Ionian Emerald Resort

Excellent location and fabulous for surrounding restaurants, bars and tavernas! Rooms are spacious with good air conditioning. Breakfast good and the staff are friendly and welcoming! One of the best locations I’ve stayed in the Greek islands. However, can’t be a 5* as the hotel readily has visitors from the 3* Athina across the road who pay €5 per night tourist tax whereas hotel guests pay €15 per night! There is no charge for them to use facilities, sunbeds and towels! You can’t unfortunately offer a 5* experience on those terms!!! Would I stay again? With all the pros ordinarily yes! But because of the lowering of their standards then NO!! should the current arrangement change then in a flash i’d change this opinion and return regularly!!!

Great hotel & location just a short walk from the lovely karavamylos taverna 200 yards away to the left and a comfy 20 mins stroll away from Sami with plenty of tavernas & shops. Hotel staff were all lovely and smiling. Breakfast was plentiful. We didn't eat here in the evening as no atmosphere in the bar or restaurant. I did find it quite annoying that the pool was shared with the 3* hotel up the road, especially as there is a 5* climate tax payable here! 105 euro for a 7 night stay! The pool bar regularly ran out of draft beer.. 6 euro for a large beer 5 euro for a 330ml can! Not on really for a 5* "resort plus the 2 euro cover charge if you wanted to eat there,regardless of whether you was staying there or not. Basically, nice hotel, great location & staff... would I stay there again... probably not

Spent a week at this near perfect hotel. A big tribute to whoever manages it is the elevated level of staff morale. Everywhere it was service with flashing smiles from the cleaner thru to reception, cooks, bar-folk, waitresses and suitcase porter. Their genuine joy in doing their jobs was inspirational. Breakfast was varied and a delight, especially the perfectly ripe pineapple that was as good as the world's best in NE state of Brazil, Paraiba, and Espírito Santo neighbouring Rio de Janeiro State ( see, I'm a serious connoiseur). Sitting on the outside terrace eating breakfast in the shade of a magnolia tree looking across the pool area was a real pleasure with the horizon formed of the high ridge silhouette of neighbouring Ithaca. I could mention so many more positives about this place. Suffice it to say that I've never left a hotel feeling as rested and looked after than this place and I've done loads of travelling near and far. A couple of minor negatives, that nowadays plague almost every European beach place: the tolerance of the sun-bed monopolists - however these annoying prats are at least stuck at the pool-side - so you can get away from them by going to the pebbly beach just off the hotel's premises.....

We spent 10 days at the Ionian Emerald Resort in June 2025on a TUI holiday. The hotel has a number of pros, but equally a number of cons. Pros The views from the hotel are fantastic. The hotel itself was good and our room was a good size, clean and with a small balcony – but not really 5 star. The staff were very friendly and efficient. A good pool to swim in and a good pool café to eat in - but see below. Cons The pool Is shared with the 3 star Athina Hotel next door (see Jet 2 Holidays) so caters to some 90 rooms rather than 48. The inevitable result is towels on loungers at 08.30 to bag a good spot! It’s a shame TUI don’t mention this in their description of the hotel and the pictures of lots of empty loungers is a bit deceptive - it would affect some people’s choice of hotels The result of the sharing also means the pool café runs out of seats from time to time. Whilst the food at breakfast was fine, the menu in the restaurant in the evening was a combination of the kind of dishes you get at a reasonable Italian restaurant or at a good pub. We didn’t spot one typically Greek dish on the menu apart from some local fish. Disappointing

We booked our stay through Jet2 and had an excellent Private Transfer from the Airport. Upon arrival, sadly Reception could not locate our booking - a Superior Seaview Room, but after a few minutes called us over to inform us that they were upgrading us to a Superior Room with Private Pool free of charge - great we thought as we never get upgrades! The room benefitted from a lovely large terrace with a comfortable sofa and two chairs, a further raised terrace with two very comfortable sun loungers and beyond that an approx 12ft x 12ft pool. Now the draw back - the terrace with the sun-loungers on, only gets the sun until about 11:30am when the sun then drops down behind the room block, only to reappear about 4:00pm….so no sunbathing on your own terrace for long. Sadly, you are also in full view of the balconies above you, which does make you slightly conscious of turning the beds around to face the sun and anyone sat on their balcony. That said, it wasn’t a major issue to us as you can easily access the main pool area from the back of your pool, so we just had a couple of sun-loungers up there and swapped to them when we lost the sun. However, if I’d paid the extra £300+ for the room with a Private pool, I think I would have been disappointed. There are only 4 of these Private Pool rooms and the others were empty most of the week. When we did get ‘neighbours’ whose booking could also not be located, it suggested that these rooms were kept back for such eventualities. Tip - don’t book these rooms as we felt they weren’t worth the extra cost. I also agree with other commentators, who felt the hotel was a little tired in places and in need of a bit of TLC. In our room, the bottom of the bed upholstery was torn on the corners, the hydra bath did not work, there was a hole in the wall with a SCART lead sticking out and the entrance door frame to the bathroom, which was papered rather than a continuation of the internal water proof wall covering (??) was torn and hanging off. I know these rooms have a lot of through put, but it’s not what you’d expect for what’s supposed to be a Superior upgraded room! Another tip - There are 3 floors. From what we could see, the only rooms with a true unobstructed sea view are the deluxe rooms on the top floor. Ground floor rooms, which are slightly sunken, have no view or a garden view and the next floor although called sea view, because they are at pool/ground level, largely have their view obstructed by the pool parasols etc. Now for the positives: The location and surroundings are beautiful, but a little isolated if you don’t want the 20 minute walk along the sea path into Sami to eat in an evening, where there are a fantastic selection of Tavernas. There is only one Taverna close by. However, we enjoyed the evening walk after eating! The staff are wonderful, still always smiling and helpful despite it being the end of the season. We only booked Bed & Breakfast, so we can’t comment on the evening meals, but our breakfasts were excellent with plenty of choice with lovely staff, especially Rulia who also doubled up as our room cleaner as well! Tip - as tempting as it may be, don’t sit outside unless you want your breakfast bothered by very persistent wasps! Never any issue with obtaining a sun lounger in a morning - so nice to be at a small hotel where you didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to secure a bed. Overall, a very enjoyable week and the fact that we would definitely return again shows the above points did not detract from what was otherwise a lovely hotel, but sadly couldn’t quite give it a 5 star rating.