Pefkohori and Hanioti 2006 our thoughts

Ok, our fortnight’s holiday in Halkidiki has just ended. Our booking of the trip came about in February 2006 when we visited travel agent with the following things in mind: Good weather, Relaxing by the pool and for as cheap as possible.

We finally settled on a fortnight in Pefkohori 29th June til 13th July 2006 staying at the Petredis Apartments. As this was both our first time to Greece and keen to avoid any pitfalls my research led me primarily to this forum. Most of what of read proved of some help. However after much reading and searching not all of our questions were answered. The answers would only come once we had experienced Halkidiki for ourselves of course.

Now we have returned I feel compelled to write our findings in the view that it may help others who have booked or our thinking of booking in the area. In all we had a great holiday and on face value we received everything we had asked for. However, there are some points to Halkidiki and our holiday, which weren’t so great.

The following thoughts are of our own opinion and they’re merely to express our conclusions having experienced theses things first hand. Everybody will have different views and a holiday will always be what you make it. We are a young couple (23-30) with no children. We have been together for 5 years and living together for 1 year.

WASPS and other flying thingies
This was a bit of biggy for me. After booking the holiday the first research I did finds me reading lots of horror stories about plagues of wasps. I hate wasps with a passion and could have cancelled my booking there and then. I have to say my fear was unfounded.

I don’t how this year measures up against others, but it really wasn’t that bad. I would say there are slightly more in Greece than there are in the UK due mostly to the many variants they have. However, they are all certainly less aggressive than UK wasps. We stocked up on repellent and I think that helped as well. Yes there would usually be at least one wasp around during most parts of the daytime, but they never ever really bother you. The chase me down the road routine I have with their English counterparts never ever happened. The rare times they do approach you, I hardly had time to flap before they had already flown off.

I eventually became quite fascinated watching them they are that harmless. They are usually just after a bit of water like puddles from the swimming pool. They literally fly down do their thing for a few seconds and then ‘buzz off’. You really have nothing to fear, flies in the UK are probably more annoying. In fact I wish their UK cousins were same and I would never fear them again.

Hotel Petredis
The hotel itself is fairly small and its location when you arrive is slightly deceiving. It appears to be off away from everything in a fairly deserted residential area. No worries a short walk down the street under the bridge in front reveals the sea front and a short walk right takes you to the old square. A supermarket is also next-door. The location is actually fairly perfect.

There are many good points to the hotel. The rooms are changed everyday, the staff very friendly a small, but clean pool. There was also an excellent level service from the staff from serving a drink to helping with queries or problems. Rooms are a little basic being just a bedroom, bathroom and balcony. You do get a 2-plated hob and a fridge freezer. If you do cook your own food you will need to use the plastic table and chairs on the balcony to eat at. No TVs in the rooms, but who cares on holiday.

They have a bar and restaurant, with the bar open until 1am. There is no entertainment in hotel all, so it is generally pretty empty at night. Nice for a quick drink at the start or the end of the night and that’s it. They do a offer a fairly full menu of food. We never really ate there apart from snacks, so I can’t comment on the quality. Pefkohori is full of restaurants so we felt we didn’t want to and would rather explore our surroundings. Overall you couldn’t exactly recommend the place as its pretty uninspired, but then couldn’t exactly fault it either. What they do, they do very well.

The Water Park or Water Land as it is branded
The quick advice is, do not go, it’s rubbish. If this is offered as an excursion and you book it after reading this then don’t say you have not been warned. Water Land is near the airport and the coach journey there and back can turn into several hours. There is a couple of hours worth of entertainment at the park at the very most and is just such a waste of time and money. Our travel company charged us for the excursion and the entrance was additional. If you want to go hire car and have the park as part of the day on a trip to elsewhere.

There are about five styles of slide in total and you’ll have done them all in about half an hour. The thrills are short on the ground with the fear being generated mostly by the questionable construction and layout. None of the slides are that high or complex. It was the being told to walk down some parts when I ran out of momentum or the fear of being shredded on a rough edge that had me retiring back to a sun bed.

