My partner and I returned from the Med Royal yesterday. I would say that our stay was overall nice but not what we had expected.

First of all I would like to mention that we booked through Neckermann Reisen, a German travel agency with a good reputation. My impression was though that they have never had a look at the hotel rooms which they offer. We booked a room with direct sea view and with a Bad und Dusche (bath and shower). There was absolutely no shower, just a tiny bath tub with a hand shower, no shower curtain or anything like that. So whenever you had a shower (holding the shower head with one hand), the whole bathroom would be under water. When we complained about this at the reception, they told us NONE of the rooms in the whole hotel has a shower!!!

Secondly, our room had only sea view from the balcony, sideways, not - as booked - direct sea view. What the other review says in regards to food is true. It was not good at all. For a 4 star hotel it was a shame. It was good enough to survive but no pleasure and really not Greek food at all! What really upset me though was that the "swim-up pool bar" has no service. You can sit there all day long but no one will come to serve you a drink. I really wanted a pool bar and it was one of the main reasons why we went for this place. :(

The hotel is pretty far off anything so you have no choice but to eat what they serve. The bus connection sucks and we did not want to rent out a car since the driving skills of the Greek people are rather scary.

Last but not least the positive sides:

The hotel personel is very very nice and tries hard to serve you. Except for the room maids who seemed to only work when being tipped, all the waiters and barkeepers were extremely nice and fast. Costas and Antonio, the two barkeepers at the little pool bar of the royal hotel were amazing guys and seemed to really enjoy their job.

The pools are overall very nice and the whole hotel/garden setup is lovely. We very much enjoyed relaxing in the sunshine. The only not-so-good thing was that they were playing music non-stop from noon until midnight which was kind of annoying and made sleeping with an open window impossible.

Overall a nice vacation although overpriced. We paid almost 1000 Euro each for 7 days. The Royal gives itself 5 stars, the official rating through Neckerman said 4 start. They are definitely far away from that.....

Conclusion: Nice if all you want to do is lay at the pool all day long. You could probably get a better deal for that kind of money at a different location though....