Archive for the ‘Accommodation’ Category

Villa review: Villa Piedra – Corfu, Greece

It’s not very often you’re invited to live in someone’s pride and joy, but with the Villa Piedra Corfu that is exactly what you experience. A family spent four years building their dream house not only for themselves, but also for us to enjoy if we want. You can tell it’s their dream come true and, knowing that, you can appreciate every small detail of this villa even more. It’s built with love, there is no other way of explaining it. The owners are also amazing, friendly people – once you meet them, you will never forget them. And very likely you will come back one day.

Villa Piedra

Piedra is located close to Corfu Town, on the top of a hill with a stunning view over the sea. It’s a very private location and you’re surrounded by nature, not disturbing neighbors. A walk down the hill and you will find some excellent tavernas and supermarkets, and it’s a less than 10 minute drive to the airport and Corfu Town.

On the front you will find parking lots for the cars. The villa has a backyard with pool, jacuzzi, barbeque and a lot of space to hang out. There’s also a separate garden area located in the slope behind the pool.

The villa is a 2 floor house with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and also a balcony on the second floor. The first floor is an open area with kitchen, dining space and living room with a fireplace. There’s also a bathroom with shower and toilet, and one bedroom. The second floor has two bedrooms, both with their own bathrooms. In the master bedroom there’s a shower and a bathtub, as well as a dressing room. You will also find a small housekeeping room with washing machine, vacuum cleaner and iron.

The kitchen is equipped with everything you might need during your stay in the villa, so you’ll be very pleased with that part. All bedrooms have their own LCD TVs, and you will also find a good home cinema system in the living room. On top of that you can enjoy Playstation with Need for Speed: Shift – that’s a must do while you’re there – and Nintendo Wii. Fun for the children, but fun for the adults as well!

I’m convinced that you will be pleased with the bedrooms. The double bed in the master bedroom gave me my best sleep ever. If you have ever imagined what it would feel like to sleep on a white fluffy cloud then look no further: here you’ll find those clouds. The villa is built to comfortably accommodate up to 6 persons, but I have personally now tested the downstairs sofas as well and yes, almost as good as the beds.

Villa Piedra

It’s hard to find anything negative to say about this villa. On a few occasions you noticed that sometimes pretty isn’t always very practical, but not even those small things can bother you when you look at the big picture. There is no such thing as perfect, but this is at least damn close to it! Personally the only negative thing I can think of is perhaps that dogs are not allowed, as I do have a small dog that I often travel with. But it’s only a small minus.

Villa Piedra is in my eyes the perfect getaway for adults, but it is also suitable for well-mannered children. It’s obviously not a place where children can jump on the furniture or throw their coke bottles on the glass surfaces, but then again which villa is? You always have to treat someone else’s home with respect.

Is it worth the price? 100% yes. You might think that you would not want to spend this much on accommodation, but this is rare luxury in life and if you every now and then spend a little more to experience something you otherwise wouldn’t, it’s worth it. The feeling when you’re sitting on the terrace in the evening with a turquoise pool next to you is indescribable – and it’s only the icing on the cake.

Interested? You can make a booking through their website.

The images in this post are all taken during our stay from 6th to 10th April 2011.

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Hotel review: King Jason – Athens, Greece

The King Jason Hotel is a decent choice if you only need to stay for a few nights: I don’t see it as a hotel where you live a week and actually enjoy it. Although the location is not the best of what Athens has to provide, if you’re on a tight budget you will see that many of the less expensive hotels are located in this area and with that said, this street is not as bad as some of the others. If possible, go as up as possible, the 6th floor has a nice view and you even see Akropolis, but everything underneath it probably hasn’t.

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Internet: On the top floor (6th) the wireless internet doesn’t work, you can manage to find a very weak signal only on the balcony, but if you can get your computer to connect you’ll realize it’s way too slow to be enjoyable. So if you really need internet during your stay, use the computer in the lobby or perhaps the signal is better on the lower floors.

Bathroom: The toilet in our room was pretty outdated. It was completely the same system as in all other toilets I used in Athens, but the flush is so weak that you’re lucky if you even manage to get one small piece of paper down. And it takes around 10 minutes of constant pressing the flush button to succeed in that: I tried. With that said, if you get one of the retired toilets, use the public toilet on the restaurant floor whenever you need to do something requiring more than one small piece of paper. Otherwise the bathroom was fine, obviously old but at least quite fresh.

Room: In the standard rooms you have a tiny TV (12 inches or so), a minibar / small fridge, a phone and a useful security box. In the bathroom there’s a blowdryer, not the most effective for long hair, but better than nothing. The balconies do not have any chairs, but there are two stools inside (one at the desk, one in the bathroom) that you can loan. From the 6th floor balcony you can see Akropolis and also enjoy the sunshine and sunset over the hills, so the views are nice.

Sleep: The beds are fine, the only thing that first bothered me that the blankets were just a felt and a sheet. Then one morning I got the point: you want to use both during the chilly nights, but in the morning you’re more likely to throw the felt away and just sleep with the sheet. Double function. The felts are a little stuffy, though.

Breakfast: Basic buffet breakfast from 6 am to 10 am. Bread, cereals, fried egg, bacon, sausage, coffee, tea, cookies, juice.. the lack of some fresh fruits was the only negative thing, otherwise it was an OK breakfast for a three star hotel.

