Ξενοδοχεία με Playground, Zacharo

This is a little jewel box of a country hotel. Laid out in a Hacienda style, the setting immediately puts you at ease and in a relaxed frame of mind. Add to it the tranquil bucolic surroundings and you’ll begin to slip into the proper attitude to take in an enjoy this deeply historic town. Olympia really cannot be understood, let alone enjoyed without some acclimation…primarily letting go of the urgency to do something or be somewhere. Checking in at the Hotel Olympion Asty is an excellent first step. Sitting by the pool at sunset, or just enjoying the view from the balcony in the room will do wonders for your psyche and your mental state. The Hotel Olympion Asty is also located on the top of small hill and overlooks the town of Olympia, suffice it to say that the location automatically makes wandering around town or shopping “not an option.” This enforced detox is exactly what your soul needs to begin to truly enjoy Olympia, to fall into that frame of mind, that pace that allows you to truly understand it and why this place was so special to the ancient Greeks. Ok, let’s talk nuts and bolts. The rooms are new and well-equipped. The air conditioning leaves much to be desired, but that’s just continental. The bathrooms are all steel and glass and the toilets are new, sturdy, and clean! There is plenty of space and I appreciate hotels setting out sufficient counter space next to the sink. The rooms are spotless and give you the feeling of being luxuriously clean and neat, tastefully appointed and thoughtfully functional. The room we had had a split level with a separate sitting area with a sofa bed, and a balcony overlooking the city and the plains….just gorgeous. The kitchen out a very solid buffet dinner on the day we arrived and the breakfast was just as good the next day. While you may not get a buffet, it is clear what the kitchen CAN do and you are in good hands at the Olympia Asty. The pool is great. It was clean, spacious enough to do laps comfortably and deep enough to be thoroughly enjoyable…likely deeper than most hotel pools at 2.9m at the deep end. There is a small pool bar as well.

This is a reasonable 4 star hotel. Our room was an OK size with a couple of stairs going down to a small sitting area and the balcony. Unfortunately once we put a suitcase on the luggage rack at the bottom of the bed it made it a bit tight walking around the bed. The room had a view overlooking the swimming pool. There was a small pull-out clothes line on the balcony which we really appreciated. The bathroom was a reasonable size although there was a bath with a shower over it rather than a walk in shower. The hotel is up a hill and the distance to the town is not very far. However, it is a very steep hill. We walked down very carefully and caught a taxi back which only costs us 5€. There is free parking at the hotel. There was quite a range of food available for breakfast. On the second morning of our stay there was someone cooking omelettes to order which was great. On check-out the receptionist told us there was a charge for mini-bar items we had consumed. We told her that we had not consumed anything. She quickly said “sorry, my mistake”. She did not check anything and we were left with the feeling that this had been a “try on”. Regardless, it would seem that this is something that the receptionist should check before advising customers of an additional charge because last impressions count. Without this incident I would have rated the hotel as very good rather than average.

Stay for one night after visiting the archaeological site of Olimpia, very vintage hotel, family-run, the owner, who also spoke well the Italian, is a very kind and available person, who loves his work and his house! The room was at the first floor, there was no lift but it was so kind to bring my baggage up and down! A comfortable room, quite spacious as the bathroom, without window but with a functioning windscreen. A beautiful balcony with tables and chairs. The only new thing was that he looked very noisy on the road, so at any time. The hotel has a comfortable parking front of the hotel. Super breakfast with soda eggs, bread, marmalades, honey, bricks and cake, Greek yoghurt and a very good orange swallow prepared at the moment. Excellent quality price ratio. The hotel is 30 km from the port of Killini, where we took the ferry the morning afterwards.