San Stefanos Online ~ North West Corfu
Welcome to San Stefanos (NW Corfu) => San Stefanos news and views => Topic started by: AndrewK on August 29, 2019, 12:53:58 PM
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The Jet2 takeover of San Stefanos looks set to continue as the word on the street is that Barras is going with them for next year.
Anyone else heard that?
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Barras is already with Jet2 holidays for this summer 2019
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We only have the option of Tui from Cardiff at the moment.
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Thanks for the info folk, would never have thought of looking at Jet2 for a package (or any package for that matter - with anyone). Had a quick look just to "debate/argue" with myself on the matter and found they have:-
Manchester 01Jun20 7 nights p/person
Barras £501
Perros £643
Kapetanios £514
Tsaros £484
Vicky £645
Villa Elia £1362
Villa Zeus £1454
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The Tsaros apartments are fabulous - usually 2 bedroom. But only if you don't mind a walk up a steep hill, or can afford a car or quad.
If you can stand half an hour of cheesy home movie, this is us staying at Tsaros in 2018:
https://youtu.be/uu7_iaQXKbQ (https://youtu.be/uu7_iaQXKbQ)
Herein is
Hull train to Leeds
Leeds-Bradford airport and Jet2 sunset flight to Corfu - why you should sit on the left of the plane
Tsaros pool bar
On the beach at Mistral
Manthos at sunset
Pavlos' birthday party at Zorbas
Tsaros apartment
Journey down the hill
Going to the airport for flight home
And my ever-beautiful Gillie!
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I read a number of old posts on here and someone described their visit to the Tsaros and it sounded like they did exactly the same journey as us in May 1993. Arrived (after going via Sidari ::)) more than 2 hours from the airport at 2:30 ish in the morning, left by the rep with all our cases and 2 kids on the road outside the Nafsika and this odd looking Greek guy (Speros ;)) came trudging out. In a surprisingly American English accent tells us “I’ve called Nikos and he will be down to take you up to your apartment shortly”! The “down/up” and “shortly” bit did not bode well. The red pick-up with me and the oldest in the back and OH and youngest (3) in the front, wife holding the passenger door which did not shut properly! He did indeed take us up the track (no tarmac back then, and yes we were there when they did eventually do the road), pitch black with a polecat halfway up blocking our way…. We were even more worried when Nikos couldn’t open the apartment door, turns out it had just been varnished and was stuck. The location more than made up for the hill, but there are a number of places in that area with similar views. I again wonder what the owners are paid as on those dates, take off the flight cost and that’s only £260 for the accommodation!! I do like that Jet2 have anything from 3-54 days duration and alternative flight options.
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I wonder why Spiros was involved. Mind you, everybody in AGStef is related to everybody else. Nikos is no longer doing the driving to and from Tsaros because his eyesight is failing, but he's a lovely bloke, as is Thanassis. There are other apartments, but you'll never get anything as good as Tsaros without paying a fortune!
Spiros spent many years in New York, and the locals say his English is better than his Greek!
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I wonder why Spiros was involved. Mind you, everybody in AGStef is related to everybody else. Nikos is no longer doing the driving to and from Tsaros because his eyesight is failing, but he's a lovely bloke, as is Thanassis. There are other apartments, but you'll never get anything as good as Tsaros without paying a fortune!
Spiros spent many years in New York, and the locals say his English is better than his Greek!
Speros was involved because Nikos was working for him as a waiter at the time, either as a job or to help each other out.
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That makes some sense. Spiros Kapovitsos got so sick of the Americans calling him Sp-EYE-ros that he started using the spelling Speros. In Greek it's Σπύρος, and comes from the patron saint, Agios Spyridon.
Love these stories of Agios Stefanos many years ago!
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We are seriously looking at Jet2 for the future. Flying out of Stansted this year, Tui had a make shift desk and no conveyor belt for the cases, porters were carting them away. Jet2 had a much more professional look and the staff were very helpful to us, when we couldn't find the TUI desk, tucked up a corner!
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Thanks for sharing Jimbo, I enjoyed that. Very informative as we're staying at Tsaros for the first time next month.
The Tsaros apartments are fabulous - usually 2 bedroom. But only if you don't mind a walk up a steep hill, or can afford a car or quad.
