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Reviewed 29 September 2011

I have just returned from a week at Planos Bay with my partner and our 6 year old daughter. The hotel was clean and tidy, and the staff were pleasant and helpful - expecially Superman Sam who won the heart of our daughter. He went out of his way to remember people's names and things about them, which made our holiday even better.

The facilities at the hotel were good, with a nice size kids pool together with a larger main pool. Also, the kids club and nearby water park were great fun especially as they were included in the price.

The resort itself was lovely, with very friendly locals and excellent food at reasonable prices. We also went on a number of trips with Nefis Travel (The shipwreck and turtles spotting were our favourite). The commentaries provided by our guide were very informative - thanks Wendy!

Overall, a great family holiday and would definitely return if First Choice hadn't decided to make it All Inclusive next year.

Date of stay: September 2011
  • Trip type: Travelled with family
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Thank Neil S
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed 27 September 2011

Have just returned from 10 days at Planos Bay Apartments for what we hoped would be a quiet and restful family holiday, as it was described as ‘family friendly’ by First Choice. How mis-sold we were…

Apartments were small and poky with everything just superficially clean. Plenty room for the kids in the double room but we (the parents) were left to sleep in dark and airless kitchen type room accompanied by a humming fridge and dribbling toilet. No chill out space other than the balcony.

Apartment complex had an expensive and uninspiring snack bar, ample sun beds and a good size pool. Didn’t notice much cleaning of the pool (apart from a hose getting stuck in it each morning for a few minutes) so there was persistent worrying murk in the water. A large pile of cats also hung around the pool side that were prone to squirting diarrhoea around and about, which was a nice.

Despite First Choices’ persistence in trying to throw our kids in a ‘kids club’ we actually wanted to spent our holiday with our kids so can’t comment on the standard of the Reps. However the kids entertainment endured from our balcony each evening was a painful and talentless mix of Steps vs CBeebies. The ‘talentless’ theme continued into the night, every night, with an excruciating programme of tacky entertainment blasted through a PA system which rendered the putting of kids to bed any time before 11pm utterly pointless.

Following that, the noise of the complex persisted through the night, all night, be it music from the pool bar, drunken guests piling home with forgotten keys or beer kegs getting changed at 1am! Not one of our 10 nights of sleep was unbroken and the photocopied sheets of paper urging ‘partying guests’ to respect ‘non-partying guests’ offered little in the way of policing.

Didn’t dare eat in the complex and turned down multiple offers to part with an extortionate amount of Euro’s for an ‘all-you-can-eat buffet’ hosted most nights. Amused that the ‘Mexican Night’ was sold to us by the Rep on the basis that you can “really pig-out on chips and pizza”???

Water Park was a godsend as the kids loved it. It offered welcome relief from the apartments with cleaner pools and surroundings. All very well kept with friendly staff and some great facilities. Was really quiet too offering a nice place to relax during the day and it was fantastic that we could dip in and out at any point during our stay with the arm bands offering free entry.

Planos / Tisilivi is a tacky resort with not much going for it (unless you want to watch football, eat chips and drink beer) with the exception of some fantastic little beaches with superb (and safe) snorkelling and some outstanding (and affordable) little restaurants… if you are amongst the few people who actually want to eat Greek! Supermarkets are really expensive so we ventured into the main town by bus to buy on bulk at the big ‘Spar’ it offered. Zante beyond the resort is a beautiful island though and the boat trip to the Smugglers Cove and the Blue Caves is a must! I must add that the weather was outstanding too.

So, if you want the full tacky and noisy ‘Agadoo Doo Doo’ package holiday experience (and that very track was played during our stay) forced on you 24/7 then the Palnos Bay Hotel is for you. If you want a peaceful and relaxing family holiday (actually with your kids) you would do well to look elsewhere.

Shudder to think about it all going fully inclusive through First Choice next year! They seem very concerned about their impact in the local community they operate in but in one swoop will take tons of business away from local eateries. But sadly it seems a worryingly large proportion of us ‘Brits’ still need to be spoon-fed our holiday while we brown our tattooed beer guts. Thanks First Choice and Palnos Bay Hotel for educating our family in all that’s bad about the 'package holiday'. Next year we will invest locally, put some adventure back in our lives and go it alone!

