Kairaba Sandy Villas - All Inclusive - Adults Only

Pros - Friendly Restaurant Staff - Decent food at the Kairaba restaurant. Cons - Unclean - Rooms not maintained - location isn’t great if you want to do anything - part of a much larger resort which is child friendly, with most of the facilities advertised actually within the other hotel, which is worse than Kairaba. We arrived to the hotel around 3pm, we had been travelling since 5am and when we arrived, the room wasn’t ready and we were unable to eat as lunch time had finished. We waited around another hour for our room to be ready. When we arrived to the room we found: - Mould in the shower. - Cobwebs full of dead mosquitos. - Damaged furniture. - Areas of the room unfinished, e.g areas where they hadn’t plastered/painted. - They’ve clearly had leak problems, which have been covered in excessive amounts of silicone. We went to speak to reception who were quite hostile, they said we could move rooms tomorrow. When tomorrow came, we went to speak to the again, and they now didn’t have another room for us - my partner and I were confused as we were told one thing yesterday and another today. Eventually we got moved rooms, and they immediately put other guests in our original room, which we did feel guilty about as that room required days, not hours of maintenance. The new room was marginally better but still had its faults (torn bed frame, broken lamp and the exterior door was smaller than the frame so the mosquitos could easily get in). After this incident, staff made us feel guilty for complaining and I felt uncomfortable walking through reception. The pool areas were unclean, there was a layer of grime around the swim up bar and the pool edges were covered with mould (please see images). The biggest issue for us, is we wanted a nice relaxing, adults only holiday, when we arrived, we learnt that Kairaba was effectively part of the Labranda Sandy Beach resort, which is a huge 2* child friendly resort and most of the facilities are shared with this hotel, all of the A La Carte restaurants are at the Labranda, and honestly the buffet food at Kairaba is better than these. It also meant the beach was full of children and the area roped of for Kairaba guests was also full of children, as there is no one monitoring. We did receive a small refund from TUI in the end after sending the images of the hotel. We would not recommend Sandy Villas, and will not be returning.

Super stay at the Kairaba Sandy Villas in May 2023. Staff were excellent, especially around the pool bar. We particularly enjoyed Yoga on the beach each morning. There are plenty of sunbeds, so no need to get up early to reserve one. We shall certainly be returning but not in May, as the weather was rather poor.

We’ve just come back from a lovely relaxing weeks stay. Room and general hotel was spotlessly clean. The grand suite with shared pool was a lovely room with dual AC, one for bedroom and one for main room. The pool was fastidiously cleaned everyday and we were fortunate enough to have lovely neighbours, they spent most of their time at the pool bar at the beach so we essentially had our own pool. The main restaurant was always quiet (bear in mind this is close to end of season). Always spaces to sit in the sun in the morning for breakfast. The food like every all inclusive we’ve been to was not hot but mildly warm due to buffet style. Still no idea why they don’t use steam tables but it was of very good quality and some items like eggs, omelettes are freshly prepared for you. A huge range of fresh fruit, cheeses, hams, breads and cooked breakfast items We did come up with a game for evening meals which was to guess the ‘theme’ night. Each night there would be a board to tell you the theme of the evenings meal. We would try and guess this by the food on offer. There really was very little correlation between the theme and actual food available. Kebabs on Mediterranean night for example. Still, plenty of variety and very enjoyable. The gentleman waiter who served tended to us during breakfast every morning was brilliantly attentive and polite. For me the entertainment was your standard run of the mill all inclusive until you get to the star of the show. The South African tenor was absolutely brilliant, what a talent. Thoroughly enjoyed his shows when he was on. Credit should also be given to the waitress serving drinks at the evening events as she had to manage 20+ tables by herself. You would never see her simply saunter around, she was constantly moving with purpose trying to keep abreast of the orders. She’s getting her steps in everyday! There is definitely a feeling of premium tiered service and Experiance compared with the sister hotel 800 meters away. You had access to a quieter restaurant, pool, pool bar at the beach. One thing that perhaps let the Experiance down was the attitude of some staff at the pool bar that everyone has access to. He would complain that we (black wrist bands) should keep to our own bar as he had 2500 guests and our hotel only had 100. My understanding was that we could use any facility without complaint. Also not appropriate that he openly referred to his staff as his slaves, I’m assuming he was the bar manager. Not appropriate. For people looking for things to do there are water sport activities on the beach and a mini market but I’d recommend hiring a car or at least using the bus stop at the beach to head in to Corfu town about an hour away. Car was £30 ish for the day fully insured, picked up from sister hotel. If there was only one thing that could’ve been better would have been a snack bar at our own hotel but really it’s only a 5-10 walk away. Golf cart style service is available for transfer to and fro

Back at our happy place. Yet again Sandy Villas did not disappoint. From the moment we arrived until our last day, everything was perfect. This was a wee last minute break and when we arrived the surprise and joy from the staff was amazing. It was like being welcomed by family. We were given an unexpected upgrade to a villa with a shared pool, which was a lovely gesture. All the staff are amazing, and it was great to see old friends and make new ones. Everyone from the housekeeping staff, bar staff, reception, waiters, kitchen and management remembered us and we were treated as family and not guests. The food is amazing and we immediately noticed the impact the new chef has made since we were last here in May. Spoiled for choice at each meal and the theme nights were great. At last Moussaka on the Greek night. Entertainment was first class and the singers during the week had the place rocking and dancing, everything from opera to disco, swing, jive and Abba. The selection across the nights was great. Have met some lovely people from across the globe, and even although we did not all speak a common language, that was no barrier to the fun we had. Can't wait to come back, and have already booked for 2024 and 2025.