Location: When I called to a travel agency to book a hotel, the woman in the phone told me she would not recommend the area near Omonia as it has a really bad reputation. The sad fact is though that this is the area of most budget friendly hotels. The better hotels are closer to Sygmae, Akropolis or Piraeus but the price difference was so big that I didn’t even consider any of them. The good thing is that it’s a short walking distance to the more tourist friendly areas from King Jason, and you have two metro stations nearby. If you avoid the suspicious streets, then it’s not that bad. Sure, there are some stripper clubs on the same street as the hotel. The building on the other side of the street is a popular “ladies house”. You can see drug addicts with their heroin needles, if you walk closer to Omonia you’re likely to see polices arresting people and dealers offering you drugs on the street, you will see prostitutes in the evenings and you must always look after yourself, and your bags. As a woman I would not walk on those streets alone during the nights without male companion (and even with male companion it’s quite intimidating), over 90% of the people you see are guys. Sokratous is one of the worst streets, we actually walked it one day but if it’s that crazy at 17 pm, then I would not want to know what they’re up to at 22 pm.

+ OK basic buffet breakfast
+ Close to metro stations (Omonia and Syntagma)
+ Although old, the rooms are fairly clean
+ Nice view from top balconies (Akropolis, sunset etc)

- No WLAN on the top floors (poor connection)
– Located in a drug / hooker district, not very safe at nights
– Bathroom toilet flush didn’t function very well

We paid: Double – Buffet B’Fast (2x Adults) – €125
3rd April to 6th April, 3 nights
Booked through Area.fi

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Corfu, Greece – Villa Piedra

I’ve been on the run since 3rd April when we arrived to Athens (Athens pics coming later), then yesterday we flew to Corfu. I’ve only been here one night but I can’t even express how much I love the Villa Piedra we’re staying at. It’s a newly built private luxury villa on the top of a hill with view over the sea, airport and you can can even see the Old Fort in Corfu Town from the stunning terrace. The high season hasn’t started here yet but it’s already very green, fresh and warm. The location is simply perfect, it’s a very private location and the only visitors you’re likely to get are from the animal kingdom. It’s very close to the town (5 minute drive) and there are grocery stores and “tavernas” (small restaurants) within a walking distance from the villa. There’s for example a nice taverna near that also deliver to the villa if preferred, their souvlaki pitas are amazing. The average price for a souvlaki pita is around €2,30, a souvlaki plate is €6-7 and you for example get a 500 ml beer for €2. If that’s not cheap, then I don’t know what is. I’ll post some pics, location and the name of the place in another post.

The house is however breathtaking, I just look at it and think that one day I must get something like this. When the owner talks about his villa, you can really tell that this property is his pride and joy. You can find amazing design details both inside and outside: it’s beautiful to look at and at the same time very cosy. Will show you more pictures during the next days, now I just have to share some of the photos from the villa with you. It’s so worth the price for people who want to just simply enjoy life during their stay in Corfu, and this comes from a person who’s very budget-conscious and highly unlikely to ever book anything in this price class myself. But then you get to experience it once, and you see that there actually are some luxurious things in life that are worth paying for (other than shoes and cars..). This is one of those. 100% recommended relaxation.

Villa Piedra - Corfu, Greece

Villa Piedra - Corfu, Greece

Villa Piedra - Corfu, Greece

Villa Piedra - Corfu, Greece

Villa Piedra - Corfu, Greece

Villa Piedra - Corfu, Greece

Villa Piedra - Corfu, Greece

Villa Piedra - Corfu, Greece

Villa Piedra - Corfu, Greece

Villa Piedra - Corfu, Greece

Hotel review: Tallink City Hotel – Tallinn

Last time we went for Sokos Hotel Viru however now we wanted to try something else and the final choice was Tallink City Hotel. With it’s 4 stars, central location and affordable price it’s definitely a good competitor to the “safe choice” Viru. The building is amazing seen from the outside, and the room windows are huge. We were lucky enough to get a room on the 5th floor with a nice view, that I bet is even better the higher you get.

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Perfect location. 1 minute walk over the street and you’re inside Viru Centre with all the shopping you need. Well almost, Bershka is a 3 minute walk from the hotel and if you fancy good food in Old Town, it’s only a 5 minute walk away. There’s a taxi station outside the entrance and I personally recommend to use the Tallink taxis, or if some other, always ask a price estimate to your destination before you step into the car. Then you don’t get overcharged.

Brilliant food. The restaurant had excellent food and very good service. The prices are very fair compared to what you’d pay for a good lamb steak or similar in Finland, so I say go for the best food you can get, because it’s not expensive to eat gourmet in Tallinn (to give you an idea of prices, we paid approx. €165 for this: 3 x lamb steak, 1 x salmon steak and 1 x kid’s meat balls + 2-3 coca-colas + 5 desserts + 3 good wine bottles + 2-3 beers). The breakfast had everything you need, I doubt someone would walk out from the breakfast thinking there was something missing from the tables.

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The rooms are clean, modern and I thought the design was very nice. Simple with clean lines, but with warm colors. Shower worked, TV worked, internet worked (you get the cable from the reception for free if you don’t have one). Free sauna in the morning for those interested, a hotel gym, car rental in the lobby, nightclub in the cellar, and hair dresser + beauty treatments in 1st floor. Everything you need.

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The only disappointment is that they do not allow pets, so if we’re going with the dog we can’t even consider it. Which is a shame, it would be awesome if it was a dog friendly hotel.

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Red spot is Tallink City hotel, to see what the numbers are click here

+ Friendly staff
+ Near to everything – Viru Centre on the other side of the street, 3 minute walk to Rotermanni, 5 minute walk to Old Town
+ Delicious food – both in restaurant and breakfast
+ Free internet in both public areas as well as all rooms
+ Taxi station just outside the entrance

- Pets not allowed, so can’t choose this one if we’re going with the dog

We paid: Standard Double Early Special – Buffet B’Fast (2x Adults) – €52
(Well actually we paid zero because I had a voucher, but €52 would have been the price)
1st January to 2nd January, 1 night, booked through Hotels.com

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