If you can stand half an hour of cheesy home movie, this is us staying at Tsaros in 2018:
https://youtu.be/uu7_iaQXKbQ (https://youtu.be/uu7_iaQXKbQ)
Herein is
Hull train to Leeds
Leeds-Bradford airport and Jet2 sunset flight to Corfu - why you should sit on the left of the plane
Tsaros pool bar
On the beach at Mistral
Manthos at sunset
Pavlos' birthday party at Zorbas
Tsaros apartment
Journey down the hill
Going to the airport for flight home
And my ever-beautiful Gillie!
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Mike - You will love it, I'm sure. The pool bar is a very social place, especially in the late evening. Up there in the morning there is only the sound of the birds and chickens and as you gaze over the village far below if you're lucky you may see a hawk soaring on the updraft.
Alas - we've decided that we're too old and crumbly to face the hill again, and now dwell with the denizens of the lower levels. Enjoy it for us!
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That makes some sense. Spiros Kapovitsos got so sick of the Americans calling him Sp-EYE-ros that he started using the spelling Speros. In Greek it's Σπύρος, and comes from the patron saint, Agios Spyridon.
Love these stories of Agios Stefanos many years ago!
You lost me on the first bit about Speros Jimbo.
But on the history. A fraction of the story is here in this thread
http://www.sanstefanos.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,1366.msg42140.html#msg42140
, one of the main reasons I joined the forum. These people knew the folks there, who were (almost) always at war with each others families. I doubt we will ever know the real story.... The bit about "Michalis Mouzakitis came home from ‘the ships' and built Anatoli apartments" is the very same I was thinking of when I said there are places there as good as Tsaros, better for many reasons in my opinion, but not least because the guy Michalis Mouzakitis who is an "original" in the greatest sense!
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Nikos was doing pick ups outside Barras just last week Jim!
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That's what he told me a few weeks ago! Bless.
geordieborn - His name is Spiros with an i
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Sadly we can no longer make the trek up either,but mustn't dwell on what we can't do make the most of what we can,and there is plenty still to enjoy.
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I read a number of old posts on here and someone described their visit to the Tsaros and it sounded like they did exactly the same journey as us in May 1993. Arrived (after going via Sidari ::)) more than 2 hours from the airport at 2:30 ish in the morning, left by the rep with all our cases and 2 kids on the road outside the Nafsika and this odd looking Greek guy (Speros ;)) came trudging out. In a surprisingly American English accent tells us “I’ve called Nikos and he will be down to take you up to your apartment shortly”! The “down/up” and “shortly” bit did not bode well. The red pick-up with me and the oldest in the back and OH and youngest (3) in the front, wife holding the passenger door which did not shut properly! He did indeed take us up the track (no tarmac back then, and yes we were there when they did eventually do the road), pitch black with a polecat halfway up blocking our way…. We were even more worried when Nikos couldn’t open the apartment door, turns out it had just been varnished and was stuck. The location more than made up for the hill, but there are a number of places in that area with similar views. I again wonder what the owners are paid as on those dates, take off the flight cost and that’s only £260 for the accommodation!! I do like that Jet2 have anything from 3-54 days duration and alternative flight options.
I believe that "someone" was me. Probably wrote it about our visit in about 1990. That hill was even worse than it is now before they laid the tarmac and I remember walking behind one lady as she teetered along in her high heels ,wonder she didn't break her ankle.
If you were there that long ago Geordieborn I wonder if you remember Nikos' mother. She had her own little cottage and you could look down from the apartments and see her pottering about in her garden tending to her vegetables. You also may remember the little gift shop up the hill on the right hand side, she used to sit outside while her granddaughter looked after the shop. Of course there was no swimming pool in those days or pool bar.
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Yes Dupnica I do believe it was the post from you on the old “flights or package” topic. Do wish I had read it all before repeating the subject recently :-[.
Thanks to you, we do now recall the old girl sitting outside the trinket shop and what must be Thanassis lovely sister looking after it? If you were there in 1990 I guess Nikos did not then have the 2 apartments (now 4) on the right as you go up the hill? It was one of those we stayed in first time around.
To find your post again I had to go through many more, some very interesting threads.... Shame people let what’s said here get to them and they leave the forum, but I do understand in some cases why they do when people get so heated.
