Pilarei Vacations from $879

The hotel is beautiful and the facilities are excellent, but the service falls short of what you would expect from a luxury property. The staff were friendly enough, but often appeared disengaged and lacking direction. Around the pool, there were rarely more than 10 guests at any one time, yet staff would frequently stand around rather than proactively offering drinks, checking on guests, or bringing pool towels. Instead, guests were expected to go and ask for these things themselves. All rooms come with private pools, which sounds fantastic in theory. However, most are overlooked by neighbouring rooms and balconies, meaning they offer very little actual privacy. The pools are also too cold to comfortably enjoy in the evenings, limiting their usefulness outside the hottest part of the day. From what we could see, only the top-floor rooms provide the secluded, private-pool experience that many guests would reasonably expect. The included breakfast was also disappointing. While there was a reasonable selection, the overall quality was below what we expected from a hotel of this standard. In fact, it left us with little confidence in the food offering and was one of the main reasons we chose not to dine in the hotel during the evenings. Overall, it's a lovely hotel with great facilities, but the service lacks the attentiveness and polish expected of a luxury property, and the food offering did not live up to the quality of the surroundings.

No lunch or dinner onsite only found out when I checked in so did not eat anything for a whole 24 hours. The rooms had nothing in the fridge. No tea or milk so was disappointed

A crown jewel in the small island of Kefalonia – need I say more?!

This hotel has 5 star staff in in a 3/4 star setting. The room was spacious and very clean with a comfortable bed but the sea view room should have been described as a side sea view. The breakfast was typical of a package hotel with hard working but disorganised staff. The main swimming pool was excellent and easily the highlight of our stay. We felt secure with the lifeguard Niki who was friendly and very welcoming. The hotel gardens are extensive and well kept. The greeting from Christina on Reception was warm and informative but the departure with another reception college was remarkable in its efficiency with zero interest in our weeks stay. One aspect of the 5 star hotel we found disappointing was that not all guests received drinking water without extra payment!