We've just returned after spending 2 weeks at the Bardis Sun Studios and we were not impressed. The rooms are minute - smaller than any that we've ever seen in Greece - there is literally no room to swing a cat and we were contantly bangning our knees on the furniture - which was sparse and dated back to the 1960s! Be careful not to touch anything because it is likely to fall apart or give you an electric shock. The room was dirty and the curtain smelt of stale urine. So needless to say, we did not spend a great amount of time in our apartment! The balcony looked out onto the pool and although lacked any kind of privacy, it was quite convenient for us. The bar plays loud music until 1.00 pm, which wouldn't be so bad if it were not for the Irish soaks and their kids shouting loudly about what a good 'crack' they were having right outside our balcony until the early hours.
As for Poppy, Spiros and the family; they are lovely, very chatty and pleasant..... but their charm wears thin if you aren't prepared to spend all your euros at their bar.
The pool was lovely and usually quite quiet during the day. We could not fault its cleanliness. We had a lovely time relaxing on the sun beds.
The beach itself was very close, but was again a bit disappointing. Although very long in length, it is only about 3 metres wide. Much of the beach was covered in large pebbles, which although very beautiful, were too uncomfortable to sit on. Most of the spare beach is taken up by sunbeds, so there is little beach left if you just want to lay on your towel. We found the beach to be very dirty, although it had won awards for its cleanliness. There were cigarette butts and rubbish on the sand and in the sea and a disgusting stench of sewerage along much of it. It was not a pleasant place to spend a lot of time. Admittedly, the swimming was good when the sea was calm. The sea is gently shelving, warm and free of jelly fish. We enjoyed snorkelling around some rocks, but found that there seemed to be no restrictions on where the speedboats and other sports were allowed to go making swimming far out very dangerous.
We prefered to hire a scooter out and travel to nicer beaches further along the coast, such as Agios Georgios and Agios Stefanas. There is only one place in Arillas where you can hire scooters, 'Arkokal Travel'. We would not reccommend hiring anything or booking any trips with this company because they are extremely unprofessional and definitely 'on the scam'. It is probaly better to make your way to one of the larger resorts if you want to do this, or book things through your travel company.
We travelled with Thomson, which we thought would be reliable, but were very disappointed with the quality of their accommodation. We payed a lot of money to travel with them but will definitely not be doing so again. We have travelled with companies such as Manos, Kosmar and Unijet in the past and have paid less for much better accommodation.
Don't get me wrong. We still had a wonderful holiday in Corfu. the weather was great, company superb and we made the best of it. Corfu is an amazing island and I would love to return. The restaurants in Arillas are very dependable and we had lovely meals every evening. We found the Chinese restaurant, 'The Wok' to be good value for money and the cuisine as good, if not better, than any Chinese back home. We have travelled to Greece many times and have not got unrealistic expectations of the Greek Islands. We expected things to be basic. It's quaint and part of the charm of the country and one of the reasons that we continue to return each year. What we were unprepared for was the standard of accommodation that we found at the Bardis Sun Studios and the dirtiness of the beach in Arillas.
I find it shocking that a place that depends so much on the money brought in by tourists is doing very little to attract new and returning visitors. The Bardis Sun is in desperate need of renervation. Just some white paint, new bedding and a new cleaner would be a start! Arillas must spend some money cleaning up their beach if they want to continue to attract tourists.
I may sound like a whinging discontent, but I think that it is about time that people actually spoke the truth so that people know what to expect before they go on holiday. It's bad enough the travel companies spouting bull shit in their brochures without people on forums, designed to inform people and give the tourists perspective, not telling the whole truth.
I am sure that many people will disagree with this post, but I am simply giving MY OPINION about MY HOLIDAY which will hopefully inform people better before they book or go away. I would rather someone had told me the truth or a more honest opinion before I booked.