Blue Bay Escape Resort, Saint Spiridon, corfu - Review

Okay, time for a few of the pictures from the holiday at the aforementioned "Blue Bay Escape Resort"-


- which consists of a number of two storey apartment blocks, each one of which is named after a character from James Bond, we got allocated (hehe) to "Goldfinger" block -

- which was the second nearest to the pool roughly opposite "Pussy Galore" block -


- and, yes, there was something of a community of fairly tame cats around the place (even sometimes joining us in the main restaurant for dinner, but) mostly just nosing around the pool bar for anything the kids dropped that was edible (even saw one cat bringing it's kittens back a bit of pitta bread, so obviously not terribly fussy eaters)...

Facilities on site included a fairly well stocked shop (which we visited only to buy bottled water, less than 2 Euros for 12 litres) but it certainly isn't the cheapest place around if you happen to need anything else) -

- there is also a gym (I am told), a kids club (which kept them busy most of the day and night), a tennis court, a football pitch and apparently a "Theatre", although I am guessing they were referring to the small stage by the pool bar when they wrote that (each evening they did a kids club disco (same songs each time), followed by bingo (again, exactly the same every single night...zzzzz), then at about 2230hrs followed some (cheesy or cringeworthy) other entertainment, the best of which was probably the First Choice Crew takeover-

- Anyway, I get a little ahead of myself - Upon arrival in reception (transfer by coach took about one and a half hours (dropping off at 4 other hotels along the way, none of which looked quite as nice, I am pleased to say) and offered some spectacular views of the mountains, nothing too hair raising though (if you have ventured up Mount Teide on Tenerife then you'll be perfectly comfortable with this little journey) -

- arriving at the hotel you leave all your large suitcases out by the coach, queue up at the desk, hand over your passports (which they keep for the entire stay), and then you are given your special "all inclusive" blue wrist band (modelled here by Flyingpops, with free drink in hand) -

- and a room key, back out and tell the guy waiting with the luggage which cases are yours and then it's down to the rooms where they will be waiting for you (how very civilised!) -

- However, one thing I think could have been done a lot better here is to actually tell us what our blue bands entitled us to (at no point did anyone actually explain everything), so I will attempt to do so here...Basically, there are three areas you are going to be hanging out (and at different times). In the morning, between 0700 and 1000hrs (remember this place is 2 hours ahead of the UK so effectively close of play is at 8AM!) breakfast is served in the main restaurant -

- it is a buffet style affair -

- offering 3 kinds of cereals (cornflakes, coco-pops and granola/muesli), fruit in syrup, sliced meats (both kinds tasted like spam) and cheese (plastic swiss), sliced vegetables (wonderful, fresh and tasty, especially the tomatoes), then an utterly terrible version of an English fried breakfast (but you could conjour something like beans on toast, or just take a little bacon without getting in too much trouble) just avoid the rubber egg, tinned mushrooms, frankfurter sausages and withered tomato...after this area you come on to the traditional Greek section, and if the kitchen is to be trusted, traditionally Greek people obviously eat pudding for breakfast (I tried a little bit of everything) -

- these things, although they looked, smelt and tasted like "locket" cough sweets in honey, turned out to be Kumquats (that had somehow gone transparent), they also had a lot of dried fruit, rice pudding with cinnamon, lots of little cakes, oh and a number of quite delicious olives -

- so I was able to concoct myself a reasonable breakfast by picking and choosing (after a little bit of trial and error). At breakfast you can wear what you like (within reason), and sit pretty much where you like, the *ever* bustling staff appearing immediately you sit down to pour tea and coffee (the cup never stayed empty for very long either, if you fancied a top-up)...

On to mid-morning, which seems to be traditionally spent lazing by the pool -

- we were there a little out of season, so no problems finding a sun bed, although a lot of towels were always out (sans owners), if you are feeling energetic then each day they offer aqua-aerobics (which looked to me a bit like just mucking about in the pool to loud music) -

- or you can take a swim although the water in the pool never really seemed to warm up (unlike the sea, which is just yards away and very pleasant)...

Anyway, with your blue band you are entitled during this period (1000 to 1200hrs) to infinite mini pizza, burgers, hot dogs or toasted sandwiches and any local spirit, beer, soft drink, water, tea or coffee, oh and as much ice cream as you can eat (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry or pistachio) from the pool bar -

- which seems to always have at least two members of staff on duty, again ever busy, I think I can honestly say that I *never* saw a single member of staff standing idle during the entire holiday...any drinks you do get from down here though are super-tiny and served in plastic glasses (for obvious reasons) so grab a few at a time-

- at 1200hrs until about 1500hrs it's then lunch time(!) -

- all the shutters open alongside the pool bar serving various lacklustre meat dishes (apart from the traditional Greek stuff which is just as good as taverna food), some spectacular salad and deserts, and my favourite, the kebabs -

- absolutely superb, even better was BBQ day (although not for the veggies out there) -


- during the afternoon quite a lot of people seemed to go wandering down to the beach to check out the amazing shoreline -


- and it really is a lagoon, check this shot out, people were really wading out 500m or so from the shore, and the sand was so soft...just incredible -

- as the evening starts to draw in -

- you make your way up to the main bar in reception for a few drinks while dinner is prepared -

- here it's the same deal as the pool bar, but less in the way of food, just toasted cheese/ham sarnies, this bar also closes at 0100hrs, so if you fancy partying late into the night then after dinner it's back down to the pool bar -

- anyway, at 1900hrs sharp the doors to the restaurant open, this time, however, men must be smartly dressed (minimum requirement is trousers that cover the knee) -

- you are seated upon entry (wait by the door), and drinks are ordered at your table, food is then another buffet, starting (if you like) with soup, followed by glorious salad -


- watch the pickled veg though, very spicy(!), the main courses though were universally rather pedestrian and sometimes on the slightly cold side...and definitely don't bother trying the Shepherds Pie...on the plus side - deserts were amazing -

- and again, you can go back and have as much as you like of anything, at any time...the evenings I have already covered, but actually we spent quite a few of them out and about in the local towns...but that I will cover in my next post on that subject...

Update - If you want to read about what insects you can expect to see in Corfu, and how best to deal with them (with some of my pictures too), click that link...

Update Update - If you want to read about my experiences (and see some of my shots) of what you can see and do in the Corfu resort of Acharavi (this is the resort ten minutes to the west of the Blue Bay), then click that link...

Update Update Update - Added some shots of the beautiful harbour town of Kassiopi (this is fifteen minutes by minibus east of the Blue Bay resort)...

Yet another update - Click here to see our adventure horse riding in the sea at Kalamaki and here to see what happened at the excellent Aqualand waterpark in Agios Ioannis...