Tara Beach Hotel

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Just returned from 10days at Tara Beach Hotel,in Skala. I have to say it was the BEST place i have ever stayed at. The staff are the most helpful and friendliest people you would ever wish to meet. They work flat out in all temperatures and always have a smile and are glad to help in any way. The location is ideal .The sea 2mins across the road..Town 10 mins up a small hill or there are intermittent steps under the shade of the Pine cones.Once there its a gentle walk to all amenities including gift shops, supermarkets, pharmacies,coffee shops offering wi fi etc etc.Will be going every year now.

Stayed for the first time last year.. And was absolutely brilliant.. Hotel was just what we wanted. Next to the beach and skala town.. We be back this may

Stayed at Tara Beach August 2008. We hadn't stayed in Skala before and ended up there on a last minute booking. Arrived late in the evening after delayed flight, made our own way from the airport. Warm welcome and full assistance with our bags from the manager, plus complimentary cold drink....a nice touch. Room smallish but very pleasant and quite cool - though air-con needed later in the week as it got v.v.hot. Fridge, bathroom fittings etc. all working fine.

I have to agree this hotel is realy well kept if a little basic but the staff are great .Violetta in the little bar by the olive press,  being so helpfull and nothing being to much trouble.the gardens are nice and always tidy and they do a great cheese toastie!!!! and an excellent lunch menu.

fantastic location.....rooms basic but very quiet.....beautiful gardens.....pool ruined by noisy teenagers (parents were on the beach)!!!!   would not re-book the tara but scala fab!!!

Just returned from our second stay at Tara Beach and once again we`ve had a wonderful holiday.  Staff still friendly and welcoming and nothing is too much trouble.  Set also in such a beautiful location, with the beach no further than you could throw a flip flop I can`t think of anywhere I would rather stay.  Some of the bigger hotels further along the road do look bigger and more modern but seem to lack the personal touch you get at Tara Beach.  Our room was next door to an elderly couple who have been visiting for 23 years, what more can you say?!  It does seem that people seem to return here year after year meeting up with friends they have made on previous holidays, and it makes for a great atmosphere. 

We simply cannot wait to go back!   

Tara Beach is a truly like staying in a garden, there are beautiful blooms everywhere you turn including heavy laden fruit trees. The room are clean & well kept - Air Conditioning is offered at 6 Euros per night but to be honest we didn't need it.

I really enjoyed my stay here at Tara Beach and would reccomend it to people wanting a quiet and picturesque hotel.

 Well what more can i say than it was uterly fantastic!! i can see that many other people who have commented on this site have writen poor reports on tara beach however i feel totaly opppitiste to any of these negative views. My time at tara beach was amazing!! even though i am young, the staff made me feel more than welcome at their hotel, i had a lot of fun with my parents and the enviorment fitted all of us perfectly. Im sure we would all agree of not having any hesitations to return! thanks to everyone for making our stay so great and peacfull!!

We have just got back fromTara beach and had a lovely time  All the staff very freindly nothing too much trouble. It would be nice if the  Management spoke to you. but apart from that it doesn't spoil your holiday, have breakfast outside in a beauitful garden, sharing your bread with the sparrows that sit on the chairs waiting for some breakfast.

Myself, my husband and our 7 year old daughter have just returned from a fantastic week staying at Tara Beach Hotel.  Everything was wonderful, from the welcome drink on arrival, to the polite and helpful staff.  The grounds around the hotel are stunning, full of beautiful flowers!  The location is ideal, a hop and a skip from the beach and a 3 minute stroll into town.  Yes, our room was basic, but it was cleaned well each day and was very comfortable with a lovely view of the gardens and the sea, and yes breakfast was a little unimaginative, but what the heck! with such a fantastic location it could be forgiven for all of this! 

