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Glad you enjoyed these videos! I was talking to a taxi driver on a Greek island in September and he was telling me how expensive it is to build a new house on a island. And it's for exactly the reasons you mention - everything has to be shipped in on boats and the costs get big fast. Imagine how much it costs to build a beach hotel and 300 rooms! And that area is mainly farming, so they had to build the roads etc as well. I think most of the locals hate it and think it's an eyesore and should never have been built. And now it's abandoned, they hate it more. I'm sure the government would want it to either be brought back into use or demolished. What will actually happen? I have no idea.

@@NotLostExploring The cost of bringing electricity and water and sewerage services plus building roads, drainage etc, would have been astronomical. Wonder how much of a factor the steepness of accessing the accommodation was in its decline. It may have attracted large occupancy rates but would people go back, or have given negative feedback, after experiencing the difficult terrain? Seems like it is a place you go to and stay there considering the awkward access.

@@rainscratch That's true! They probably had to do massive work to put in the sewage system etc. Can't even imagine how many millions this all added up to! The steep hill is probably one more factor in the hotel's decline but I don't think it was a deal breaker on it's own. They did have a little buggy to drive people up the hill (which you can see in part 1), so if you were willing to wait for that you could avoid the walk. But I imagine frequent walks up and down that would put some people off ever coming back to that hotel. It was simultaneously one of the best designed and worst designed holiday complexes in history 😂

@@NotLostExploring All in all a fascinating study of ambition gone off the rails. 'The folly of man' quote comes to mind. Been nice discovering your channel and having the chats.

From all the comments I could find about this hotel online, seems like it was always busy and the rooms were fully booked. So how it went into liquidation I don't know. Maybe the construction costs brought it down? But when it was reopened in 2012, I would have thought that was all resolved. But then it closed again. Maybe the earthquake damage was the final nail in the coffin? It's a mystery lol. But it is sad to see it sitting there abandoned and falling apart. You'd think something could be done with it.

It's incredibly well built as well. You can see they planned it with immaculate care and attention. None of the buildings are crumbling from poor workmanship - they are all more or less as good as new even though they have been empty for a decade. They were not cutting corners. They built this to last, as a long term investment. I would one day like to find out what really happened for it to end up like this. But for now it remains a mystery why multi multi millions worth of buildings are just sitting there abandoned...

@@NotLostExploring An intriguing puzzle for sure. One thing stands out compared to many other abandoned buildings, there does not seem to be any water damage internally. That indicates the roof was really well built to even withstand the hurricane force winds of last decade.

It was made for money landering​@@NotLostExploring

It's an interesting mountain village. Some very large buildings and upstairs from that oven the building had quite elaborate decor. It's hard to imagine it was a restaurant because the village is way out in the mountains on it's own, far away from any major town. Maybe some kind of communal oven for people who didn't have their own ovens? Or maybe it made more sense for a lot of people to use one big oven and one person could keep an eye on the baking while everyone else was out at work?

@@NotLostExploring Thanks for the info. It was fairly common in small Greek villages, in the days of and before the earthquake, that there was a central bakery that, for a few drachmas, you could take your meals or dough and have the baker take care of it in the oven. Cooking at home usually involved arduous lighting of fires (often just an open fire/simple brick stove, in a corner of the kitchen) So it was a relief to have your cooking done by the baker now and again. Am enjoying your channel - should have more viewers. Like my channel it sits for weeks or months with a few scattered views.

I thought that too until I visited the site. All the paperwork is dated 2013 and the damage is at least 10 years old. There are some really nasty structural cracks here and there too - I suspect these happened in 2012 when there were some biggish tremors.

@@jezstevens Hey Jez, were you there in 2024? Is it still completely abandoned?

@@NotLostExploring yes. September 2024 still largely unvandalised - certainly by UK standards! - it’s a bit of difficult location to get so I don’t suppose it gets many visitors.

@@jezstevens Still the same in September 2024? Wow, crazy it's still sitting there untouched for at least a decade! In the UK it would be stripped of anything of value, squatted, tagged and burned down in the space of a few years (unless there was 24 hour security) - you know how it is 😂 The mystery continues if it will ever be reopened

@ as a builder , admittedly of smaller property , I’d said it’ll never reopen. The earthquake damage to the stair well to the terrace was biblical! It won’t fall down for many decades but there’s no way for it to be mended that I can see. . I think it’s location was a giant nail in its coffin as well - Kefalonia IMHO doesn’t lend itself to such development and certainly not on the edge of such a small town up such an awkward road. Still fun for us nosey types! I’ve been in loads of disused hotels over the years - there’s an amazing one near Kotor in Montenegro! Plus disused Soviet Sub bases in Albania.

Hi Gerry! Great to hear your story about staying there! If you stayed in early 2007, you were for sure one of the first guests. I read something about the road into the hotel being incomplete and one of the restaurants wasn't finished either, lot's of stuff like that. I hope one day they reopen it rather than leave it the way it is now. The views from the pool/balcony towards Argostoli are unforgettable. BTW, was the aqua park at the back of the hotel open when you stayed there? I can see it on google maps but I never got that far the day I was there.

Hi, I can’t remember a aqua park, only the big pool with the view. So I guess that wasn’t finished/open then. Also the only restaurant I can remember was the one in the lobby on the left. And the one beneath it was the poolbar/restaurant. You could get snacks and ice cream there during the day.

Hey that's awesome Nick! It was really hard to find when I went searching for it, that's why I put the map and notes in my video. How far did you go in?

Thank you. It's still up there as one of the craziest things that's happened on my travels so far

@@NotLostExploringCame across this video when searching for kefalonia as i’m going soon, watched the whole thing and was shocked after to see it had no likes!! Thought this would be viral you deserve it

@@ellaericksonn I think it's a good story people might like to hear, so that's why I made it. But it's all down to the youtube algorithm how many people see it. Enjoy Kefalonia! It's one of the bigger Greek islands and has lot's to do.

I had no idea what these were at the time. I knew they were for some kind of liquid and thought it might be to do with olives or wine. But I couldn't get my head around the idea almost every house had their own wine press! These tanks are quite big and take up a whole corner of a house. I figured water was more essential, so it might be a water storage tank or something. But I guess I underestimated how common it was for people to make their own wine back then. Thanks for the comment, I love exploring these old villages and learning about them.

For real. Those views over the pool are awesome. Musta been pretty cool place to stay back in the day

I remember I came across that news story back when I was planning this hike. I'm very sorry to hear your Uncle was never found Debbie. If you walk up the road I walked up, it does get very hot as there is not much shelter. And as you see in the video, it's steep in parts. But overall I'd say it's quite a safe walk.

@NotLostExploring thank you. Its just so strange how someone can disappear like that with no trace.