Author Topic: General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!  (Read 35122 times)

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Offline Joe

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General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!
« on: July 07, 2006, 04:54:56 PM »
Yiassou Everybody.

I was having a quiet day at work and stumbled across this wonderful site devoted to the lovely town of Arillas.

After threatening for many years and being frequent visitors to San Stefanos & Arillas my mum and her boyfriend finally packed all their possessions (and dogs) into the back of a van at the start of the year and started a new life in Corfu which they have never regretted for a second. They actually live in Villa Gabre which is marked on the Arillas map on this site (left at Arourada Taverna and a little up the hill on the road to San Stefanos), it would be wonderful to know if anybody has bumped into my mum Brenda. You can't really miss her she tends to have two very friendly dogs with her everywhere she goes, Sally a Golden Retriever and Ceri, a ridiculously cute Jack Russell. She also is very good friends with Mick & Helen who own the Sundowner Bar in San Stefanos and works in there most nights, if you are ever in Arillas and see a tall dark haired women being harassed by two dogs please say hi, send my regards to and watch the expression of surprise on her face!

My main reason for posting on here is that I work for Thomas Cook Flight Operations and if anyone has any questions regarding flights, accommodation, general info, I would be happy to try and help as Corfu is a lovely island and the welcome afforded by all the locals is truly special, I totally understand why people return time and time again, especially to Arillas and San Stefanos.

I noticed a lot of posts on this forum have been in regard to the transfer times from the airport, some stories seem horrendous. The current projected transfer time from the airport to Arillas is 1h30m, with the coach stopping at Sidari and San Stefanos first. Most coaches on this route are supplied by Arillas travel and a little smaller that the standard counterparts, this helps navigates the streets (especially Avliotes) but more so carries fewer people so the drop offs are quicker. Unfortunately due to its position Arillas will always be the last drop off. I stayed in San Stefanos in June and the transfer there was a little over an hour but the coach was only half full, the best advice I can give is when you book your holidays try and ask for a day/early flight, there is sometimes a small premium for these but the transfer times tend to be shorter as there is less people to move around at that time of day. The congestion at the airport is also a little easier than later in the day, but not by much.

Hoping to get out next weekend for a couple of days if anybody is there and I am staying at the Mirage in September for which I am really looking forward to, I have heard nothing but praise for the Mirage and the people who run it, the food is supposed to be incredible.

Anyway sorry about the long post, pleased to meet you all,

Yammas
Joe





Offline Eileen

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Re: General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!
« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2006, 05:48:14 PM »
Hello Joe,

I was in Arillas for 4 weeks in May/June, but I never bumped into your mum. I cannot recall seeing the dogs either when passing villa Gabre.  We have a retriever so I know I would definitely have noticed Sally if I had seen her.

I'm back over at the beginning of August so I'll definitely keep my eyes open and say hello.  If not I will definitely see your mum in the Sundowner as I intend to go along there anyway.

Oh and by the way...can you do us Arillas regulars extra-special flight discounts.  (can someone please tell me how to get my smileys back, I wanted to give Joe a cheeky wink there!)



Offline jennyandchris

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Re: General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2006, 11:47:40 PM »
Hello Joe,

We are also staying at the Mirage in September. Hope we are on the same flight as you if the transfer is only approx 1 and 1/2 hours!
However, the chances of this are slim. We travel from Birmingham on Mon 28th Aug, and are very seriously considering a Taxi after our last transfer to Arillas, where the travel firm managed to lose and forget about us at some still unknown place (to us)outside of Sidari! We were asked to disembark from the original Transfer coach at this point and told that a mini-bus would be arriving to take us on to Arillas. When we asked, several times, how long the minibus would take to arrive,(having already had an hour's wait at the airport waiting for another flight to land) the only answer that the transfer rep would give was " they are aware that you are here" After some 50 mins, we suddenly had the idea of looking on the notice board of the reception of the place where we were dumped for a contact tel. number for the tour operator's office. Upon getting through on our mobile, we were asked where we were! Of course, this only added insult to injury!There was only the two of us on this transfer, so your thinking that the quieter the time of day and the less people on the transfer, the quicker, does not always stand up.  I believe that although this was one of the worst instances of bad transfers for this company, there were many other complaints according to the rep .We notice that the accommodation, the Mathraki Studios,which were very nice, are no longer with this tour operator which I hasten to add was not Thomas Cook.
Here's hoping for better start to our holiday this year. Fortunately, we loved Arillas so much that it could not put us off returning.
Perhaps we may overlap in September.
Cheers,
jenny and Chris.


