This was our first visit to Kefalonia, having been to Corfu many times in recent years. Fiskado is about as far from the airport as it's possible to get, about an hour by taxi (suggest you instruct the driver that you want a slow steady drive). We were greeted at the hotel and offered jugs of iced water with kiwi, cold towels to freshen up, and Turkish Delight, before being shown to our rooms. I could not fault the hotel, the attentive service, excellent food, intersting ground gotted with secluded seating areas and small pool, with the large infinity pool by the bar/restaurant area. Many guests were on their 5.6 or 7th visit. The beds are comfy and the bathrooms have fabulous large walk in showers and good air conditioning. It was about 32-35 when we were there in early Sept.

The hotel has it's own hire car, just 30 euros a day for a Crossover Polo, never even checked for a licence. It was great being able to drive to Assos, Myrtos beach and Sami, all spectacular views - it is the most scenic island I've visited. There are lovely colonial verandas with views off the main lobby which catch a refreshing breeze - great place for an evening drink. Free wi-fi in reception area and by pool, which has excellent sunbeds with thick mattresses, large parasols and an 'at sunbed service from the bar is you wanted. You can also go down steps to the sea and swim or laze in a large floating hammock .

The hotel is down a long drive and it's a bit of an up and down walk to get to Fiskado - thankfully a shuttle bus runs on the hour from 6pm to 11pm, so you can easily get to the many tavernas lining the harbourside.

I only had two small issues - wasps and children. There is no point Thompsons and Soveriegn advertising it as a child-free venue (no under 16's) if independant travellers can bring them. My children are grown up now but when they were small I took them to appropriate places with entertainment. Very annoying if you've paid quite a bit for a peaceful holiday - you could almost hear the 'tutting around the pool'. There's nothing there for children, no beaches and quite a few safety hazards - stone steps and bowls of lighted ground coffee - the smoke from this helps deter the wasps, but not enough to take breaksfast outside on the verandah without much flapping of arms. Also I saw one toddler stick it's fingers into the burning grounds and then understandably scream the place down.

All in all it was superb. The tavernas for proper Greek food, an island largely unspoilt - no English ghettos like Sidari with giant TVs showing Coronation street. Not a tattoo or football shirt in sight, but Kindle/electronic book ownership ran at 95%.

Recently returned from 4 nights at the Emelisse. From the very start the service was outstanding. Picked up from carpark in club car and taken to reception where checkin was speedy. Given cool towels and chilled water in reception whilst we waited. One of the receptionists walked us to our room and showed us where everything was on site.

The room itself was very clean, a huge four poster bed, rain shower, all very designer.

Breakfast buffet served every morning was excellent, although outdoor seats were sometimes a struggle to get if it was busy. The hotel is in an excellent location with stunning views over the Greek islands and it also offers a complimentary mini-bus service to Fiskardo where there are lots of restaurants to dine in.

The pools are really nice however the sun beds are very close together. At the main pool incessant Greek music played so much that we eventually gave up and moved to the smaller infinity pool up near reception (which we almost had to ourselves every day).

If there was one thing to improve on it would be to space the sunbeds out (there is plenty of room) and turn off that awful music!

I would recommend this hotel. Great service, Great location, Great views, Extremely comfortable. There is also free-WIFI in the main building and a huge selection of books to borrow.

We have just returned from a glorious 11 days at the Emelisse. We booked a sea view room and were not disappointed. The room quality was good, once we had worked out how to work the lights. We faced North and had glorious views across the sea to Lefkado. Our balcony was shared with only a screen division but this did not cause us a problem. Nice size 5' double bed, unusual for Greece.
Similar to other reviews we were met by a friendly Petros who became everyones friend during the holiday, running frequent mini bus trips to Fiskardo and back, well outside of the scheduled departures. Admitedly some of these could be a little 'hairy' especially the 10.10pm return with the bus crammed full and the door open for 'air conditioning' but all in good fun. His colleaue, also did a very good job, but we omitted to get his name.
We found all the staff and management to be friendly and helpful and when we needed a doctor (for a minor problem) one was on site within half an hour with the costs covered by the hotel.
The restaurant by the pool was good but the menu could have been more varied with the number of chefs employed.
The pool area was superb and with very little reserving of loungers there was no need to be up early.
The local town of Fiskardo was delightful with a number of restaurants making one spoilt for choice for dinner in the evening.
A couple of downsides, our tour company advertised the hotel as being child free but this only applied to our tour company and needs to be made clearer as there were several young children there, some being quite loud, although not enough to ruin the holiday. Also the sun loungers round the pool were very close together but this was only a problem on the day everyone seemed to decide to stay in.
Overall we were extremely pleased with our holiday and have already recommended it to most of our friends.

