Filoxenia Studios

We have just returned from a stay at the Filoxenia Apartments. Like others we had read some mixed reviews and were slightly apprehensive. As mentioned before there is no air conditioning, which made the nights quite uncomfortable, you could hire a fan for 10 euros a week but when we asked there was none left. However we were told that they should be installing air con next year.

Rooms had everything we needed. Hot water only seemed to appear in the evening but this isn't too bad when it's really hot weather! 

The walk to the beach is not too bad at all, takes about 10 minutes. It was nice to be set back from the main road, in a quiet area unlike the Mythos apartments, which are right on the road.

Angelica did have friends to visit but she was still happy to serve drinks and food and she is there so much of the time, that I can't really blame her. However she did leave the restaurant/bar unattended quite a number of times to go and pick her kids up from school.

For really good authentic food we would recommend the Garden restaurant (street behind the beach front) and Ostria Restaurant (this is one of the beach front tavernas)

If you are happy to sit by the pool and beach for your holiday you can do without a car but if you want to explore I would recommend hiring one. We booked with CBR when we arrived but having chatted to other people it's a lot cheaper to pre book with a company like HERTZ and pick your car up from the airport. If you do hire a car don't book the island delights tour because you can do it all yourselves for half the price.

Katelios is a lovely resort and we had a very relaxing time

 we have just returned from the Filoxenia apartments in Katelios. What a delightful stay we had. True it is not the height of the season and therefor there were not many visitors to the filoxenia other than those staying there but we found the family a real treat. Ileas spent most of his time at the family restaurant but Angelika spent long days at the apartments and on the occasions when she had to leave there was always someone left to attend to the bar. She did have friends who came to see her but this did not detract from her attentiveness should someone need service. The apartments were well tended and she told me that they were hoping to install air con. next year. All in all a good choice. the resort was friendly and good food was to be found. The only Taverna that did not float my boat was the Garden in the back street. service was really long winded even for Greece and the food was no better than anywhere else when it came.

We stayed here at the beginning of August and had a fantastic holiday! After reading some of the comments on this site we were worried that we had booked the wrong apartments. This was our first family holiday with our 14 month old daughter and although the pool is deep even in the shallow end (1 metre) we had no worries with her. The staff were always friendly and the apartments were very clean and cleaned regularly. The resort itself is small but ideal if you are looking for a relaxing break. We ate in most of the tavernas and all of the food was very good and value for money. The 2 tavernas we would recommend would be Ostrias...although on bazookie night you need to get there early as they get very busy.....and Persas which is up the hill from the resort but definately worth going to! We hired a car and would definately recommend it as there are some very nice places to visit...including messolini lake, drogarati caves and myrtos beach! We hired our car through kefalonia rent-a-car which was all arranged via email before we left home and we had no problems with the car. Another taverna worth a visit is in Skala...we found Pikionas purely by chance but they have a lovely pool with sun beds free of charge and the ommelettes were very tasty!!! Enjoy!!! Oh and have a mythos or 3 for us....!!!!!!

We have just come back from these appartments and we had an amazing time!  We thought the apartments were excellent and the pool was lovely.  The appartments were set a little out of the main town but a 10 minute walk will have you at the shops, bars and restaurants.  The owners were really friendly (ignore other comments).  Their restaurant "Medusa" was good although our favourite by far was Katlios Taverna very close to the beach and a park great for the little ones (our daughter who is six loved this).

We liked the apartments and would go back again. It is not to far from resort, just helps you work up an appetite and walk off your dinner after. They are the cleanest apartments we have ever stayed at and we found the family who run it helpful and friendly. We had a few good laughs with angelica who works behind the bar and she even invited our daughter to her son's birthday party, did not find her misrable at all as some people have suggested. The restarant they have in the village also provides excellent food and if you want to adjust the meals on the menu to suit you they will do there best, they also serve jacket potato and veg instead of chips if you want which makes a change.

   31st July 2006

We stayed at these apartments for two weeks, the nearest supermarket is about a 10 min walk away but its a bit  of a hilly hike especially in the heat (up in the 40's while we were there!)

hiya, i went to the apartments last summer (july 05), we all wasnt looking forward to it at all because of the comments! there was 6 of us in total, we had the rooms above the bar, and we have to say that they were the best ones for the views in the morning, and felt like the biggest!!

Just got back from a week in Katelios staying at the Filoxenia and I definitely recommend these apartments.  They were lovely.  The rooms are really modern with great views over the pool and down to the sea.  Also had a double bed instead of the normal twins.  Laundry was changed 3 times during the week, which for Greece is pretty good!  The only thing lacking was aircon but for €1 a day you can hire a fan.  The pool is great too and there are plenty of sunbeds and brollies.  A torch isn't really needed for night-time as the road has street lights.  The walk down the hill to the resort centre is quite pleasant really, just take it steady in the sun!  The owner also has a restaurant on the seafront called Medusa, so don't expect to see him before about 10.30 in the morning - he always looks so tired bless him!  If you are looking for a really good, relaxing holiday, you have found it here...........

Due to late booking and the fact the Efrosini was full myself , my son and nephew are staying here 2nd August, the post all seem to say either it was good or it was bad, can anyone tell me what the place is like who have been recently.  My parents go twice a year to Katelios but have not stayed here, although they do agree the are is very nice and worth a visit.  They use Costas for car hire, find him very friendly and helpful.

