Achilleas Pension

I stayed at Achilleas for one night on Hydra and am so happy with my stay. A lot of things on Hydra are quite pricey (even though I came at the end of the tourist season), and I was pleasantly surprised with their rates. I arrived early in the morning and was delighted to be able to check in early. The rooms are clean and tidy and have very good air conditioning (which is so nice in the late summer!). There is a rooftop area that you can read or relax on — or hang your swimsuit to dry. If the website shows they do not have availability, try emailing them. I was able to book my accommodation via email, as the website was showing not available. Great for a budget/mid-price stay on Hydra. (I also highly recommend visiting Hydra! So unique and beautiful.)

This is a quiet and small hotel. Demitris was super helpful to us. The room had a very nice view and all the basics. We felt safe and able to rest. He let us use some beach towels and worked with us on our schedule. Would love to return.

I was greeted by the quirky but genuinely caring old man who seems to be the head of the family who runs the place. Like with most Greeks on Hydra he didn’t speak much English but understood it well enough. After a grueling trip I was exhausted and just crashed, noticing that the room was insanely hot. I couldn’t for the life of me understand why the room was so hot in spite of the promised AC. After resting a few hours in the maddening heat I inspected the AC unit more closely, which was not easy since it was situated in the top corner of the room, above a tall closet. Turns out it was turned off. Standing on my toes on a chair and reaching for the on-button I eventuelly got it turned on with the use of a teaspoon for the last centimeters. Then things got much more reasonable with the temperature in the room. After speaking to the manager again he provided me with a remote to set the temp etc with. The AC continued to be something of a nuisance since at siesta time it couldn’t quite handle the hot weather so I had to turn up the temp a degree or so, or it would become unresponsive and I had to remove the keycard to turn off the electricity for it to reboot. The room does have a TV, but the channels are all Greek. Which makes it kind of pointless for most tourists. A couple of English-speaking channels wouldn’t hurt. I could still watch some shows and movies with English audio during the evenings. Interesting that the soap opera genre is still live and well in Greece, it hasn’t been a thing in Sweden since the 90’s. Greek TV is also inequal beyond reason, something for a dissertation. Other than that the room was fine, the fridge is great so you can eat breakfast at the room. It’s very close to the town center so you don’t need to use the foul-smelling mules for your luggage. Cleaning times seemed to vary, sometimes it was before lunch, sometimes afterwards. This stresses me out something fierce but might be fine for others.