Have to agree with Neils view from Oct'04, beauty really is only skin deep. The hotel surroundings were breathtaking and the rooms served their purpose as a base (but were kept clean), but the hotel management leave a lot to be desired once they find out you are not going to spend every wakeing moment there with your money. Found the manageress to be quite snotty on a couple of occations when asking questions, and with the ammount of buisness they are doing, could really afford a new toaster with ease. Pool and surroundings were beautiful, clean, and well maintained. It is a pity that such a lovely place to stay was let down by management, as the rest of the hotel staff were always pleasent

Oops - should have put October 2004

Well if we were apprehensive about this hotel our fears were dispelled as soon as the coach stopped outside. The first thing you see is the taverna tables at the front with the " daily special board " and then it hits you the front gardens are full of flowering shrubs and plants with well kept lawns, alongside is the pool bar which has a large flowering Hebes which now acts as a roof for the outside part of the bar. We were then shown to reception by our rep where we were welcomed with a complimentary drink while we booked in. Upon checking into our room we were pleased to see we had a fridge, telephone, hairdryer, telephone and mossie net so you needed only to shut the shutters at night and not the whole doors. After depositing cases and changing into more casual gear we made our way down to the bar to savour the cool Mythos, as it was late evening when we arrived we didn`t bother to eat just a couple of drinks and off to bed to see what the following day would bring. Early next morning we opened the doors and we were surprised to see that from the terrace we had well maintained lawns with Lime, lemon and orange trees which we could reach out and touch. Having had breakfasts on other islands we thought we knew what to expect how wrong can you be. Self service breakfast with a a selection of fruit juices, fresh water melon, cereal, bread, (which you can toast if you wish) ham, cheese and selection of jams, marmalades, tea and coffee you can keep going back for more if you wish. You can order bacon and eggs for 3 euros ( we had this one morning it was delicous ) or you can have full english fry for 5 euros. The wasps are about but they are nothing to worry about as long as you don`t upset them
The pool is well maintained and clean with a large amount of loungers and parasols so no need to reserve here well not during September anyway. Tara Beach has it`s own loungers and parasols on the beach opposite the hotel which cost 6 euros per day we used these on many a day. All the rooms are cleaned daily and bins emptied, linen and towels are changed twice weekly. This hotel has exceeded our wildest expectations in terms of Greek ones and we are already planning next years visit to this hotel.
Our thanks and warm wishes to Nick and all of his staff especially Petros and Violetta . Enjoy your`e winter break you all deserve it.

Regards
Don and Rosemary

The public areas of the hotel look lovely - pool, gardens etc. These are available for anyone to use, whether you stay here or not. But the beauty is only skin deep.

Stayed in Tara beach for two weeks. We first had a downstairs room near the back, which seemed like a dungeon. The manager was helpful in moving us to a larger front room with a balcony and a nice sea view - what a mistake that was! We were woken every morning between 5 and 7am by noises from inside the hotel, the whole place seems designed to echo to every closing door, flushing toilet or clunking air-conditioner, and if you make it through to 7am then the staff have to start preparing breakfast - every kitchen noise, scraping chair or clanging gate. We left here exhausted and tetchy after 2 weeks of sleep deprivation.

Also the breakfast is awful - I have a fantasy in my head that the way it works is that the old coffee grounds go in the breakfast coffee, then when it becomes totally diluted and tasteless they call it tea. Finally, when it is reduced to pale grey water, they chill it and call it grapefruit juice. However, here's a trick - we asked for Cappucino every day, got a decent cup of coffee from the espresso machine, and although we gave our room number we were never asked to pay extra for it, I made a point of asking for our drinks bill but nothing was wanted.

Bring bathroom towels, the ones supplied are like sandpaper, which is common in Greece.

Staff generally reasonably efficient but unfriendly, one even served us and took the money while arguing on the mobile phone. I think we'd caught them at the end of a long season.

The beach was nice for swimming and snorkelling, but not ideal for kids, too stoney and steep, most adults were wearing shoes to go in the sea. Most children went to the swimming pools, but nearby Mounda beach (turtle beach) is ideal - shallow sand, not many people, and a nice beach cafe called Wind.

Skala itself is ideal if you want a quiet, sunny place to consume your English breakfast and dine on burgers, and watch English football on Sky, but if you want something a bit more Greek head for the North of the island, or go to neighbouring Ithaca. Some of the Northern towns are expensive, but Sami is cheaper than Skala and ideal for exploring the island and for ferries to ithaca and the mainland, and has one of the best beaches on the island just out of town at Antisamos.