There is a pool there which attraction is a giant wave machine. The lifeguards rescued a girl as she started to drown which summed up the fun to be had on that one. Water Land is a pretty bold title considering and its hardly a park given its size. Once again, do not go I’ve had more fun sliding in a bath.

Pefkohori
This is where our hotel was based and is pleasant enough if not a little dead. Its pretty much split in to three parts. The town, seafront and the Old Square.

The town is a very small with only a few shops to speak of. Most of these shops offer nothing other than the usual touristy bits cheap ornaments, fake sunglasses and other such goods etc. Whilst it is a town, it really is just street. Blink and could miss it.

The seafront is the main attraction. The sea and beach is beautiful to look at. The beach is shingle, which can be uncomfortable to walk on in and out of the sea. Invest in some sea slippers and should be ok plus you’ll avoid getting spiked by the sea urchins which are in abundance. We would normally spend a bit of time on the beach on holiday, but just couldn’t get on with the shingles here, so gave it a miss after a couple of attempts.

Along the sea front are plenty of bars and restaurants along with side streets offering the same establishments. In all there are plenty of choices on where to eat, but prepare to be greeted with the same old dishes served in the same old way. Every thing is served with chips, rice, peas and carrots. The freshness of the food is somewhat dubious at times as well. Both Hanioti and here were the same. We had a few cold dishes that felt like they have just come from the fridge. A lot of it seemed to have been microwaved or reheated. The veg was from a tin most of the time as well.

I’d heard great things about Greek food so was disappointed. Eating out, trying new things, makes up a large part of our holidays and something we never do on a budget. Prepare to wait for the bill as well because they don’t want the restaurant looking empty.

The bars are pretty boring to be honest with nothing much going on and run out of what little steam they have by 12am. There are plenty of people around day and night, but most of these are Greek. The bars and restaurants remain empty day no matter what time. This doesn’t help the atmosphere in these places at all. Prices vary and are more on par with being reasonable than cheap. At night the seafront gets slightly more hustle and bustle but is still lacking when it comes to liveliness. Again its mostly Greek people out and about. We did encounter some rudeness, leering and some letching which spoilt it at times.

We started to give the seafront a miss by the end of the holiday because it was difficult to convince ourselves that it wasn’t crap anymore. A visit to the seafront is unavoidable of course and you will make your own minds up.

A must do and one of the highlights for us was the sunset cruise on a Sunday from 6pm. We had a great evening, including 2 free drinks, entertainment and one of the best sunsets I've ever seen. Not a bad way to spend 6 hours and 15 euros. Speak to the captains and he’ll even let you drive the boat.

The old square, probably the smallest part to visit in Pefkohori was really nice. Again not much to do, but it wasn’t charm less like the seafront. Certainly the favourite place to end our evening.

Hanioti
Hanioti proved to be our salvation in some ways. It’s cheap to get there from Pefkohori just costing a few euros. Getting back isn’t a problem, as long you don’t mind a small wait at the taxi rank. A part of us wished we were staying in Hanioti not Pefkohori because its generally nicer all round. It’s a small place and it won’t take you long to walk round. Most of it is concentrated in to a square.

The bars are better here. I think this down to fact that at they have people in them. We also found the people in Hanioti friendlier. Whilst the night life is miles better than Pefkohori it is still very flat and a little lacking in atmosphere. Alright it’s not Ibiza as everyone says in it defence, but that’s not the point. The point is don’t be fooled in to thinking its a lively place, its not and there aren’t actually that many bars. Anyone remotely young or lively will be bored.

We had the same problems with food here as we did in Pefkohori. One place to avoid is the Kassandra roof top restaurant. I paid nearly twenty euros for vein and grissled laden steak. The girlfriend was greeted with our first ice-cold dish, when she had the stifado. It was by far the worst meal of the holiday, not recommended. The service was poor too.

