Life as a SEN mum

We recently visited Portobello Beach Resort in Kos and I have so much to say about it, it needed it’s own post.

Check In

We arrived late at night, so I was a bit unsure on the welcoming we would get. I’ve arrived late in the day on previous holidays, and they have been somewhat mixed experiences.

The receptionist was extremely welcoming, going through any information we needed, and making sure check in went smoothly. Admittedly, with it being late at night I probably wasn’t concentrating properly, but thankfully all information is also provided in writing for you to keep referring to throughout your stay.

As the hotel is a reasonably large complex, they do have a concierge to take you to your room. We were pretty close to reception so we were walked over and our cases carried to our room. I will say, however, the concierge we had was rather abrupt and at that time of night rattled me a little. The good news is the service I saw the rest of the time from the usual concierge was exactly what you would expect from a 4 star hotel.

One thing I loved, and was definitely appreciated was that for late arrivals sandwiches and bottles of water are left in the fridge in your room. We didn’t eat the sandwiches that night, but having bottles of water provided was very nice touch.

The Room

There are several different rooms available, all very much fitted to the size of your family. We were in a twin room which sleep up to 3 people. The room was a perfect size for us, you get all the usual provisions; towels and mini toiletries, a TV and fridge, as well as pool towels; these can be swapped twice weekly at the onsite spa. A word of warning, particularly to anyone travelling with infants, the rooms only have a shower, I hadn’t read this before hand, and it was a shock to Charlotte, who isn’t particularly fond of showers and much prefers a bath.

Dependent on your room, you’ll either have a balcony or terrace. I will say, the balcony has to be the smallest balcony I’ve ever seen, and there wasn’t really any space to hang our towels if we still wanted to sit on the balcony. Although in our instance we made it work and didn’t spend an awful lot of time on the balcony as it was as the room was very much just used as a place to rest our heads.

The layout of the hotel, though, does mean that if you are in a 1st floor room you will have an amazing view. Given how close we were to the reception I almost expected our view to be blocked. We not only had a clear view of the pool, but still a spectacular view out to sea, which is always nice to wake up to.

Facilities and location

The main thing we all look at when booking is what the hotel has to offer and its location. What we look for, particularly with regards to location may vary but it’s usually integral to choosing your hotel.

The location definitely isn’t for everyone, whilst it is only a short transfer (under half an hour, perfect with kids after a 4 hour flight) it is quite a distance from the nearest town of Kardamena. If you do want to go into town there is a bus service running every hour to take you into Kardamena at only 2 Euros a person, each way. Or a taxi will cost 10 Euros each way and is a quick 10 minute journey. It certainly is worth a visit as it is a lovely coastal town. However, there is more than enough on site to mean that you won’t necessarily need to go into town.

There is a small shop on site which, for a reasonably small shop, sells all the usual souvenirs, bottled drinks, personal care etc. Whilst all your food and drink is covered with your all inclusive package, it wouldn’t be a holiday without a bag of Lays crisps.

The hotel offers only all inclusive, so in theory you could easily avoid spending anything on food and drink during your stay. There are 4 restaurants on site, so there is plenty of choice. The main restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, with no need to make a reservation. There are some themed nights and the choice of food is definitely more varied than many buffets I’ve seen. The freshly made pizzas though have to be a highlight. As someone who avoids eating too much bread, when I do it has to really be worth it, and you really can’t beat a good, fresh, stone baked pizza. The choice of desserts was also so good, I do wish some days I’d completely skipped savoury and gone straight for dessert, but I do have a sweet tooth. One thing I will say though is that at certain times the queue for dessert was rather long, so be prepared. There is also a Greek restaurant, Mediterranean restaurant by the beach (both buffet style) and an Italian Al a Carte restaurant (this you can visit once per stay). These 3 all require a reservation 24 hours in advance. I can’t review the food in these as we didn’t try them. We did have a reservation for the Greek restaurant, but as we were a couple of minutes late getting ready they refused to seat us and so we ended up in the main restaurant anyway. Having heard negative reviews regarding staff in the Italian restaurant we decided not to book this. When it comes to snacks there are also plenty of options. The pool bar offers sandwiches and cakes throughout the day, whilst the beach bar offers burgers, hotdogs and ice creams.

