This is a review of the Blue Horizon Fira hotel in Fira (not in Perivolos as stated in the heading of the page).

Waiting for my charter flight home I had to spend one night in Fira on my way back from Folegandros. I wasn't particularly picky and chose this hotel on one of the many internet booking sites.

When I got to the Fira bus station, nobody knew about this hotel. I called the mobile number listed on the reservation form. The person on the other side of the phone didn't speak English but we somehow managed to get the right directions (it is near the folklore museum). The hotel looked very strange, as if it was only half built. There was no reception and a large scruffy area in front of the hotel. The cleaning lady found a guy who we were talking to 15 minutes before. They needed more than 15 minutes to find an empty room (by knocking on the door first and then looking inside).

Finally, we got a huge room with three beds, which seemed new, had a balcony, A/C and a small CRT TV. There was only one sheet on each of the beds and they expected us to cover ourselves with a stainy thick cloth that was covering the bed. Also, the bathroom seemed clean and new.

The guy tried to charge us for additional half a day if we stayed there after 11 o'clock.

We also met two distressed young women who booked another hotel but were tricked by the owner in the port.

We would run away immediately if there wasn't a threat of a credit card charge.

We had barely gotten a confirmation for our stay, so we were quite surprised when we arrived after 20 hours of traveling and they had a room for us. The room was clean, quiet, and very cute. A nice kitchenette, pretty views of the ocean. Not as close to the beach as we had thought, but a nice 10 minute walk. The pool was great, although we spent most of our time on the beach where there are nice cafe's with yummy food and drinks all day long. Katie, the owner's daughter who runs the bar, is CRAZY. she is a jabber mouth, tries to suckle money out of her guests, is abrasive, annoying, and penny pinching. After a 4 night stay, she drove us to the port to catch our ferry in her tiny beat up car. She was 30 minutes late to drive us because she had to shower, put on red lipstick, high heals, and lots of jewelry. She drives like a mad woman, swerving on windy cliffs and passing cars. When we wouldn't give her her 10 Euros for the ride during the deathly drive, she threatened to kick us out of the car and then decided to drive even crazier until we'd loosen our grip on the car to throw money at her at which point she dropped a coin and bent down, while driving 40 kph down a windy cliff to find the money. Besides Katie, the trip was wonderful, the hotel was very nice and affordable, great for young couples/groups of friends. I totally recommend it, just avoid Katie, and get your own ride to the port. An extra 5 Euros is worth it to keep your life and sanity.

Let me start by staying my wife and I stayed here as part of a 4 country tour with high school students, so we did not pay out of pocket or get exposed to the 'sales pitches' the other reviewers did...

The plus - great view from the pool area and a very nice open feel

I guess that is it....the two nights we were there the room did not get cleaned nor did our towels get exchanged, which is not a huge deal to us, but if we had known we would not have left them on the floor to stay wet. Also, the shower was one of the worst we experienced during our 4 country swing...and that is saying something

Since we have no other places to compare this to it seemed an OK budget place...where you just sleep and go to the beach..as it was 2 minutes walk to a shop with a great family that owns it(the shop) and another 3 minutes down to the 'main drag' where there are restaurants and bars on the beach.

It did seem like there were plenty of other 'budget' family owned hotels in the area and my guess is that they would give you better service than this....

The girl, (named sisi?), was trying really hard to get people on her car and drive to this remote shabby family owned hotel. She never keeps her promise, and always trys to find extra charges from you.

In my case, after I went to the hotel on her shabby little car, she first intended to give me a downstair one. After I asked, she said ok, upstairs as promised at the port, which end up to be a little shabby attic. she tried to sell me everything, and pursuaded me to pay another 5 euros for the breakfest. The worst thing is she refused to drive me back to the port after my staying in the next morning. She said she can works as a Taxi driver, and charge me 20 euros for sending me back to the port.

It was my first Greek islands trip, and although the view was fantastic in the islands, the hotel staying gave me a very bad experience. Stongly recommanded NOT to go with her, if you met her on the port, or the airport.