There was a nice place called the steak house I think. Unluckily we were served an ice-cold dish on our last night there as well. By this time we were almost used to it though. The staff were really apologetic and did give us some free drinks of our choice, which did make up for it a little. The food was some of the best we had taste and quality wise, which help us forgive them some more.

In Summary
It probably sounds like we had a rubbish holiday, which couldn’t further from the truth. We had a great time and the holiday ticked all the boxes. What we didn’t really get where the magical extra moments. In all I could only recommend Halkidiki if you get a cheap deal and don’t have high expectations otherwise I’d probably avoid it. I definitely wouldn’t advise it for young people because you will be disappointed and left wanting for more.

Dan(and Ney)

Thanks for your report. I understand this is your personal view and that you overall had a good holiday.

But please, there are other parts to Halkidiki other than Pefkohori and Hanioti. There are lovely places to eat where you will get more of a Greek atmosphere and food, and good food at that, but these places are to be found by driving around the peninsula. In particular there is Villa Stassa at Loutra, which has beautiful views, great good value fresh cooked HOT food! and friendly staff and mostly Greek customers, which we prefer to be surrounded by tourists and tourist food. There is Paliori, rather a quiet and empty village, but totally Greek and has a restaurant that serves the most fresh, tasty and soft kalamares about. Nea Skioni, a lovely fishing village which has a few hotels now and you can watch the boats come in with the fish etc., as well as some nice non touristy type places to eat. A lot of people like Fourka, I don't personally, but again another place to visit with restaurants and bars. Lovely beaches to be found at Kriopigi (as well as a great creperie called Sweet Coffee Shop), Sani beach is beautiful sandy beach, Pefkohori does have some sandy parts to the beaches, but we always find it too busy there. Siviris, we stayed there this year, has a lovely beach, and a fairly deserted area of beaches/bays just a short walk from the jetty.

All I am saying is the two places you visited do not represent Halkidiki as a whole. In fact in our 28+ years of going there, and our three years of living there, we only ever visit these two places for a drink some evenings. The other side of the pensinula has more of a Greek feel to it being the side where there are a lot of apartments etc where mainly Greeks (and us for three years) live or visit.

It would be great if you could try again, but visit or stay at a different village/resort.

Kallithea has apparently got some great clubs (although we dont go clubbing, we are a bit old I suppose, 50!) but it also has a great Gyros shop called Fast Food Nikkis. Lots of our Greek friends sneer at our choice here, but we have been going for years to this gyros shop and the food is always fresh, hot and tasty, and cheap.

You could visit Pallini Beach hotel for a nice sandy beach. You can use any beach in Greece, it is just access to them that is sometimes difficult. But the Pallini is fine, just walk down through the gates and straight down to the beach.

Glad you enjoyed it overall, but as I said these two villages do not form much of Halkidiki in total, although I agree they are probably the most advertised.

The Water Park, never been and never wanted to. I imagined it would be as bad as you said it was. There are some good tours, historical, but never book through your rep, always cheaper at a village tour shop.

And of course, Kassandra is only one peninsula of Halkidiki. There is Sithonia too, which has some lovely villages although a lot quieter and remote. And also part of the Mount Athos peninsula can be visited.

Everything you said is right. My aim wasnt to say what there isnt to do, but to review what we did do. Nobody should take what I have written as a generalisation Halkidiki as a whole. Car hire is a definite and in hindsight something we should have done. We too found gyros suprisingly tasty.

You say have been to going to Halkidiki for 28 years and have lived there for three. You of course will have seen the best and worst of the place through just experience. Please don't take this the wrong way, but for us this was to always be a one off place to visit simply because the worlds too big.

No offence taken ! We have seen a lot of the world too and of course some places that far exceed the experience of Greece, or Halkidiki in particular. We just always go back there as our "base", probably because my dad was Greek and never took me there, I don't know. We have also visited some islands, in particular Chios where my family originated.

But I do know what you mean, and I hope you enjoy your further travels. We did a round the world on our 25th wedding anniversary and although it cost us a lot of money it was well worth it to see all those different countries. And this year, my 50th birthday year, we are doing quite a few different countries, Halkidiki was just the first in June as it coincided with my birthday.

