The worst thing about going to an Ikos is the drive from the airport to the hotel. The anticipation and excitement is just too much to bear. Once I’m off the plane, I want to walk through the doors, smell that familiar and unmistakable Ikos smell, and let the holiday begin. 

To be fair, we were in the Ikos branded Mercedes within 35 minutes of landing. Ikos, now with 2 resorts in Corfu, have a transfer desk on the right as you come out of baggage claim, and they were busy organising guests in to waiting vehicles. We found ourselves in the beautifully aromatic lobby bar with a chilled glass of Pol Remy by 1335 – not bad when we landed at 1232! One of the benefits of booking direct with Ikos is the speedy and efficient private transfer, and it’s a great service. You can book an Ikos transfer even if you haven’t booked directly with them, although it’s quite expensive compared to a taxi or local operator. 

Ikos Odisia is huge – the biggest Ikos resort at 60 acres, and it takes around 15 minutes to walk from the Theatre at one end (right by the main entrance) to the beach at Sea Village, or up the hill to the Elia a la carte restaurant. One good thing is, apart from the hill leading up to Elia and Oliva restaurants, the resort is very flat so easy and enjoyable to walk around. We loved the layout of Ikos Porto Petro, another huge resort, but PP is all up and down hill and can be tough on tiny or older legs. Like at PP, there’s golf buggies shuttling around the resort all day and even little bus stops where you can hail a ride. There’s also bikes you can borrow and each restaurant has a bike park outside so they’re not left lying around. We didn’t use the shuttle, but I understand that they can get busy, especially at dinner time so allow plenty of time if you need one to get to a restaurant booking. Some of the staff use electric scooters and I would definitely have mooched around on one of those if I could have!

I love the check in process at Ikos resorts, it’s such a chilled and refined experience. It’s a great opportunity to learn all about the resort, make sure you’ve got your restaurant reservations in place (you can book at least 3 prior to arrival, and you absolutely should as restaurants can get booked out), book your spot in the spa, wine tasting and sunset cruise. There was something comforting about my phone not needing a password for the WiFi (excellent speeds, everywhere on resort) – like it knew we’d come home. 

The resort might be massive but all low level buildings are no higher than 2 floors. The main reception building has the lobby bar, some shops, Flavors buffet and toilets on the ground floor, as well as courtesy rooms if you have a late flight home. Stairs and a lift go up to Anaya and Azul restaurants and some more loos. The remaining restaurants are scattered around the resort, with Fresco and Sea Grill along Dassia beachfront and Dassia Bay (the furthest point from reception) and with Ouzo, Oliva and Elia with spectacular views across Ipsos Bay. 

The rooms are spread across villages, with a pool at the centre of each village. We were in Garden Village which has the best pool for young kids, lined with fake grass so they don’t scrape their knees. Needless to say, we avoided that pool like our lives depended on it! This is also where the ice cream “parlour” is, and I say “parlour” because it’s a freezer with a few flavours of ice cream and not as well thought out as the proper patisserie or Gelateria that they have at Ikos Olivia, Dassia or Porto Petro. Garden Village is the closest to reception so really handy for Flavors, Anaya, Azul and also the main hub for golf buggies.

I’d booked a promo room, but was pleasantly surprised with what appeared to be a double upgrade to a superior pool view. Room 2114. Alongside Porto Petro, it was one of the largest rooms we’ve had at an Ikos, with the exception of the junior suite at Oceania. The room had plenty of storage space in the triple wardrobe, a dressing table with chair as well as a snuggle chair, which I think would convert to a pullout bed. The bathroom has separate shower and loo cubicles with frosted glass which makes it easy for multiple people to get ready at the same time. There’s also a separate bath and dual sinks. The view across the gardens and pool was lovely and the balcony caught the afternoon sun. The room would easily take a family of 3, 4 at a push. Make sure to check out the walkthrough video of the room on Facebook or Instagram. 

We spent most of our time at Central Village pool, which is just to the front of the main reception building so a room in Central Village is also a great spot. If you’ll be using the kids clubs, a room in block 4 of Central Village would be really handy. 

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Ikos were very accommodating of our 2335 flight home (which actually ended up being 0045 thanks to how Corfu airport control their slots) by giving us a room until check out at 2000. We had to pack and our bags were moved to room 4119 for us at about 1030 on our last day – leaving us to enjoy the pool, lunch and dinner. The use of a full room isn’t guaranteed so it is a bit of a risk booking such a late flight, although there are some courtesy rooms near Flavors which you can use for 30 minutes. You can use all facilities except the a la carte restaurants, and we saved about £700 by coming home late, so it was absolutely worth it even without a proper room. The flight the next day was around 1330, so paying £700 for an extra 13 hours at Ikos just didn’t feel like value for money. 

