Very clean and quiet, very nice food, big pool, quite a scenery... Also very friendly staff.

Just got back from 2 weeks in Belle Helene. Had a fantastic holiday and was overall very impressed with the hotel. One or two small gripes, these being the charge for air conditioning of 6 euros per day which we thought way too expensive and the other, if you wanted to order fish from the pool bar, it needed to be ordered the day before. Also, the evening menu was a "no choice" option, although well cooked and tasty. However, the poolside snack bar had the most amazing dishes at a price. Housekeeping was excellent and all staff were happy and helpful at all times. They could not be faulted in any way. We would happily book here again.

I stayed at the belle helene with a family group of 22, as it was my choice of location there was inevitable pressure on me for the trip to be good! happily ive been thanked by all of the group! The hotel is in a brilliant location overlooking he beach, the hotel staff are very helpful and friendly, the food is excellent, the swimming pool bar stays open until the small hours( if required?). We dont usually return to places that have been visited, though this rule may be broken now with this hotel in this wonderful bay.

billheggs@hotmail.co.uk

Nice people at Belle Helene, so this is a hard review to write. BUT, if they sort the following problem areas out, it will go up a star from 2 to 3. They are definitely NOT the self-evaluated 4star claimed rating. The meals being the biggest let-down.
It would be easy to just list a load of complaints without explanation. These are pleasant people; the hotel has the potential to be pretty good. Apathy, indifference and lack of will to improve things seem to be the biggest problem.
The cost of rectification work to the hotel and a decent menu would not be that high. The rewards should be greater than the input required.
A problem that is not of their making is the domination of Thomson flights and their packaged holidays. They dictate to the hotels and if you don’t do as they say and accept what they offer, you are on your own. We flew EasyJet and were not so constrained. On our return date, we watched the planes from over Kirkira Airport runway. There must be 6 Thompson flights or more to one EasyJet.
There is also the problem of three different councils laying claim to the Agios beach area. Consequently, the beach and promenade area is left tatty and broken down.

Those difficulties aside -
Weeks before the holiday, we emailed the hotel (twice) to confirm that reception would be open for the estimated time of our arrival at around 02.00hrs. AND any asked for any advice regarding how to best navigate (reputed terrible road signs) in the hired car to Agios Georgios (North). We received no acknowledgement or reply.
Alpha rooms also emailed the same questions for us. Again, no reply.
We began to worry that there might be no hotel there when we arrived (ie a scam).
We did get help from the hire car people at Kirkira Airport (overcharged by €40. On our return refunded, but only after some heated debate) and arrived at Belle Helene around 01.30hrs.
Helene of ‘Belle Helene’ is the daughter/manager of the owner builder. Very pleasant lady who even so, expressed some strong views about the way Greek society was going (retiring at 50, tax evasion etc. Greek deficit foretold).
The room we had booked was half-board, a double with balcony and a side sea view; we were given a twin with a back garden and back road view. This was changed the next day to a double - but only because we expressed displeasure that a twin room was not what we had paid for. The replacement was not with a side sea view either, but we elected to accept it on the grounds that it would probably be cooler at night. AND the hotel next door would have blocked the claimed side-sea-view anyway. (Unless you were right at the front of that side)
We later discovered that the side-sea-view rooms had been allotted to a group of Germans and we had just been fobbed off with what was left.
The room itself was comfy and cool. The steel shutters, blinds and mesh worked brilliantly and kept out the light and the mozzies. They would probably have kept out noise as well, but in May, there are few tourists and no rowdies.
The shower cubicle and bathroom was another let down. The curved sliding door runners to the shower cubicle were broken and a temporary (tatty) plastic sheet had been bodged and hung from the door rail to (unsuccessfully) try and keep the water inside the shower compartment. This should have been repaired over the low season. The floor became very slippery and the drain cover in the floor was too easily dislodged, leaving an unsafe hole for your heel to catch in (which it did) and scrape your skin. We did ask for the shower doors to be repaired but Helene told us her husband was away, but even when he returned, nothing was done. Apparently there were a number of things that required doing but the builder who was supposed to have done the work had gone bust.
Why someone else could not have been employed to right the problems over the low season was not explained.
The other gripe in the bathroom was having to be a contortionist to reach the toilet paper – so close, low left, neither arm was in the right place to use it. We took it off the holder and put it where we could reach. Another little ‘niggle’ that with a little aforethought could have been avoided.

Other niggles included –
No TV for 2 days and no willingness to rectify the problem. Poor excuse of - ‘husband away’.
Originally booked from the 3rd May, but didn’t arrive until the early hours of the 4th. Refund of any sort deftly avoided even tho we had informed them and Alpha Rooms - in the unanswered emails.
Garden display lights not working.
Light shade missing over the dressing table.
Sink plug leaking badly.
Extraction in the bathroom not working.
Air conditioning not working
None of these things in isolation amounting to much - BUT, when added together, start to exasperate
The only work being done at the hotel (apart from mealtime) was by the cleaners and reception. Everyone else seemed to be just lazing around and chatting. Come day go day, C’est la vie.

Now the meals. Oh dear! Not the buffet we had expected.
Breakfast is set. Fruit juice, cornflakes or muesli, OR continental breakfast – thin slice of plastic cheese, spam, sometimes - hard hard-boiled eggs, crusty bread, dry cake, jam or honey. Once a week you can have yoghurt. Very little choice. That’s yer lot!
The stainless, teapots and milk jugs do not pour cleanly. The thick heavy, shallow pot cups dribbled. Giving yourself a cuppa without a bath becomes an art form in its self. Plenty of serviettes or kitchen roll are required to keep your table reasonably tidy and dry.
Dinner is again totally set. No buffet. One choice whether you like it or not – which in our case was ‘not’. We do not eat red meat and cannot tolerate Paprika or Cayenne plastered bland food. Most nights, after refusing the set meal, we ended up with omelette and a side salad.
The best example which we did agree to - was; Flaky pastry cheese roll, half a minute sausage, flaky pastry olive leaf roll,+ limited side-salad, quarter of a tomato, sample piece of cheese, half a thin slice of processed ham, one piece of cucumber, rice wrapped in a vine leaf and a quarter of a hard-boiled-egg. Some of it was too chewy, other bits were left.
This actually turned out to be the appetizer.
Dinner is supposed to start at 7.30pm each evening, and you don’t get the main course until everyone else has finished the starter. Inevitably there are those ‘very important people’ who choose to dine late. On Wed 12th May, the main meal was still not in sight at 8.15pm. We decided to go off to Afionas to see the spectacle of the sunset from the ‘3 brothers’ restaurant. We returned to Belle Helene by 9.00pm and were given chicken & chips. The spiced peas were left.
The dessert was a mockery. A small fruit dish half filled with tasteless jelly and 4 small pieces of pear about 3mm thick x 6mm sq. on top.
Over several nights, we noticed that the many of the guests left a lot of their meals on the plate.
Dimitris, the waiter, did his level political best to appease the problems.
This hotel requires a good dose of enthusiasm and organisation. Unfortunately, the laid-back Greek approach to life and work, prevents this hotel from becoming 3 or 4 star.
I would recommend this hotel to a friend IF they sort the problems out.