Atlantica Mikri Poli Park (ex Carda Beach)

We have just returned from this hotel and whilst the hotel grounds were lovely there are things to bare in mind when booking with a young family, - The Splash park has access via steep steps only, this was incredibly difficult with a pushchair and all the things you take with you. - A severe lack of shade in the splash park particularly near the younger kids area. This meant we struggled to keep our 4 month old out the sun whilst our 3 year old was playing, for this reason we couldn't stay long. - We shut the gate so the kids couldn't escape down the stairs (people could still get in and out), but the lifeguard kept opening it, this was great with speedy toddlers! - Drinks machine didn't work at the splash park so a long walk to get dehydrated. - We personally didn't feel there was enough children's entertainment compared to other hotels we stayed at. - Evening was at the amphitheatre which was fine however there was no access to the bottom for pushchairs meaning we couldn't stay late as the baby wanted to sleep in the pushchair and we couldn't be in two places at once. - We ended up with a hotel at the top of the resort, it was so steep to get up (our watches said 10 flights of stairs, every time we went to our room), not great with a pushchair. I feel families with kids under 3 should get priority with ground floor/low rooms. Our friends with babies had to lift their pushchairs up stairs every time they went to their room. I spoke to another family who actually requested a low room but they didn't get granted it. - Food was cooked lovely however I felt there was a lack of options. - We visited the Italian which was lovely but the 'Diner' had no 'Diner' vibe at all. Positives is that the hotel is very clean, staff were lovely and was in a great location to get into the town. A child in our party had milk and soy allergies and this was well catered for. Overall if you don't have pushchairs it is a lovely hotel, but if you have pushchairs I would say it isn't 'family' friendly. Ive stayed at 3/4 star hotels and had better.