Offline suzanne simcox

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Re: General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!
« Reply #3 on: July 08, 2006, 02:14:24 PM »
Hi Joe, when is it in September that you will be in Arillas? As I may be around with hubby Roger for a few weeks !!

Offline blondegirl

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Re: General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!
« Reply #4 on: July 09, 2006, 01:46:42 AM »
I like the Green Frog!  We saw and heard that exact same one in the river near the Galini!!! Anyway Joe, we had our first visit to Arillas and loved it. We had a coach transfer from the airport (didnt fancy the long coach journey, but apparently it wasnt that bad) but did take the coach back which was great seeing the other places en route and boy were we pleased we stayed in Arillas and at the Galini... nothing but praise for Thomas Cook, good flights, no delays... Very professional! Want to go back..
If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

Offline Joe

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Re: General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!
« Reply #5 on: July 10, 2006, 01:05:50 PM »
I'm in Arillas from the 18th September - 25th September, I wanted to come earlier but this was the first availability at the Mirage and I booked at the end of May.

Reading back I agree that transfers are very hit and miss, I personally hate them but to the unseasoned traveller they do add that extra sense of security when arriving in a foreign land. apart from Jenny & Chris's case which sounded truly awful. I don't know if you are aware but when booking a package holiday the transfer is actually a charged extra, for example on most Thomas Cook bookings it £20 per person, it is possible at the time of booking to elect not to pay for this and insist of making your own travel arrangements, this would knock £60 of the price of a booking of three which could be put towards a taxi to and from Arillas which in itself can't be more than this?

As for cheap flights to Corfu, I wish, especially with the fuel surcharges are present. We have a not to well known website www.flythomascook.com which can have some very good deals. Last week there were some inbounds from £13.99 (plus £40 taxes of course), it’s always hit and miss but if you are flexible there are good deals to have. A little rumour from our pilots is that easyjet may be starting a low-cost Stansted/Corfu route, I can find no proof of this on the internet, but I have found pilots to be a very reliable source if information so fingers crossed.

Joe


Offline Fiona

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Re: General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!
« Reply #6 on: July 11, 2006, 12:47:19 AM »
Hi Joe

What interesting emails!  I am an Arillas fanatic and will be making my sixth visit at the end of July - in less than two years!  I will be eternally grateful to Thomas Cook as the first visit was a last minute booking with them to the Hotel Marvel(lous).  We flew from East Midlans around midnight and the coach transfer took nearly three hours!!  Well we didn't use the coach on arrival again although we did use it a couple of times to return to the airport as this always seemed quicker and also we were good friends with the TC transfer rep who was in Arillas in 2005.  The 40-45 euros for the taxi was mioney well spent!!  On a couple of occasions I tried to cancel the coach transfers, but was told that it was an inclusive cost.

I am retiring in three years and hope to spend May to October in Arillas every year after that so I'm really hoping that some airline manages to come up with cheaper flights before that time.  We booked our flights before Christmas 2005 for this summer, but couldn't find anything cheaper than £230 (with XL).  I really find it hard to believe that no airline has had the courage to offer a cheap flight to Corfu - perhaps the problem lies with the airport as it really could do with expanding.

I was there for just over two weeks during June, but didn't spot your Mother and I certainly would have noticed the dogs!  I will keep an eye out for her when I am there after 28th July.  I could do with talking to her to get some lowdown on the renting of property!

