Author Topic: How I found San Stefanos.!!!  (Read 174464 times)

Offline ianlivi

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Re: How I found San Stefanos.!!!
« Reply #90 on: June 18, 2014, 11:10:13 AM »
Having stayed in Arillas a couple of times and always walking to SS for a meal at least one night we decided to book a holiday there the following year this will now  be our third year in the village. Although we have holidays in other Greek Islands we  try to make it back to SS for at least one week. We like to eat out each night and try as many restaurants as possible so self catering suits us and where we stay has only 4 apartments and 2 studios so not busy a "real chill out" place. I think it's the peace and quiet, good food and the friendly villagers that brings us back.

Offline crsfaz

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Re: How I found San Stefanos.!!!
« Reply #91 on: May 03, 2015, 12:49:23 PM »
Having stayed in Arillas a couple of times and always walking to SS for a meal at least one night we decided to book a holiday there the following year this will now  be our third year in the village. Although we have holidays in other Greek Islands we  try to make it back to SS for at least one week. We like to eat out each night and try as many restaurants as possible so self catering suits us and where we stay has only 4 apartments and 2 studios so not busy a "real chill out" place. I think it's the peace and quiet, good food and the friendly villagers that brings us back.
couldn't of put it better myself!
Crs 😊🍻

Offline maggiesaes

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Re: How I found San Stefanos.!!!
« Reply #92 on: March 17, 2018, 11:33:59 AM »
We found San Stef in 1999 by accident really.
We had booked to go somewhere quite different but the travel agent was messing about changing all sorts until it bore no resemblance to the original holiday and when they changed the date I cancelled.
I popped into our local Travel House and told them when we wanted to fly and said 'Greek Islands' and they found us San Stef and flying form Cardiff too which was a bonus as we had just moved to Wales.
We came over on the last two weeks of October when places (though there were fewer) stayed open till the end of October.
Since then we have been coming over twice a year and have many friends here and elsewhere on the island.This year we will be coming for three weeks and for the first time staying at Little Prince which of course wasn't here when we first came. 

Offline Jimbo

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Re: How I found San Stefanos.!!!
« Reply #93 on: March 17, 2018, 04:08:41 PM »
Little Prince is a great place to stay. That was our first visit, and we've been back many, many times.

Offline maggiesaes

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Re: How I found San Stefanos.!!!
« Reply #94 on: March 19, 2018, 01:27:55 PM »
We often eat at Little Prince and usually go and have a drink with Lakis,Demetri's father at some stage  while we're there and we have always stayed at the Thomas Bay but we wanted to have three weeks this year in May and couldn't get it at all.
We have problems with only one flight a week from Cardiff so we'll be coming from Bristol again.

Amazing the number of people we meet who come here the pre-admission nurse at one of our hospitals comes every year and stays in the Vickie and the boiler engineer comes and stay at Romanza and last September I met my GP at the airport on the way home to Cardiff.

Offline simonE

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Re: How I found San Stefanos.!!!
« Reply #95 on: April 24, 2018, 01:15:22 AM »
My first visit was in May 1999 following a last minute deal my wife had seen in our local independent travel agent. If memory serves, we paid less than £600 for the fortnight (which included the Whitsun school holiday week) for a self catering apartment at the Perros Hotel for the four of us - me, my wife and our two daughters, then aged 5 and 3.
 
We arrived at some unearthly hour ( wasn't it always the case back then with package holiday flights to Greece?) and were housed overnight in a very basic apartment from which we were promptly moved the following day for something more suitable. Again, this thing seemed to happen a lot in those days!

What then followed was one of our favourite ever family holidays. The first thing I remember is being a little shocked at the general appearance of the surrounding neighbourhood - our foreign holiday experience up until that point had been based on visits to the more manicured resorts of Spain, and San Stefanos was most definitely not manicured! Half finished buildings with great lengths of steel pointing out of the concrete towards the blue sky, a fair bit of roadside litter, grassy scrub land forming the gaps between one taverna and the next, no discernable pavements and of course the inevitable " we do WHAT with the toilet paper???!!!", were all something of a culture shock.

