every afternoon.

Kos is famous for its lush, green landscape compared to other Greek islands, but green in Greece is a relative term. The landscape is still very dry and water is still scarce and valuable. To conserve water and to reduce pollutants (especially detergents) from further damaging the nearly lifeless waters around the island, we really really didn't want to participate in the daily towel changes. Some people consider daily housekeeping to be a luxury, but we didn't want it or need it. It was a constant struggle to get the housekeeping staff to agree to clean and change linens only every three days. We would have been happy with cleaning/changing once a week. The housekeeping staff was always cheerful but never fully understood that we didn't need them everyday.

More pros and cons...
Good: Taverna staff was very friendly and offered good service and food.
Bad: There were no wind blocks (trees, hedges, etc.) around the pool, so the constant wind kept the water frigid, which wasn't very enjoyable on the cooler days.
Good: The bus going into Kos city or to the nearby hot springs stops directly in front of the hotel. You can buy discounted bus tickets in advance from the hotel front desk staff -- when they have them.
Bad: There were several power outages both day and night during our stay. The longest while we were in the room was about three hours.
Bad: One of the air conditioning units dripped water down the wall onto the floor after it was running about five minutes.
Bad: Dimitra Beach promoted its computers with Internet access but the Internet connection worked only once in the dozen times we tried. Instead, we took the bus into town and used the Internet-enabled computers at the new marina.