Anemona Studios

My wife & I have just returned from Paleo, Where we spent 1 week in Room 210 @ the Anemona Studios.

Hi Karen, the Anemona is nowhere near as bad as you would imagine from reading some of the comments on here. There are a couple of things to bear in mind about Greek accommodation in general, which if you have been to Greece before, you will understand. Firstly, Greek accommodation is basic, but the Anemona has everything you need. There are no double beds, shower curtains or air conditioning. The lower floor rooms can be subject to some damp, especially after a heavy downpour and this is because there is no through-ventilation, there are only windows and doors at the front of the studios, and also beacuse the lower rooms are built 'into the ground'. Secondly, Paleokastritsa is a village, and the mentality and the attitude of the locals reflects this. They are hospitable, laid back and take a relaxed approach to most things, which can be equally terrible and wonderful! The owner, Costas is one of the friendliest and loveliest people you could hope to meet, and he is eager for people to feel comfortable at his apartments, although from reading some of these comments you may not think this to be the case, and he is certainly not greedy! I hope you enjoy your stay in Paleokastritsa, and something also tells me you will be allocated a nice room, upstairs at the Anemona...

For Jo Stallard - I can't comment about the Anemona Studios, but just to let you know, in most self catering apartments / studios it is common practice for guests to buy their own toilet rolls.  Normally the first is complimentary, but after that you are expected to purchase your own.

We recently stayed at the Anemona Studios and we had one of the upstairs apartments It was clean and there were barely any insects inside the apartment. "Basic" covers them as what you will find is they have 2 single beds inside, a bathroom, a dressing table and a kitchenette. The downside is that there were no fans and its too hot to sleep at night. We were in 208 which is the middle one out of the 5 upstairs apartments. The downstairs ones looked not as nice as the upstairs as they had 1 small window and a door they had a boring and dirty view out of the tiny wasp infested patios. If you want to rent one i suggest you ask for upstairs. The maid, Maria is a gem, she was absolutly lovely and cleaned the apartments really well. I would reccommed the upstairs apartments. Thumbs up from me!

Well what can I say !!!!!!!!!!

I read all the comments about these studio apartments and still decided to give the owner a chance. I mean surely it could'nt be as bad as it was a year ago !!!!! Well was I wrong.

I paid nearly £1700 for two weeks for four of us to stay at the Anemona and the only good thing about them was the lovely maid Maria. She was absolutely fantastic and we saw her practically every day. She did her best to keep what was basically poor apartments very clean, but if the goods are in a bad state of repair then theres not much she can do - but even saying this Maria was the one truely good thing about the accomodation. She was friendly, polite and very helpful - UNLIKE her employer whom could'nt have cared less as long has he was getting his money.

We arrived on the monday evening and the first thing we smelt was the damp - the smell was horrendous. On further investigation we noticed the room ceiling was covered in black mould ( my parents room was exactly the same ) - the built in wardrobe was so damp we could'nt store our clothes in it - it really was awful. The smell was so bad it was in the beds and bedding - so none of us managed to sleep the first night cos the smell of mould and a toilet smell too was so overpowering. The next day we reported this to our rep, whom got the owner to come downstairs - he said he'd had no idea that they were like this and it must have happened over the past few days. Well I'm sorry but they must have been like it for months to get that way - again this proves what sort of landlord he is if he does not care about his property. Needless to say our Libra rep SHARON (great girl and so helpful) insisted the rooms be painted that day. They were but we never got rid of the smell for the whole two weeks. He did say he would put fans in but they never arrived and after we complained he hardly spoke to us - except to take our money in his shop above.

I know the rooms were classed as basic and that never bothered me - but they were very tiny - non of the extractor fans for the bathroom and over the sink worked - as did neither of the lights in the kitchen area - so you had to leave your bathroom light on too see.

We must have been in the same rooms as the other people that have commented on this board - rooms 102 and 103. We had no view except lots of trees outside our room (but that meant no noise, as the generators for the shop had been changed) - the downside was the mosquito's. I was literally bitten alive and became ill after a week ( so be warned - the mozzys are lethal and nothing you put on will stop them - believe me I tried ).

I dont want anyone whom reads this to think we did'nt have a decent holiday - it was a case of making do and enjoying it has much as we could. Paleocastritsa is a lovely place - although quite away from the sea (roughly 20 mins walk). The locals bar our landlord and his family (I have to say they were very impolite) were great - especially george and the lovely lady and nikos whom made our breakfast nearly every morning at the pivos. The mermaid bar I think has the best pool - its the biggest in the area and also the internet which my daughter used quite alot. The food was quite cheap too - but if you have teenagers then go somewhere else. Paleocastritsa is a quiet place (it dies a death at nighttime) and there is nothing but swimming pools for the kids - but great if you just want to relax and sunbathe.

If Sharon of Libra Holidays reads this - thank you ever so much for all your help whilst we were there - it really was appreciated, but for you our holiday would have been a complete disaster - but even you could not make those apartments liveable. But seriously I would drop the Anemona Studios from your holiday brochure. It does Libra Holidays no favours at all and everyone we spoke to whom stayed at the back, did not have one good thing to say about it. In fact not one of them said they would revisit - which is a shame considering what Paleocastritsa has too offer - but it was all down to the studio apartments. When we left, my parents were still waiting for the glass lampshade that was smashed before our arrival and very dangerously positioned over the beds to be replaced and you'd asked them to do that two weeks before. Libra is being pulled down as a tour operator due to landlords that dont care - because it makes it look like you dont care and I know you do.

Again thank you !!!!!!!!

We had a rear facing room (room 103) which looked out to some nice lime trees but that was it, no view whatsoever. Also, a tiny window meant that our room was very dark (lights required even in the mid afternoon). The room itself was clean and we did have our floors cleaned and bins emptied most days but no linen or towel change in the whole week we were there! Due to the small window and lack of air conditioning our room was always hot and felt damp all the time.
Then there was the noise! All through the night the only thing we could hear was the constant drone (maybe not a strong enough word, maybe 'roar' is better) of the refrigeration units in the adjoining supermarket.
Nice resort though with plenty of places to eat and drink, although you do have to be prepared to walk a fair bit to get to some of them.

Anemona Studios? Noisy, smelly and miles away from beaches.
We had a room at the front almost overlooking the main road into
Paleokastritsa and I can only say it was the worst apartment I
have ever been to anywhere in over 35 years of holidaying. The
apartment was incredibly noisy with constant motorbike/car/lorry
noise all through the night just yards away; refuse collectors
grinding rubbish at 5.30am; nightime revellers screaming
(literally) on the road just yards away into the early hours; smelly
from bad bathroom plumbing and no toilet paper for two days; no
mosquito netting on doors or windows so bitten alive unless you
take precautions; no fans so incredibly hot (in August) - fans for
sale (not rent) at store below for 30 Euros (Who wants to buy?
What do you do with a 4 foot high fan afterwards?); a good 30
minute walk to main decent beaches (a long way in 35 degree
plus heat). The only excursion we went on (a trip to Corfu Town)
was a complete ripoff costing over double what it would have
cost on the excellent local air conditioned bus service (which
Libra Holidays neglect to tell you about so you will pay for
carhire/bikes/excursions to get about) and arriving just when the
historical buildings are closing (ok it was billed as a 'shopping'
trip but there only seemed to be 3 kinds of shop - one selling
local herbs and booze; one selling local crafty bits and bobs and
one selling cheap clothing and plastic tat you find in resorts the
world over in this case with the word 'Corfu' stamped all over it).

On the plus side, very close to good, cheap tavernas and free
entry swimming pools (if you like to go abroad to swim in
over-chlorinated pools rather than in the sea).

You may ask why we went to the place in the first place and I can
only say I wished I had read a report more like this one so I could
have made a more informed decision. Corfu is a fabulously
picturesque and historic place with just too many people trying to
get a piece of it. Go, but take care where you go.

Just back from a lst minute week in Corfu....named accomodation, so we knew where we were going and what to expect......much better than previous Greek self catering I have stayed in, very good location, close to taverna's and we had use of the pool at Phivos aprtments which were about a 2 min walk away,the apartments are above a supermarket, which was ideal as we could nip there for anything we wanted, our aprtment was round the back with a lovely lemon tree right outside out patio...no noise at night from the road, we had maid service twice in the week, with our towels and beds changed, friendly staff, and we made sure we left plenty of euro's for our lovely maid. We will definitly be back to Paleokastitsa and to these apartments.