One thing to mention about 4119, which also seemed to be a superior pool view room, is that it had an interconnected door to 4120. Whilst great for a family looking for that, the door offered no soundproofing and you could hear next door’s conversation. We had no issues with soundproofing in room 2114. With block 4’s close proximity to the kid’s club, I wonder if they try and use those rooms for families as we saw very few families kicking around block 2. There was certainly a difference in noise level!

All of the pools are really spacious and have plenty of sun beds. The guest to sun bed ratio at Ikos is very well managed, and pools tend not to get busy until late morning. All of the pools have their own bar and staff serving drinks and food. There’s no adults only pool, only a small adults only section around the Central Village pool which, to be honest, is pointless as kids are playing in the pool right in front of you! In fairness the families using the central pool whilst we were there mostly stayed in the shallow end, and the kids that did venture up to the deep end weren’t disruptive. 

Moving towards Dassia Beach is the Deluxe Village and then also Sea Village. If you are beach goers, this is where you’ll want to be. Fresco, Sea Grill and the Beach Bar are all close by although it’s furthest from the lobby, Flavors, Anaya and Azul. 

There is an adults only beach next to Ouzo and whilst it’s not the most attractive patch of sand, the view across Ipsos Bay is endlessly beautiful. For nearly every meal we were sat away from families in unofficial adults only areas of restaurants. This was only really difficult in Flavors as it always seemed to be packed with families, but otherwise worked well. I would like to see Ikos invest more in adults only spaces. 

Restaurants and the dining concept, particularly at Ikos Odisia, has become somewhat of a contentious issue as Ikos seems to be putting a greater focus on buffets. Especially at breakfast and lunch, rather than the all-inclusive a la carte model the group are known for. 

I won’t give a run down of every damn meal but will give a taste (see what I did there?) of our experience and which our favourite meals were. Of the restaurants at Ikos Odisia, this was the split of dining options. Note that this is different to what appears on the Ikos app, which doesn’t reflect what happens in resort. 

Restaurant	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Anaya	N/A	N/A	A la carte
Azul	N/A	N/A	A la carte
Elia	A la carte	A la carte	A la carte
Flavors	Buffet	Buffet	Buffet
Fresco	Buffet with limited a la carte	A la carte	A la carte
Oliva	N/A	N/A	A la carte
Ouzo	Buffet	Buffet	A la carte
Sea Grill	N/A	A la carte	A la carte

Flavors

Look, I don’t hate buffets and there’s something exciting about being able to sample lots of different foods and dishes, eat as much as you want and possibly feel some shame at the end of it (we’ve all overdone all-you-can-eats before, right?), but it’s not what I’m looking for on a high-end holiday. Our first buffet lunch was good – lots of lovely Mediterranean vegetables with pork, lamb and chicken, but then variations of the same every time. The quality is excellent, and each meal has some speciality dishes, such as the seafood bar with scallops and crab claws. The dessert selection in particular is very impressive, but it otherwise felt a bit repetitive. 

Ouzo

Our first meal at Ouzo was dinner on our first night, and the food itself was great – I can’t quite put my finger on the flavour of the grilled octopus, but it was so meaty and delicious. The lamb kofta wrapped in filo pasty was excellent, although we over ordered on the roast potatoes with feta as we had them as a sharing starter and they were with my main. The other half had hallomui with honey and pomegranate to start and a fat beef kebab for main. 

The thing that took the edge off was the service, which was very un-Ikos. The usual warm, smiley greeting wasn’t there as we were shown to our table. The waiter didn’t smile or give much of an answer to any of our questions about the menu. The team just looked like they didn’t want to be there. 

We returned for breakfast the next morning as, although it was a buffet, we’d been to BBQ buffets at Ouzo at other Ikos resorts which had been excellent, and got the same unsmiling welcome and a breakfast buffet that consisted of a few busted boiled eggs bobbing around in a pan of water and some sorry looking bacon. 

The fruit section was great, with massive chunks of tropical cut fruit and the live cooking station was doing omelettes and pancakes but the sweet section was crawling with wasps and flies, and considering the attitude of the staff, we decided to leave and get breakfast at Elia instead. 

With some trepidation, and a few days later, we returned to Ouzo for lunch and things were better. The service still wasn’t friendly, but it at least felt like the staff were happy to pretend to be happy. They’d actually stationed a member of staff next to the cake section to waft flies away so some effort was being made to be hygienic. The buffet was good, some amazing salads and freshly cooked fish and meats. Not as good as lunchtime BBQs at Dassia or Oceania, but absolutely no complaints. 

Elia

After huffing out of Ouzo, the welcome at Elia was exactly in keeping with Ikos standard; a wide, warm smile as we were seated on the terrace overlooking the stunning blue sea. 

I ordered yoghurt with orange to start and he had açai bowl, followed by marble cake and I rounded off with French toast smothered in butterscotch and cinnamon bananas. Amazing. This is what Ikos breakfasts are all about!