As someone who travels extensively for work & spends half their life in hotels I am very particular when going on holiday. To this end I had emailed the emelisse a few days before arrival to request a quiet room in which we could completely relax for a week. I was therefore incredibly dissapointed on arrival to find that the room we had been given was right opposite the main reception block meaning that we would have been constantly disturbed by arriving & departing guests, deliveries, breakfast being set up early morning & guests playing billiards! Note to hoteliers, if a guest emails a request in advance at least take the time to read it, Said guest will inevitably have certain standards they expect & more than likely be the type to complain if requests are not met!
The room itself in addition to being in quite possibly the worst location was awful. It was dark, cramped & smelled damp. Certainly not worthy of its junior suite title. It also had broken lightbulbs & the notepad next to the bed still had the previous occupants doodling on it. A 5 star establishment should ensure that rooms are checked fastidiously prior to a guests arrival & whilst such items may appear trivial they send out a very sloppy first impression. The final straw was when we found that the air conditioning didn't work, it was 35 degrees! Various staff were sent to investigate but after half an hour of smashing windows & scratching their heads there was still no satisfactory solution & I was at the point of a Mount Olympus style eruption! The manager in charge on the day was ghastly. Apart from her scruffy appearance she was totally unapologetic & distinctly unhelpful, simply telling me that it would take time to fix & she had no idea how long. After an early morning start & a tiring journey via charter airline hell I was in no mood to be fobbed off. I was also aghast that we were not even offered cold water whilst we endured the stiffling dark cave of a room. The manager simply said that the hotel didn't advertise offering complimentary water.....I expect all 5 star leisure hotels to provide a bottle of complimentary water in the room on arrival if not each day. After demanding to speak to the owner (who incidentally wasn't available & never did find us to apologise) we were eventually moved to another room & so our holiday could finally begin as it should have meant to.
Our new room was far better, it was brighter, better laid out & more deserving of being titled a junior suite. Neither did it smell like a rugby changing room! It was kept very clean & the lovely korres toiletries were relaced daily.
The rest of the hotel was lovely, the pool area was very pleasant & there were a few little places where one could go for a relaxing sit & a gorgeous view of the sea. The restaurant by the pool was great for lunches which were very simple but very tasty.
The general serving staff were very good, friendly & helpful especially the guy who seemed to be in charge of the breakfast area. Petros the driver was delightful & fully deserving of his previous trip advisor accolades. It was the owner & management which let the Emelisse down. We had read about how nice the owner, Mr Harris was. Greeting guests on arrival & being generally affable. We encountered no such man. He seemed far more interested in entertaining his own family who, as a large group had taken over a large chunk of the hotel for a few days to host a christening. We also were not impressed by his scraggly haired, large friend George who spent every day sitting barechested in a hideous pair of speedos at the pool bar drinking & smoking cigars. A greek Adonis he most certainly was not! Such behaviour & appearance from the owner & his friend is not fitting of a 5 star property & it would have been nice to see him actually asking guests whether everything was satisfactory.
Despite the initial disappointment though we did actually enjoy our time at the Emelisse. Fiskado was extremely picturesque & we enjoyed some delicious meals by the harbour. We just think that it was below par for a 5 star property if it wishes to be known as such then the management really need to up their game & sort out the little snags that show it up. Would we return? Possibly, if the management went on a Ritz Carlton customer service course!