"Megas Alexandros" hotel began construction in 1967 and first opened its doors to welcome its first guests in 1976. The original owners and hosts were Athanasios Pelpas and his wife, Penelope Pelpa, who emigrated to Germany in 1963 to chase their dream. They left two small babies behind with the goal of working hard and returning as quickly as possible... They worked non-stop for 13 years (holding 2 or 3 jobs at a time) and when they returned to Greece, they bought this plot of land in Paralia and started building the hotel.

Opposite the hotel, where the park is today, there was a marsh full of reeds, frogs, and many, many mosquitoes. There was no street lighting, and at night, it gave you the chills. Many people mocked them back then, saying: "Oh Thanasi, you couldn't have found a worse spot..." Little did they know what would happen a few years later...

In the early years, Paralia had very few hotels, a few grocery stores, and a bakery that cooked the meals for the whole neighborhood. Every morning you would see women carrying their baking pans to the bakery, only to pick them up a few hours later, piping hot... The first tourists were mostly Greeks. Gradually, Yugoslavians (since it was still Yugoslavia back then) and quite a few Germans started arriving.

Grandpa Kostas, the father of Athanasios Pelpas, took on the role of receptionist for the first time, because Athanasios and his wife were still in Germany settling their final affairs. Grandpa Kostas was also the "godfather" of the hotel. He thought they should name it "Megas Alexandros" because it was located on "Megas Alexandros" Street. "That way the foreigners will remember it more easily," he used to say.

In the early years, an overnight stay cost 80 drachmas, and if that seemed expensive to someone, grandpa would let it go for 60 drachmas (he had to save money...). Back then, most guests would gather in the square, and the hoteliers would go and "collect" them from there. Grandpa Kostas, feeling the weight of his responsibility, would run to the square with his little cane to gather as many guests as he could... The kids had worked hard in Germany; the least he could do was this... In fact, because he didn't want to occupy a room to sleep in, he put a camp bed under the stairs with an old curtain to hide it, and slept there. Often, passing tourists would cover him with a blanket so he wouldn't get cold... (how beautiful the world was in its simplicity...).

Years went by, and Paralia slowly filled with people. Hotels sprang up one after another, more and more people arrived, and the landscape constantly changed... Large hotels with many amenities, pools, breakfasts... The world was changing, and rightly so. Thanasis and Penelope Pelpa did whatever they could to compete with the new, large hotels. However, since the hotel was their primary job and they had 2 children to put through school, they couldn't afford to make massive changes.

Grandpa Thanasis passed away on September 20, 2015, inside the hotel room he loved so much. On September 21, he and his wife Penelope were scheduled to leave for Nea Xrani (where they lived in the winter). That’s why he made sure to "leave" the day before...

In 2016, the first complete renovation was carried out by the children of Athanasios and Penelope Pelpa. The hotel changed its appearance, becoming a beautiful boutique hotel with romantic touches that bear no relation to its name ("Megas Alexandros"). However, the children never once considered changing the name, because Grandpa Kostas had given it...

And that brings us to today...

Paralia has completely transformed; there are countless hotels offering incredible amenities. Most bookings are made online through major platforms. The stress is high: keeping guests happy, ensuring they have a good time...

As the current hosts and successors of the business, we would like to tell you a little bit about the present. The hotel is a small, warm, family-run establishment where the whole family works during the summers: the children and grandchildren of Athanasios and Penelope Pelpa. Even Grandma Penelope herself often acts as a receptionist. And she speaks Romanian to the guests, because she knows Vlach very well. The Romanian tourists are delighted, as are the Serbs and Bulgarians (even though most of the time they probably don't understand a thing, because she speaks Romanian to them too). The Germans, however, are the happiest of all, because Grandma Penelope speaks German fluently (after all those years in Germany).

The renovation of the hotel was done with love, a lot of passion, and endless personal work. We wanted to make you feel "at home". For this reason, the hotel's decoration is exactly like the decoration of our own home.

Unfortunately, the hotel is only accessible by stairs. Although we tried, there is not enough space for an internal elevator, and installing an external one is very difficult. However, we always make sure to keep two rooms on the ground floor for people with mobility issues (which you must mention in your reservation so we can save them for you).

The rooms are small. To make them bigger, walls would have to be torn down, and doing so would require a special study by an engineer. Perhaps that will happen in the future too. Because the rooms are small, the beds could not be king-size, as some of our guests request.

The kitchenette is small but has everything you need for your few days of vacation. It has ceramic hobs but cannot have an oven, as one dissatisfied guest requested. It has pots, pans, a kettle, a briki (for Greek coffee), and a filter coffee maker, but it does not have an espresso machine.

Every room also has a small balcony where you can drink your daily coffee while enjoying the view of the park.

And above all, it has the love and warmth of a family business, started by Grandpa Kostas, Grandpa Thanasis, and Grandma Penelope, and continued today by Michalis, Nikos, Konstantinos, Penelope, Danai, Thanasis, Liouba, and Marina.

So, if all of this is enough for you, we promise that we will do everything in our power to ensure you have the best possible time. And most importantly, we promise that even though you will be far from your home, it will feel as if you are right at home. In this small, romantic, warm, family hotel...