Enjoy your visit to the Mirage - it certainly seems to be proving popular.

Fiona

Offline Dave n Anne

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Re: General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!
« Reply #7 on: July 11, 2006, 03:25:33 PM »
HI Dont know if we have seen your mum or not, There was a lady with two dogs that we saw on the beach most days when we were there in May this may have been her , we are back again next Monday for another two weeks and if I see this lady again i will give it a try and see. Regarding low cost flights to Corfu the rumour of easyjet or ryanair going to Corfu have been around since our first visit to Arillas 4 years ago but fingers crossed maybe one day, but i agree that the airport does need a little sorting before this could happen.



Offline Joe

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Re: General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!
« Reply #8 on: July 11, 2006, 05:43:39 PM »
Hi, that does seem like my Mum. I'm so so jealous of her and Fiona please feel free to have a chat with her, I remember my Mum having quite a stressful time trying to find somewhere to live, I think the gentleman who owns or runs the supermarket near the petrol station and Arillas travel helped them out in the end, totally forgotten his name but he is a great guy.

There is an interesting article regarding flights to Corfu, the link is:http://travel.independent.co.uk/news_and_advice/article364429.ece

Prices have come down for Corfu this year, if you shop around you can get return tickets for about £150, the world Cup has also helped keep prices low but not for much longer as everybody will be fighting to get away now. To accommodate the low-cost carriers enforce the airport does need to be upgraded, however its hard to justify this with Corfu being seasonal and barely any flights in winter. Demand will need to pick up in winter but with more and more people seeing the light and moving out there I think this will come. Aegean are a popular expanding airline, they would be the perfect choice to operate, I often use them from Athens in winter. Incidentally we have had major delays at Corfu this year on 2 separate occasions, once because of storm damage to the runway and on another occasion the tarmac actually melted, can you really see low-cast carriers and their minimal overheads risking problems like this. :-(



Offline corfu2002

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Re: General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!
« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2006, 02:54:02 PM »
Hi Joe we are off to arillas in 5 days,and really looking forward to it,we had asked for any info from anyone who had been to arilas with Thomas Cook recently about their transfers to and from resort and had a very pleasant reply 55mins gong out and 75 coming back,which is great.So have decided to stick with coach transfer,although realise nothing is guaranteed  personally I like the coach transfers,but was a bit concerned about them being 3-4 hours so It was very reassuring to hear from someone who had just come back from Arillas and had such a good transfer both ways.we will be staying at the mirage and it does sound really good.we will
be looking out for your Mum to say hello and pass on your regards.Oh well best get on with my packing now yippee! I love this bit!!

Offline Joe

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Re: General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2006, 06:28:33 PM »
Hi Corfu 2002

The Mirage is very nice indeed and as it only consists of 10 studios at present it is very relaxing. I am staying there myself in September but when I was in Arillas a couple of weeks ago, I stopped by for a drink, met the TCX rep and was very impressed, the rooms are very big indeed.

What time does you flight get into Corfu and where are you flying from, I can then check which aircraft and the passenger loads for you and give you some idea of how long the transfer may be.

Joe

Offline corfu2002

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Re: General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!
« Reply #11 on: July 26, 2006, 02:59:09 AM »
Hi Joe
We are flying from bristol at 19.45pm on friday this week expected to arrive into corfu at 00.55 am 29th July I believe the aircraft we are flying on is first choice.

Thank you so much in advance for your help,but will understand if you are busy and unable to to get back to me in time.Im so looking forward to being in arillas and the studios sound wonderful.

Ann Marie.

Offline Joe

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Re: General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!
« Reply #12 on: July 27, 2006, 06:48:34 PM »
Hi,

Flying with the competition eh? I'll let you off though as we don't fly from Bristol (well very rarely) so we'll say you had no choice. Unfortunately as its a First Choice flight I can't check the details for you but I can say that all our flights are going full at the moment so you will be hitting at a very busy time, however, if your flight goes on time you should be one of the first in (fingers crossed).

