Well I recently got back home to the UK after my first time in Arillas, staying at kokinos. First of all I must say me and my partner REALLY loved Arillas and was horrible leaving it behind!!! Already looking into booking for next year....
Our stay at Kokinos was really lovely, the owners were very nice and made us feel very welcome. We were in one of the downstairs studios. Our room was as we expected, basic but very clean and comfortable. The room was cleaned every other day along with new sheets and towels. The kitchen had 2 electric rings, toaster, fridge and a travel kettle, which was fine for us as we never ate in the studio. The studio had a small bathroom with shower, only thing that was a bit "annoying" was the way the shower curtain didn't go to the bottom of shower tray, therefore water went on the floor and ran under the door into the kitchen making the floor slippery. But it wasn't a problem for us at all (just wore flip flops to shower) We had a table and 2 chairs on our balcony with nice views, it was lovely to sit out in the evenings.
View from balcony (click to enlarge)
The owners of the studios had a few cats which me and my partner spent hours sitting with outside the studio! There was one that I especially fell in love with and if there had been a way I would have brought her home :D!!!
This one :D (click to enlarge)
All in all we really enjoyed our first time in Arillas and will DEFINITELY be going back!!!
Really looking forward to next year already and especially this..... (click to enlarge)
p.s. I have the new 2011 brochure for Manos/Thomas Cook and Kokinos have been dropped from it like Dai said but you can book with them independently.
Edit: Been having problems posting this all day, I took my links out for the pictures I had in and its let me post this..... BUT now it hasnt got any pictures and there is no edit button lol
Well ive tried uploading them with imageshack aswell as photobucket and it still will not let me post any pictures so they will have to wait for now.
Ok finally let me post pics!! (sorry for triple post!! someone could edit them for me)
View from balcony:
(http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff211/julie-1402/P1000516-1.jpg)
Cat I wanted to smuggle into UK:
(http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff211/julie-1402/P1000608-1.jpg)
Missing:
(http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff211/julie-1402/P1000520-1.jpg)
(http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff211/julie-1402/P1000585-1.jpg)
Welcome to the forum julie-1402.
Another very satisfied customer then! Thanks for taking the trouble to share it with us all.
Know what you mean about the cats. We once rescued a tiny kitten from outside Rainbow. It lived with us for a couple of days while we tried to find anyone to take him in. In the end, on the sound advice of Alex from the Bow, we put him back in as safe a place we could think of, with a meal of sardines. That was in 2008. We often wonder what became of him.
Thanks again for the holiday report.
Phil
PS - your pics were posted as I wrote this. They're lovely, especially the cat!!
Lovely to hear you enjoyed your first visit and seems liked you are now hooked like many of us.I can understand how you managed to fall for the gorgeous cat.As I type I have her almost double-our Havana doesn't have a little white patch-sitting on my knee.
So glad you had a good time - really enjoyed hearing about it & cracking pics too! :-)
Excellent report Julie and nice to see other people falling for Arillas too :)
Lovely review, thanks!
Hi Julie, glad you enjoyed your stay. I am in arillas now, 12 days into a 17 day break at Anna's. We passed Kokinos last week and I showed my wife where I stayed in July. If I knew you were there I'd have called in for an ouzo, lol! Hope you enjoy your next visit just as much.
Julie
HOOk LINE and SINKER you have fell for Arillas
how long was it before you knew you would be going back
Glad you loved it
most of us do
Sounds like another couple of Arillas adicts have come on board
Tanks for the report and pictures
Yeah holiday was perfect, great food, great beach, sun, relaxation everything we wanted... We think we are going to book independently next year, not really much choice of flights from Newcastle but already emailing accommodation so we can get booked up. My 2 daughters which are 5 and 10 will be coming with us next year (they were on holiday with family this year) and I bet they will love Arillas too!
julie, many others on here come from Newcastle and might help you with flights. But ask the forum about where you want to stay. Between us we have stayed just about everywhere. If you are clear about what you want, we will point you at it.
Phil
Thanks Phil. Well with us taking the kids next year we would really like somewhere with a pool and somewhere that is only max 15 minutes walk from the beach. We really haven't got a big wish list, as long as we can stay in one apartment (as I have seen many only cater for 2 people and had been offered 2 studios).
Also we want somewhere that will be quiet at bed times for the children.