And my view................. you are a long time dead, so enjoy life NOW!

Cheers
Jane

Jane - im going Fourka next week, why dont you like it? Is it livelier than Pefkori?

Hi there, Fourka is perfectly OK, please don't worry. It is just one of the newer resorts that appeared long after we started going over there and we don't like it because it is quite flat compared to other villages and beaches.

Lots of people go there and love it. Jeff Fourka Mad Dog Man will not doubt post soon on this, he loves Fourka and used to go with his late wife.

There are lots of places to eat and drink, and a couple of beach bars, and we do actually go there when we are over long term for a pizza at the corner restaurant, can't remember the name but the pizzas are lovely and specially so when you have been over the some months and just want something quite plain!

I am sure you will like it. Lively, not sure I would call it that, but then you are going next week and it gets quite busy everywhere from mid July onwards until about 22 August, so it could be lively. There are no clubs as such, nearest are Kallithea. We don't go clubbing as we are too old ! but I have it on good authority the clubs in Kallithea are good.

And at Fourka you are on the other side of the peninsula to Pefkohori and Hanioti etc. You are also reasonably near to Siviris which has a lovely beach and is very quiet, and the most amazing sunsets over the jetty.

Enjoy, I am sure you will be fine.

lol yes .................. fourkas what you make it

Jane,

Too old for clubbing? You are having a larf?

I'm 49 going on 23 and intend to "have it large" this holiday - if my back holds up! ;-)

Lock up your daughters, mothers, grandmothers & walking frames!

Graham
PS The wife thinks I'm going for late night strolls!

Well OK then, I mean if my back holds up too !!! Have a great time.

Luckily on holiday I can lie down the following day for several hours to recover!

I'm hoping to get a car for a few days. Any suggested hire firms in Hanioti and suggested "must visit" venues. I'm told Mt Athos is one (my parents stayed in Kalithea 25 yrs ago) but I assume their memories will be a little out of date!

Don't know any firms in Hanioti as we have never actually stayed there, only visited. We use Economy Car Rentals, on this site, or Kriopigi Cars. This year we used Avis as we had some travel points to use up, and they were good too. We usually pick up at airport for the whole holiday.

Must sees? Well it depends what you want. I assume as you are nearly as old as me! your tastes apart from nightclubbing may be similar!

We like food, sea, sun, beaches, oh and drink of course. Food, try to find Villa Stasa at Loutra (end of pensinsula) for a great view, good Greek food, with lots of Greek customers rather than tourists, and a good price and good portions. They are THE place for fish too. Fish is very expensive in Greece at restaurants which is why when we lived there we only ate it at home after buying at the port. However, we do when on holiday there have a treat once and it is really nice and tasty and well prepared. They also do excellent mussels saganaki, snitzel, deep fried courgettes (the best we think as it is not too greasy and only very lightly battered if at all, and so fresh and crunchy). Also try Paliori, a small Greek village on the way to Loutra. Not much happening as it is just a quiet Greek village, but on the square Yannikos does the best kalamares ever, it is fresh, tasty and not all chewy, melts inyour mouth.

Of course you must visit our friends at the Sweet Coffee Shop in Kriopigi. The best crepes in the world, sweet or savoury. Toasties, club sandwiches, gorgeous icecreams, specialty coffees, teas etc., and of course drinks of the alcholic variety! They are Morfy and Sakis and they will make you very welcome. Also in the square of Kriopigi is the Platea restaurant. Not cheap, but different foods to the usual offerings and a nice quiet square, which is lovely if the evening is boiling hot as a nice cool breeze wafts up from the sea.

Gyros, Fast Food Nikki in Kallithea is great. Tasty, cheap and good portions. Pizza, a place in Fourka but cant remember name ! On the corner opposite the square area. Sorry ! name wont come to me.

