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Topics - Gillywoo

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1
San Stefanos news and views / Bank Holiday In San Steph
« on: August 26, 2013, 11:16:07 PM »
Just back from a long weekend in San Stefanos!

Early flight from Newcastle meant we were sat in the Havana Bar by 12pm on Friday!!

Had a great time - no mozzie bites but shattered!! The worst part of going for a weekend is trying to make the days last, which usually means very little sleep!

Stayed at the Kapentanios in the new block, fantastic!! Wonderful apartment with views to die for. Spotlessly clean and no killer shower!! Would highly recommend them and everyone there is lovely - as most people are in SS!!!

Weather was great, resort busy and not a bad meal anywhere. Sadly it's back to work tomorrow so back down to earth with a bump!!

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San Stefanos news and views / Doughnut Man Gets His Melons!
« on: July 08, 2013, 11:47:58 AM »
The doughnut man has vanished from san steph beach following the errection of signs warning people not to buy from beach sellers as it is hazadous to health! The warning sign is clear and permanent and i can only presume the authorities had some complaints, also i bet he wasnt paying any tax! Here for 10 days stopping at the Tereza, town is still fairly quiet but some tavernas are doing 3 course specials for 7e, at the new restaurant you even get a choice of menu! How they can make money on that is beyond me. Been in little prince which was busy but not packed, many of the other Tavernas were quiet. The beach is very busy and is slowly getting wider. Weather is perfect about 29c and a light breeze, many people have told us about the unusually cold conditions last month but its hot enough now. Tereza is great, we have a room overlooking the pool and sea. Will report more later. Andy

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San Stefanos news and views / Opening Up!
« on: May 03, 2013, 03:13:51 PM »
Hi everyone, arrived in san step this morning, no one else about. Loads to report, will give a full update later. Weather is good hazy sun and 27c. Back later! Andy

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San Stefanos news and views / A weekend in san stef
« on: May 19, 2012, 02:29:52 PM »
We couldnt face another wet weekend in cumbria so gill and i took advantage of some amazing cheap flights and flew out to corfu yesterday arriving at the tsaros apartments which are fantastic! People are surprised we are only here for the weekend until i explain that it would have taken longer and cost more to have gone to london. Here in san stef everything is now open, the sunbeds were put out across the beach this morning and the beach has been cleaned, after a windy day yesterday today is calm warm and sunny so the village has a real happy summer feel to it. So whats new? The chinese is open and looks smart filling in a gap in the high street, the athina pool has a new beach hut at the end serving drinks and snacks to the pool and beach, there is a new supermarket near spiros bikes. Most hotels are open but the perros is still shut for some reason. Last night is was surprisingly busy, we ate at the little prince which was over half full, spiros is back and competing with thenasis to be the best dancer! Prices generally are the same as last year but with the local exchange rate of 1.23 its a lot cheaper you can eat out for less than £10 each with wine. As for the crises there is no sign of it here the corfiets say its a mainland problem. Must get back to my mythos i only have two days left! Andy

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San Stefanos news and views / San Stephs New Wide Beach!
« on: April 09, 2012, 02:56:56 AM »
Gill and I had a weekend in Corfu Town last week and had a fantastic break, with the weather being warm and sunny Corfu was busy with all the Hotel and Taverna owners getting ready for summer.

We had a drive to San Steph and it was a hive of activity with many owners out decorating and getting ready for the new season.

We had a walk up to the path above the Havana Bar which was having a refit and were surprised how wide the beach was, it is back to the size it was in summer 2008 when we first visited San Steph.

The locals say the cold, dry winter has allowed the beach to rebuild with the wind coming from Albania piling the sand against the San Steph shore line.

I will try to upload a photo later to show just how wide the beach now is.