I mentioned before that the hotel offers swim up rooms. If you’re not lucky enough to have been able to book one of these there is a small kids pool and a large pool. Warnings for the pools though, the big pool is extremely deep, about 1.3m at its shallowest point, with few depth signs I can’t say for certain, but in the middle of the pool I would guess it would easily be about 1.8m deep. The pools are also salt water, rather than your standard chlorine pools. The high levels of salt in the pool did cause some issues, particularly with Charlotte, so make sure to use the showers by the pool frequently. The hotel also sits on it’s own private stretch of beach, this means that not only are the loungers free to use, but the beach is generally quieter, and you don’t find the usual sellers walking up and down the beach.

If you’re a fan of waterparks, you’ll find Aquatica waterpark directly next to the hotel. This is owned by the same company that owns Portobello Beach, and its sister hotel Portobello Royal. As such you get unlimited free entry. Food and drink onsite is not included as part of your all inclusive package as it is open to the public. Drinks onsite aren’t too badly priced, and whilst it does say on their website not to take in your own food and drinks I did notice lots of people with their own water bottles. Given the proximity to the hotel it’s easy to go back for meal times, or spend a few hours on different days in the waterpark so other than a few drinks you won’t really need to buy food whilst there. There are plenty of loungers available, but I’d recommend getting there early, particularly if you have young children as there did seem to be fewer loungers by the splash pool than in other areas of the park.

There is also a spa onsite (treatments aren’t included in your package) and an arcade (make sure you have plenty of 1 Euro coins). If you like to stay active there is also a number of sports courts that can be booked at an extra charge.

Entertainment

There is all the usual entertainment round the pool during the day, and a kids club running at certain times of the day. Evening entertainment is provided in the lobby bar and at the amphitheater. If you’re visiting as a family, you’ll want to head to the amphitheater, here you’ll find the daily kids disco and a range of other entertainment including light shows, acrobats and even karaoke. We didn’t really make the most of the entertainment on offer as the kids always seemed exhausted by the end of the day. From what we did see, however, the shows after the kids disco were amazing and some of the best entertainment we’ve seen. The kids disco on the other hand was on par with any other kids disco and definitely appeals more to younger kids, even Charlotte didn’t seem too bothered about missing it most nights and she’s always the first to be up dancing.

Staff

I’ll be honest, we had mixed experiences from the staff. I’ve already mentioned a few of the more negative experiences with staff, and there were a few others that did come across as slightly rude, although I feel in some instances it was because they were just completely rushed off their feet. On the whole staff were extremely welcoming and helpful. I do, however, wish I’d caught the name of one particular member of staff who was always present in the main restaurant. Whilst most of the staff were just clearing tables etc he really seemed to make things as enjoyable as possible for diners. Specifically SEN children, those who were clearly a bit overwhelmed by the number of people, the noise, the array of food etc. I’d seen him one evening speaking to a family with a young boy who was clearly struggling with the assault on his senses and asking if there was anything he could to help, he was also the one member of staff James felt comfortable around because he was always there to help when I was also struggling with Charlotte.

Overview

Would I recommend this hotel? Honestly, I’m still unsure. There were a lot of good points about the hotel, but there were a few things that would put me off returning. That being said, it does have a lot going for it, and for a 4star hotel, it really is also value for money. I wouldn’t so much tell anyone to avoid Portobello Beach by any means, but maybe research all hotels in the area before making the decision. I would definitely visit Kos again, and the private beach certainly makes me consider it again. But I would also give another hotel a try first off to fully be able to compare.