On a particularly rainy morning, we had intended to have breakfast at Flavors but it was packed with a queue out of the door, so after a few moments of deliberation, we decided to walk up the hill to Elia – and good job we did!

It takes around 10 minutes to get to the restaurant, and it’s a steep climb up the hill but the restaurant was almost empty and a quiet oasis after the melee of Flavors.

We shared a fruit salad and I had smoked salmon on bagel whilst he had the french toast I’d had a few days before. Whilst it was a little chilly, we enjoyed sitting under cover on the terrace watching the rain hit the sea. Everyone raves about Elia for the views – and they are spectacular, although I prefer the view from Ouzo. Make sure to head to the bar for the sunset DJ session. 

Poor planning on my part, but we didn’t actually have lunch at Elia during our stay (and I call myself a professional!), but as the lunch menu is broadly the same as the dinner menu, I didn’t feel like we missed out.

For dinner, we were sat at a table for 2 along a quiet side of the restaurant which felt very private. The view across the bay was mesmerising, especially with the lights reflecting off the sea. 

I didn’t think the food was good but not mind blowing, but the other half thought it was awesome! I enjoyed the beetroot starter but the slow cooked beef was excellent, really juicy and with a little bit of parsnip puree adding sweetness. The roast potatoes with truffle cream were actually on the starters menu but we added them as a side to the mains, which was definitely the right choice. The other half’s pistachio parfait was huge and I was glad my pudding of honey and apricot mousse was altogether lighter! 

Fresco

Our first meal at Fresco was lunch and we received the usual warm Ikos welcome and a stunning setting, right on the (public) Dassia Beach. It was a Sunday so the beach was busy which added a bit of atmosphere to an otherwise quiet restaurant. 

Still pretty full from breakfast, I had a melon and prosciutto salad and the acidity of the balsamic worked so well with the sweetness of the melon. His starter was huge in comparison but packed full of healthy veggies. 

My main of Mediterranean branzino was very light and I loved the salty, crispy skin on the fish. The parmasen risotto was again, a big dish but we still managed to squeeze in bruschetta dolce for pudding. Easily one of the best things you could ever eat! 

A la carte at breakfast at Fresco is limited to eggs and a few sweet items, such as pancakes, bruschetta dolce and apple pie. At least the buffet wasn’t crawling with bugs like it was at Ouzo although we were terrorised by wasps whilst eating which didn’t exactly make for a relaxing breakfast (wasps and mosquitoes are constant nuisance at this resort, so be prepared!). The buffet was still fairly standard and not very imaginative – fruit, boiled eggs, bacon, beans, you get the picture. After the disaster breakfast at Ouzo, I can’t help but feel Ikos Odisia isn’t getting the breakfast offering right. They clearly want to move away from a la carte to buffet, but are failing to make the buffets stand out by offering anything special. 

The menu at Fresco never excites me, but I’m always impressed by the food. I loved the huge chunks of beetroot with the goats cheese and while the sea food pasta was also excellent, the portion was quite large so I couldn’t eat it all. The other half’s meal was the mirror image of mine and his starter of aubergine swimming in cheese was huge but the pork loin main was much smaller. Absolutely no complaints though! 

Craving bruschetta dolce for breakfast, we headed back to Fresco the next day and chose to sit inside to try and avoid the wasps. There was us and 2 other families inside. After we were sat, no one appeared to offer us any drinks or take an order. 

I grabbed some fruit from the buffet and helped myself to some OJ but after about 20 minutes, still no one had come to take an order. The other half had already left and as I was leaving, I had a word with the maitre d that no one had served us or the other tables and they needed a member of staff covering that part of the restaurant. The lady was very apologetic but it wasn’t rescuable by then. To be fair, the restaurant sent a bottle of champagne and a note to our room as an apology, and I thought it was a nice touch that it was the same champagne we’d had when we’d had dinner there. That’s the level of attention to detail you expect from Ikos, although I’m overlooking that they called the other half Mrs when they know exactly who’s staying in the room and neither of us are women!

Sea Grill

It’s a small and popular restaurant, right on the beach and near to the water sports centre. 

Served tapas style, the dishes all come out together. The chicken kofta were better than the lamb kofta but the tatziki was the star dish, fresh with cucumber and lots of garlic. There was a bit too much bread so we ended up leaving quite a lot – funnily enough, when we ordered the same a few days later, we didn’t get all of the bread that time. 

It took too long for our plates to be cleared, and the waiter meant to be looking after us asked a colleague to clear the table. We asked him to bring the dessert menu and he said he didn’t work there so would ask someone else to bring it! I mean, how hard is it to bring a menu? The guy at the table next to us was brought the wrong drink and then despite waiting for the correct one, he ended up going to the bar to fetch his own. 