Andy

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San Stefanos news and views / Andy and gills cheeky four days
« on: September 06, 2011, 11:48:17 AM »
Just having breakfast in the little prince after a typically heavy night! Arrived yesterday for four nights after we found a cheap flight from Doncaster. We are staying at Andy apartments near the romanza and got a two bed apart for £115 which is a bargain as it's excellent. It's already 30c so off to the beach and then mango bar for lunch. It's only four days but hey it's better than a wet week in blighty! Andy

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San Stefanos news and views / Corfu Heat Wave
« on: July 15, 2011, 05:44:37 PM »
Just a quick warning for anyone coming out to San Steph this weekend, much of the Ionian Island are in the grip of a heatwave with high temperatures even by Greece standards.

Yesterday the temperature in Corfu Town reached 39c and even here in San Steph the mercury reached 36c with the normally cool north west breeze totally absent. The Greek Met. Office has issued heatwave warnings for Corfu, Kefallonia and Zante.

It is also increadibly humid, at the moment its 4.30pm and the temperature is down to 32c but the humidity is 86%! The air feels so thick you could cut it with a knife, even the locals are moaning about the heat but remarkably the dancing still goes on in the Little Prince and Zorbers!!

At night the temperature falls only slowly and last night at 1am it was still 27c, air conditioning is a must and I feel sorry for anyone without it.

Having said all that the Mythos is still served freezing coid so time for me to go and get another ;)

Andy

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San Stefanos news and views / San Steph at Easter (including photos)_
« on: April 22, 2011, 02:06:56 AM »
Gill and I are going to Corfu Town for the Easter celebrations and have decided to hire a car and do an out of season tour of North Corfu.

Of course we cant resist visiting San Steph and seeing what its like with no tourist!

The weather forecast for the weekend is 23c and sunny so we intend walking the full length of the beach but I doubt we will be tempted for a dip.

Finding somewhere for lunch will be interesting but we will let you know how we get on and post some photos on our return.

Friends think we are mad but hey its my 50th Birthday and I will if I want too ;D

Andy

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San Stefanos news and views / Easyjet 2011 Flights Out Now!!
« on: September 30, 2010, 01:52:21 PM »
This morning Easyjet released their Summer 2011 flights and for Corfu there are some excellent prices to be had.

I have just booked for July 2011 and paid 296pounds for 2 return tickets including speedy boarding and luggage, if you are flexible on dates you can get even cheaper than that.

Book as soon as you can because prices are already rising, I could have got the above 10pounds cheaper 2 hours ago but didnt have credit card on me :'(

Word is out on the Agni Site so you can expect a rush of bookings and rising prices later today.

Andy

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San Stefanos news and views / Arriving in San Steph Tommorrow (By Car!)
« on: September 19, 2010, 12:12:37 PM »
O.K. we havent quite driven all the way from the UK but will be arriving in San Steph tomorrow after a short drive from Kassiopi :D

Gill and I have spent the last week in a lovely Villa in the small resort of Avlaki near Kassiopi and it has been wonderful. We arrived on Saturday 11th September after a 3 hour delay with Easyjet, it seems bad weather in Tenerife had delayed the planes departure.

After arriving in Corfu we spent 2 nights in Corfu Town before driving to Avlaki on Monday, luckily our hotel was close to the Airport as it was 3am by the time we arrived. Corfu Town was great, even though we have been many times we always discover something new, we even managed to get lost in its network of narrow streets. On Sunday afternoon we sat on the Liston watching the young beutifull people walk by then watched cricket on the Esplanade, the whole atmosphere was wonderful. In the late afternoon we visted one of the back street Taverna's for an early dinner before retiring to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep.

The drive from Corfu Town to Avlaki was a joy and we stopped off at Barbati for a coffee break.

The weather during the past week has been amazing with clear blue skies and temperatures between 26c to 28c in the afternoon, we have discovered some great Taverna's locally including one at Old Perithia recommended by Rick Stein, the Onion Pie was fantastic.

Prices this side of Corfu are higher than in SS but the food is excellent, we have enjoyed some great Meze's.

So its off to SS tomorrow where we are staying at the Fedra Mare, looking forward to meeting all the usual people and enjoying more of the great Corfu sun.

