login

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Mike G

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 ... 54
16
Plakias / Re: News
« on: November 28, 2017, 01:43:36 PM »
The flights to Heraklion that Olympic is offering for 2018 from LGW are at pretty anti-social times, either for arriving in Crete or UK. Having spent a long night in October at the airport waiting for the trains to start, when Olympic changed the flights at the last minute, I am reluctant to volunteer for it.
I asked Olympic why their flight times from LGW are at horrible times. For the non charter flights, easyJet offer 2 a day, one of which is at much better times IMHO. They said they would quote me for the other flight and did.

I also asked if I could buy just the accommodation from Olympic and arrange all transport myself. I was told "no" even though another member of the forum told me that Olympic have allowed this in the past.

17
Plakias / Re: News
« on: November 11, 2017, 02:03:31 PM »
The flights to Heraklion that Olympic is offering for 2018 from LGW are at pretty anti-social times, either for arriving in Crete or UK. Having spent a long night in October at the airport waiting for the trains to start, when Olympic changed the flights at the last minute, I am reluctant to volunteer for it.

18
Plakias / Re: Fight at the Sunbed corral
« on: October 10, 2017, 02:01:40 PM »
Paleochora appeals to much the same sort of people that like Plakias IMHO. Does anyone know if any tour operator goes there? It has the same disadvantage as Plakias in that it is a long way from the airport.

19
Plakias / Re: Far end beach
« on: July 22, 2017, 02:52:10 PM »
Yes to both, at least that was the case in May.

20
Holiday Companies / Re: Olympic rep saga
« on: June 28, 2017, 09:38:08 AM »
There is a body of opinion that the 80 odd mile distance from the airports has prevented Plakias from changing for the worse over the years. I think there is truth in this.

21
Plakias / Re: Rain?
« on: May 31, 2017, 02:18:02 PM »
John, I've just returned from 2 weeks in Plakias and the weather was the poorest in 13 visits. Les & Christine are threatening not to go again when I am there, as before I arrived they had a perfect week and they think I jinxed it. Still a good holiday though.

22
Holiday Companies / Re: Olympic (again)
« on: December 30, 2016, 01:58:07 PM »
To confuse things Olympic has changed the layout of their website over the holiday and it takes a bit of getting used to.

re. transfers, holidays using Olympic's charter flights (e.g. Enter Air) come with a transfer. Those using easyJet, Thomson, etc generally do not, although for some destinations they offer one as an extra.

When you search online for a specific accommodation on a specific date it seems to show the cheapest price for that set of circumstances. This is not necessarily the charter flight but for some holidays it seems to be easyJet, often at what for me would be anti-social flight times. If you go into the booking process you have the option of seeing the other flight options and the price differential.

Olympic's prices have been yo-yoing around since the 2017 holidays were first offered. Before Christmas they featured an island a day for 12 days with £50pp off for that day only. For Christmas   Day they offered the £50pp for all 12.

Prices are a bit more than 2016 but with the drop in the value of the £ that seems fair. When you work out the cost per day it still seems a bargain in many ways.

23
PlakChat / Re: What is it like in Plakias in November?
« on: November 12, 2016, 02:11:27 PM »


All of which asks the question “ Should the season be longer?” At the moment the controlling factor appears to be the stopping of charter and low cost carrier flights to Northern Europe. I have on one occasion come back via ferry and a flight from Athens, but talking to expats , they tell me fly Crete to Athens , then change flights to UK. It works out not much dearer than direct flights and the connections are reasonable. I suspect that the lengthening of the season is a chicken/egg problem, but I would be interested in hearing other opinions...please post
I quite agree that the season should be longer and I'm sure the business owners would love it. However the trend over the last 10 or more years has been for the tour operators to shorten the season. The season in Crete (and Rhodes) is one of the longest in Greece but in some other islands it ends in mid September. While in Kos last month I was told of an ambitious plan for a new airport there and an effort to extend the season to about 8 months. I wish them luck.

