at Votsala we promise: No disco in the hotel. No Greek Taverna in the hotel. No mini-market in the hotel. No sauna, no hydromassage because Hotel Votsala is a happy, relaxing, informal place to stay. Twelve million of olive trees have protected Lesvos from the mass tourism. During the dark 60s and 70s, the olive oil kept the population on the island. The about ninety thousand inhabitants had no reason to transform their houses into rooms to let. The no-development of Lesvos is now the big advantage of the island. No big hotels, no artificial settlements overcrowded in summer and empty in the winter. Lesvos offers instead real Greek villages inhabited by Greeks. How to get there, what to do, what to see …. Iannis was working in Athens as an architect. This means I had to experience daily the Greek bureaucracy! That was too much for me and this is the reason, 13 years ago together with my wife Daphne we decided to go back to Lesvos, the island of our origin. Running my father's hotel was not an easy thing for the first years. We both hate the big tour operators and we were dreaming of a job in which we also could have fun… Today, getting 60% of repeaters at Votsala we feel more like living in a big holiday villa where friends have been invited for a big family reunion! And we are there with tips for everyone …