Panorama Hotel

Paros Boot Camp

We stayed at the Panorama for 3 nights in late August 2009. Our bad expereince began when we got off the ferry at Parikia Port. Our pick-up was 20 minutes late and we were just about to pay for our own taxi to the hotel when the man (one of the owners) appeared and unceremoniously ushered us to the taxi stand and put us in a cab. The woman at the front desk (the other owner) was very burusque and quickly went over the islands main attractions on a barely readable photocopy of a map. Our room was well appointed, clean but small. The bed was very lumpy and hard and I didn't have a good nights sleep because of it; I awoke with aches and pain as well as stiffness and soreness. The mini bar fridge was somehow re-circuited not to work (there was a small circuit board hanging out of the freezer) - which was really starnge. It was full of the usual cokes, chocolate, nuts etc - but it was all warm. We asked the woman at the front desk why it wasn't cold and was told it wasn't a refridgerator but a cupboard and that if we wanted anything cold we would have to pay an extra 3 euro per day - I'm not kidding. She was pretty rude and seemed not to want to be bothered by such silly questions. I've never ever stayed in a hotel where the mini-bar fridge was utilized in this way. The swimming pool was overally chlorinated to the point where you could smell it really strongly and my eyes were imeediately stinging and red after I swam in it. There were rules posted everywhere about what you could and (mainly) couldn't do. ie do not have too much sunscreen on if you intend to swim in the pool and to not put tissues (toilet paper) down the toilet but to put it in a small bin after youv'e wiped yourself also to be sure to have short showers to preserve water. This last point I had no problem with - I'm all for preserving water, coming as I do from one of the driest continents on earth (Australia) but it seemed pretty hypocritical when I awoke at 3am to hear sprinklers going and later in the morning a gardener was liberally watering the plants for about 30 minutes. I felt like I was in boot camp and not on holiday - I felt like I couldn't totally relax in case I was doing something wrong. I had to smuggle cold bottles of water into the room and then hide the evidence in case I was charged 3 euros etc etc it was horrible. I definitely would not recommend anyone staying here. YUK YUK YUK I was so glad to finally get out of there. They didn't even say goodbye to us just that a taxi would be here soon to take us to the port. Good riddance to them.

Unique Quality: The gardens were the best thing about this hotel; they were lush and green which was a welcome sight after travelling through Greece for 3 weeks which has a dearth of open green spaces. The other good thing were the cane - cushioned deck chairs on our balcony; they were very comfortable and great to relax in and look out over the garden.