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Some people are remarkably thin-skinned these days. There's one I remember from a while ago, whom I will not name, who posted frequently promoting Romanza and it's offshoot, then original Mythos. Frankly, when he took his ball away it was a bit of a relief. It's possibly to argue passionately without dishing out abuse, isn't it? I don't think I could have survived as a broadcaster or writer if I couldn't accept disagreement. But there are those whom I have clashed with many times who remain friends across the differences. The forum now is a fairly sanitised zone compared to what it was. We've already seen objections to debating the merits of bus versus taxi. Mentioning that as things stand we're going to lose our EHIC cards and all the other benefits of EU membership will cause howls of protest. The Greeks have few such inhibitions and will argue loudly (very loudly) until the cows come home (or maybe the goats!). I think they've got it right!
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We all have our own opinions and ideas formed through our own experiences and hopefully also with help from the advice of others.
We have our favourite places to eat or stay we have our preferred mode of travel and that is quite normal and healthy.
We here in W Wales are a bit stuck as far as getting to Corfu as we have only Tui flights from Cardiff and we have now given up trekking to Bristol except in very extreme circumstances.Maybe things will change for us befor we’re too old to make it over.
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We all have our own opinions and ideas formed through our own experiences and hopefully also with help from the advice of others.
We have our favourite places to eat or stay we have our preferred mode of travel and that is quite normal and healthy.
We here in W Wales are a bit stuck as far as getting to Corfu as we have only Tui flights from Cardiff and we have now given up trekking to Bristol except in very extreme circumstances.Maybe things will change for us befor we’re too old to make it over.
I have to say we are spoilt for choice! Manchester is nearest, but Leeds not much different. Apart from which we are not averse to going to Stansted and have done so dozens of times in the last 12 years. Add to that, that we are also not at all bothered about a hop to somewhere like Bergamo, have a few nights there and fly on to Corfu. Was just looking at flights from there to Corfu for September, Ryanair €23 base!
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I really miss the choice.
When we lived in Herts we were spoiled.
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Living here in the Winter we have no choice on flights everything is via Athens meaning a minimum of 2 flights each way, mostly long connection times then via Athens (or a European hub) into 'somewhere' in the UK. Over the years there have been various campaigns for winter direct flights into CFU but to no avail. So 4 flights can be a costly outlay when having to come to UK in an emergency. Also we have to take into consideration during Winter months flights can be cancelled in/out of Corfu due to low visability, then there is actually getting to/from the airport normally entailing a taxi each way as the local bus network is very limited during off season months. All things to consider for those thinking about retiring here or visiting family 'off season'........
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Living here in the Winter we have no choice on flights everything is via Athens meaning a minimum of 2 flights each way, mostly long connection times then via Athens (or a European hub) into 'somewhere' in the UK. Over the years there have been various campaigns for winter direct flights into CFU but to no avail. So 4 flights can be a costly outlay when having to come to UK in an emergency. Also we have to take into consideration during Winter months flights can be cancelled in/out of Corfu due to low visability, then there is actually getting to/from the airport normally entailing a taxi each way as the local bus network is very limited during off season months. All things to consider for those thinking about retiring here or visiting family 'off season'........
Ah I wondered if there were many people on here who ended up living there Lesley! We often thought of doing the same, but in the end decided the language was far too difficult and went elsewhere. And of course we knew living there, especially in winter, would be very different from holidays there….
I’ve read with interest the back posts on life there and attempts to extend the “holiday” season. I do wonder if there is a market there for none “sunbed/beach” visitors. Or is it a case of without the sun, beach and full swing resort there is no demand?
Lesley the difficulties you mention are well known to us, they would not put us off. Reading some of your posts, winter there sounds superb! But it would have to be a place with heating, preferably the wood burner with several pallets of wood!
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I really miss the choice.
When we lived in Herts we were spoiled.
I have just recently moved back to Yorkshire from the Midlands where we were 1/2 hour from park and ride (so easy). Now I have to go to Newcastle for a decent flight and as you get older the strain of an hours drive in the early hours is too much I've booked to stay in a hotel the night before .I have not been on the forum for a while but always read the comments.Do you think SS is changing ? I saw a lot of negativity this year
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Chrissyann. We didn't think San Stefanos had changed much this year.. Still the lovely friendly locals, looking after us. We went in July and met up with lots of our holiday friends.
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Good ! I haven't being going long only 2014 but I fell in love with the people and place ,missed this year due to illness but booked for next May/June :)
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I have just recently moved back to Yorkshire from the Midlands where we were 1/2 hour from park and ride (so easy). Now I have to go to Newcastle for a decent flight and as you get older the strain of an hours drive in the early hours is too much I've booked to stay in a hotel the night before .I have not been on the forum for a while but always read the comments.Do you think SS is changing ? I saw a lot of negativity this year
I agree with Karen - the warm hugs are still the same. The demographic was a bit different late July and early August - that's the latest we've been.
