How I found San Stefanos.!!!

[Jules]

Just looked at them on SS travel website. They look very very nice. Look as though they are in the right direction for the old Belle Vue

[debra]

On holiday lettings site they list them as next door to a 5* boutique hotel and being Corfu owned, so thought that they may be the ones!

[Gillywoo]

Gill and I found San Steph by mistake.

In 2008 we wanted to go to kassiopi but it was full, then gill read about San Steph on the agni site.

She booked it with my sister and her husband for two weeks in August 2008 and the rest as they say is history, however, gill always reminds me about my first comment on San Steph stood on the beach outside waves when apparantly I said 'it looks like bloody woolacombe'!

That night we went to the little prince and have never looked back since.

Andy

[tonyco1]

The great thing about Ag. (San) Stefanos is the warm combination of the Locals & the visitors who become part of the "Family" as well !!
- that includes all of us who love it enough to write here about it!!

The feel-good factor spreads like no where else.
My Daughter has returned with her partner, and he loves it as well.

My son loved it as a child, as a teenager, he grew up getting to know a lot of the lads who now run businesses here & have families themselves,
they are still good friends now, (not many late-teens want to holiday with parents but when it was to SS - he asked to come as well),
he came so many times with us and now his two children have been as well - they love it just as much,
so that's three Generations of our Family now who keep returning.

We have also made so many good friends through S S and this forum as well - you just can't beat it!!

[katmc1]

I found san stefano 11years ago.My son and I are avid walkers the rest of the family have lost interest to a certain degree.So we got a Thomsons brochure on grece and I opened the page at just anywhere and it opened on the hotel romanza and it said it was ideal for walking so that was it.Eleven years later I still go on my own and now I dont work I can go for 3 weeks of utter peace and relaxation.I have a rest to start with then go walking all over and have even got lost and spent 9 hours walking!!!!!But I have not ever been scared whilst out walking and have been greeted with nothing but kindness and presents of grapes oranges and water.The greek people always say hello.I adore the place and wouldnt go anywhere else but corfu now.The food and mythos are just the icing on the cake.

[ann]

debra, there was a wedding at the delphino when we where there one year, and the bride and groom just wanted to stay one night, delphino dont do one night, and they had there wedding breakfast there. xx
 

[debra]

Hey Ann

Ben, my son has booked for his wedding for 1st August next year at the Delfino and they will stay there for 3 nights - the rest of us peasants will be staying somewhere a little cheaper!!!  Did the wedding look nice?

[tonyco1]

I found san stefano 11years ago.My son and I are avid walkers the rest of the family have lost interest to a certain degree.So we got a Thomsons brochure on grece and I opened the page at just anywhere and it opened on the hotel romanza and it said it was ideal for walking so that was it.Eleven years later I still go on my own and now I dont work I can go for 3 weeks of utter peace and relaxation.I have a rest to start with then go walking all over and have even got lost and spent 9 hours walking!!!!!But I have not ever been scared whilst out walking and have been greeted with nothing but kindness and presents of grapes oranges and water.The greek people always say hello.I adore the place and wouldnt go anywhere else but corfu now.The food and mythos are just the icing on the cake.

Kat - so many of us feel the same as you on this subject - totally agree!!

[debra]

It's funny the hold Ag Stef has on some of us.  I've tried to analyse it. When I returned the first time (something I always said I would never do) I told everyone it was because I have to have school hols and the beach is big and it never feels crowded - do you know what I mean - when you are squashed like pilchards to each other on the beach? I told myself it was because I didn't get around to seeing everything. I want back the third time and I tried to be more objective.  What is it about this little resort?  That time we had been to Thassos eleven days before going to Corfu.  We really liked Thassos, but Corfu felt sunnier.  Not really sunnier in weather, I think the people are sunnier.  Happiness is infectious and by this time people remembered us and that made us feel 'sunnier' - a feeling of belonging began to creep up on us.  Each year, I say, I need to go to Parga or Skiathos or Halkidiki - but my heart says 'I need to go to the place where the sea twinkles and shimmers in the purest shades of turquoise - where beauty is all around me, green even in high season mixed with terracott roofs. Where the sand is easy to walk on and where the sea greets you like a warm bath after a busy day.  I need to watch the sun disappear in the warmest, most spectacuar shades of orange, I need to go to the supermarket where the young daughter says to me, 'I like your face when it smiles'. Smiles - I have a huge grin for all of the time I am there - this beguiling corner of Corfu, this little place that calls me back and back and back'.