Beaches - Sani beach, but dont go to the right where they NOW charge you 15 euros for a brolly and sunbeds (this used to be a public beach with the best sand anywhere, typical someone has to start making money out of things, so they built a bigger resort which is lovely but ruins the access to what was our favourite beach.) But go straight on, park at Blue Dream Camping and you can use their sunbeds for the price of a drink. Sandy, beautiful calm clear sea.

Siviris beach. Not the main one. Turn left at the jetty and walk for about ten minutes. Bit further, like about 20 mins there is a corner which if you go around it (rocks) leads to super really quiet bays. Sandy beach, little tricky getting into sea in some parts with pebbles, but some are all sand

Kriopigi beach. Nice beach but gets busy. We used to go to Pefkohori beach, but after this year when it was totally mad and busy didnt bother going again. Hanioti has nice beaches, but quite busy.

Other beaches all around peninsula. Little bays especially on other side between Fourka and Loutra. You can find a beach almost to yourselves.

Markets - Nea Moudania. Think it is on a Wed, but cant quite remember, Just ask around. But you can go there on a non market day just to walk round and have a drink overlooking the port. It is a Greek town, not touristy and therefore not posh, so dont go expecting posh shops etc., but expect a typical Greek working town where the people are friendly, the pavements are dodgy and there is some good shopping around!

Market in Kassandrea, think it was a Tuesday. Not far from Kallithea. Nice market, I got some cropped trousers for 6 euros, excellent value. Foods (again, I am onto food!) olives, fruits.

We love Thessaloniki, but if you want to go there you may be better getting a bus as driving is quite difficult as it is so busy and the parking does cost a lot. If you want any more info on shopping in Thessaloniki just ask me.

We also went this year to VouVouRou on Sithonia. We loved it. It is very isolated and quiet, but the beach was lovely. We went to the right on a smaller beach, found a very small cove to ourselves and loved it. There were restuarants and supermarkets about too. Nice village, would go again. Also on Sithonia is Nea Marmaras which is nice, and lots of other villages. To drive all round Sithonia would take a full day with a few short stops though. Driving round Kassandra is pretty easy and quick.

Anything I have missed?

Have a great time.

hi jane its the La Strada in Fourka

and the "HOT" mussell in mustard sauce starter is heaven i even dip my bread in the juice

i also go allllllllllllll the way to polichrono to the cake shop opposit the supermarket their cakes are to die for seriously

also i visit DOWN UNDER BAR at the end of the sea front cos the owners a mad ozzie.

and i go to the little churh under the rocks in Nea Skioni to light a candle for my late wife

and i also do it in the big church in Kalathia ...light a candle that is

Wow! I'm printing this all off for reference. My wife, daughter and I enjoy good food. My wife is a 12 hrs a day on the beach person wheras I prefer a few in the sun and a few in the bar! I may well set off for a drive by myself to see sights and sites. I'll get a good map and pray I don't get lost.

Thanks again for all the advice. I can't wait!

Graham

Graham, get a map to show you the locations of the various villages etc., but for Kassandra you have only one road really. The road from Thessaloniki onto Kassandra is pretty easy, then it splits at Kallithea. From here you can go around the pensinula on the coast road. The only other roads are into the villages, and over the mountain (two of these). It does not take long to drive all the way round Kassandra peninsula.

The same with Sithonia, the road goes all the way around the edge, although in places you drive through quite windy mountain areas of road.

Have a great time, and if you go to Sweet Coffee Shop in Kriopigi say hello to Morfy and Sakis from Jane and Martyn. They are our very good friends, we went to their wedding some years ago, and the whole family is lovely. Their shop is not specifically targeted at tourists from other countries, they remain a nice Greek establishment which welcomes all tourists to the area but retains its Greekness rather than trying to be an English pub or similar. And the warm crepe stuffed with ice cream, need I say more !

Wish I was back there now. Its OK having this hot weather here, but no clear blue Aegean sea to cool off in, and no cold Amstel beers and kalamares - there I go again, food..........

Jane,

My mouth is watering at the thought! I personally enjoy Stifado and stuffed vine leaves but will try anything once. I've a soft spot for kalamares too!

We will try to visit your recommendations.

Graham