I would not be surprised by varying reviews over this hotel. This is because there is such a variety with regard to the rooms, i.e. there are so many alternatives in terms of apartments, suites, bungalows, or basic hotel rooms, with or without a sea view, with or without a garden view, with or without a semi private pool. The above lack of homogeneity in the shapes, sizes and luxury of the accomodation on offer, is exacerbated by the fact that the hotel has undergone a rather recent renovation. There is certain accomodation which, probably, is brand new. Therefore, the overall experience of someone who stayed in a luxurious sea view suite sharing a pool with a couple of other suites, has nothing to do with the experience of someone who stayed in a miserable (and, judging from their veranda, this is the way some rooms looked from the outside), room of the hotel's main buildings facing the back yards. No doubt, or one would think, the above rather substantial variations are reflected in the prices of the various categories of accomodation. So, I do not think that someone who payed the price of a 3 star room should feel cheated because the room was not 5 star. (Whether holidays in Greece are no more cheap alltogether is another story) The positive side of a modest Aldemar room, assuming its price too is what it should be (modest), is that one with a 3 star room gets to share some of the four or five star sites. By the way, I do not believe that the artificial system of categorizing hotels by number of stars is reliable when it comes to beach resorts. We five (my wife and three children aged 8, 5 and 2) stayed in a so called apartment without a sea view (about 350 meters from the beach) sharing an adequate sized pool with something like 7 more apartments or bungalows, which, again were not all of the same size. Our appartment was perfectly adequate, consisting of two comfortable rooms with two fully equiped bathrooms. I would definitely call the bathroom of the master bedroom spacious. The closets and drawers were more than adequate and there also was a a built in kitchenette and fridge. There were two television sets Our veranda was also very comfortable and about 20 feet from the semi private pool, where there were ample sun beds. The cleaning lady did a very good job. Towels and sheets were changed daily and a complimentary bottle of mineral water and plate of fresh fruit were supplied daily and a complimentary bottle of wine once. The decoration of the room was appropriate. In all, I have no complains with my accomodation, in fact I think it was perfectly adequate for the needs of my family. True, at an average of 334 Euros per night (including half board) I found it expensive, however, I do know that this price was still competitive with similar accomodation offered to Greeks in the Greek market (we Greek consumers do not enjoy the benefits of large tour operators who have the power to squeeze prices at the bare minimum).
The buffet breakfast and dinner of the hotel were plentiful and catered for all tastes, and there was an obvious effort to include a different variety of made on spot pancakes for breakfast and cooked on the spot pasta, fish or meat for dinner each day. We are not bon viveurs, but, forgive my saying so, we are not English either, and we can tell when the produce is fresh and when the cooking oils and other materials are good. We indulged in the buffets and we never had a heavy stomach. Yes, there are more elegant and even richer buffets in the world, and yes the buffets are a rather noisy place but they are designed for the vacationing families to have unpretentious good full meals. The only important detail which really did not do justice to the buffet breakfast was the quality of the orange juice, which was simply low. Lastly, it is true that the drinks are very expensive.
Aldemar is a water world, and should be called the pools hotel, with so many pools. In most of Greece water is scarce, but not in the Western Peloponnese. The beach is a nice wide sandy beach. The climate is somewhat humid for Greek standards. The animation team were Italians and they were fun, much better than the usual decadent imitations of Greek folklore one finds in these hotels. In all, this is a fun relaxing hotel for families with children. I will probably go again with my family in the future, if I can book the same room for a few days, but I would not go in that part of Greece in the absence of my kids. This is because I enjoy a varied mountainous landscape like in most places of Greece and in the Greek islands, whereas the area around Aldemar, apart from the Olympia antiquities, is one of the dullest sceneries in Greece consisting of flat prime farmland and ugly farming towns.

On the positive side!

lovely, well kept site,
beautiful beach,
big spacious pools
lovely desserts in the resturant!!
gorgeous weather!
only there a week!

On the negative side!

average rooms
more 3* than 5*
grumpy staff
very expensive drinks and food
2 hrs from airport
average food
nowhere locally to visit (except olympia, well worth a visit)
near a very large town
very sanitised greek holiday
monopolised by pushy and rude italians!

We stayed in this hotel for 2 weeks in Mid-August 2005. By "we" I mean myself, my wife and our 11 year old son.

It was a slightly disappointing holiday. The beach was great and not at all crowded. Kids had ample room to play and have fun. The complimentary sun beds were well spaced out and well situated. The hotel was clean and the food OK. We are not really bon viveurs, though - and so I can understand the comments here on the blandness of the food.

The bars were very pricey. 5 euros for a pint of local beer was steep in my view and ice creams went for 4 euros. The bar service was slow and I agree that the staff appeared rather unfriendly. It also seemed that Greek and Italian guests were always given preferential treatment. But that might be because they were simply more pushy that us typical Brit tourists!

Our son was disappointed with the animation team. Not really my thing, but our son is used to the staff and animation team being friendly and supportive.

The hotel is no more than a 4 star establishment in my view. Beach hotels should try to offer the "holiday experience" but this one seemed to treat holiday makers as mere economy class business guests.

We would not return. There are far better hotels around for the same price. Which is a shame. We were really looking forward to our holiday.

We have just returned for 1 week at this hotel. Really loved. It´s true the room is not very large (we stayed in a sea view bungalow) but the view it's very relaxing and the room equipped has it should for a 5 stars hotel.
The pools (38) and the beach were not crowded because guests could choose which they prefer and there's lots of space for everyone including children.
Good buffet breakfast and dinner, specially in the Greek Night. Helpful and kind staff in general.