Just got back from 10 days at Oceanis Rooms and loved every moment of it. There is so much to say, I hope I manage to get it all in the review to encourage people to go there! Nikos, the owner, and the rest of the staff were so friendly and helpful, happy to sit and chat to you but also not at all intrusive if they saw that we were having a romantic evening meal.
I came with my boyfriend, both in our early 20s, and we were looking for a relaxing holiday in a pretty area. We are both students so like to shop around for cheap deals and were so surprised by the quality of the hotel for the price.
ROOM:
We had the smallest room which was more than adequate for 2 people - small kitchenette with fridge, sink, 2 hot plates and all cutlery/pots and pans. It also had a balcony with chairs and a table which was great to sit out in the evening before going down to the restaurant. It was cleaned thoroughly every day and the hotel was generally exceptionally clean and well kept. The room had a small tv with Greek channels, but I don't see why you would need to watch TV and Air Con which was very effective and a life saver if you ever choose to walk into town in the midday heat! There was also free Wifi by the pool and restaurant, which was a bonus as it wasn't advertised on the website, and it reached to our balcony and in some areas of the room. There are computers in the inside bar if you don't want to bring your own laptop/smartphone.
The view from the balcony is absolutely stunning and at Oceanis, every single room has a sea view where you can see both sunrise and sunset. I think the larger apartments at the top have a larger terrace.
POOL:
The pool is a very decent size for the amount of people staying at the hotel, and there are also steps down to a small private rocky beach which was another bonus. The pool has lots of sun loungers and some inflatables and was very clean and seemed safe for children (i think just over a metre deep at the shallow end). There is also a larger beach 100m north of Oceanis called Glyfa, which has more than enough space for sunbathing, and the main organised Barbati beach is about 25 mins walk south along the road.
AREA:
The village is about 15-25 mins walk depending how far you go along. There are 2 minimarkets - Servos is the closest to Oceanis, on walking into the village you have to turn right up a steep hill with a sign to Pantokrater Hotel. Then there's one past the turn down to the organised beach, called Yannis I think. Both sold the basics like pasta, tinned vegetables, cold meats, fresh salad, drinks, and some holiday stuff like inflatables, hats, sunglasses. They were both quite expensive if you consider the exchange rate from £ to € at the moment, and neither really sold fresh meat which limited what you could cook.
There are a decent amount of restaurants in town all serving the same kind of food. We only ate out of the hotel once in Barbati (at Lord Byron which was nice enough), because the food at Oceanis was very nice and very reasonably priced. We noticed that many people seemed to come to the restaurant at the hotel even if they weren't staying there - which is always a good sign!
HOTEL RESTAURANT:
We ate at the Oceanis restaurant a number of times despite having the kitchenette, and to be honest with the high price of food in the shops, it was almost worth it to eat at the restaurant rather than cook. Mains were about €7-15 and a large greek salad, which i think would fill most people was €6.50, but we often just got a selection of bread and appetizers (baked feta, tzaziki, fried courgettes, sardines etc.) which were around €3.50-6 and 3 or 4 would fill 2 people no problem. Drinks were also very well priced, especially unbranded wine at just €2 a large glass or a large bottle of Mythos beer for €2.80.
The area itself is very nice, fairly quiet - no real nightlife, which we didn't want anyway, but nice bars and good atmosphere even though we were late in the season. The organised beach at Barbati has watersports and boat hire. Ask Nikos to organise for you to hire a boat one day - we paid €60 for the boat all day plus €30 petrol (you pay for what you use), and they picked us up to take us to the beach and dropped us off at the hotel when we were finished. If you are more active there are all the usual waterskiing, parasailing etc, which you could see all day going past the hotel in the sea.
OVERALL
Can't recommend it enough - for couples or families, or groups of friends wanting a chilled out holiday for a very reasonable price.
And to top it off - a perfect surprise as we watched the sunrise from our balcony, waiting for our transfer on the last morning - dolphins doing flips in the sea!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC