F Zeen Kefalonia

A beautiful hotel with comfortable rooms, delicious food, superb staff and really good fitness services as welll as a private beach.

We have just spent a week here with our 4 boys (ages 18-21). We stayed in a Superior Raw Retreat room near Reception and our children stayed in standard rooms further down the hill in the original part of the hotel. Our room was a great size, well appointed and with good quality Fzeen branded amenity products. Aircon worked well and quietly - although slightly strangely, to change the temperature in our room we had to call reception to do this remotely. The sizeable wet room was OK although I???m never a wet room fan - the clue being in the name - everything gets wet??? The childrens??? rooms were smaller but perfectly adequate and had separate toilet and shower areas - which I personally find preferable to an all in one wet room/toilet. Beds were OK although 3 out of the 6 of us developed slightly sore backs as a result of the mattresses/mattress toppers being on the softer side. Housekeeping was very good and rooms were kept spotless. The hotel is extremely well looked after and has lovely grounds which are constantly tended. As a wellness focussed retreat, there are lots of activities as well as outdoor gyms, Padel, tennis, cinema, reformer Pilates, e-bikes, various classes etc. Loads to do for the healthy minded. The health theme continues as the hotel is on a steep sided hill so there are lots of steps to navigate as you move around the hotel. Not ideal for the less able bodied - although the hotel staff will whisk you close to where you may need to get to with the golf cart style buggies. There are 3 pool areas with comfortable loungers and towels etc. Service is impressive and staff are lovely and will do anything to help. We mentioned to Reception on the first morning that our shower head seemed rather blocked - by the time we got back from the beach later that day it had been replaced. There is also a WhatsApp service link to reception and any queries are attended to extremely quickly and effectively. Food and drink are of a high standard. Breakfast is excellent. Again, service is superb. The hotel has its own area on the public beach across the road at the bottom of the hotel. It is a Blue Flag beach so the water is lovely. The beach itself is a mix of sand and pebbles. It is fine although we have been to nicer beaches. There are numerous beach showers for showering off salt water at intervals along the beach. It doesn???t seem to be a massive focus for the hotel and although beach service is always available, the hotel???s area of the beach itself doesn???t seem to benefit from quite the same level of care as beaches we have experienced at other 5 star hotels. There are plenty of sun loungers - some newer than others. Beware of the dance required getting in and out of the water over the stones - once past the stones the sea bed is completely sandy but it???s a little painful getting in and out. It???s quite a foot massage. Beach/swimming shoes are available in the well stocked mini supermarket by the beach. You can hire boats for the day from the beach (Escape Club), which is worth doing to explore the coast and secluded beaches. No license required for the less powerful boats. In terms of the surrounding area, there are a few local tavernas (best ones in walking distance of the hotel we found were Lithero, Lorraines and Klimatis). There are other highly recommended tavernas although these required a taxi trip and taxis were very expensive. We needed a minivan taxi as there were 6 of us but this was Euros 80 each way to Argostoli (25 minutes) and were were quoted euros100 each way to go to the Lighthouse restaurant (20 minutes) and a similar amount to go to The Olive Lounge - we heard great reports about both these restaurants however the taxi cost put us off going there. There isn???t a huge amount going on in the evenings in Lourdas and by 10.30-11pm everything was shut. Whilst this is was broadly fine for us (mum and dad), the kids became frustrated about the lack of activity/bustle and bars etc. to go to in the evenings after dinner. All in all, this is a great hotel if you want a relaxing and healthy holiday. The key question; would we return? Absolutely, but perhaps without the kids???..

Location is great, Stuffs are amazing, the air condition is located very close to the bed, the lightning of the machine was disturbing during sleeping.