отдых рядом с Олимпом holidays near Olympus

Our choice was not accidental, the main criterion was the location of the hotel on the sea with a sandy beach (all inclusive) and the closest location to Meteora (the main goal of our trip) - this place turned out to be the Pieria region, and the hotel was Dion Palace 4+.
Flight by VIM-Avia, departure from Domodedovo at 14:50 and arrival at Macedonia Thessaloniki airport at 16:45 and transfer to the hotel 1.5 hours, i. e. by 17-18 (only for this flight there was a transfer), but unfortunately the flight was delayed due to the late arrival of the plane at Domodedovo for 4 hours and we ended up at the hotel at 23:00, and there was nowhere to drink water, and what is especially disappointing is that we were the only ones who were taken to this hotel and that later the arrivals were met at the reception desk with drinks! ! !
and the bus could not drive up to the hotel at night (due to the densely crowded parking lot, it could not turn around, and reversing along a narrow street at 100m at night is almost impossible for a large bus) and we had to walk 100m with luggage to the hotel (no porter), since we were met by the representative of Mouzenidis.

But in general, knowing that the flight was delayed, it was possible to provide at least a bottle of water for us ...especially since we missed the dinner (and lunch) we paid for at the hotel and through no fault of our own ...Flight back, Luckily, it was on schedule.
I want to warn those departing from Macedonia airport that when you check in and check in your luggage, go through security, you will find yourself in an area with duty free shops, if you go through passport control, then after it, just a waiting room without shops.
Our excursions (on a rented car):
A. Long distance (for the whole day, skipping lunch):
1. Meteora
2.
Petralona Cave (Halkidiki), then in the midday heat, check in to the large shopping center Cosmos (on the way back to Thessaloniki) and lunch, sightseeing of the main attractions of Thessaloniki.
3. Waterpark (WaterLand) near Thessaloniki.
4. Edessa (large waterfall), then Aridea-Loutraki (bathing in the healing thermal mountain springs), visiting Pella (the ancient capital of the Macedonian kingdom) - museum and archaeological zone, fortunately, open until 20h.
The baths are in Loutraki, and not in Aridea, so when driving through Aridea, look for a sign to Loutraki, after driving through Loutraki and driving up to the mountains you will see a large building of the hospital, putting the car forward and on the left you will see a waterfall and baths (2 euros per person).
B. Middle
B. Middle (before or after dinner):
1. Platamonan Castle (open from 9 am to 3 pm).
2. Dion (archaeological part and museum), the museum is open until 15h. , buy a general ticket, to visit both places, it is cheaper. Can be combined with a trip to Olympus.
3. Virgina
4.
Paralia Katerinis (beach town, numerous souvenir shops and fur coat shops). There are many free parking lots along the pier.

5. Katerini center of the Pieria region (the market, open in the morning, is located in the city center behind the park, you can buy cheap cherries, strawberries, watermelons, melons, etc. ), in the evening it’s good to walk around the city center (many cafes), numerous shops work until 21h. If you pass the center and go onto the road towards Elassona, then on the right you will see the Great Wall Chinese store - a lot of quite high-quality clothes and inexpensively, another Chinese Chine Town store is located next to the highway (Athens-Thessaloniki), after the exit from it to Katerini and drive forward to the 2nd roundabout - on the right.
6. Leptokaria (many souvenir shops and clothing stores, railway station).
7.
Litohoro (a town at the base of Olympus), free parking at the entrance to the city from the highway - on the right along a large stone fence and next to the military unit (at its end).
8. Mount Olympus-check-in (from Litochoro) along the serpentine to Prionia (ascent along a short path 6 hours and descent 4 hours, you need appropriate shoes, warm clothes and special sticks). Check-in to Mount Olympus from the side of Dion, pass along the path to the waterfall (100m), returning back on the left, find the path and after 30m you will see an even larger waterfall.