I was also told a few years ago in Plakias by a resident that the weather there is often better in November than October.

24
Plakias / Re: Maybe the last time?
« on: October 28, 2016, 02:16:25 PM »
Mousses was thriving in May and hopefully will be again next May.

I totally agree about the smoking. I guess with all the competition amongst the tavernas no one wants to stand out by enforcing the law. It is sad to see so many Brits behaving in an anti-social way that they would not get away with at home.

25
PlakChat / Re: Olympic Holidays-Transfers 2017
« on: August 25, 2016, 02:20:04 PM »
JBMouse is right in what he says that the transfers are for their charter flights only. In the past they have sometimes extended the operation dates of the charter flights a bit later in the year, so it could be worth waiting. They did this last year at Gatwick.

Currently, the charter flights start on May 16th at Gatwick.

Olympic is well aware that holidays without transfers are very unattractive to many owing to the cost of taxis.

26
Same for Gatwick in May. When I originally booked it was Germania both ways. A couple of weeks ago it was changed to easyJet outward and Enter Air (Polish apparently) on the return and I checked in with easyJet. Flight times within a couple of hours of each other. Today Olympic have said I am back with Germania. No Germania tickets though.

I'm confused.

27
Plakias / Death of a Plakias regular
« on: March 31, 2016, 01:23:00 PM »
Many of you will be as sad as I was on finding out about the death of John Scadden (aka Boxer Lover) and in tragic circumstances.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-35892523

John and his friend Tom have been visiting for many years, usually having 4 weeks in the early summer and the same in the autumn. Latterly they stayed at the Livicon.

True to the name Boxer Lover he was a great dog lover, even though he no longer owned one, and every year both he and Tom would use part of their luggage allowance to bring various goodies for Bouzouki, their canine friend from the Plakias Bay hotel. Bouzouki seemed to have a sixth sense and always knew when they had arrived. He will miss John too.

John had many friends in the town. He was a thoroughly decent man and he will be much missed by many. I hope others will post their memories of him as a tribute.

RIP John 

28
Plakias / Re: Plakias Weather
« on: February 08, 2016, 02:29:17 PM »
Interesting stuff Paul. I live in Hertfordshire and I suspect that in virtually every year Plakias has a higher total annual rainfall than here. Fortunately this doesn't usually come when I'm there!

29
Holiday Companies / Re: Olympic Loyalty Bonus (or not)
« on: December 13, 2015, 12:38:44 PM »
I think that when Olympic introduced the Loyalty payments they were awarded for all holidays over £250. When I booked last week I was told that it is now over £400, so what qualified a couple of months ago won't qualify now. Also I suspect that the amount of the bonus has drastically reduced since they introduced them in the summer of 2014.

On a brighter note, Olympic have now brought the booking window for Gatwick Germania flights, and also the dates for my preferred accommodation, forward to May 10th.

30
Holiday Companies / Re: Olympic Loyalty Bonus (or not)
« on: December 03, 2015, 02:18:16 PM »
Olympic did have some Black Friday deals (which went through until Monday) knocking £50 off the price, but most were only for 7 night holidays. Having been to Plakias with Olympic for about 10 years now I know what to expect price-wise and have so far struggled to get anywhere near that price. This hasn't been helped by Olympic not starting their Gatwick charters until May 24th (i.e. half-term), although you can go earlier to some accommodations from May 3 but with no transfer (they will book you one for £103 each way). My normal accommodation starts 3 weeks later than usual as well. Maybe they will have some good deals over Christmas and New Year.

Re. Loyalty Bonus, these seem to have replaced the system where regulars could negotiate a reduction based on their Olympic booking record and how cheeky they were prepared to be. LBs can disappear without trace though as others have found.

I'm sure I'm not the only one wishing that another main-stream UK tour operator would feature Plakias to compete with Olympic, although the distance from the airport probably means no one will. However, as others have commented, it is that distance which has helped Plakias retain the character we all love.

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 ... 54