Disclaimer:Β This post contains affiliate links, meaning that I will earn commission when you buy from my link. This comes at no extra cost to you, and supports me with sharing my best travel tips with you.
During our stay at hotel Gloria Maris in Zakynthos (Greece), we stayed in a standard double room for the first few nights and in a junior suite with shared infinity pool for the last night.
So I’m in a good position to talk about our experience as a general hotel guest at Gloria Maris, and the added benefits of having a junior suite with shared infinity pool.
PS: Are you planning a romantic getaway to Zakynthos with your loved one? Check out these unforgettable things to do in Zakynthos, especially for couples.
Shared infinity pool for junior suites at Gloria Maris
The best benefit of having a junior suite at Gloria Maris is obviously the shared infinity pool, which is for guests with a junior suite only. For the nights that we stayed in a standard double room at Gloria Maris, we were not allowed in this pool.
The shared infinity pool is surrounded by eight junior suites and sixteen sun loungers, so technically each junior suite comes with two sun loungers. However, the length of the shared infinity pool does not reach the end of the row of junior suites, so it can be really tricky to figure out which sun loungers belong to which junior suites.
The people with sun loungers in front of their junior suite kept their towels on the sun loungers day and night, just to make sure that people who don’t have the infinity pool in front of their suite (people like us) don’t take their sun loungers. Yes, it gets a bit childish like that at Gloria Maris.
However, it didn’t stop us from enjoying a wonderful sunrise at the shared infinity pool. No towels were removed while taking these shots:
We started taking our sunrise pictures as early as 7:15 am, and we were the only ones at the pool. I guess the other junior suite guests preferred sleeping in over watching the sunrise, which was perfect for us. There were a couple of floaties in the infinity pool, but I’m not sure if they were from the other guests or from the hotel.
The water temperature of this infinity pool was the warmest I have experienced in any infinity pool in Zakynthos, which is a big plus. Normally when we do these infinity pool photo shoots at sunrise I dread going into the ice cold water (even though all hotels claim that their pools are heated), but I was very pleasantly surprised by the water temperature of this pool.
I absolutely loved the unique design of this infinity pool, with exotic plants in the middle of the pool. The sea views were amazing as well, especially during the sunrise. But even after sunrise, we enjoyed views of the Turtle Island from the infinity pool:
Most of the junior suite guests came into the pool after breakfast (which ends at 10am) and stayed there for most of the day, so don’t expect the pool to be as quiet as you see in my pictures.Β
Also, the junior suites are located right underneath the hotel’s restaurant and swimming pool area where music is played throughout the day, so not very suitable if peace and quiet is what you’re looking for. It does get quiet at night though, so we had no trouble sleeping.
Private jacuzzi in the junior suite of Gloria Maris
Another benefit of having a junior suite is the private jacuzzi in the room. The standard double rooms are very minimalist and so it was a nice change to have a jacuzzi in our room.
As you can see in these pictures, the shared infinity pool didn’t reach as far as our junior suite, but we did have lovely views of the Turtle Island from our room. The standard double room we stayed at (before the junior suite) only had a window in the balcony door, and the balcony didn’t have any special views at all.
Areas for all hotel guests
Since we also stayed in a standard double room at Gloria Maris, I thought it would be fair to also write about the facilities that are available to all Gloria Maris’ guests.
Restaurant Komidoro
Dinner at the hotel’s restaurant Komidoro is not included in either the standard double room’s or the junior suite’s rate, but I definitely recommend eating there at least once when you’re staying in Gloria Maris.
I mean, how gorgeous are these views of the palm trees, the sea and Turtle Island?! I went for a mushroom risotto while Jordi went for a pizza, and we both really enjoyed the food. The restaurant opens from 6pm.
Next to the Komidoro restaurant is the Poolside Bar / Lounge, which has similar views of the Turtle Island:
The Poolside Bar / Lounge is open from 8am, so you can enjoy the views from here pretty much all day long.
Beach Bar "Tropics"
Gloria Maris has its own beach with a bar and boat rental. Beach Bar Tropics serves lunch, but we haven’t tried it ourselves. We were just too busy exploring the island of Zakynthos during the day.Β
However, we did have time to take a picture at the sun loungers of the Beach Bar, and at the beach during our sunrise photo shoot:
We did ask the boat rental at Gloria Maris’ beach for their prices, but we ended up renting a boat from a shop at Laganas’ high street because it was cheaper. In hindsight, we regret that we didn’t rent a boat at Gloria Maris, because we got scammed by the Laganas shop. I’m sure the boat rental at the hotel is more reputable, and it wasn’t that much more expensive.
General service received at Gloria Maris
If I had to describe the service we received from the staff at Gloria Maris in only one word, it would be “inconsistent”. There were good things about the service we received, but definitely also bad things.
It all started in our standard double room, where we found used contact lenses from previous guests next to our bed, and hairs on the bathroom wall. There was lots of dust in the room as well. This is not the level of cleanliness I would expect from a hotel, and especially not in times of Covid. I put the “please clean the room” sign (or in this case, it was a light) on the door, but no one ever showed up until the day we checked out of the room.
Then, the night before we changed from our standard double room to the junior suite, we were told to just pack all our stuff but leave our suitcases and bags in the room. This allowed us to enjoy our day away from the hotel. When we came back, the staff had put all our luggage in our junior suite, so we didn’t have to worry about a thing.
Another sweet thing about the service we received was that they decorated our junior suite as a surprise for my birthday, and we got a complimentary bottle of white wine:
The junior suite was cleaner than the double room we had stayed in (at least we didn’t find any traces of previous guests), but it did have a few mosquitos flying around.
When Jordi went to the reception to complain about the mosquitos, he was told to buy mosquito spray from the hotel shop. In the end Jordi managed to convince the hotel staff that it is their responsibility to make sure rooms are free of bugs, and they gave him some anti-mosquito device we had to plug in. The device worked, but the hotel staff could have been a lot more customer-friendly in this situation.
Β The breakfast is exactly the same for the standard double room and the junior suite. It is served in the Votsala restaurant near the pool from 7am to 10am.
Final verdict
Yes, our stay at the junior suite was more enjoyable than our stay at the standard double room. The infinity pool, jacuzzi and Turtle Island views are definitely worth going for the junior suite. And the junior suite was cleaner than our standard double room as well.
However, do not expect too much luxury from hotel Gloria Maris. Sharing the infinity pool with a maximum of 14 other junior suite guests can still get quite crowded (the pool is nice but not huge). And the junior suites are right underneath the hotel’s restaurant and pool area where music is played, so it is not peaceful and quiet during the day.Β
If you’re looking for peaceful and quiet (and a lot more luxury), then you might prefer to stay at Lesante Blu instead.
Add to your bucket list:
Travel Photography for Couples
Learn more about taking your own travel pictures as a couple in my book:
As a travel couple, do you ever wish to travel back to a place, just to take better pictures together? I sure know I do! Thatβs why in this book, I am sharing everything we wish we knew about taking pictures together when we first started travelling as a couple. Read more…