Mark Warner Holidays Avis 403

Just back from a week in May with extended family, 7 adults 4 kids. Kids clubs were brilliant, took the 4 year old windsurfing and paddle boarding! And the evening movie club is great - leave the kids there supervised while we had dinner.
Unfortunately the swimming pools were freezing which was a real disappointment. The kids could last about 5 mins before we had to get out and without the pools there isn’t a huge amount to do with young kids. One small playground and the beach had lots of seaweed so not great for sandcastles etc.

Very limited lunch options - we were quite tied to the hotel because of kids naps etc so couldn’t venture out to nearby town for lunch so had to eat at the tavern in the hotel which was quite expensive. Would be good to have another option for lunch.

Evening meal was a large buffet which was great food but the enclosed restaurant felt quite canteeny and very busy - I’m not sure how it would work in peak season.

Two padel courts and three tennis courts again meant things got busy and I imagine at peak season it might be hard to book a court.

The childcare staff were fab, particularly Ellie in the toddlers room.

Unfortunately I had a road accident on Wednesday with a group led road bike activity caused by the mechanical failure of one of the brakes on a downhill stretch. This resulted in cuts and a very bruised calf stopping my involvement in any activities for the remaining 4 days. Generally we greatly enjoyed the holiday
with good location, hotel, facilities and staff (MW team and local team).

Fantastic facilities, well organised sports and enthusiastic and friendly staff. Location was ideal and the overall experience was fabulous. But please build more Padel courts at Paleros - there were queues of people at every social game, with at least 8 people waiting. By contrast, the tennis courts were relatively empty. You need at least 4 Padel courts.

A wonderful week in Greece. Playing padel and pickleball was great fun, and the adults-only pool was a bonus. Cycling to the local village was fun, on the mountain bikes provided. The food was varied and delicious - international cuisine with a Greek slant. Good to meet like-minded folk too.

An incredible holiday ☀️ the Mark Warner staff were all absolutely incredible.

Kids clubs were fantastic and children’s movie nights meant we could enjoy dinner in the restaurant. So many activities for all ages and interests. Would highly recommend.

We are writing this review to express our extreme disappointment with Mark Warner's handling of a recent issue regarding lift closures in resort. This experience has left us feeling seriously undervalued as customers and has highlighted a disturbing lack of transparency and customer care.

Despite paying for lift passes that were unusable for a full day due to closures, Mark Warner's response has been wholly inadequate. They offered a significantly lower level of compensation compared to what was available to customers of other tour operators, and what was clearly stated in the lift company’s own terms and conditions. When we questioned this disparity, Mark Warner refused to provide evidence to support their position, citing "internal documents." This lack of transparency is unacceptable.

Their response felt dismissive and demonstrated a clear lack of concern for our loss. The offered refund, even after repeated follow-ups, was slow to materialise.

Our experience with Mark Warner has been deeply disappointing, and we urge potential customers to proceed with extreme caution. Be wary of the finer details, question their terms and conditions, and be prepared for a frustrating experience if something goes wrong. Mark Warner does not prioritise its customers, and you may find yourself worse off booking with them. We have been on summer and winter holidays with Mark Warner numerous times. Sadly, they are no longer the company they used to be. The whole booking experience with their Head Office was miserable, due to a lack of concern for the customer at every point. We will not be booking with Mark Warner again as a direct result of this experience.

Holiday in Lesvos was not as described, lacking many of the activities advertised and then had huge issues trying to complain with no one bothering to reply to my complaints and loosing my emails. I have been told on 2 occasions that the complaint had been logged but it was not possible to speak to anyone but it would be dealt with in 28 days. Very disappointed all round as I had great expectations of my much needed post cancer holiday and not even having a response has continued to leave a bad taste.

Hands down the best family skiing holiday. The staff are absolutely fantastic. Everyone greets you with a smile. Particular shout out to Kat, Jack, Ally and Hannah. Our 5 year old has absolutely loved kids club. The Nannies are fantastic and he has already asked us if we are coming back next year. The food has been exemplary, good choices each evening and super tasty. We will absolutely be coming back. Could not recommend more highly!