I stayed at this hotel for a week in June with my husband and 2 sons (8months old and 8 years old) and my brother and his fiancé in a separate room. We had a wonderful time, besides 5 out of the 6 of us becoming unwell whilst here. Theres a good chance it was a stomach bug spread between us but we’ll never know if the food played a part in us being unwell so I can’t comment negatively towards the hotel on this matter. The hotel itself is so clean, very pretty with beautiful views and spotless throughout. It is a resort set on a hill and to get to your rooms, especially in the heat, it sometimes feels like you’re climbing a mountain! But there are golf buggies on site for lifts which I will comment more on below. The rooms The rooms were spotlessly clean every day - the cleaners were friendly and very attentive, they honestly couldn’t do enough for you. The beds were really comfortable, air con was a god send and the size of the room and bathroom were great for our family of 4 aswell as the balcony size! The only slight downside to our room is that is was at the very top/back of the resort which is VERY hilly!! So multiple times a day walking to and from our room was quite the trek! However, being at the top of the hill gave us beautiful views and the hotel has golf buggies on site. The golf buggy drivers are more than happy to give lifts to your rooms any time of the day (you can wait for them near reception) so we used them quite often when going back to our room with all of our swim stuff, inflatables, pram etc. The pool and social areas Again very clean and fun areas around the pools. There are 2 sets of pools either side of reception both with snack and drinks bars. We tended to go to the pizza/pasta side most days. Queues weren’t long for drinks or snacks and the pizza, pasta, gyros, sandwiches, icecreams and pastries etc that were available throughout the day at the pools were perfect! Really yummy and ideal for snacking! You didn’t have to rush down early in the morning for sunbeds either as the pools only open at 10 so most people only start coming down for beds about 9. If you leave your towels unattended on sunbeds before 10am, we saw them being taken off the beds and put to one side which we found really good to stop people reserving sunbeds and going back to bed! We usually went down for breakfast for 9 and got sunbeds for 9:30 and we always managed to get our favourite spot at the front looking out to sea so there’s no need to worry about sunbeds. I will say though that they do fill up so if you’re a family wanting to sit together, don’t leave it too late (past 10/11ish) to be getting your sunbeds. The pools were all different depths and there was a really shallow pool under a canopy too for younger children. 1 slight negative about the pools is that you literally can’t see the steps in the pool so you could see everyone falling (not very gracefully) in to the pool or stubbing their toes getting back out. There maybe needs to be some lines painted on the pool steps to make them more visible. The slides were brill, so fun and enjoyed by all children and adults there! The splash park for the younger children there was great too as my 8 month old could walk around it with it being shallow. The beach The private beach is beautiful!! There’s small fish about waist deep swimming around you - don’t worry they don’t bite. It’s clean, there’s a hut for hiring jet ski’s etc and the water is crystal clear! There’s not a huge amount of beds on the beach but when we tended to go down about 2/3ish we always managed to find a few. The staff The staff were all friendly, attentive and chatty, especially the bar and golf buggy staff. Entertainment The entertainment team clearly work very hard and there’s always things going on the not just children but adults too. So many kids clubs for all ages and games around the pool all day long. The evening entertainment was hit and miss. The amphitheatre has kids club which we didn’t attend so we can’t comment and then usually a singer. We only watched a couple and they were good but we just expected more of a variety of evening entertainment. However saying that, we only realised on night 5 that the other bar next to reception had evening entertainment on too like a magician , bingo etc which is more up our street but by that time it was too late so don’t miss out in that like we did. The food The food was nice but quite repetitive which isn’t unusual for an all inclusive however definitely make use of the free/included restaurants on site. You get 1 evening visit to the Italian included and 1 evening visit to another restaurant out of the Asian, the Greek and the American. We chose the American which was lovely and the Italian is an all you can eat buffet quite similar to the main resort buffet but a bit nicer. You can go to the Italian for breakfast every morning if you wish too which we did from day 3 as we found the breakfast slightly better there and quieter than the main restaurant. There’s a kids section in the main restaurant and if you like desserts you’re not missing out - there’s loads!!! The local town We walked in to Kardamaina as you turn left out of the hotel - it is only a 5/10 minute walk and if you keep going straight, you will come to a lovely market/strip with gift shops, bars and restaurants which was a cute little set up. The airport The airport is small and queues were long. Not so much on arrival but when leaving, the check in line at Kos airport was about 40 minutes long which I’ve heard is about the same time for everyone no matter what time you fly. After check in and security, there is a Burger King, dominoes, Starbucks and shops and the there is another big queue for passport control, so don’t leave it until your gate opens to go through passport control!! After passport control, there is another shop, Pret and a bar where the gates are. It is well air conned but depending on yours and others flight times, there is a huge amount of seats so be prepared to stand/sit on the floor. Our flight was delayed a couple of hours but the airport kept all the gates seats open (even though all gates weren’t in use) so we could spread out whilst we waited a couple of extra hours so there were loads of seats for us thankfully. Doctor We had to call the private doctor out one day for our youngest son who bumped his head on the tiled floor. There is a doctors in kardamaina which would have been cheaper but because it was a Sunday it was closed so the private doctor who came to look at him charged €200! And within 15 mins, she had been and gone and said he’d be fine (she was a good doctor and did a very good check of him though) but the price was just shocking! So definitely make sure you have travel insurance!!

i stayed at mirki poli for a week and had such a amazing experience, the accommodation was very nice the entire resort was so clean, and the staff especially the entertainers was so nice and kid friendly so communicative and polite and respectful, the staff alone made this trip a memorable one i didn’t have any bad experiences, it was such an enjoyable memorable trip, and the resort was so amazing with so many pools, and activities, the entertainment was good but didn’t go on for too long, the bar shuts at 1 am, and there isn’t anything to do to be entertained after that but other then that it is very entertaining with bingo, games, karaoke, magic and more, had such a nice trip and loved every second one of the best resorts ever!

Excellent service from Tessiii and lamprini we have a Cretan massage and the hotel is fabulous highly recommended 💝💝

I had a lovely massage with Stacey at the hotel Spa. It was very relaxing and i nearly fell asleep. Thank you.