Today's date is Tuesday, 1st September 2009.

Varkas Apartments often seems to get a bad press so I thought it was about time their review status was updated: we have recently returned from staying there and, from the experience of myself and my husband, we believe many of those adverse comments are vastly unwarranted. My husband and I returned from a two-week holiday in Kardamena on 27th August 2009 where we stayed [for both those weeks] in the Varkas Apartments. Our room was on the 2nd floor and was just a studio - very basic as per the brochure - but that's what we paid for. We had an enormously large main room, with 2 x 3 foot beds on one side of the room, a closet and basic dressing table/stool. At this side of the room French windows led out onto a balcony which, itself was a good enough size. The balcony had a dryer, a plastic table and 3 x plastic chairs.

At the other side of our large studio room was a day bed made up to accommodate a 3rd person [had there been one with us] and, nearby was a sink unit with draining board and a 2-ring cooking hob. Cutlery and crockery were adequate enough for me to be able to use fresh ingredients to cook an evening meal - although most people staying at the Varkas would either eat out or spend all their money on booze [their choice!]. En-suite to our studio room was a bathroom, beautifully tiled in a pale soft-green tile with fern motif.

This bathroom was an adequate size and contained a wash-hand basin, with shelf and mirror above, a modern low-cistern WC [with seat and spotlessly clean] together with a shower base and working shower. What was missing in the bathroom [and slightly off-putting at first] was that there was no shower curtain and no hook to hold up the shower. However, if you take a closer look, the bathroom is actually done out as a wet-room so water on the bathroom floor doesn't matter and, when you turn ON the shower - the water absolutely pounds you. I really enjoyed my shower experience - despite not being able to hang up the shower.

As to cleanliness - the whole place was SPOTLESS. [and I'm fussy!]. A lovely cleaning lady arrived every single day during our stay there - apart from Sunday. She washed the floors every single day - not just in our apartment, but throughout all the communal areas as well. I often saw her as I was coming or going - and she was always wiping something. The best of all, she was always so lovely and everything she did was with such a good grace. In our apartment, when she came to clean, the sheets and pillow cases were changed on our beds every other day when she also left us with clean fluffy towels. When we arrived the hairdryer wasn't working, but within 24 hours a brand new one had been provided for us.

We never had any trouble from anybody about anything during our whole 2weeks staying at the Varkas Apartments. It was a bit noisy at times, but then we were on a Twentysomethings' holiday - and we knew that when we booked. However, we also had the foresight to bring a set of foam earplugs with us so that, with the earplugs in at night, neither of us heard so much as a pin drop. We were also fortunate to be placed on the top floor - the ground floor and basement floors were probably the noisiest when the revellers rolled in. The only other noises were the cockerel crowing at around 5am every morning [and he made far more noise than most of the revellers put together] and the church clock that chimed every single morning at 7am.

We have had one of the best holidays we have ever been on. We have been involved in a lot of the activities laid on for the twenty somethings – we went on the Booze Cruise with them, took part in their BBQ and quiz night, and spent a day with them at the Water Park. We drew the line at the Skool Disco although we did go with them on their pub crawl – staying for two bars and then quietly slinking off to a rather nice ice-cream parlour where each of us ordered an ice-cream in a large glass smothered in cream and dotted with fresh strawberries: now that was the best pub crawl ever!
Nevertheless, this is not a holiday for the faint-hearted, although we are not supervised all the time and are free to do our own thing whenever we want to. It is, however, extremely noisy at nighttime, what with drunken youngsters living it up in the bars and then coming back at various night-time and early morning times. During the daytime it is equally noisy, with loud speakers at the nearby pools playing music loudly, each vying with each other: pool parties for the 18 to 30 crowd to our right hand side and dance music to our left hand side. We both love it!
We came on this holiday knowing what to expect. We had both read the small print and we knew what we were letting ourselves in for. However, we did invest in a pair of foam earplugs each before leaving the UK and they have been an absolute Godsend at night: once the earplugs are in, neither of us hear a thing and, to be quite honest, I have had the best nights’ sleep possible since we have been here. By the way - I should have mentioned earlier: I have just celebrated my 57th birthday and my husband is 56, suffering from terminal cancer. We are parents to 5 grown-up kids and have a string of grandchildren. So, if we can do it at our age - you 2wentysomethings should be able to!