Hotel was excellent, clean, amazing facilities. However the entertainment programme was quite boring,and some of the food wasn't inkeeping with the standard of the rest of the hotel

Returned from a 5-night stay at the Mitsis Summer Palace, Kardamena 01/09/26 – 06/09/26 and here is my review: Staff – wonderful, couldn’t fault them. Very friendly, communicative, helpful, absolutely no complaints. Food/Drink – Good. We ate a la carte 3 nights as follows Dusk Japanese restaurant very nice small portions but could order as much as we wanted from menu. The Med a la carte ok, but nothing special. Pasta not very warm, and too little sauce but starters & desserts were good. Med Bar Brunch was exceptional, recommend this. Den BBQ, loads of steak, plus one each of chicken & pork skewer between 2 of us. Obviously must cook your own which ends up being extremely warm in peak summer, therefore not as chilled out as waiter service. Not enough accompaniments to balance ot the meat for our liking. Buffet, breakfast very nice, plenty of choice and lovely latte coffees. We only ate at the evening buffet twice, but the food was really good. Lots of options, hot and replenished quickly, lovely desserts. Zia snack bar at the beach - gyros were one of our favourite foods of the holiday. The house wine and local beer were good, the cocktails a bit limited, not a lot of choice compared to other 5*hotels. Room fridge replenished everyday with beer, wine, tonic, soft drinks, water. Although ours did have a partial bottle of wine on arrival which I threw away as I didn’t know how long it had been open. Room, double superior with sea view. Amazing views, balcony with table and chairs. Bed and pillows comfortable. Room spacious and gorgeous modern bathroom. Daily cleaning and towels replaced. Pool/beach towels also provided. Pools. This was my biggest disappointment of the holiday and something to consider before you book. There are 5 pools but the sunbeds around them are extremely limited. The 2 infinity pools are exceptionally beautiful with amazing views but sadly we were never able to get beds. The other 3 pools are tucked away in between a quadrangle of rooms, and whilst they are communal, it seems there is an assumption that they belong the rooms immediately surrounding them, who can simply just step out and place towels on. It felt like an intrusion to use them. The indoor pool was stunning but no chairs or loungers nearby where you could place your belongings. We never ended up in a pool the entire stay. Maybe consider a swim-up room if the pool is your thing, as it’s something I really missed. Beach. The beach is really nice. I enjoyed it there. There is a lift most of the way down, but you will need to use quite a number of stairs. The sand is shingle, would recommend sea shoes, there is a slight slope into the water, and it gets deep very quickly, something to bear in mind with children or short adults, like me. The water is crystal clear, and you can clearly see the fish. There were plenty of sunbeds, but they were filthy. In contrast to the hotel which was spotless every were, the cushions on the sun loungers really let the side down. They are very comfortable, being nearly a foot thick of cushioning but sadly the stains are very off putting, even with a couple of towels on. There are toilets which are cleaned regularly and showers too. Location. The hotel is on the outskirts of Kardamena so a taxi is required into town (10 mins). I would definitely recommend a private transfer as you are always last drop off and first pick up, adding up to 40 minutes to any journey. This was the same for the TUI excursions, which was very annoying as we ended up driving through Kardamena town 4 times on every outing. It would’ve been much fairer if you could get picked up first and dropped of first. There is a bus transfer to Kos from the hotel 4.20euro per person each way. Leaves the hotel at 09.30 Monday – Saturday and leaves Kos town to return at 14.30. This takes approx. one hour. The trip was available from our tour operator (TUI) but again we would have had to endure all of the pickups and drops off there and back. Also, for 2 of the excursions, we had to make out way to the Mitsis Norida for pickup, although the Summer Palace were happy to provide a golf buggy transfer. Excursions. In addition to the Kos hotel transfer we also joined the TUI islands and blue lagoon excursion. This was approximately 10 hours and for me the boat was overcrowded. We were crammed on with very little room to relax, but the islands were beautiful to see and the staff on board were excellent, it was just oversold. Zia by night, was stunning. Plenty of restaurants in the village to choose from. We didn’t have reservations but didn’t struggle for a table. Overall, for me the pool situation was too disappointing for me to consider booking again. I prefer a big open plan style swimming pool that is more spacious like the one we saw when we went to Hotel Mitsis Norida to join our excursion but it is a very beautiful hotel nonetheless.

Amazing stay

A fantastic relatively quiet hotel, very clean and the friendliest staff you could ever wish to meet. Food was fantastic with plenty of variety

We had two rooms and both of a very high quality