Currently in holiday at the Hotel Ecrin with my children and grandchildren. What an unbelievable experience. Fantastic hotel in a great location. Excellent staff who just can’t do enough to help. Food has been first class all week. The childcare for the grandchildren both in and out of ski school first class. We will be back.

My partner and I visited the Mark Warner Phokaia Beach Resort and both suffered from food poisoning due to major food hygiene issues. On the first day I witnessed a fly laying eggs on seafood sticks and at most mealtimes we saw flies landing on both cold food (including cooked meat and cheese) and hot food (including pizza). Hot food was not kept suitably hot; even when we arrived for lunch at 12:30 and dinner at 19:30 most food was lukewarm, including meat and fish. Sushi, with rice, was not kept refrigerated and had candles surrounding it.

As a result of having food poisoning we were confined to our room for a full day (with the world’s worst WiFi) and couldn’t leave the resort for the duration of the holiday. We ate nothing but bland food and even that didn’t improve our symptoms. I have never experienced this sort of illness before, whilst abroad or in the U.K., with symptoms lasting the duration of the holiday and continuing when we got home.

After my partner became ill on the second evening, I spoke to a member of the Mark Warner management team the next morning. She displayed very little empathy and was clearly not pleased at my mentioning of food poisoning. When we got home I contacted Mark Warner customer services to inform them of the food hygiene issues, as we were concerned that other people would suffer in the same way we did.

We had the misfortune of having our complaint “dealt with” by Gordon, head of customer service. I have never in my life experienced such shocking customer service. His emails were rude, dismissive, and exceptionally arrogant. There is too much to mention here but essentially he categorically denied that the resort has any food hygiene issues. He said that there were no flies around the food because they have an “air conditioning vent” that stops them coming in. He also said our illness could be explained by the fact that “mixing meats” causes an upset stomach in British holidaymakers. For context I am pescatarian. Both myself and my partner have eaten food in hotels abroad many times, including in Turkey, and never been ill.

We spent good money on a holiday where we couldn’t make use of the facilities, enjoy the food, or leave the resort. If you’d rather not get food poisoning on holiday, avoid Phokaia Beach Resort. If, in the event of experiencing any issues on holiday, you’d like your concerns to be dealt with professionally and satisfactorily, then avoid all Mark Warner holidays.

(If Gordon responds to this review, please take what he says with a massive pinch of salt as he will be desperately trying to cover his own back)

We recently returned from a Mark Warner holiday that, unfortunately, fell short of expectations due to serious issues with the cycling equipment and the handling of our concerns.
Our primary reason for choosing this holiday was to enjoy cycling, which we communicated clearly during the courtesy call two days before departure. However, upon arrival, we discovered that all the bikes had been fitted with incorrect inner tubes — significantly undersized for the tyres. This led to a tyre blowout due to an overinflated inner tube just 5km into our first ride, which could have been catastrophic had it occurred on a downhill stretch rather than uphill.
When we returned the bike, staff acknowledged that all bikes had been fitted with the wrong tubes due to a supplier error. We were advised to contact the main office, which we did, but received no response. With no resolution offered, we had no choice but to take a taxi 50 miles to the nearest town to purchase the correct inner tubes ourselves — at considerable expense.
This situation was not only frustrating but deeply concerning. We have a heightened sensitivity to bike safety after a traumatic accident in our family last year, and we felt our concerns were not taken seriously. Had we been informed in advance that the bikes were not fit for use, we would have brought our own.
For a premium holiday, the lack of adequate equipment and poor customer service was extremely disappointing. This experience was in stark contrast to our previous holidays with Neilson, where equipment and support have always been excellent. If you're considering a cycling holiday, we strongly recommend Neilson over Mark Warner.

easy booking, excellent value for money, lovely resort excellent facilities. wide varity of food to a high standard but often cold. This was the only down side to a brillant place and holiday

Flights were fine but sadly, the lack of information regarding the delayed return and the lack of staff presence at the airport was unprofessional. We are certain that the resort manager (George) knew that our flight was still in London when he packed us off on the transfer buses, knowing that we would be stuck at the airport without support for several hours. Not his problem!