The good (or bad depending on how you look at it) news on late flights is they usually carry a lot of the younger crowd who will be heading for the delights of Kavos, this should hopefully reduce the amount of people going your way. Interestingly enough the brand new July edition of Thomas Cook's Greece brochure arrived on my desk today and they have upped the projected transfer time to Arillas from 2h to 2h 30m. I think they have just done this to cover themselves and come out looking very good when the transfer turns out to be a 1h and a half.

Have a great holiday
Joe

Offline JCC

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Re: General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!
« Reply #13 on: July 31, 2006, 06:15:37 PM »
Yiassou Everybody.

I was having a quiet day at work and stumbled across this wonderful site devoted to the lovely town of Arillas.

After threatening for many years and being frequent visitors to San Stefanos & Arillas my mum and her boyfriend finally packed all their possessions (and dogs) into the back of a van at the start of the year and started a new life in Corfu which they have never regretted for a second. They actually live in Villa Gabre which is marked on the Arillas map on this site (left at Arourada Taverna and a little up the hill on the road to San Stefanos), it would be wonderful to know if anybody has bumped into my mum Brenda. You can't really miss her she tends to have two very friendly dogs with her everywhere she goes, Sally a Golden Retriever and Ceri, a ridiculously cute Jack Russell. She also is very good friends with Mick & Helen who own the Sundowner Bar in San Stefanos and works in there most nights, if you are ever in Arillas and see a tall dark haired women being harassed by two dogs please say hi, send my regards to and watch the expression of surprise on her face!

My main reason for posting on here is that I work for Thomas Cook Flight Operations and if anyone has any questions regarding flights, accommodation, general info, I would be happy to try and help as Corfu is a lovely island and the welcome afforded by all the locals is truly special, I totally understand why people return time and time again, especially to Arillas and San Stefanos.

I noticed a lot of posts on this forum have been in regard to the transfer times from the airport, some stories seem horrendous. The current projected transfer time from the airport to Arillas is 1h30m, with the coach stopping at Sidari and San Stefanos first. Most coaches on this route are supplied by Arillas travel and a little smaller that the standard counterparts, this helps navigates the streets (especially Avliotes) but more so carries fewer people so the drop offs are quicker. Unfortunately due to its position Arillas will always be the last drop off. I stayed in San Stefanos in June and the transfer there was a little over an hour but the coach was only half full, the best advice I can give is when you book your holidays try and ask for a day/early flight, there is sometimes a small premium for these but the transfer times tend to be shorter as there is less people to move around at that time of day. The congestion at the airport is also a little easier than later in the day, but not by much.

Hoping to get out next weekend for a couple of days if anybody is there and I am staying at the Mirage in September for which I am really looking forward to, I have heard nothing but praise for the Mirage and the people who run it, the food is supposed to be incredible.

Anyway sorry about the long post, pleased to meet you all,

Yammas
Joe





Hi Joe. I'm a vey new member to the forum 31st July hope it's not too late to say that our family know  Helen and Mick well. we are back in San Stef on the 14th Aug heading of course to the Sundowner, I'll say hello to your mum.It was interesting to note that the coaches are still coming through Avliotes, last year there wern't as many thank goodness,when you're in the car it's a nightmare trying not to go into the drains.We now get a taxi from the airport they come straight through the other route via Daphne which is often less frought and quieter.

Offline Joe

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Re: General Arillas Info and a Lady with 2 Dogs!
« Reply #14 on: July 31, 2006, 06:41:26 PM »
Hi JCC

It really is such a small world, I hope you do get chance to meet my mum when you get there. Arillas is a very interesting journey by coach, this year though they do seem to be using smaller ones which helps.

I know what you mean about the drains, I hit one in a scooter and ended up head first in bush :-(

Joe


 

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