Spiros... A Stunning Little Greek In Naxos

Advantages: Close to The Beach
Disadvantages: The Rooms in the Original Building are Quite Dated

...The Choice... My passion for browsing holiday brochures on cold dismal nights continued, the hubby fancied the Cyclades- a group of Greek Islands scattered across the Aegean sea of Greece - for a change from our usual choices of Crete, and Kos etc.- and as ever it was left to me to choose the appropriate dwelling for our two weeks.away. I decided on Naxos, only accessible by ferry via a chartered flight to Mykonos (if partaking in a package), the largest Island in the Cyclades.. The week before Christmas of 2004 I booked and paid a small deposit of £90 to Kosmar - a Greek holiday specialist in the UK - the balance of £600 was due the following June - plenty of time to save. The hubby wanted to book flights and accommodation separately but I like the security of a package holiday! The Outbound Journey We leave Brum...

gizmogizmo 31.10.2006 (03.03.2007) · Read review
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Review of Hotel Spiros, Naxos

Classical Music on a Budget with the NAXOS label

Advantages: Classical music collecting on a budget using NAXOS
Disadvantages: no other record label reviewed

...Classical music – how to buy on a budget? This genre is a huge universe of material dating back at least 500 years. It is intimidating to contemplate starting a collection, even for some classical music lovers, due to the sheer size of the repertory, or repertoire, if you prefer. Moreover, the classical repertory is subdivided by composer, era, style of music (mediaeval, romantic, baroque, etc), region, types of instruments (and voice), size of ensemble (from solo to symphony), etc. In this op I will try to lower the intimidation factor to build a collection; part of which includes the fine NAXOS record label. Recommended reading: Jaxle’s op on “Classical Music and Young People” (30.01.2003) which makes a very good case for exploring the classical genre. How to get started in classical music? Start...

rowlandw 06.02.2003 · Read review
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Review of Everything that starts with C ...

One of my favourite islands

Advantages: excellent food, cheap, golden sandy beaches
Disadvantages: outside of Naxos town there is very little nightlife

...Having booked a week's holiday in Santorini and being extremely disappointed (dirty, very touristy and way overpriced!) a friend and I decided to escape to Naxos. The journey was quick (2 hours by ferry) and Naxos was almost the complete opposite of Santorini. We travelled in early October, but whilst the winds of Santorini were raging, the sun beat down on Naxos' beautiful (and completely deserted!) white and golden sands. We found accomodation by walking across Naxos town towards Agios Georgios Beach. We found the Galaxy Hotel after 10 minutes walking near the beach (there's a link to this hotel on www.naxos-greece.biz). As it was almost completely empty, they let us have a beautiful room overlooking the pool for 50 euros a night (30 quid!). This included an ample buffet breakfast, which included honey and yoghurt that we couldn...

lrhhart 29.11.2003 · Read review
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Review of Naxos (Greece)

Sleeping in Sicily

Advantages: Good Restaurant, Excellent Staff
Disadvantages: A bit far from the resort centre

...Our recent honeymoon saw us visiting Sicily for the first time, looking for a hotel somewhere that you've never been before is quite disconcerting. You have to rely on reviews, star ratings and photo's found around the Internet. On a trawl through Expedia I came across the Sant Alphio Garden Hotel, a four star hotel in the resort of Giardini-Naxos. Looking at a map I noticed that the resort wasn't that far from Catania, where we were flying into and was close to other areas that we had thought we might like to visit, The photo's all looked quite nice too and the hotel itself looked clean and spacious. As an added plus the hotel also has an indoor spa and pool in addition to an outside pool, which I imagine would be delightful in the summer although at the beginning of March it looked a little too cold to venture into, not even in...

josarah 11.04.2006 · Read review
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Review of Sant Alphio Garden Hotel, Giardini Naxos

Good little bed and breakfast

Advantages: Good location, nice breakfast
Disadvantages: Small hotel- though this is necessary a bad thing

.... The rooms were pretty big with en-suite bathroom, private balcony offering a great view of the bay, tv, phone, and air conditioning and heating system which the guests can control. The room was very clean, as was the bathroom. There was plenty of drawers and a big cupboard for storage of clothes- something i found very useful. Price of rooms range from about £30-£80 a night. Overall I would definetly recommend Hotel Palladio for anyone looking for a reasonably priced 3 star hotel in Giardini Naxos....