Accommodation: Having opted not to pay a premium for a sea or pool view room, we were very disappointed to find our room sparsely furnished compared with other rooms in the same block. This issue was immediately brought to the attention of the resort manager who, despite promises to personally check the room, did absolutely nothing about it. Only when we complained (again) to the hotel manager, later in the week, did George and the hotel manager visit the room and then argued about whose fault it was, when the missing furniture had been damaged/removed and finally took action to provide additional furnishing (two coffee tables from the bar)!

Boats: As this was a key feature of the activity holiday, it was extremely disappointing to find that there were insufficient boats available to take out. When questioned why, we were told that it was late in the season and many of the boats had been broken, were missing essential spare parts to fix them…and none of the staff were skilled or capable enough to effect the necessary repairs. Additionally, the water sports activities did not start until 09:00 and stopped for 1.5 hours between 12:30 and 14:00 due to a lack of staff. We did not have a discounted holiday or any expectation of there being any material or personnel issues.

The restaurant and bar areas were good and aided mingling with fellow guests, however, the evening entertainment was lack lustre and bar prices were high. Food was plentiful and, generally, of an acceptable standard. Restaurant staff were friendly and attentive.

Overall, we were both surprised and disappointed by the apparent fall in standards compared with our previous Mark Warner Holiday experiences. The resort manager was inattentive, unresponsive and clearly distracted by having his partner, child, mother and mother-in-law staying at the resort!!

Emailed customer service about a large party of 20 from Cheltenham who decided to hold a party in the family room next to us on the last night. It started at 10:15pm with music, singing and was eventually shut down by the hotel manager after she got out of bed twice at 11:15pm
This isn't acceptable for a family holiday.
This party travel with Mark Warner every year and they refused to pay the bar prices and preferred to be cheap and save money by visiting the supermarket and then inviting all of their party to one room.
Head of Customer Service told me that this party travel with Mark Warner a lot and i was the first to complain. (This is despite us hearing other guest complaining...clearly i was the first to officially complain)
He believes he has provided an honest assessment.

He conveyed his regret with this. 'That is not to say i don't sympathize with what you have written but i do need to access your complaint within the overall context'

The party were more sheepish on the plane when one of them sat next to me and i asked if they thought their behavior was acceptable. Sorry there was no CS