The menu for dessert never arrived so we gave up waiting and left. We swung by Flavors for some cake and coffee instead. Service was better the second time we ate at Sea Grill although we were brought someone else’s food and had to chase up dessert – the waffles were actually amazing!

Anaya

An absolute Ikos institution, we always have a great a great meal at Anaya. We love Asian food and the hardest thing about eating at Anaya is not ordering absolutely everything on the menu!

We restrained ourselves with prawn ravioli and veggie gyoza with with some spring rolls to share. We always have the satay as a side to our mains, which were a great accompaniment to my pan fried duck and his stir fried black pepper beef.

Azul 

All of the restaurants are well decorated and themed but there’s something about the entrance to Azul that’s extra special. Not to mention that it’s also got a cocktail bar that no one talks about, so make sure to pop up early for dinner and sample some of the amazing cocktails (orange and cinnamon pisco sour, anyone?).

Azul was hands down the best meal we had all week. Every course was a riot of flavour. Have you ever eaten a manchego cloud? I can’t even think of any other way to describe it. It just evaporates in your mouth – amazing! Even the crispy cheese on the potato churros was delicious. The salmon was perfectly cooked with crispy skin and they served the prawns without the wasabi for me, as I’m really not a fan of it. The other half’s Peruvian pasta wasn’t quite to the standard of the other dishes, but the desserts more than made up for it. I loved the savoury/sweet mix of the potato donuts smothered in molasses!

As you might know, Ikos’ original Corfu resort, Ikos Dassia, is about 10 minutes walk from Ikos Odisia (and they have a shuttle that runs between the two). You can spend time between the resorts and we were told that we could have lunch at Flavors and the bars at Dassia and could book Kerkyra & Provence for dinner. I wish we’d have known that in advance as Odisia doesn’t have a Provence restaurant and Kerkyra was our fave when we stayed at Dassia. We would have loved to have gone back for dinner. By the time we knew (at check in), the restaurants were obviously fully booked, so if eating at Dassia one night is something you want to do, get it booked in advance.

Another of the great things about Ikos being an ultra all inclusive is the activities included in the cost of your holiday. The wine tasting is always a nice way to spend an hour and learn about pairing wine with food. Odisia also has a sunset cruise which leaves from the pier outside Ouzo. It was a little chilly once the sun set, but the generous servings of sparking wine helped keep us warm! The boat goes all the way across Dassia Bay with great views of Corfu town. 

The evening shows in the theatre are also excellent. They start at 2130, so bear that in mind for dinner reservations, but I really would recommend them. There’s also the iconic institution of the White Party which was a bit naff at Odisia as it was taken over by small children and felt like a kid’s birthday party. 

Of all of the Ikos resorts I’ve been to, Odisia is the least set up to cater for grown ups. The hotel seems to make an effort at separating adult families and those with children, from allocating bedrooms by family make up, adult sections in restaurants and the adults only beach.  But, the lack of grown up spaces such as an adults only pool and bar would probably be the driving factor for me not being in a terrible rush to go back to Odisia. 

On the whole, we had a very good time. Sadly, it just didn’t sparkle like our previous Ikos stays. The lack of a la carte options for breakfast and lunch were a big factor. And if they must offer buffets in the speciality restaurants, more effort needs to be put into making the buffets special. Putting out the same boiled eggs and bacon in every restaurant is boring and unimaginative. 

Finally, and whilst I don’t like to judge too much on service (it’s so subjective and humans have off days, we all make mistakes), there was just…a vibe about the service at Odisia. I say that based on 4 previous Ikos experiences and coming to this resort with a certain level of expectation. Those delivering true Ikos service stood out; the bar staff were great, the pool staff were great, but I’ve never walked out of 3 different restaurants in one week before. I gave feedback on service a few days in to our stay and then after the situation in Fresco, we had a meeting with the Guest Relations Manager who listened intently to our experiences and feedback. I really hope she does something with it, because coming home from an Ikos holiday and not wanting to immediately return is quite disconcerting. It’s a new resort, with only 1 and half seasons under its belt, and if I know one thing about it Ikos, it’s that they listen and act on customer feedback and I’m sure the resort will continue to improve. It’s also important to mention that I’m comparing Ikos with Ikos in this review – Ikos Resorts as a whole are still head and shoulders above any other all inclusive resort I’ve stayed at.

But hey, stay tuned because I’ve got Ikos Andalusia and Ikos Aria booked for next year and that’ll be the full set – I’ll have stayed at every Ikos resort (well, until Kissamos and Cortesia open in 2026 and 2027 respectively)! I remain an ardent Ikos fan and advocate and can’t wait to sample the other resorts next year.

Date of trip; September 2024

Price paid; €2363 for 6 nights for 2 adults in a promo room, booked direct with Ikos using returners 10% discount. Excluding flights.