The Hotel
Zante Maris Hotel in Tsilivi on the island of Zakynthos (Zante). One week on an all inclusive basis. The room was basic but clean and large enough for 3 girlies sharing, one of us had to have the sofa bed, but the room was arranged well so that everything fit and it wasn't a problem to have the sofa permanently made up as a bed.
The room
The bathroom was pretty standard, greek plumbing means there is an overflow drain in the floor whereby if you have too long a shower, the water comes up out of the floor! We just kept our shower times down and it was fine, also, you're not supposed to flush toilet roll in Greece, but as there were no signs in our bathroom saying this we just used the paper sparingly and didn't have a problem.
The facilities
Everything we needed, a restaurant, plenty of bars, a pool, plenty of sunloungers and a beach (not private). As it was early on in the season, we always found we got a sunlounger without having to get up early, but I can imagine it being a problem later in the season.
The food
The buffet restaurant had a very large selection everyday, everything was very tasty although I would have liked more authentic greek food. You have a choice of a salad bar with different choices and dishes everyday; a hot food buffet, with choices of different meats, fish, chips, potatoes, pasta and veg, lots to choose from and completely different everyday; a small dessert buffet and also an ice cream freezer. There were also often specials either in the main restaurant, or themed nights, with themed buffets served down in the beach bar, these were also great, with some entertainment thrown in. The restaurant and bar staff were all outstanding, very friendly and efficient.
The all inclusive drinks
Drinkswise a lot of the bars were self service (including the spirits!), not sure if there would be more bar staff in the high season or if it's like this all the time, they did have staff serving draft beer, and the bars are fully staffed in the evenings. The only faults we found with the drinks were that the spirits seemed watered down (standard for an all inclusive I think!), also there was no fresh juice, so for your mixers or soft drinks you have a choice of fizzy or some awful concentrated squash. Our rooms were refeshed with bottled water everyday though, with tea facilities too. There are also cold water dispensers and tea/coffee/hot chocolate machines in the bars.
Things to do
We took 2 day trips while we were in Zakynthos, one was a turtle island tour, the other a coach trip around the whole island. The coach trip was great and we did see a lot, the best bits were the views we encountered from high up on the hills, and the boat trip to the blue caves. The turtle island tour with Thomson/First Choice was the best though, as we got to see a loggerhead turtle female heading for the beach to lay her eggs! Trevor, the guide was excellent and very knowledgable about turtle conservation, and we had a very relaxing day lounging on the top deck!