[Jimbo]

debra - that's one of the most evocative and beautifully written postings I've seen on the forum, and it sums up so much.

We also ask "why?"

The village itself is not pretty, is it, in terms of little old buildings (none), narrow twisty streets (none), Hellenic ruins (none)? Parga has many of those, but the harbour stinks and it's lethally expensive. Lindos is very beautiful, or was until they surrounded the wonderful old centre with hectares of sweaty tourist dwellings. Tolon was quirky and close to Naphplion and Epidavros, but greed has killed the village by building new blocks along the edge of the beach.

Agios Stephanos has the great advantage of geography and geology. We all laugh at the triumphalism of the Romanza dwellers gazing down from their Olympian heights, but it's those hills that make the difference, I think. The village sits, being its own modest self, between the big ridge towards the north and Avliotes, and the dramatic headland that divides the village from Arillas. Wherever you are you can look up or down, get some perspective, enjoy the light. And the beach is so huge that, as you say, there is never a sense of being crowded.

It's only a few miles to Sidari, but when you're there on that flat plane it seems to me featureless, desert-like compared to Agios Stephanos, where there is always a green vista in the corner of your eye.

And then, of course, the people. Friendliness can be simulated, but after a few visits you get to know people, you get to hear things you wouldn't hear in Parga. I don't think we have an word for "lack of greed" but if there is one it would surely apply to the tavernas and apartment owners. I have never felt ripped-off in Agios Stephanos apart from the fruit and doughnut man on the beach.

Finally - I think this forum keeps us connected with the village all year round. A bit of gossip, how's the road going, who's had a baby, now much is a Mythos this year? I've hosted a few forums and I can tell you it is hard work with constant idiots and bots and crap, and takes a lot of hands-on to keep working.

I suspect we've all fantasised about having a little house on the edge of a beautiful Greek bay. Why do we go back? Because we're so much at home it almost feels as though we have. 

[Rod]

Debra and Jimbo,

That was spot on.  I also feel that you have to be a special/different kind of person to truly appreciate what San Stef is all about.  When I explain to others what the wife and I do on our San Stef holiday, most of them just look blank.  When I go over in my head what I have explained then I understand their blank expressions, because quite frankly it must come across as rather boring.  Walking, reading, relaxing, eating & drinking etc.  I think that is why it is a friendly resort, as you always meet like minded people.  That's why I like this forum.  You really need to experience the whole San Stef thing to "get it".

[Gordonc]

We found San Stef in 2007. Our son was off to Australia on a school rugby trip and after years of family holidays in France we thought what now? We were struggling to come up with something but two friends of ours had both been to SS the year before. both had stayed at the Athina but we didn't want half board so looked at the self catering options. They both said that the Little Prince looked really good with a good restaurant. We booked, we came, we fell in love with the place!

Our welcome from Dimitri, Mike and Pippina had a lot to do with this but we both truly relaxed that first time and the island itself is so beautiful. On Friday, we make our fifth visit in six years which kind of says it all. We are looking forward to seeing our friends in the village, to catching up on the local gossip, to enjoying the walks around the area, to some geat food and of course the Mythos!

We have already said that we'll go somewhere else next year but the other night, we both said that once we're there, the very special ambience will get to us and we'll be promising to return again next year. we can't properly express the full attraction of the village either but it all works so well for us. there must really be something in the air!

A very special place with very special people.

Gordon and Beryl

[don]

We too struggle to explain the allure of San Stef. I know we've discussed this question with various people while holidaying but have never heard anything that makes me say "that's it!"

One of my security people from work is on a first ever visit sataying at Margarita's this week. I look forward to hearing what he has to say.

[Jimbo]

sataying at Margarita's

Does that mean we've got an Indonesian restaurant as well as a Chinese?

[debra]

Jimbo you are SO funny - I liked your words too and your description of Parga gave me food for thought!  Stinky harbours - not thanks!