Date of stay: September 2011
  • Trip type: Travelled with family
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11  Thank CJB71
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed 26 September 2011

We had a excellent stay here,hotel was clean and staff were friendly and helpful with the beach and numerous restaurants a short walk away.What we found superb was the water park(free if you stay at planos bay)with loads to do all day and a large pool that was mostly empty of anyone else for most of the day.
There are so many places to eat out at,giorgios,il gusto to name a couple that had excellent food,now for a moan! beware of the island cruise boat trip(the one with slides on the back)we paid for a round the island cruise seeing all the sights,ship wreck etc...but only saw part of the island,no ship wreck and were told when asked we had seen it which we hadn't!! Numerous people complained and when i asked for a refund they said if we were unhappy we could go again but as we were staying 1 wk i didn't want to waste anymore time.
This aside we had a lovely time and thoroughly recommend planos bay.

Date of stay: June 2011
  • Trip type: Travelled with family
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2  Thank Kawaii watermel... K
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed 6 September 2011

I have just returned from the Planos Bay after 10 lovely days in the sun with my partner and sons aged 8 and 6. The hotel was nice enough, although I have to say its not up to my usual standard and certainly doesnt deserve a First choice Splash hotel status. We went to Aqua Fantasy in Turkey last year and the two are uncomparable. They will have to do a lot of work to it to get it up to scratch and I dread to think how much it will cost to go All inclusive as we paid £2600 self catering !! The entertainment staff were really nice and worked very hard but didnt harrass you into taking part. My kids went to a couple of the evening kids club parties and seemed to enjoy it. The water park was great for all of us although there are height restrictions on some of the slides. We went on 3 trips all organised by FC reps, the Shipwreck, Turtle Island and Trainaki..thoroughly recommeend all of them although dont expect to see a rep on any of them !! We did have two really knowledable old blokes that gave us the life story of Zante on the trips and they were very considerate, offering to stop the coach if anyone felt ill etc.. The only downside was the class of clientelle the hotel attracted. There was a delighful bunch of northern women, one of whom had an equally delighful partner. They rowed constantly day and night, kicking off round the pool during the day, in the restaurant nearby and aound the hotel in the middle of the night...one lady asked him to be quiet as her kids were asleep and he tried to kick her door in..CHARMING !! I was also witness to the poo in the pool incidents..aparantly down to the same child ( who was too young to know better) but obviously had parents that couldnt be bothered to put on a swiming nappy even after the 1st 2nd and 3rd occasions !! All in all I had a lovely holiday but I wouldnt say it was down to the hotel !!

Date of stay: August 2011
  • Trip type: Travelled with family
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2  Thank Midge1967
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed 3 September 2011

I feel I must write a review,if not just to let First Choice know I'm getting my own back! Totally let down by this company who didn't help us resolve our complaints. So you only have yourselves to blame..

Arrived at the hotel,and to our room which was right above the snack bar/entertainment area and speakers,very noisy and the smell of chip fat wafting up from below,not a brill start.

Then within half an hour of arriving,'someone' had gone to the toilet in the pool. It was fished out with a net,and 5 mins later everyone jumped back in,no filtering,no chemicals just a rod... That was it for me,how disgusting and unhygienic,I really didn't want to get in the pool after that. We later found out it had happened 4 times that week.

They had also had problems with some guests staying,where a guy had knocked on apartment doors in the very early hours of the morning,drunk,shouting and swearing at a poor lady and being aggressive.

I witnessed,along with other guests a couple arguing around the pool,the guy was drunk also,not great for a 'family' hotel. All credit to the management who handled it really well,I can't fault the staff on reception and were very apologetic about the whole incident.

After a couple of days I'd started to feel really down about the hotel,we had spent £2325 and I've been to much better,cleaner and generally nicer hotels for less,so I decided to have a word.

Complete waste of time,we could be moved opposite our room,but not hotels,which I'd said I would pay for! The rep guy said the pool was cleaned every morning and night and treated,rubbish! It was murky and dirt floating on the bottom,I watched the cleaning lady's put a hose pipe in once,was that what he meant?! And that the guests causing problems had been dealt with,end of really.

I'm so disappointed we spent our hard earned cash to stay here,you look forward to your holiday and its luxury to go away. First Choice didn't help us when they could of.

You'll love this hotel if you like lively,noisy entertainment that goes on till 2-3 in the morning,it's just not what I want.

Waterpark the best thing about the whole hotel,it was bright,modern and clean and was an escape from the pool at the hotel.

Tsillivi was fab,loads of restaurants and bars,great location.

First Choice,thumbs down :(

Date of stay: August 2011
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2  Thank wheninromeMidlands
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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