If anyone else flies from Newcastle, info on who you fly with would be great! So far apart from Thomson and Thomas Cook we can only see that Jet2 fly to Corfu direct.
Thanks
Julie
Julie, I think tomas cook & jet2 are your best bet from Newcastle. We have had family & friends visit us this summer, and used both of them. No problems. I booked my daughters flight with t/cook, and it wasn't bad for price, but I did it as far in advance as I could, and I looked for the cheaper dates. (her hols were flexible).
There are lots of apartments which are quiet, it all depends how far from the beach you want to be. When we took our kids when they were younger, we stayed at Tria Adelphia. They have a big pool, and some 2 bedroom apartments, and a maisonette, which easily take 4 people.
They have a bar and do food in the evenings, and all day, but we always found that our kids didn't sleep too early while on holiday, but the bar doesn't get too noisy these days anyway. (the apartments are far enough away from the bar, that you don't really hear any noise.)
I'm sure there will be many more recommendations from other forumers too.
Good luck getting it all sorted....
We are just back from 2 weeks in these apartments and had a wonderful time. We were looked after by the owners as if we were family, probably the best we have ever been looked after in over 20 years of Greek travels.
The apartments on the top floor were clean and just as you would expect in Greece, only complaint was we really could have done with air con. It was very hot all the time we were there and sleeping was difficult.
Hooked by the village but it did seem very quiet but thats the way we like it so not complaining just hoping the businesses can cope.
We will undoubtedly be back again
Hi Julie
Nafsika at the Rainbow are 2 bed apartments and less than 15 mins walk from the beach. Very friendly and well run.
Val
Hi Julie,
Me and Carolyn fly from Toon International too and would love to go it alone, but as you say Jet2 is our only cheap option other than a Thomas Cook flight-only. We stay at the Akti and was going to suggest there, till you said quiet. Its not as bad as people make out being opposite the Bu and Nut. Saying that I could sleep through the end of the world, but Carolyn is so light a sleeper she floats and it does not bother her. Course as healthy dose of the local brews helps her and not a good idea for a 5 and 10 year old :-)
We priced it ourselves and could not get within £300 of the Thomas Cook price for 2012 and thats a lot in these times. Such a shame easyjet do not do Newcastle, but they seem to be reducing their flights from Newcastle, gone are Rome, Berlin and Copenhagen all of which we have enjoyed in the last 5-6 years.
Hope you get booked soon
Gary
Kaloudis have two bedroom apts and a lovely pool. Very close to the beach.
Hi Julie
we went with Thomas Cook from Newcastle last year, me husband, 2 kids and my parents. We booked the Makris, which has a MASSIVE 2 bed apartment on the top floor with 3 balconies, 2 very large bedrooms ( 1 double and 2 single beds) a very large and well equipped kitchen. Although it technically slept 6, the 5th and 6th beds were a sofa bed in the kitchen which we didn't use. My parents had a ground floor studio which again was very clean and quite big. The pool at the Makris was absolutely lovely and almost empty for most of the time so our kids (age 10 and 8 at the time) thoroughly enjoyed having it all to themselves. It is about 15 mins stroll to the beach which we didn't find a problem at all (and very close to the most fantastic bakery EVER) and there were loads of places to eat on the way to or from the beach.
This year my parents are at the Horizon Hotel and we are at the Bardis Studios which we have booked independently, although we are flying with Thomas Cook again because the flight times are MUCH better with the kids (although an extra £300 despite booking in January). The transfer time as you know is about 2 hours with THomas Cook, but with booking direct we are getting a taxi which will be totally worth the 50 euros to avoid the endless bus stops! I hope you get booked up. We are now Arilliacs and hope to keep coming back year after year.
Jude
Jude luvver, we are currently staying at Bardis Studios and can only say how satisfied we are with our decision. Spotlessly clean, service seems to be the Bardis family's middle name, and the pool is wonderful. They made a special arrangement to put us on the ground floor so Jen would be more comfortable. The room is typical, and has everything we need.
Have a great time. I've a feeling we might meet if Bobby is correct and you arrive on Friday.
Yammas
Phil
Hi Phil
We are arriving on Monday afternoon and the kids will be straight in the pool! I hope to see you at some point, I will try to bring a red rose!! I hear it is seriously hot this week, which will make a change from the 4 days of gloom and rain we have had here in Gateshead - I had the heating on yesterday for goodness sake!!
Jude