Also agree about driving late at night. That's when the two hour time difference takes its toll. We're flying to Birmingham mid-October. We had to go from there because the Doncaster and Leeds flights end earlier. We're scheduled to land at about 9pm, but I've booked a night in the Holiday Inn. Brum to Hull is about a three hour drive in the dark - and if the plane is delayed, fatigue is a factor.
Welcome back to God's county! Where are you? Is Leeds a problem? Jet2 have three flights in the season, and there's also Ryanair if you can stand it! Mind you, low cloud often means a diversion, and strong cross-winds in England's highest airport can mean "interesting" landings with the plane crabbing sideways on final approach until seconds before touchdown! But where a planeload of soft southerners would be screaming, the tougher Yorkshire travellers merely chat and count down the hours before a decent pint and a good roast.
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Hi Jimbo, I'm in a little village near Leyburn so it's a treck which ever way we go, Newcastle suited us because of the nearby hotel and I prefer an early flight as you don't waste a day getting there. :D
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The Dales are so beautiful. Surely it's worth a bit of a hassle to get to airport when you have such wonderful surroundings?
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Yes it is, just got to make a few adjustments to our journey :)
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We received the same warm welcome in May this year,it will interesting to get their take on the season when we go later.
We have been offered the use of a house for the whole winter but down south by our taxi driver family.Use of a car and a new 2 bed bungalow with CH.
We have never taken up the offer and to be honest Ireally do prefer San Stef and the NW in general.
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I will keep an eye out for the results of your next visit. I have tried various resorts in Corfu and also prefer the NW .
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Yes Dupnica I do believe it was the post from you on the old “flights or package” topic. Do wish I had read it all before repeating the subject recently :-[.
Thanks to you, we do now recall the old girl sitting outside the trinket shop and what must be Thanassis lovely sister looking after it? If you were there in 1990 I guess Nikos did not then have the 2 apartments (now 4) on the right as you go up the hill? It was one of those we stayed in first time around.
To find your post again I had to go through many more, some very interesting threads.... Shame people let what’s said here get to them and they leave the forum, but I do understand in some cases why they do when people get so heated.
I'm trying to remember what was on the right as you go up the hill and I think it was just Nikos' family home. The big house where Thanasis and Christina live is relatively recent.
I was interested to read about Peter Skinner, I remember him well and spent a few balmy October afternoons sitting outside Manthos chatting over a few G and Ts. Happy days.
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These were their latest apartments (https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@39.75147,19.6435438,3a,75y,229.59h,92.3t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdRuaDkxkRAr-jJ0OShUEAQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en) (in 1993) where we stayed, they were only 2 single story apartments back then. I was just wondering when they built them. Yep Peter was certainly interesting.
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I will keep an eye out for the results of your next visit. I have tried various resorts in Corfu and also prefer the NW .
We were there for our usual visit in May and to be honest I thought it was quite dirty there in comparison,there didn’t seem to be the pride in the area that there is in San Stef.
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Agios Stefanous dirty Maggie? Or have I had too much vino again... ::)
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Agios Stefanous dirty Maggie? Or have I had too much vino again... ::)
Yes you have I'm afraid ;D
Ag Stef is brilliant it's the south which was scruffy and dirty with rubbish everywhere and the contrast was very apparent,so much so that our taxi driver remarked on it and said he understood why we like San Ag Stef so much.
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Yes you have I'm afraid ;D
Ag Stef is brilliant it's the south which was scruffy and dirty with rubbish everywhere and the contrast was very apparent,so much so that our taxi driver remarked on it and said he understood why we like San Ag Stef so much.
Thanks Maggie…. :-[
Have to say going back to the airport we were horrified by the amount of rubbish piled up along the way and even more so in Corfu town. A quick read yesterday through Lesley’s old post I glanced at something about the rubbish and assume there is/was a dispute. It needs to be sorted as it’s not a good first impression. Fortunately when we came in it was dark and the roads busy, so went via the harbour. AgiosS was of course very much the same, with little change and quite spruce!
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Yes there seems to often be a dispute of some kind with the bins but San Stef is kept tidy because everyone takes pride in keeping it so now -locals and visitors because we want to keep it so.
Recycling has taken off I am pleased to see and I would hope to see it spread through the island.