Atrium Palace Thalasso Spa Resort – Kalathos – Rhodes

We got married at the Atrium Palace resort in Kalathos last week. The hotel is lovely but it’s not really a 5star, even by foreign standards. It’s more like a 4 star but it is nice. The food is a bit repetitive but they let you swap dinners for lunches so you can eat out in Lindos which is lovely.

We had a lovely room with a private pool but it never got the sun so we ended up sitting at the main pool every day anyway! Don’t get sucked into the private pool! Although it looked pretty!

We had a civil ceremony at the hotel, this was organised through Thomas Cook. It was very quick but to the point & the message was very family orientated so if you don’t want a family in the future then you might want to write your own vows! Also the registrar didn’t use our full names as Thomas Cook (who it’s fair to say are next to useless) hadn’t given him all the information.

The reception itself was at the Asterias restaurant & that was nice. The food was good, but I think you could have far better in Lindos for a fraction of the price. We ate at some absolutely beautiful restaurants whilst we were there & they would all hold wedding receptions or meals. Nicola, the wedding co-ordinator at the hotel was quite good. She seemed very busy though so it’s best that you sort most things out yourself or you could end up getting panicky about things getting done in time.

Our main complaint was the photographer that they highly recommended (George) who ruined all our wedding photographs to the point where we have had to use photoshop to cut & paste heads onto bodies! This man who we were told was a professional, & certainly charged a professional rate, was an amateur with no skill whatsoever. His own son admitted to us that he must’ve been having a bad day that day! The whole experience was horrible & rushed. George was bad tempered & rude to our guests, he did not stay to take any photos by the beach or any natural non-posed shots at all. We hardly have any decent photographs of the day now.

The whole experience put a cloud over our last 4 days there which we spent trying to speak to Nicola & fighting to try to get the mess sorted out. We have returned home feeling disappointed & annoyed that we were forced to pay for photographs when some of our guests had taken better ones. Nicola & the team at the hotel were not helpful in resolving the matter & it certainly wasn’t dealt with professionally at any stage.

No one could be found when it came to check-out which was convenient & neither Nicola nor the hotel manager were picking up their phones. We were left in a position where we had to pay for the photos with a 15euro discount, which was just insulting really after we had spent so much in the hotel & so had our guests.

If we had our time again we definitely would not get married at that hotel & we certainly wouldn’t recommend anyone or anything connected to the hotel to people which is why we are writing this review now. Whilst we had a nice day, there were many things that could have been better & the fact that no one at the hotel dealt with the (big) issue that we had adequately makes us wonder what would have happened if something had gone wrong on the day itself. Would they all have vanished into thin air then as well?

You can’t take a chance when it’s your wedding day, you only get one (hopefully!) & you can never recreate it. Don’t take a chance on this hotel they could easily let you down as they have done with us.