San Stefanos Online ~ North West Corfu
Welcome to San Stefanos (NW Corfu) => Where to stay => Topic started by: tonyco1 on March 26, 2012, 09:44:23 PM
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Hi everyone, any of you stayed recently at the Athens Bar Apartments?
We are staying there for the first time, in the first 2 weeks of July. I am just planning ahead now!
If you did stay there, can you help out and tell me the following please.
I think Jimmy organises the transfer etc, and that the Transfer & the air-con is included in the price.
We will be in Apt. 4, - - - downstairs - - - I think.
Do you know if there is a patio facing the Athina as well as the Athens bar? (for drying any clothes in the sun).
Is there a hair-dryer and Iron in the apartment, or can you borrow an Iron? (I need to know what to pack)
Can you pick up WiFi there?
Toaster? Kettle? what equipment do you get in the Apt’s?
I have a good idea - as most Apartments are similar, but it's nice to know for sure.
Thanks Tony
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Tony, Nikos has email and website so you can pop him an email I am sure he will answer all your questions above. If you need his address let me know.
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We are staying there for the first time at the end of August so look forward to hearing what you think of them. As we spend every night in Athens Bar it deems to make sense to stay there and save a walk home ha!
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No worries there, I know for a fact that the apartments are first class, I just wanted some of the fine detail!! LOL
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make sense to stay there and save a walk home
Right! That "walk" home can be difficult if O Nikos is in party mode!
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As I know only too well!
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The secret is to go earlier, into Glenn's - then crawl over to the apartment later!!
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Yes great rooms -air con extra--airport transfer by Dimitri or daughter poss. son -in-law depending who is free. No iron but the local laundrette will do it for you. Toaster is part of the cooker just like home.
No front patio as such but each room has balc to rear. You can sit out front but no clothes drier.
Clothes drier/ rail is supplied
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Thanks for that Sunnygirl, I do get the aircon and the transfer included in my deal, according to the email I have from Nikos, maybe from this year?
or maybe because he said that it's because we have been using the Athens Bar for so many years!
Anyway - it's an all-in deal and a fair price!
Travelling by Easyjet this time - finger up to Thomson - fly the flag for Greece!!
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Like the first cuckoo of spring, that's the first DIY versus Package posting!
It all depends where you live. Going to Barcelona last week with Easyjet from Liverpool, the costs were:
Petrol: approximately £60
Hotel overnight at airport: £60
Dinner at airport: £30
Car park: £40
Flights: £120
Hotel in Barcelona two nights: £180
Wear and tear: about 7 hours on the M62, round trip with bad traffic and roadworks
Contrast: last September/October to Ag Stef with Thomson for three weeks:
Flights, accommodation, transfers for 2: £680
Petrol: £15
Drive time: 95 minutes round trip on empty motorway
Car park: £35
Airport transfers : £0.00
Whilst I strongly support the idea of giving your Euros to the locals, I'm not actually a charity organisation, and much as I love them I really do think that the Mouzakitis family have a hell of a lot more money than I have! I think it's unfortunate to make this into a moral crusade.
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I have got to agree with Jimbo on this one, most people will go with the best bargain unless of course they have pots of money and yes I am pretty certain that most hoteliers have much more money than we do.
If Thomsons did not supply holidays to SS and the only way to holiday there was on a DIY basis then you can bet that SS would not attract the many, many visitors that it gets each year and therefore hotel/apartment owners, tavernas, shops,vehicle rental, organisers of day trips and even those lovely people who rent out the sunbeds on the beach would suffer greatly and go out of business, there would simply not be enough holiday makers to make it pay, without Thomsons then I doubt the resort would survive very long. We always eat out on holiday both lunch and evening meal, drink in the bars, usually hire a vehicle, shop at the local shops and hire the sunbeds on the beach , I imagine lots of Thomsons holiday makers do likewise and support the locals by spending their money in resort.
If Thomsons and other holiday firms had never supplied holidays to SS then it would not be the successful village that it has grown into today.
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Thanks, lilly. Sorry if I sounded grumpy, but I doubt if the profitability in the village is actually in accommodation. I'm sure Thomson pay a ludicrously small amount to apartment owners - but we spend, as you rightly say, Lilly, plenty of money in the village on food, drink and fags when we're there. If we had to spend huge amounts on getting there we'd live on boiled eggs and drink tap-water.
If it were not for Thomson we would never have found Ag Stef. I'm sure they strike hard bargains - but their visitors alone pump millions of Euros into the village over the season. So it's a balance between having lots of people spending lots of money or fewer people paying a bit more towards having a bed. I'd be very surprised if the bar and taverna owners wanted to chuck Thomson out and rely upon the much more fragile DIY options.