I hear the weather back home has turned a bit Autumnal, if so get on a plane and come to Corfu, summer is still here and the water is lovely ;D

Andy

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San Stefanos news and views / Easyjet Flights: Summer 2011
« on: August 20, 2010, 05:43:10 PM »
I know some people are still to have their 2010 fix of San Steph (we go again in September ;)) but many of us are also thinking about our 2011 San Steph holiday as some apartments get booked very quickly.

We have already booked the Fedra Mare for 2 weeks at the beginning of July but the next stage is to get a bargain on the all important flight.

We normally travel with Easyjet and will do so next year but does anyone know when Easyjet is likely to release its summer 2011 flights?

Experience has shown that some real bargains can be had by booking flights within a day or two of release and those slow off the mark always pay a premium, return flights for two this September rose from £330 on day 1 to £440 with two weeks.

I know Don1 will be waiting eagerly at his computer for the Easyjet flights release.............after me Don ;D

Any information most welcome.

Cheers,

Andy

12
San Stefanos news and views / Andy's San Steph Holiday 2010
« on: July 16, 2010, 05:08:46 PM »
Hi,

Just back from our 5th holiday to San Steph, remarkable to think that just 2 years ago we had never been to the place!

Anyway, I thought I would share my holiday experience for all you that are still to go:

GENERAL

San Steph was fairly quiet particularly in the first week, some days the town seemed empty although people came out at night, our 3 children joined us for our second week and remarked how quiet it was, however, they soon found the attractions of the Condor Bar and Athens Bar and I was dragged along drinking with them till 4am in the morning, just as well drink prices were reasonable.

WHATS NEW

The town has had a few changes since 2009, as you all know Bar38 is now part of a smart complex shared with San Stefano Car Hire, the bar looks very cosmopolitan with clientel to match, when Gill and I went for a drink the average age of those drinking doubled! It was however very friendly, we paid 2e for an Ouzo and 4e for a Baileys, Mythos was 2.5e. Bar code is now Creco Bar and was very quiet most of the time.

Delfino Blue is building a large extension over looking the beach which will be very smart when finished, no recession then at the top end of the market!

The Paradise Supermarket has closed as too has the newsagents on the Northern edge of town, Maria's is now the only place selling English Newspapers.

Much else is the same, the town remains clean and smart.

EATING OUT

We ate most nights at the Little Prince which was excellent as usual, Dimitri has a new chef so the food is even better than last year, prices as everywhere else in San Steph were very reasonable and certainly lower than had been forecast earlier in the spring, you could get two three course meals with half a litre of wine at the Little Prince for just 23e (19.50)! Such a meaL out would cost at least double that in the U.K. So dont let anyone tell you Greece is expensive this year, it isnt, its not just San Steph either, we travelled to Avlaki near Kassiopi which is on the expensive strip of North East Corfu, there 3 of us enjoyed a large lunch overlooking the bay for just 28e (£24). This was in a 'top of the shop' beach front Taverna in a Villa dominated exclusive resort so I would imagine prices in Sidari, Rhoda etc would be much lower.

We also eat out at Zorbas's which was excellent again and had several lunches at the Mango Bar and Athina Pool Bar all of which were superb, we worked out that with the improved exchange rate eating out in San Steph was actually cheaper than last year! Indeed, for the first time ever we actually brought money home with us.

WEATHER & BEACH

The weather for our fortnight was very good with only half a day of cloud, one windy day and afternoon temperatures between 28c-31c, it warmed up slowly as time went on, however, the locals said the weather the previous week had been very poor, Quote: More like November! Apparantly an early heatwave in May was followed by unusual cold and wind in mid June. The beach is recovering quickly from the Winter storms and when we left it was similar to last year but still much narrower than it was in 2008, however, San Steph is lucky, at Arrilas the beach is virtually gone with only a narrow strip remaining near the Village. On San Step Beach a wide sand bank is present just off shore which I suspect will grow into a new wider beach given time and fine weather.

FRIENDS

We bumped into many people we had met in previous years, in fact we stood behind a couple in the line at East Mids Airport who were staying in the apartment next to us, they had been coming to San Steph for 5 years as had may other people we spoke to. On our first night we were walking through San Steph at 2am carrying a toilet seat (will explain later) hoping to avoid the embarrassment of meeting anyone we knew, then we heard "hi Andy"... it was Don and Sandra who looked on in amusement as I tried desperately to hide the toilet seat!!