mcduff16 10.02.2006 · Read review
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Review of Hotel Palladio, Giardini Naxos

Music for Meditation

Advantages: A good introduction to sacred music
Disadvantages: A rather niche album on which those into the genre will find nothing new

...Introducing people to a new genre of music is often best accomplished through compilation albums, particularly where the music in question is not what one would really consider "mainstream" listening. Compilations enable one to listen to a range of music which, although of a type, will often vary quite a bit. I've found this to be particularly true of the classical genre. Some classical pieces can feel very inaccessible to the novice listener and concertos, sonatas and symphonies can go on for what seems like an age. So, when the time came for me to introduce someone to sacred works I decided that compilation was the way forward. As a label Naxos are well known for producing good quality but cheap recordings and were one of the first labels to open up the classical market challenging the more established labels to produce...

CareBear 15.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Requiem - Classical Music for Reflection & Meditation

Cycladic Heaven

Advantages: A Bit Of Unspoilt Greece
Disadvantages: None!

...Having spent two weeks in Naxos last year we decided to do a two centre this year with a week in Paros to start followed by a week in Naxos. I must say that although Paros was beautiful I was itching to get to Naxos!. Paros's main town Parikia is a bustling port - with endless ferries coming into the harbour. The old town is a beautiful little maze, nice boutiques and expensive restaurants - sometimes well over our budget. We found an excellent fish taverna in the old square. After visiting Noussa - I have to say I would have prefered to have stayed in this resort, more condensed, a beautiful harbour - ( with squid drying) and lots to do. (Water taxis to excellent beaches). Then to Naxos - the sunsets, the people, the food, the ambience, absolutely fantastic, we played backgammon watching the sun go down and enjoyed Greece coffee...

gizmogizmo 22.12.2003 · Read review
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Review of Cyclades (Greece)

The Biggest Little Box of Classical Music

Advantages: An excellent introduction to Classical Music
Disadvantages: None

...This is a companion set to Naxos' "The A~Z of Opera" (previously reviewed.. It follows the same format and is an ideal compilation for people who are new to classical music as well as classical music buffs. It contains a double CD with two and a half hours of classical music (as you would expect) and a 562 page book (not quite as thick as the Opera one) compiled and written again by Keith Anderson. So what's in the pack? ~~ The Book This contains 562 pages of information pertaining to classical music. It's the same size as a CD and fairly thick. The text is concise and clear and informative, with portraits of composers throughout. After the index you get 450 pages of concise histories of composers, with recommendations of recordings from the Naxos catalogue. It is arranged in alphabetical order, and starts with Adolphe Adam...

mikeydred 17.04.2001 (27.04.2001) · Read review
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Review of A-Z of Classical Music

Patience is certainly a virtue

Advantages: Complete operetta (musically) with great artists
Disadvantages: none

...These Naxos re-issues are great and so reasonably priced for anyone who might be wanting to try out some Gilbert and Sullivan before plumping for the complete Decca set recorded during the 50s and 60s. This recording has Martyn Green, Leoard Osborne, Darrell Fancourt, the lovely Margaret Mitchell as Patience and Ella Halman in the contralto role. I am probably of an age that I can remember the end of this D'Oyly Carte era and the beginning of next great one with Valerie Masterson and Donald Adams, so I am lucky to say that I think I have seen the best there possibly could be. However, there is something nostalgic about these recordings and you can tell that the company are on top form....

nikwak 20.06.2008 · Read review
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Review of Sullivan: Patience

The Biggest Little Box of Opera There Is

Advantages: A brilliant guide to opera for iniatiates and established fans alike
Disadvantages: Book may have too many pages for it's size (see it, you'll know what I mean) but dont let that put you off

...I've never been much of a fan of opera. Like most classical music it often suffers from giving the impression of being overlong, bombastic, pretentious and something that only "posh" people listen to. The cost of tickets to most performances especially Covent Garden only serves to exacerbate this. The only operas that I can sit all the way through are "Carmen" and "Madame Butterfly". However that should not put you off listening to the extremely wide range of music music extracted from their "complete opera" settings. This package is a superb introduction to opera from the excellent Naxos (www.naxos.com) organisation and is available at an extremely reasonable price (RRP 9.99 GBP). It consists of a 762 page book and a double CD with two and a half hours (38 pieces) of opera extracts selected from the Naxos catalogue. ~ The Book...

mikeydred 12.03.2001 (03.04.2001) · Read review
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Review of A-Z of Opera