I do dislike being treated as some kind of pariah for using Thomson versus DIY.
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Hi Jimbo, don't think I could survive on boiled eggs and water and having to walk past all those tempting taverna's whilst breathing in all the delightful aroma's ;D but seriously it is a fact that most peope spend alot of their money in the village and therefore help to keep the village a thriving community. Wherever we holiday we usually rent air conditioning and a safe plus we buy breakfast most days from the hotel/apartment, also pre dinner drinks and a few[well alot] of night caps from our hosts.
I know holidays in general have gone up in price but there are still bargains to be had and I agree that the businesses of SS will not want to chuck Thomsons out any time soon.
Everyone who spends money in SS or any other Greek resort is flying the flag for Greece.
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Hi Tony
I agree with some of your sentiment,ie what Thomsons pay the hoteliers but surely from what i have heard and been told by others,Easyjet are no better when it comes to the way they treat customers, all the extras they now have to pay, baggage,seating etc.
Going by my own personel experience having used Thomsons since the eighties not always to Corfu, we have always got a fair price for our holidays and like lilly and jimbo spread our spending money around the village and in doing so made a lot of new friends, Locals and brits. Everybody will have their own travel choices and will continue to travel the way they like.
Wishing everyone a good and enjoyable holiday and hope to meet old and new friends.
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I love a Thomson debate.
Go to the TUI www and divide its net profit by the number of bookings and you'll be amazed at the very small margins it operates to.
I find it hard to understand why it bothers in the first place.
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We do DIY for our main 2 weeks as it works out a bit cheaper for us. However we have booked with Thompson for our week in June as we could only just get flights for the amount we have paid! Personally I don't mind how I get there as long as I do!
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Wow an interesting debate! LOL
Maybe I should explain a touch more, we do go with Thomsons - quite often in fact.
We always simply try to get the best deal at San Stef - I love to support the village - but I also have to put my interest first.
I then tend to spend any savings in the village anyway!!
If Thomsons do a good deal - we book them - but my preference is always DIY holidays first - price depending.
If a price match or close - then it's flight times - choice
Last year I just felt that I got a bit ripped off by Thomsons as they messed up my booking and I had to pay extra.
Hence my comment! - - - - Anyway that was last year & I had booked via first choice as the internet had gone down that weekend,
my rooms were messed up & I had to upgrade - otherwise no problems with Thomsons over the years.
This year I spotted cheap flights with Ejet, and even with all the silly so called "EXTRA's" like a suitcase, etc. it still worked out at £186 each return to gatwick,
so I booked early. I have no illusions with the likes of Ejet/RobbinAir etc, but I play them by their rules - no complaints so far!!
I then booked the Athens Bar Apts this time as Nikos had a free slot - nice reasonable price including transfer and air-con....
so a cheap-ish holiday, plus food and drink - more to spend from my budget! The best part is a better transfer than the Coach!!
I now have an ongoing deal with 2 cab drivers who cover each other (for a private Gatwick trip) £40 each way - so no fuel costs or £98 parking charge.
My holiday to Cuba in March was a Thompson/First Choice 2 centre A/I deal - all went brilliantly - no complaints at all, great seats on the plane as well,
so I'm not anti Thomson, I just prefer independent travel as my "first-choice", but not at any cost of course!!
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Totally understand that, Tony. Living within striking distance of a hub airport is a great advantage in terms of choice.
The trouble is, when you get to know people in a place there's a kind of loyalty that kicks in. I think I made a personal mistake in, justifiably, giving Little Prince good reviews on Trip Advisor, so the prices are on average significantly higher this year. That's why we've opted to go to Nafsika for less than the price of LP, with as much food as we probably want included. It was a hard decision!
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Funnily enough we also almost went to the Nafsika this time as well!!
Just fell lucky on pricing - sometimes we book the Thomas Bay, H/B and often cheaper than LP as well, crazy!!
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We have stayed at Athens appartments on a few occassions, we found them ideal, great location, no noise and into Glenns for the first and last port of call. We stayed at Little Price last year but could not get family room for weeks we wanted this year. I spoke to Nikos who had family room available for first two weeks in Sept which was ideal but the cost of family appartment for three people for those two weeks was 950 euros. When we added cost of flights to that it came to almost £1900. whch for self catering was a bit expensive. We got a good deal booking package staying at Stamatis for 24th Aug. Not stayed there before but people who have said they are ok. I don't think there is any bad accommadation in the village so we will just hope everything is ok.