Adviсe:
1. museums are closed on Monday
2. do not break the speed limit - there are a lot of police officers measuring speed on the roads, there are also cameras.
3. It is better to buy water in supermarkets from 1.3 Euro for 6 bottles of 1.5 liters.
4. gasoline is cheaper in cities and towns (1.5 Euro each), and not on the highway 1.7-1.8 euros.
5.
If you run out of gas on the highway (it’s better not to bring it to this), and it’s far from the gas station, there is a special gasoline delivery service, its phone is constantly visible on the highway (on many poles).
6. You can make cheap calls by buying a phone card Face 5 Euro (3 hours of conversation) in a store (next to the hotel):
A. You can call from the hotel room: 0 (external line) -8072003-3 (Russian language) - card code - # - phone number (Russia-007) - #
B. call from a payphone: 8072003-3 (Russian language) - card code - # - phone number (Russia-007)
It is also possible to call from a mobile (instruction on the map).

7. when renting a car, take it with full insurance (against all types of damage) and when signing the contract, calculate the return date yourself (company employees sometimes reduce it) and the initial amount of gasoline (check on the dashboard and make sure that it is written exactly in the contract, company employees tend to overestimate the amount of gasoline so that you return more).

Hotel rating:
A. pros
one.
relatively close location to Meteora
2. sandy beach and clear sea
3. next to Mount Olympus
4. type of food all inclusive
5. free sunbeds and umbrellas on the beach
6. there is a shop (mini market) next to the hotel
7. Free Internet access in the lobby of the main building (WI FI)
8. free 2 computers and also connected to the Internet
9. Spa area
10. presence of representatives of 2 car rental agencies.
11. generally quiet and calm atmosphere.
12. shop on site.
13. comfortable rooms with central air conditioning, large LCD TV, minibar, excellent bathroom with modern plumbing, safe - free of charge, high-quality cleaning daily + change of linen and towels every other day ... , slippers, bathrobes
14.3 swimming pools + 1 for children, playground, 2 tennis courts, football field, 2 volleyball courts, sports equipment.
fifteen.
the constant presence of a Russian-speaking representative of the Mouzenidis-Nina campaign (in the morning and in the evening at the reception at certain hours).
16. Russian-speaking waiters

B. cons
1. the beach was cleaned poorly (a lot of small, medium debris remained)
2. the presence of 3 dogs in the hotel (they often barked in the early morning, making it difficult to sleep and sometimes pounced without biting on those passing by), one more was added to them on the beach and they were seen pissing in the sand and on the sunbeds.
3. there is no large village or town near the hotel where you can walk in the evenings. (although that might be a plus)
4. the hotel has boring and uninteresting animation and the same animators (Greek and English), a mini disco for children is held in a small hall in the basement, and not in the open air, as in most hotels.
5. type of food all inclusive in a lightweight version (all inclusive light-LAL):

1) monotonous breakfast (2 types of scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, sausages, fried ham, boiled eggs, pancakes and scrambled eggs (which the chef fries in front of you), 3 types of juices (orange, grapefruit and apple) that you pour yourself, sausage and 2 types of ham , 2 types of cheese, butter, margarine, canned fruits (peaches, apricots, mixture), yogurts, breakfast cereals, dried fruits, various “gravies” (chocolate, honey, jam), cookies, muffins, tea bags (you pour it yourself), cocoa, thermoses with boiling water and milk, bread, coffee poured by waiters, chopped vegetables and fruits (tomatoes and cucumbers, oranges, apples, watermelons and sometimes kiwi).

2) meager lunch in 2 versions:
A) buffet in the main restaurant (small choice - 2 side dishes (mainly fried potatoes and rice with vegetables), 2 types of meat (pork, fish, chicken), vegetables (chopped cabbage, lettuce), 3 types of oils, sauces, bread, limited drinks - served by waiters - no more than one glass (Pepsi, cola, fanta, sometimes juices, beer, red and white wine), mineral water was also served by waiters without limits, dessert (1 type of cake, sliced ​ ​ watermelon).
B) choice from the menu and full service by the waiters in the Meduza restaurant, which offered the first course (everything in minimal quantities), a choice of 2 second courses, salad, drinks, dessert.

