Wonderful 10-Day Trip to Greece
We took a MST 10-day trip to Greece (three locations: Athens, Santorini and Crete) in late May 2022. These is my review of that trip:
1. The booking was very easy. Our agent, Sofia, clarified some points for me quite quickly, given the time change between our two countries, and once everything was clear we OK’d the booking and it was done that day.
2. HOTELS: The three hotels were great! The room at the Acropolis Ami Boutique Hotel in Athens was very small, but it had a large balcony with a view of the Acropolis, which was fantastic at night. You really couldn’t ask for better. The breakfast they served was very good and the service from everyone there was excellent. When we arrived at the Veggera Hotel in Santorini we were told we would have to wait until 1:30 pm to check into our room (it was 9:30 am and we had been up since 4:00 am). We sat in the lobby for a little while, then the receptionist, the lovely Olga, called us over and said they had a sister hotel, Antoperla, just around the corner and, if we wanted, we could check in there immediately. It was a five star hotel and we did as she suggested. It was incredible! We had a beautiful huge room with every amenity you could imagine, including our own plunge pool. Maria, the receptionist there, was so helpful and kind. We were very grateful to the Olga at Veggera and we went back and thanked her the day we were leaving. The Rimondi Grand Resort & Spa on Crete was lovely. We did have some problems with the wifi in our room (we had to sit on the floor by the doors to the patio to get any reception at all), but after repeated complaints and an email to Sofia they moved us to a new room (in fact they gave us our choice of two rooms, one of which was an upgrade) and everything was fine. The food at the two restaurants was varied and very good, and the grounds were incredible. We took the free shuttle into Rethymno one day and everything went very smoothly.
3. TRANSPORTATION: All of our transfers went very smoothly, despite our first flight arriving four hours later than scheduled, and the ferry from Santorini to Crete arriving two hours late. There was always someone to meet us and look after us, and we felt very cared for. I would especially like to mention the driver who took us from the hotel in Athens to the Airport; he was very kind and arrived 15 minutes early! Also the driver who took us from the ferry to the hotel in Crete was interesting, engaging, efficient and kind. The only problem we really had was our flight back to Gatwick being cancelled at 11:30 pm. There was no one from the airline at the airport in Heraklion, so we had to find accommodation for the night (we ended up paying for two because the next flight available was June 1 at 1:40 am) as well as book a new flight on our own. Everyone from this flight was in the same boat and we were very unhappy that EasyJet just hung us out to dry without any help or compensation. The EasyJet booking app was fine for rebooking the flight, but when I clicked the link to take us to a hotel that they would then pay for, the app crashed. We had no way to get them to pay for our accommodation; I have claimed it back on our travel insurance. This was challenging because we don’t speak Greek and our cab driver did not speak English, but he got us to the place we booked and, after phoning the host, we got settled for the night in a very nice apartment. I really don’t think much of EasyJet after this experience and I think I would not want to book a flight with them again. There was another couple on the same flight and they said they’d been coming to Crete for 18 years, flying with EasyJet each time, and had never had a problem until that night.
So, I would rate the Hotels at 5/5 and the transportation to/from airports and ferry at 5/5 and the flights themselves at 3/5. It was a lovely trip, despite some of the flight problems, and I wouldn’t hesitate to book with you again.
July 5, 2022
Unprompted review