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Pembo we've stayed there a few times and can say they are small but comfortable and well cleaned. Tom is brilliant and and soon sorts out any little problems..
Even if not staying there we have to find time for a drink and chat with Tom..
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Thanks Don
That is re-assuring. looking forward to returning to San Stef again.
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Pembo, We checked out Stamatis and would happily book there as well, just that with flights so cheap (we fell lucky with EJet), it was worth it.
We got a good deal, really, when you deduct the transfer and air-con cost - it stands up well at Athens Bar Apts., for 2 people.
Compared to lots of other deals, where you have to buy Air-con and Transfers on top.
We met Tom (Stamatis), 3 years ago and he showed us around, they look as good as most Apt's do.
Don't worry about it, you will love it there.
Whenever it's a budget issue, or value for money, the whole thing around booking independently always revolves around sourcing cheap flights.
Cheap flights are the deal breaker for us.
Without that option, it can be much more expensive than a Thomsons package, so we would always weigh things up and then decide what to go for.
As most accommodation is of a similar standard, it can be a no brainer at times.
Exceptions are mainly personal preference, there are an odd few examples of accommodation that is now up in the luxury bracket,
or sited in a particular place that is worth paying extra for,
however, we look at it this way, we only sleep and wash there & always usually eat out.
When you have been before, and you know the place - most apartments will suit there - as you said no real bad ones anyway!
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Hi Tony
You are 100% correct when you state that it is the flight price and a sensible journey time to the airport that are the main factors in governing how you book.
I said in an earlier posting on Thomsons summer 2012 flights that you need to shop around.In this posting I managed to save approx 250 pounds by booking flights from Newcastle in June as 2 singles with Thomsons against theThomson 14 day return for the same flights.
Encouraged by this success I have now got myself an early season bargain.On Thursday sick and fed up by the atrocious weather in the Northeast I set myself the task of getting some cheap early season sun.
The outcome is we will be arriving in San Stefanos on 7th May for a week at the Romanza.
Cost breakdown
Flight from East Midlands by Thomas Cook 150 pounds including luggage .The actual flight cost was 60 pounds/person return.
ReturnTaxi transfer via San Stefonas Travel and 7 days B&B direct booking at the Romanza.
Total cost 200 pounds /head for the two of us.This includes the flight costs.
I must factor in the extra travel costs against my local airports of Newcastle,Leeds & Doncaster.This will add 1 Hr each way to the journey and an exra fuel charge of 15 pounds total.An extra expense I can happily live with.
An added bonus is the mid 20s temps forecast during my visit.
Yammas
Yiannis
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Spot on Yiannis - we all need to budget, but your extra trip through sourcing a wise budget, means the village will benefit from your trade there,
everyone's a winner then!!
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We had a late look at Thomson flights over package for departures yesterday.
They wanted £640 for the 2 flights but we could have booked Tsaros with (same) flights and transfers for £480.... These were total costs for 2 adults!
Alas someone off work due to injury sustained at work but employer insists phone contact is made via landline each day. They are in possession of a Hospital issued sick note but insist on throwing their petty weight around!
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Got lost there - are you trying to fly off on a late break??
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As it was mentioned earlier re Stamatis' apartments when you are here get him to show you the 3 top floor (large) studios in the newer block (not the Thomson's one) He now defines these by calling them Silver Moon Studios and he rents these out independently so another option if you want to be central wuith sea views pool and a/c included in price.
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Got lost there - are you trying to fly off on a late break??
We were trying to..
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are the silver moon apartments better than Stamatis? Checked the reveiews on Stamatis and some say a little tired. Any help appreciated, thank you!
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Spot on Yiannis - we all need to budget, but your extra trip through sourcing a wise budget, means the village will benefit from your trade there,
everyone's a winner then!!
EXCEPT THOMSONS !!!
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Well this time anyway!! LOL
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Debra the Silver Moon are owned by Stamatis but he rents these out independently with a/c included in prices. They are the top 3 studios (can sleep 2 adults and 1-2 children). Looking at the complex from the road these would be the ones to your right of photo. The others known as Stamatis are the other blocks.
If you Google Silver Moon Studios you can see them and the gallery photo page or if you need a link I can send you.
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Hi, i priced the silver moon studios last week, asked to take a look.very modern and well furnished and large.has view over pool.the only thing was the price.for the first 2 weeks in august 770 euros including airco.over 300 more than we just paid.
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Yes - - very expensive compared to the average.