Caravel Suites - Adults Only

This was our 5th Return to the Caravel expecting 11 nights of relaxation as we always had before. Food was good as usual, we noticed changes to the way water was served in the restaurant not from bottles, as previous guests had suggested a self serve supply as they had to wait too long for service nice touch stainless steel caraffes. Unfortunately day 4, I was struck down with a gastric illness and spent most of the next 3 days in the bathroom. Day 7 my wife was taken I'll with sickness and diarrhoea so severe she was rushed to hospital where she spent 3 days recovering. Hotel staff and Tui reps were very caring and helpful. Her stay in the hospital was traumatic as they would not supply her with water, i had to bring it in for her and another patient. Hospital charges covered under the travel card but on call Doctor charged us 500 euros for her services. Not going back.

This was our first time in Zakynthos, Tsilivi. Since we like the TUI Blue Adults Only concept, we chose Caravel for one week. It turned out that it was a waste of time and money! When we firstly arrived, the male receptionist seemed very stiff and stressed, kind of aggressive approach. When we checked in to our room, we noticed several things not working - the weak AC, the shifting and unstable shower hot/cold and the door-lock seemed to get stuck, the door-hand to the toilet kind of loose. When we reported this at the Reception, they seemed mostly annoyed and their attitude was like "you're just going to stay for one week, so don't complain". The male receptionist, in particular, seemed not to care at all and behaved very macho towards me, as a woman. We also spoke to two other guests during our stay, that had experienced the same rude approach from this receptionist. The food at the restaurant was usually similar, and also cold. The food didn't taste that much, either to be honest. It became boring, so the Culinarium was a better option. The sunbeds were okay, but tired and worn out. This was also supposed to be an Adults Only hotel, but families with kids were around the hotel area when the beach close supposed to be only for the Caravel guests. Nobody in the staff said anything. We only heard the Fitness instructor point this out during her Aqua Fitness classes by the pool. Sara, the Fitness instructor was overall very professional, strong and inspiring, and we loved her classes! What a woman! She saved our one week of holiday at this Caravel hotel! We both as a couple are very into training, and when we saw that the gym was left careless, with old machines - we only had Sara's Fitness classes to enjoy! She also generously let us to borrow the barbells and weights on the platform, when no classes were scheduled. We wish her lots of joy and all the best! Tsilivi overall, was small for us. Tight with space on the side-walks, very crowded and not that fancy! Very few restaurants we enjoyed with good quality of food. The standards were quite low. We don't recommend this hotel, nor the village Tsilivi to spend your holiday. There are other places that are much better standards, in every way!

I spent a wonderful 10 days in October at the Tui Blue Caravel with my partner. Although the weather wasn’t always great (there were a couple of very rainy days) it was a lovely holiday. -THE ROOM We were in room 620 (View from room 620 (Double Room with Limited Sea View and Balcony) which has been refurbished but has a wet room bathroom not like some of the newer rooms. There is a bit of wear and tear in the room and our door handle was dodgy. The room is clean and has a minimalist feel. There is a plenty of storage space as well as a safe and a fridge. The fridge is stocked with Pepsi, orangeade, lemonade and two big bottles of water, it also gets periodically replenished. There is a TV but there are only 3 English language channels and they are mainly news based. It would be nice if there were some more English channels for the rainy days. As mentioned the bathroom is a wet room style, there is a slight problem with the drainage as the shower does occasionally cause the plug to overflow however there is another drain near the toilet at the water diverts too, its still a strange set up. I would have liked a bidet in the room as toilet paper is discarded in the bin in Greece and this would mean using less toilet paper overall. -FOOD The hotel has 3 places to get food from in October the main buffet restaurant, the snack bar and the Cullinarium (a la carte) restaurant which you can visit once for free during your stay. The main buffet has plenty of options to choose from both meat and vegetarian. In the evenings the central section tends to be mainly vegetarian food. All the food is labelled so you know what it is and has allergen markers for refrence. Although this is a great system there were some items that said they were “minced meat” but with not reference of the kind of meat. It would be useful if the labels said if they were lamb, beef or pork as I don’t eat beef for religious reasons and avoided dishes that could have been beef. The desserts were amazing and I definitely ate a large amount of baklava each day! On some evenings they also wheel out a chocolate fountain! You will most likely also encounter on of the many hotels cats wondering around during food service, the black one who we dubbed “hotel manager” tends to be the only one who comes indoors, he is well behaved and tends to just walk around the dining area but doesn’t tend to bother guests. If he’s not there he’s usually napping in the hotel bar. We only visited the snack bar once on our first day as we had just missed the lunch service it had a selection of sandwiches, salads, pizzas and sides, useful if you need a snack or arrive post lunch like we did. The culinarian was a delightful treat you are asked to select four courses (soup, appetizer, main and dessert) The portion sizes are refined but it feels like the right amount of food, a welcome change from loading up a plate at the buffet. The gazpacho was probably my favourite dish it was very refreshing

I had a full body massage and a facial. Nora was exceptional and really professional and I felt very at ease throughout a long session. Very much appreciated and would definitely recommend. I feel great.

I had a full body massage from Nora and my partner had the same from Angela. It was an hour of complete relaxation and wellness. Nora worked out deep knots in my shoulders which I think must have been there for years. I left feeling better than I did going in and instantly wanting to go back. If you have a chance to get a massage here during your stay at the Caravel hotel, I really recommend it.

This was our third visit to the TUI Blue Caravel, as our previous stays had always been excellent. As expected, the service and food remained of a high standard — the staff were friendly and attentive, and we really couldn’t fault them in that regard. However, we did notice that the hotel is starting to look a little tired in some areas and could benefit from some refurbishment (pathways, rooms). The gym, in particular, is lacking in equipment, especially dumbbells between 5kg and 12.5kg, which limits workout options being a five star hotel this should be considered. One major downside of this visit was the overwhelming number of wasps around the pool, dining, and relaxation areas. It was extremely difficult to relax with so many wasps constantly swarming. Two members of our party were stung, and we saw several guests abandoning their food due to the problem. I have actually never seen anything like it. I understand this is possibly out of the hotels control to some extent, however at the start of the week, there didn’t appear to be any preventative measures in place, although by midweek, the hotel began setting out bottles with sweet liquid to attract them. It’s unclear whether this helped much. We had to try and find our own repellents from local shops to try to make things more bearable. Every body was swatting them away whilst trying to relax, but they were constantly bombarding guests. We feel the hotel could have done more to manage the issue — perhaps spraying in the evenings or early mornings, or locating and removing nests. Unfortunately, this situation really affected our enjoyment and has made us hesitant about returning in the future. Our room was one with a swim up pool and limited sea view. The majority of the day, room 818 is in the shade, and the noise levels from the lounge bar, (which is located along the corridor from the room) carry along the corridor at night. Some nights were really loud. Finally, a note on the spa: The pricing strategy was frustrating. Discounts increased as the week went on, eventually reaching 40% off the day before we left. It would make far more sense to offer reasonable prices from the start, which would likely attract more guests and create a better impression. Overall, while we still appreciate the great service and food, the wasp issue and noise levels left us disappointed this time.