Santa Marina Hotel

“Santa Marina Hotel Lefkada”

A really lovely hotel with good facilities in an amazing location, overlooking the village and sea. Kind, friendly and helpful staff Comfortable beds, spotlessly clean rooms and bathroom Towels changed and room cleaned daily Special Toiletries, shampoo and shower gel provided. Locally produced ... more

A really lovely hotel with good facilities in an amazing location, overlooking the village and sea. Kind, friendly and helpful staff Comfortable beds, spotlessly clean rooms and bathroom Towels changed and room cleaned daily Special Toiletries, shampoo and shower gel provided. Locally produced with olive oil. Beautiful pool area and good pool bar Excellent food - we took half board. A lovely buffet every evening. Stacks of fresh produce and a good variety. I am gluten intolerant and had plenty I could eat. Access is uphill on quite a steep road. It’s fine if you are reasonably fit but would be difficult or impossible if you had mobility problems. You could get a taxi from the hotel. The weather was tremendous. We took the seven islands boat trip from Nidri It cost €35 for the whole day. The trip was booked for us by the Jet2 representative who visited when we phoned. She supplied the tickets and organised a taxi from the hotel. It all worked perfectly. This was such a lovely day - swimming at two different stunning beaches, inaccessible except by sea, visiting Fiskardo in Kefalonia which is incredibly pretty and going around the islands of Scorpio to see where Onassis lived. The lady from Jet 2 also gave us advice about local buses and beaches We went to Lefkada town twice We saw the churches, the archeological museum, the market square and war memorial. We walked along the beautiful sea front marina which is being extensively renovated and lovely new paving laid and visited cafes and shops. All in all a lovely relaxing holiday Would throughly recommend.

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“DON'T TAKE CASH, THERE'S NO FOREIGN EXCHANGE IN AGIOS NIKITAS.”

DON'T BOOK THIS HOTEL IF YOU STRUGGLE WITH MOBILITY, THE DRIVE HAS A 25% GRADIENT. As the title says, don't bring currency here and expect to change it in the resort, THERE'S NOWHERE TO EXCHANGE YOUR CASH in the resort and you will have to make a bus trip to Lefkada town to one of the banks. Th... more

DON'T BOOK THIS HOTEL IF YOU STRUGGLE WITH MOBILITY, THE DRIVE HAS A 25% GRADIENT. As the title says, don't bring currency here and expect to change it in the resort, THERE'S NOWHERE TO EXCHANGE YOUR CASH in the resort and you will have to make a bus trip to Lefkada town to one of the banks. The hotel does not exchange cash so you will need Euro's to pay for meals and drinks that are not included during your stay. Good points: Like others, we can't fault the maid service room cleaned daily and clean towels provided, sheets replaced weekly. Air conditioning was unrestricted and there was nothing extra to pay for it. The mattress was supportive and comfortable, the room was adequate, there was a fridge and a room safe that was free to use. The staff were friendly and the service was very good. Not so good points: We booked with Jet2 Holidays and their website said that there was a kettle in the room.... there wasn't, luckily we'd bought our own. Although the hotel take luggage and guests up the hill from the drop off point, to the hotel, this transport otherwise sits idle when it could be used to transport guests down the steep drive and hill to the road, from where it is a short walk down to the shops and restaurants in Agios Nikitas. Even if there was a charge and a schedule for this, guests would happily pay. On the subject of transport, there are no taxis based in Agios Nikitas. To get a taxi, you have to phone for one to come from Lefkada with a €40 surcharge. Breakfast, a buffet breakfast with lots of choice, for the Brits, there was no bacon and the sausage was cut into small pieces. The views from our room (228) were fantastic, the cobbled (mostly) pavement down the main shopping/restaurant area that lead to the beach was on a reasonably gentle hill and there were old buildings with faded wooden shutters and small side alleys, there are car, bike, scooter and quad bikes for hire and some very good restaurants.... just nowhere to change currency. Meals out cost us on average €35 for 2 starters, 2 mains water Fanta and a glass of wine. In the hotel, a metaxa and coke will cost an eye watering €9 a time (£7.76 at the current exchange rate) the house wine costs €5.50 for a half litre carafe and a draft beer litre will cost around €3.50 Overall we had a great time at the Santa Marina and would recommend it to anyone who can walk steep hills in the heat and would recommend either bringing Euros with you or a card that gives you access to cash from one of the three ATM machines in the resort.

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“Better than expected...”