My mum and i went  for two weeks last june / july, and enjoyed ourselfs. At the apartments there were far too many crickets, so i would recomend buying plug-in bug repellers, in fact i would say that they are an essential.  But our apartment was clean (apart from an infestation of ants at the beginning which the owner  cleared up for us. My mum and i loved the large, blue kidney shaped pool, we bought a lilo for 8 euros and had the best fun ever! The smaller boy of the owners was often in and around the pool, and he could stand up on his lilo! The 10 minute walk to the bars and restaraunts is not bad, but a torch is a definate must for late at night!   

We stayed at the Filoxenia in October 2003, the accommodation is average but the rudeness of the owners would stop us using the place again, if you are not spending money in Kefalonia don’t expect politeness.
On our last day the owners treated us and the other people staying there as if we had served our purpose and were extremely rude, Katelious is a nice resort that is being spoiled by the rush to get onto the tourist gravy train that EU money has given them.

Julie and Martin

Hy we are flying out to the Filoxenia Apartments on the 13th of July for 7 days and was wondering if all apartements have good views or if some have worse ones than others. I hope it will be lovely as most of the comments sound good and all we need is friendly people a cleain accomodation with a great balcony and view to enjoy in the mornings and evenings.

we liked this accomadation and had a great time.

have just come back from two weeks at the filoxenia and enjoyed it very much. Nice pool and sunbeds, owners wife friendly and the accomodation very clean and nice. The walk to the village isnt too far and was much less than other apartments in the area. Rep Lesly from olympic hols very good and no complaints at all.

I am going to stay soon at these apartments so any more info would be appreciated. thanks

Kirsten,

thanks for your views on the apartments...I too was dreading going there after reading about the cleanliness and pool area...we are due out on thursday for a week so i will soon see for myself...but at least i am not worrying about it anymore!!

I felt i had to add some comments about the filoxenia apartments at Katelios having just returned home after a fantastic 2 week holiday there.

I was absolutely dreading this holiday having read Sue Christian's comments to the point where if i had not read these comments only two days before we went away i would have gone to the travel agents to see if we could change our accommodation.

Fortunately I did not do this and our experience of the Filoxenia was very different - it was a quite chilled out place in a very unspoilt and beautiful part of the island. The owners the guests and the cleaner (!) were all friendly. The pool bar was very popular in the evenings and Angela (behind the bar) although obviously not keen to be your best mate is nevertheless friendly and pleasant. Her friends do come to the bar in the evening but they are all pretty friendly too. Bar prices the same as any other bar - cocktails are a bit more pricey but we are talking 50 p more pricey!

Her kids do come to the pool sometimes in the afternoons and while quite lively are very sweet.

The apartments themselves are fab - we couldn't complain - very large - we had a balcony and sea view and loads of wardrobe space and in our opinion - clean.

Katelios is pretty quiet but with good restaurants especially Persas restaurant which is about a 5 minute walk away. It is about a 10 minute walk down to the beach but its pretty easy. We would recommend hiring a car to do some exploring of what is a beautiful island. But don't be put off - the Filoxenia is great and we had a brilliant holiday!

We have just returned from Kefalonia. We stayed 2 weeks in the Filoxenia. Although Katelios was lovely and unspoilt and quiet the Filoxenia is not to be recommended. The apartments are very basic although the bins are emptied every day and they are 'cleaned' every couple of days. The sheets and towels were changed twice. The apartments are reached by a 15 minute walk up a very stoney dusty track which is quite hard in the heat of the sun.
Those things can be accepted as this is Greece after all. The swimming pool is very big could do with cleaning more often but it is very deep. Its starts off at one and half metres for about 6 foot then its drops suddenly to 3 metres for the rest of the pool. Not very good unless you are a confident swimmer. The worst complaint about the apartments is the owners wife Angela, she runs the pool bar. She treats all the guests with disdain and the prices in the pool bar are very high compared to elsewhere. Her children arrive in the afternoon and take over the pool jumping in wherever anyone is sunbathing and taking all their toys into the pool with them. They are just allowed to do this but she constantly shouts at them at the top of her voice all afternoon. She will cook them a meal but only offers sandwiches to guests. In the evening no guests go to the pool bar for a drink partly because of the prices but mainly because her friends all arrive and sit and watch soaps on the TV and make a lot of noise until the early hours. If you do make the mistake of calling for a drink before bed you are not made welcome and treated with the same disdain, served then ignored. All the guests we spoke to had the same complaints. Also there is no courtesy room if you are not leaving till late in the day. You are expected to wash and change in the toilets, and there is nowhere to put your luggage. It felt as if she was doing you a favour letting you stay there at all and she put no effort into ensuring guests have a good time, she really couldnt care less. We would go to Katelios again but not to stay at the Filoxenia. I would just like to mention that this is the first time that I have ever felt the need to complain about my holiday accommation.

We are staying in the Filoxenia in June for 2 weeks for our first visit to Kefalonia.
Please can anyone give me any information about this place as there are only 2 lots of info on the website re the Filoxenia and they are both slightly different.
As neither of us drive we would welcome any info about getting around the Island.
Thanks

Apartments were clean albeit basis (usual Greek standard), beds were really uncomfortage. Nice pool, although it could have done with cleaning more often. Pool bar was very pricey and very unfriendly, but overall the apartments were ok.

Filoxenia Apartments are spacious/clean and has all you need for a self catering holiday. We liked the fact that it was plenty big enough and you have loads of space to hang your clothes. It is in a quiet location.