Aeriko - Benovias

English, French and Russian are spoken by the hotel team, which makes the first practical conversations straightforward. Aeriko - Benovias is a small six-room hotel for travellers who prefer a compact base in Karfas to a large resort with a timetable for everything.

The mood is easy-going and useful rather than over-produced. You have a bar, a snack bar, a garden, a library and an outdoor swimming pool, with a solarium terrace for doing very little when that is precisely the plan. A place to leave the day behind without making a ceremony of it.

The hotel sits in Karfas, on the island of Chios in Greece, in the town centre. That puts shops, local streets and the everyday business of the resort within walking distance, while Chios Port is among the nearby places to explore.

The beach is directly accessible from the hotel and is sandy, with sun loungers and parasols. For a diving holiday, that gives you a simple choice at the end of the day: go straight to the sand, or stay by the pool and let the salt dry off at its own pace.

The accommodation is deliberately small in scale, with six rooms in total. The standard rooms have private bathrooms, while the sea-view double room is the natural couple's choice and is set up for two people. If the view matters more than anything else, the water-facing category is the one to look at first.

Air conditioning and heating cover the basics through the seasons. The room information is otherwise spare, so this is a place to choose for its location, beach access and small size rather than for a long list of in-room gadgets. A safe and luggage storage are available at the hotel, useful when your travel day does not line up neatly with your room.

The arrival and departure times need checking when you book: check-in is given as 14:00 or 15:00, while check-out is given as 11:00 or 12:00. The sea-view double room has a private bathroom and a double bed, making it the clearest fit for two divers travelling together.

Breakfast is served as a buffet in the breakfast room, with fresh juices and homemade jams adding something more useful than a row of anonymous packets. The published breakfast timing is 20:30 to 22:30, an unusual schedule for a morning meal, so check it before relying on it for an early departure.

There is one bar and a separate snack bar. That gives you somewhere for a drink or a lighter bite without turning the hotel into a restaurant complex. No half-board or all-inclusive formula is described, so the useful question here is whether the breakfast arrangement suits your plans and where you want to eat for the rest of the day.

The outdoor swimming pool is the obvious place to cool down without going back to the beach. A solarium terrace, garden and loungers by the sandy shore give you several ways to spend an idle afternoon, whether your legs want a rest or your non-diving companion has reached the sensible conclusion that one activity is quite enough.

There is a library for quiet time, plus a barbecue area for a more informal evening. The hotel also offers cycling, hiking and bicycle hire, while the tourist desk can help arrange excursions. Car hire is available too, which makes the island easier to explore at your own pace rather than by trying to fit every outing around someone else's timetable.

Wi-Fi is available throughout the hotel, and parking is free. Luggage storage is available, which is handy if your arrival or departure falls outside your room time. There is also a safe, vehicle hire and assistance with excursions.

The hotel accepts cash, Visa and Mastercard. Rooms and common areas have air conditioning, and the electrical supply is 230 volts with Type C and Type F sockets, the standard European combination used in Greece.

Children under 18 cannot stay alone. English, French and Russian are spoken by the hotel team, while the website is also aimed at guests in a much wider range of languages. Airport distance and airport transfer arrangements are not part of the published practical information, so those details should be settled before travel rather than left to the baggage carousel.