3) dinner is quite varied, drinks (as in lunch - 1 glass).
Naturally, the bar is not included. No ice cream in the restaurant! ! !
6. CATASTROPHICALLY there are not enough sunbeds and umbrellas on the beach. At first there were 24 umbrellas, about 50 sun loungers and this with more than 200 people! ! !
In general, hunting for sunbeds and umbrellas unfolded on the beach (especially among Russian-speaking vacationers), I had to get up early and go for breakfast (from 7:30 a. m. ), because by 8:00-8:30 a. m. the sunbeds and umbrellas were already occupied (many put their things on them and sometimes from night !! ! ), then instead of installing more umbrellas, the old capital umbrellas were removed and replaced by 35 flimsy ones, which, moreover, also fell ...
Sometimes the truth could be accommodated by the pool, which was close to the beach.
7.

Disgusting work of the reception, 2 days trying to take beach towels (on a deposit of 10 euros for one), then not yet, then not anymore ...and when I handed over, they suddenly told me that instead of 30 euros, which I gave them for 3 towels, they wrote me 20 euros and for 3 towels handed over, they wanted to give out 20 euros, but then they gave the money back with a creak (a trifle, but somehow unpleasant) ...also asked for 2 days to open the safe - “now a minute” ...( moreover, all the problems were in contact with one black-haired girl, Evangelista, it seems her name was ... )
8. a lot of swallows (they don’t let you sleep in the morning if you open the balcony) and they also shit on the upper pool (edge ​ ​ of the side) and all this is washed off with water and then goes to the middle pool. But there are few mosquitoes. Swallows also shit on everything that you hang on the balcony to dry ...
9. the almost complete absence of entertainment programs in the hotel (musicians came once a week and sang various famous hits to their accompaniment).
ten.
there were only Greek programs on TV, sometimes in English.
In general, the savings were felt in everything, you can certainly understand the crisis, and this hotel, until recently, did not have all-inclusive ...
11. on an extra bed in the room - a creaky folding bed.
12. from 19h the chlorination of the pools was switched on and it was impossible to swim.
13. another fly in the ointment from greedy hotel owners who want to make money at the expense of vacationers (maybe the crisis is to blame? ) - holding a Greek wedding on the hotel territory (dinner was moved 1 hour earlier and shortened by half an hour, the beach pool was closed in the afternoon, t tables were placed around it, the sunbeds were removed accordingly, which led to a general lack of sunbeds in the afternoon and in the morning, loud music and fireworks - almost all night, and in the morning garbage around the pool and on the beach ...In general, it seemed that it was not a hotel for us, and here we interfere and get in the way with our rest.
fourteen.
many Russian-speaking "kolkhoz" and "merchant" types, who pushed everyone in the restaurant, came to the restaurant in swimming trunks with circles from the beach, which they laid out on the floor around the table, occupied sunbeds under umbrellas on the beach + dragged and occupied sunbeds to the sea + occupied near the swimming pool! ! ! they constantly littered and expressed obscene language ...

15. for 1.5 weeks, children (from Ukraine, Greece) aged 11-13 rested in the camp, who came to sports football competitions - you can imagine what was happening in the restaurant - it was sometimes difficult to approach food ... , well, that There weren't many of them on the beach...
16. a traditional Greek evening was offered on a paid basis with a trip to another hotel
17. excessive chlorination of water in the pool
18. the absence of a lifeguard on the beach and the presence of an empty lifeguard booth, but with a stretcher and a first aid bag at one of the pools.
19. no ice cream in the restaurant
20.
a small selection of sliced ​ ​ fruit in the restaurant (at the beginning of a few days there were uncut apples, oranges, plums, kiwis and pears, and then only sliced ​ ​ apples, pears, oranges, rarely bananas, kiwis and plums, watermelons appeared since July)

Disadvantages of Mouzenidis Travel:
1. choice of an inconvenient-late flight (arrival at the hotel for dinner, i. e. , the loss of almost 5 hours of paid rest) and an airline for which flight delays are very typical (vim-aviation)
2. knowing that our flight was delayed by 4 hours, the company did nothing to compensate us for this somehow (at least by providing a bottle of water). . .