2003 offerings

[ostraco]

The 2003 brochures are starting to appear. Let us know about your bookings, and what new options you discover for 2003.
I have updated the info on the site as far as possible, but your postings will help to keep it correct.
John

[John R]

We have already booked with First Choice for October 2003 (we did this last April !!). Their total holiday costs flying from Newcastle and using Stella Pension (B+B) are eceptionally reasonable. Newcastle airport is very handy for us and we cannot (yet) beat their prices from that airport at that time of year.

John R

[ostraco]

I wish I could plan so far ahead!
Living in Plymouh, we don't have a good airport near us - usually our options are restricted to Gatwick - although there do seem to be some changes afoot for this year,especially if we go flight only.
We've found in the past that May holidays are reasonable, and we couldn't improve on the price by booking flights, rooms and transfers for ourselves. The September prices are such that we are thinking about a go it alone booking this year - I'll let you know - and will probably for asking for advice on the board if that's what we decide to do.

[compage]

We have been to Plakias 5 or 6 times in the last 12 years, usually in September but we've also been in June.
Never booked accommodation in advance and never had a problem.
In the past we've usually managed to get a flight from East Midlands, our local airport, but there seem to be fewer flights to Crete these days.
This year we'll be flying from Birmingham on 2nd September and trying to book in advance because we know a few places.

Car hire seems more expensive this year.  Tips anyone?

[alison]

 We booked our holiday through First Choice but from a Sunquest holiday Brochure.
The choices are limited but they seemed very good value. We are managing to travel and stay in a self-catering one bed apartment for under £700. We think this very good value for a family of three.

[JulieB485]

We booked from the Sunquest brochure too - totally not planning to go to Crete - not planning to book a holiday really when we did but glad that we have done and have it to look forward to!

[Graham_and_Karen]

Just thought I would have a moan about Olympic Holidays. We heard yesterday that our flights have been changed for a third time! The UK departure has got later and the return time has now moved from the evening to the morning. Bit by bit, we've lost 13 daytime hours off our holiday. Maybe, with the state of the holiday / airline market I should be thankful that we've got a flight at all. I see now that this is a disadvantage of booking early so maybe next year we'll take our chances with a late booking.
 

[tonyell]

Try a strongly worded complaint to the tour operator, friend of mine has just had £60 per person back from Thomas Cook for a similar complaint on a Italian holiday.

Tonyell