ACCOMMODATION

We stayed at the 'Mythos' Apartments which were very nice, however, we did have a few issues, firstly it took the intervention of the T.C. Rep. before we managed to get Air Con, despite the high price of 11e per night, worse still when we arrived there was no toilet seat, now call me fussy but one of life's essentials is a toilet seat! It was too late in the evening to get this sorted but we mentioned it in passing to Dimitri at the Little Prince, next thing Mike comes rushing out with a toilet seat, I asked him if it came free with the Bon Bon Lamb!! all we had to do was get it back to the Mythos without being seen and promptly bumped into Don & Sandra outside Tasty Corner.

Many people were booking accommodation for 2011 directly with the owners, Maria is offering 2 weeks in her apartments for 430e inc transfers and we will be looking to do the same for next year.

So we had a great two weeks in San Steph (despite the toilet seat incident) and are looking forward to our next visit in September when we are staying at the Fedra Mare.

Andy

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San Stefanos news and views / Huge Thunderstorm Heading for Corfu
« on: June 19, 2010, 02:56:26 PM »
After a scorching week in Corfu a severe thunderstorm is likely to bring a sharp drop in temperature on Monday.

The weather front that passed through southern England yesterday will reach Corfu Monday lunchtime triggering big thunderstorms as cooler air from Northern Europe replaces the Tropical air across Greece.

Unfortunantly Monday is arrivals day for many and I can see some delays to Monday's flights, a very similar situation this time last year resulted in many delayed flights and Don's unscheduled stop in Kefalonia as Corfu Airport was closed by floods ;)

You can see Monday's weather front across Corfu on the Met. Office forecast map below:

http://www.netweather.tv/fax/PPVJ89.png

The good news is that the storm should pass fairly quickly and the weather should then become sunny but cooler than it has been.

Andy

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San Stefanos news and views / This Will Totally Ruin San Stephanos
« on: February 08, 2010, 12:27:52 AM »
I am not sure how many people realise this but plans are being drawn up to build a huge Wind Farm just off shore from San Steph that will totally ruin the town and probably the tourist trade on which it depends.

As the Website below explains the proposal is to build 300 Wind Turbines each 550feet high, they will be situated around each of the Diapontian islands including Donkey Island just off the coast of San Steph.

http://www.aioliko.com/

This site if built will totally destroy the San Steph seascape, who will want to lie on the beach and relax in San Steph with the noise and flicker from 300 Wind Turbines for company? The famous San Steph sunset will be broken up by the line of these huge structures and the flicker at sunset will be cast across the town at dusk.

Construction of the Wind Farm will involve the movement of thousands of heavy plant and machinery and such a large industrial construction site will have a profound affect om the remote Corfu North East landscape.

If you look at the Website you will see a map of the proposed Wind Farm location and as you can see the closest turbines will be just half a mile from the beach and will tower 550feet above the sea, a similar height to Blackpool Tower.

If this goes ahead then many people including myself would be put off visiting San Steph and I am worried that it could destroy the tourist trade in the town.

If you are worried as well please sign the petition on the Website and conserve San Steph for the locals and tourists alike.

Andy

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San Stefanos news and views / Don1 The Worlds Unluckiest Man!
« on: October 03, 2009, 08:30:09 PM »
They say lightning never strikes in the same place twice but in the case of Don1 it strikes 3 times....literally!

After being diverted to Kefalonia en-route to San Steph in June due to storms he and Sandra had a scary landing in Corfu last week in an equally bad storm.

However, I have just learnt that poor Don & Sandra are still in Corfu after their flight was cancelled last night due to severe storms!

We were booked on the same flight as Don but arranged to travel back on Monday instead.

I think Don should have his own plane to fly to and from Corfu so no one else has to share in his remarkable bad luck!

Hope your rearranged flight was OK Don.

Andy

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