Recommend breakfast (but not dinner) at The Pines, lunch at the Lucky House next to the Tara Beach hotel, and dinner at Sokrates - wonderful greek food at a reasonable price, and for footy fans the owner used to be in the youth squad at Panathiniakos. For a fish restaurant, Romantza in Poros is hard to beat, ask to see the fish in the fridge before you order, and they also have a range of meat and veggie dishes.

If you must come to Skala, I'd recommend the similar standard Paspalis Hotel down the road, or stay in an apartment and use the Tara beach pool for free.

For us, it is a lovely island, but we came to the wrong resort. Many people seemed happy, so we blame ourselves for choosing poorly.

tara beach hotel was perfect. out of hotel on to beach,it was so close to skala when we came back from the town the hotel wasin front of you in no time. a nice relaxed holiday, TRY SALLY BAR FOR A RELAXED EVEING
MAC

Tara Beach has the best location in Skala. The staff are friendly and courteous and the gardens are stunning. The pool is clean and large and it's a pleasure to walk across the road and be right on the beach. The township is a 2 minute walk. My only reservations about Tara Beach is the breakfast, which really needs a bit of effort, and the walkways leading up to the rooms - they were very slippery and hazardous. Otherwise it was perfect and I would definitely return.

We have recently returned fronm 2 weeks holiday booked through Argo at the Tara Beach Hotel.
The position is great and close to all amenities, the staff are courteous and friendly, the gardens well maintained and the pool although cool was warming up nicely. However the food was mediocre and quite pricey! Our main complaint was the room - dark north facing and catching no sun - great in high summer perhaps but not in May! The room ws cold and musty smelling and the bed felt decididly damp. We had to leave the terrace doors open even when we left the room to air it for the next visitors. No effort was made by management even after out complaint to improve the situation for us although new mattresses were put in about 1/2 hour after we vacated and waited for the pick up coach.

Stayed at Tara Beach for two weeks. Lovely and peaceful and quiet in beautiful gardens. Pool great.
However, we have visited a number of Greek Islands and stayed in a range of appartments and hotels and these rooms were the worst we'd stayed in. Small, dated and furniture old. Towels, sheets and bins were changed on a regular basis, but the room was never cleaned, so by the end of the week it was very dusty. Breakfast was not great either, but ok. This however didn't spoil our holiday as the resort of Scala was excellent. Tavernas and beach superb. Hired a jeep and travelled around most of the island and thought Scala was the best resort. Definately recommend Skala and Kefalonia...beautiful. Snorkeling and watersports was also the best at Scala. Just dissappointed with the hotel.

We stayed at the Paspalis but eat regularly at the Tara Beach. Fantastic service from Costas and the food was good and reasonably priced. Great location overlooking sea and beautiful gardens with sea breeze keeping it cool in the hot summer evenings - much more comfortable than some of the town eateries.

Great location right on sea front. Super pool which was never over busy. Rooms clean & reasonable size but the towels were as rough as hell(don't know who did the laundry)! Superb gardens ablaze with colour.
The breakfast is a waste of time, but so what.The food at the hotel was not the best but there are loads of top quality eating places in Skala.If you want a fridge(you can't possibly survive 2 weeks without one it costs 30 Euros) & the air con. was 80 Euros I think, although we managed without I don't think I could in July or August.
The bar & restaurant staff are superb especially Natasha & Costas who were so friendly.
Overall the best of all the Greek islands we have visited with the best quality food & the friendliest locals & from our travels around we thought Skala was the best resort to be staying in.

TARA BEACH WAS EXCELLENT GOING BACK AGAIN

Good size room and excellent beach front location Good pool and only a short walk from the centre Would recommend we went on B&B basis good base for exploring all the great tavernas

we didnt actually stay here but friends did. the food was ok i didnt enjoy any meals here, my partner said it was ok but not the best we'd had. the staff were ok but at times they were quite annoying and pushy