Recently I went on holiday to Halkidiki, a beautiful part of northern Greece. I stayed at the Ikos Oceania hotel for one week and it was so dreamy! From the food to the incredible sunsets, it was a trip I miss already. I definitely want to go back next year as it was pure luxury and relaxation. It isn't what a lot of people think when you say 'all inclusive'. It is way more than that. In the hotel, there are 4 a la carte restaurants; 2 of which have a michelin star menu. But I'll get on to that soon! Warning: it's going to be quite a photo heavy post, but I enjoy that. Hope you like hearing about my trip!
The views from our room were incredible. As the sun set, Mount Olympus appeared, which was magical as you cannot see it during the day. I can imagine this was pretty magical back in the days of Ancient Greece. We also had a view of the deluxe pool and the glistening sea. We actually went as a Deluxe guest as it wasn't too much more expensive and all the added extras were worth it. The deluxe block with the deluxe pool was in a great location and we also got a bottle of champagne on arrival as well as a complimentary massage. Deluxe guests also got a section of the beach to themselves as well as a private dinner on the beach. We did this and it was so lovely. Read about this later on!
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My room |
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Views the day we arrived. I fell asleep here due to the tiredness from travelling and woke up thinking 'Wow where am i?!' |
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View from the balcony |
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View from the balcony |
The food at the resort was amazing. As it was all inclusive, everything was free but you would think you were paying hundreds of pounds for the meals. As well as the Mediterranean buffet 'Flavors', there were 4 a la carte restaurants: an Italian, Greek, French and Asian. The Italian and Greek had michelin star menus but I thought all of them were fantastic.
We ordered room service as soon as we got there as it was 4pm and the restaurants had closed. I had a stir fry type thing with rice noodles, aubergine, courgette and pepper in a stir fry-esque soya sauce. It was delicious. One morning, we had room service for breakfast. I'm not really into eating meat so I just had some crossaints with honey and jam as well as some fruit and orange juice. Another comment to make about the hotel was the quality of food. Never have I been to an all inclusive that serves chickpea curry and real vegan/vegetarian options, it was fantastic. Gone were the days of burgers, chips and pizza at tacky resorts.
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Smoked salmon & avacado nibbles and cocktails by the pool |
We also could have a dine out experience as part of our all inclusive package which meant we could go into the local town and eat at a local restaurant. I had mousakka - real greek food! It was nice to sit by the harbour with the locals and see what they were eating.
Aside from laying by the pool, we went for a look around the local town Nea Moudania. We did this the morning before eating there actually. We also took some pedalos out and did some kayaking. I wanted to try paddle boarding but you needed a lesson beforehand so we didn't bother. It felt so good to be looking out to sea feeling the heat of the sun and being able to slide down the slide into the clear sea. It made me realise that I really didn't want to leave this beautiful place! We even saw jellyfish and fish in the water which was cool. (Although, made me unwilling to go in the sea that day!) I also participated in aqua aerobics, morning yoga in the pool and beach yoga which was a pretty cool experience! We got a free massage too so that was a brilliant way to start the holiday and was definitely painful at the start as I had some serious knots in there!
The most amazing part of the holiday is when me and my boyfriend had a romantic dinner on the beach. Luckily, noone else that had this deluxe benefit had booked to have this on the same day so we had the private beach to ourselves as well as a private waiter. It was the menu from the greek restaurant which was great for us as we went there at the start of the week and loved it. Before you order, you get bread, olive paste, Tzatziki, hummus and anchovies. Real greek meze.
It was an amazing trip and I recommend the Ikos Oceania hotel if you fancy a romantic holiday to Greece! It's very luxurious and the staff couldn't do enough to make your trip incredible. (This post is not sponsored at all, I just loved it!)
I hope you enjoyed this post and if you want to see the outfits I wore on holiday, here's
a link to my last post where I did a Greece outfit diary!
Alice