First things first, the Santa Marina is at the top of a very steep hill and the hotel’s drive is even steeper! We knew this before we booked but we didn’t anticipate just how tough the walk up from the village of Agios Nikitas would be in July in the middle of a heatwave! But the hotel is worth t... more

First things first, the Santa Marina is at the top of a very steep hill and the hotel’s drive is even steeper! We knew this before we booked but we didn’t anticipate just how tough the walk up from the village of Agios Nikitas would be in July in the middle of a heatwave! But the hotel is worth the walk. Set in lovely surroundings the hotel is peaceful and quiet. There’s a lovely large pool with plenty of sunbeds and umbrellas. That being said the sunbeds have seen better days and need updating and the area round the pool needs some tlc – a little weed wouldn’t go amiss! The pool was also very warm and wasn’t too refreshing when taking a dip but the 2 showers were lovely and cool. There’s a pool bar which opened around 10:30 after breakfast finished and didn’t close until late. The prices were ok, €4.70 for a large draught Mythos, around €4 for a freddo cappuccino. The bar snacks were quite reasonably priced we thought - €6 for a chicken club which comes with chips and is enough for 2. There was also a large pizza for about €4 which would feed an army. Small bottles of water were €0.60. There’s also a lifeguard on duty – Yannis who was very nice and Antonios was the barman who loved making cocktails. The hotel has an international clientele with hardly any Brits which wasn’t a bad thing! There are no sunbed wars and most guests tended to only stay at the pool for a while and then they were off in their cars exploring the rest of Lefkada. Our bedroom was perfectly adequate with a lovely little balcony that overlooked the village and the sea below. The aircon was included and looked brand new and the bathroom was very modern with a corner shower cubicle with sliding doors and a proper shower that you didn’t have to hold in one hand! There was also complimentary shampoo and shower gel. There was a wardrobe and safe and a dressing table with mirror. The French doors to the balcony seemed very new and also had shutters so everything felt very safe. The beds were also really comfy. The balcony however didn’t have any washing lines which I think would be a useful addition. The rooms were cleaned every day and the towels and I think the bedding were changed on a daily basis. I cannot fault the cleanliness of this hotel and the cleaners worked tirelessly. Mina looked after our room and she was amazing. Breakfast was good. There was something for everyone. This ranged from fruit (mostly tinned peaches, prunes and dried apricots) to pastries, to fried eggs, omelettes, sausage, beans, fresh tomatoes and feta, cereals, homemade cake and the obligatory toast machine! The juice was from a machine which obviously wasn’t fresh and another machine for hot water and coffee. Now for the negative. The dining room had a lovely large terrace with amazing views but you couldn’t sit outside as it was infested with wasps. I don’t know if this is normal for July (we normally holiday in September) or if the heatwave had exacerbated things but they were everywhere. In the end they had to close the doors that led out onto the terrace and everyone was eating inside however the dining room just wasn’t big enough to accommodate everyone at certain times and this resulted in people waiting for tables. There was another outdoor eating area but unfortunately this was also ruined by the wasps. The dining room I felt is what really let this hotel down. It’s tired and very old fashioned and could be so much better if a) they changed the table cloths when dirty and b) updated the whole décor including the tables and chairs. I know its not the fault of the hotel that there were wasps everywhere but I couldn’t see any measures in place to try and keep the dining area free of them and people were being stung. It was the same in the evening for dinner. We ate dinner once at the hotel €20 each and €5 for 500ml of wine. Again, it was buffet service but we weren’t impressed. The thing is they have a captive audience here at this hotel and if they upped their game with regards to the whole dining experience, I’m sure more people who were there on a B&B basis would eat there more often instead of trooping down into the village every night. Would we stay at this hotel again – yes we would but not in July!

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“Nice hotel, well run and clean, but....”

Spent 2 weeks at the Santa Marina. There were ups and downs to our stay. First the negatives: When first entering our room we were shocked how small it was for a family of three. It really was small! Further to this there were two paltry drawers at the bottom of an empty wardrobe [see photos].... more

Spent 2 weeks at the Santa Marina. There were ups and downs to our stay. First the negatives: When first entering our room we were shocked how small it was for a family of three. It really was small! Further to this there were two paltry drawers at the bottom of an empty wardrobe [see photos]. In these wardrobes there were an empty rail in one and 4 hangers in the other… pathetic. We spent the entire holiday living out of our suitcases because there was nowhere to store things. There were two small bedside cabinets with tiny drawers. The smoke alarm had been removed leaving the empty bracket on the ceiling. (not that we smoke but others may well do). The balcony is tiny with only 2 chairs for 3 guests. The Santa Marina sits quarter way up a mountain and serviced by a VERY steep lane and an even steeper driveway up to the hotel. Ive never seen a smaller fridge. It could hold about 4 bottles. The door compartments were missing and it was noisy. The positives:- Very clean. Daily bedding and towel replacement. Friendly and helpful staff. Decent sized clean pool with attentive service. Free air-con in the room. The food is good and plentiful although the breakfasts became somewhat tedious; same vey day. Huge club-sandwiches and lots to choose from at the dinner table. Overall, this hotel wasn’t too bad but we probably would not return. By far the biggest disappointment was not the hotel but the island of Lefkada itself.. Because it’s connected to the mainland via a causeway, it isn’t a true island. As a result there was an overwhelming number of tourist cars; they were everywhere clogging up every available parking place. The village of Agios Nikitas is lovely but the beach was unbelievably crowded. So much so people’s parasols were actually touch each other; I kid you no! We used the bus to nearby Kathisma Beach and that too was jam-packed with cars from all over Europe. Also bad was the fact that Jet2 did NOT have a rep available at any time. We wanted to book some excursions but were told via phone we would have to shell out 100 Euros for a retun taxi to Nydri town on the other side of Lefkas. This is inspie of the bochure clearly stating transfers were included... disgraceful being left high-and-dry. Never again. Very poor service from Jet2.

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