But, ( and all you forum folk will now know what's coming) as the first days turned into the first week, we slowly just "got" it. We got the warmth and genuine welcome of every "kalimera" from everyone we met. We got the fuss made of two very small, very blonde girls at every shop and taverna often resulting in a free sweet or two, we got the unbelievable light of the endless sunny days, the smells (not all of them pleasant!) that are unique to Greece, the parades of giant ants, the fireflies on our evening walks back to the hotel. We were hooked. 

However, here is the twist. This didn't then result in return visits year on year. We were never ones to go back to the same resort -
not even just twice. So what followed instead was visits to other Greeks islands and indeed, many other European countries. And many great holidays.Now fast forward to 2015. As an obsessive Tripadvisor advocate, on a whim I searched for the Perros, mainly just to see if it was still up and running and, finding that it most definitely was, suggested to my less than convinced wife that we should return. We duly did, now minus our grown up daughters, and had a wonderful time.

We were both surprised at the very little change we could perceive  - other than the closure of the restaurant opposite to the Perros ( whose name escapes me I'm afraid ) which had been a favourite of ours on Greek night. Peli and Maria were still there ( we reminisced to them of how they bestowed gifts of Tic-Tacs on our daughters) and so too was Stelios at The Olympia ( but minus his ponytail....). Neither of us banked on the wave of nostalgia that hit us as we contemplated our previous visit which on one hand seemed like yesterday and on the other seemed like a lifetime ago. As Captain Corelli muses in Antoine de Bernieres' novel, " Time is a complete b******...."

Now nostalgia is a Greek word ( obviously - they have all the best ones !) meaning, literally "nostos" ( return home) "algos" (pain). So, in a way, it defines a sort of homesickness - a longing to return. I think that this is what we felt. A homesickness for somewhere that wasn't even our home, but in some way felt like a place we belonged. Does this make sense to anyone else?

Just why this little resort, with its hotch potch development, its untidy corners and its randomness now has such a hold on us is really quite a mystery. We've visited prettier places, places with more to see and do, with better beaches, better infrastructure......but nowhere that has the same grip on our hearts as little old San Stefanos. Friends of ours ask about this little place we revisit but I find I'm always reluctant to recommend it too highly. I find I'm being a little guarded, a little protective. "What if they just don't "get" it like we do?". Is this just me?

So there we are. How I found San Stefanos. And why we are back again next month.

Offline maggiesaes

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Re: How I found San Stefanos.!!!
« Reply #96 on: April 24, 2018, 08:37:43 PM »
Simon it is not just you it gets us every year we just think of it as a second home.
We too have done Spain and the Spanish Islands,Canary Islands,North Africa,West Africa,East Africa,India,Israel,Acapulco,Belgium,Germany several Greek islands but nowhere in the world comes close to Corfu and San Steph it has an extra something which you just can’t name you just feel it.

Kernowfox

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Re: How I found San Stefanos.!!!
« Reply #97 on: April 25, 2018, 09:54:21 PM »
Nicely summarised Simon.
Given your liking for Trip Adviser reviews I would be interested to see your inputs relating to your many holidays. I wonder if you would divulge a review you’ve completed so that I can take a look?

Offline simonE

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Re: How I found San Stefanos.!!!
« Reply #98 on: April 26, 2018, 01:10:56 AM »
Thanks for the kind words. My ID on Tripadvisor is sim0n 1967. My most recent reviews are for our recent holiday in St. Spyridon. If you search Neptune Sea House Cottage you should find my review dated April 16th for the property in which we stayed. Cheers.

Offline Teamnickos

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Re: How I found San Stefanos.!!!
« Reply #99 on: April 26, 2018, 10:58:02 AM »
Lovely story Simon (and totally agree)

Gavlah1973

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Re: How I found San Stefanos.!!!
« Reply #100 on: August 05, 2018, 12:07:12 PM »
Brilliant that Simon

The taverna opp Perros was Paradise

Closed about 2011

Offline debra

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Re: How I found San Stefanos.!!!
« Reply #101 on: August 12, 2018, 01:15:47 AM »
Loved your memories Simon.  It is a funny little place and how it beguiles you and entices you and makes you miss it.

 

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