So much potential, but unfortunately falling short in so many ways.
Hotel was clean, staff were helpful, rooms were ok, albeit a little tired. (E.g. chipped floor tiles, tarnished mirrors and metal sanitary ware, fridges broken inside, pictures missing off the wall.) I can't fault the hotel/restaurant/cleaning staff who seem to work very hard.
Grounds were ok, but grass is not as good as I've seen elsewhere, with thistles and rough ground around the padel courts. An old caravan and a boat that's fallen over by the padel courts does not improve the ambience.
Bar prices were extortionate. €12 for cocktails, €6.50 for a large beer (only €4.50 in Lardos bars), although the hotel reduced the beer price to €5.50 midway through my stay. The snack bar daytime beers were only served in what looked like 0.4l plastic beakers which were much smaller than the hotel bar evening glass beer mugs but were still the same price. (The menu said they were 0.5l beers.) Unfortunately, there was no happy hour other than a basic cocktail of the day (still €9), so zero social atmosphere in the bar after the beach closed at 5:30pm. (Most guests seemed to go back to their room and drink on their balcony before going to dinner.) [Update: Changed after I left to be an hour at the snack bar from 5pm, but unfortunately, this does not help the tennis/padel players who finish at 6pm! A happy hour at the main bar from 6-7pm would be nice and would stop everyone returning to their rooms/balconies!]
Food was fine, but just a buffet and not 4*. Not as varied as previous years. Less freshly made desserts and even the ice cream selection and cones are much poorer than previous years. Breakfast used to have coffee served and beautiful fresh orange juice. Now it's just a make-your-own coffee machine and flavoured, watery, squash that tastes like it's made with desalinated water.
Evening entertainment was a couple of quizzes and a dj twice per week. No live bands or shows any more.
I heard many complaints about the boats, although I didn't use them, from incorrectly rigged boats and worn cleats and bungs left out. The intermediate/advanced windsurf boards were very old and worn, needing new footstraps as a minimum. On one of the rare windy days I went out, there were insufficient sails. Nothing between a 5.5m and 8.0m sail in the rack, even though there were only half a dozen windsurfers out. Sailing area is 'challenging'; steeply shelving stony beach (nasty for windsurfers launching in bare feet), narrow area to get out between the powerboat lane and very annoying moored padelboards(!) and moored-up dingies, wind shadow from adjacent 'mountain' ridge and when the usual cross-off or off-shore breeze, gusty winds that change direction as you go out, frequent chop, motor boats pulling sofas, etc. and large boats passing through, plus too small when you do eventually get out, if you're a competent sailor!
The 3 tennis courts were fine, as hard courts go, (but awful tennis balls). The padel courts (and balls) were good, although sand was coming through and starting to make them slippery in places and I saw a few players slip over. There were not enough tennis coaches this year and no-one was running the afternoon social padel sessions.
Supposedly, the mountain bikes were poor according to the MW staff, but they seemed pretty good to me. However, this meant there were no mountain bike trails, just simple riding along tarmac roads! Nothing for mountain bikers, just road bikers.
Extremely disappointed that there are still no cycling or watersports activities on changeover day. You can still swim in the pool, go to the gym(!) or play padel/tennis in the 40°C heat but no MW person is around if you keel over on one of the courts with heatstroke! There is also no-one manning the bikes so you cannot use the road or mountain bikes even to cycle a couple of miles to the local villages of Lardos or Pefkos for a beer! According to George, the MW resort manager, it is a head office directive, but Aeolian Village and Phokaia were allowing use of the bikes last year when I visited! Should have a MW person to hand out bikes and an emergency person on call for any issues imho. Beach is not manned, so no watersports at all! No boats, no windsurfing. Not even paddle-boarding or canoeing! But you CAN swim in the sea, although there are no staff for safety. I wouldn't expect any lessons, but surely they can afford one more waterfront person and spread the days off so there are 6 'skeleton' staff to man the beach on changeover day.
Finally, be aware that even though the local supermarket is half the price of the hotel for drinks, it is approx 4(!) times the price of the supermarkets in Lardos village (5-10min bike ride) or lower Lardos (a 200m walk via the road through the Lindos Princess hotel just along the beach).

This was our first MW holiday. The best thing about the holiday were the other guests. All energetic, interesting people. Next was the quality of the water sports (sail, windsurf , paddle). I loved the quality of the kit, the instruction and the races, but most of all you could jut rock up and take out a boat or windsurf whenever you wanted. The food was plentiful and varied. If i were to be picky i would say a slight upgrade on that front would not go a miss. The drink was expensive but i have a feeling turkey in general is pricy for booze, so dont forget the dutyfree !

Really great staff (Natasha and Mark) plus all the sport teaching staff. Cleaners and kitchen staff all lovely.

One constructive feedback point would be to have a laundry room to wash and dry kit. Room not really suitable to do a small wash.

Great holiday. The only thing that spoilt it was being ripped off by the photography company. We purchased a digital photo for 13 euros.When we returned home we downloaded the photo which was very poor quality.Not the high spec photo shown on the sales team computer.I wrote to the sales team and they have not even had courtesy to respond.
Will leave it a few more days and if I do not hear from them,I intend to leave poor review to warn other customers. Really pleased we did not purchase more photos!
Otherwise brilliant holiday, great resort and would highly recommend to others.

Great resort where George the resort manager is very visible.

All the mark Warner and the greak startwere great I especially mention Rosie soffia and will I all talked to Alex of the bar starf..I was at the rodes hotel .,holiday ref su123559..
I used many of the activities they were good an enjoyable..at times I am a jam short of My donut..every one was Great..