I think people forgot about Greece for a while, but every few years, trends change. And with all the uncertainty around the Middle East this year, people are looking for something a bit different. My team (there’s four of us now at Sunshine Travel) have all made more Greece bookings this summer.
I tend to advertise Greece quite a lot because it’s a relatively short flight. Although I haven’t had any clients come to me directly and say they want to go to Greece because they don’t have to bother with all that biometric stuff, maybe that’s part of the reason for its popularity.
But it could also be where it’s located – it feels very safe. And not only Olympic, but Jet2holidays and easyJet holidays have been pushing it hard, so it feels like it’s flavour of the year.
Greece is popular, but there’s still availability. I recently booked a holiday for clients flying out a week later. It helps that there are just so many properties, especially for clients who are happy with the two- and three-star smaller budget-friendly resorts.
And there hasn’t been a massive surge in pricing yet. Everything I’ve booked, I’ve managed to find in budget for clients.
The value in fam trips isn't only site visits
We book quite a bit with Olympic Holidays. I do try to put anything Greece through Olympic because the girls are just fantastic. I know we say this about so many different travel companies but they really are special, and to spend time with the team on the fam trip was brilliant. It wasn’t just about looking at the hotels, we sat there in the evenings, all sharing different stories and different ideas, and I got a lot of value from that, being a homeworker.
The fam trip, which took place in May this year, was designed around Olympic’s fly-in and ferry-out twin-centre concept. We flew into Corfu, which I hadn’t been to since I was a child, and took the ferry across to Parga, which I had never visited, and was really scenic. It was also nice to see Corfu hadn’t changed that much since my childhood, it’s still very traditional and so pretty.
Rachael Marron and Cassie Mullen from Olympic Holidays' trade team
One of our Olympic hosts, Project Development Executive Rachael Marron, had spent many years as a rep around Corfu so it was really cute to watch her because she knew everybody – port officials, local tour guides, bus drivers – and they all remembered her. She fell back in love with the place and you could see that everything came flooding back.
Our other host was Cassie Mullen, Business Development Manager (South). They genuinely are a lovely team, and I know Olympic will really look after my clients. Cassie and Rachael weren’t reading from clipboards, they genuinely have that knowledge in their heads and that’s why those girls are amazing.
Luxury leader
We visited a lot of properties – at first, I was thinking how am I supposed to take all this in because we really haven’t got much time at each one, but by the end of the trip, I understood we needed to appreciate the variety. At every property, we were all walking around saying the same thing: “I have some clients in mind that this would be perfect for.”
On the luxury side of things, my stand-out property was Elix by Mar-Bella Collection, close to Parga. It was just beautiful, the views, the rooms, the swim-up pools that felt like infinity pools because of the resort’s position on the cliffside. We had a buffet lunch there and it was the best food we had in any of the properties. It’s a bit out of the way but there’s a funicular that takes you down to the beach. I have quite a few older clients with accessibility needs, and nothing in that hotel worried me from their point of view, there were lifts to all levels, the doorways were wide and the paths were flat.
The photogenic harbour town of Parga on the northwestern Ionian coast of the Greek mainland
We stayed at Parga Beach Resort, on Parga Beach, which is quite a scenic but physically demanding walk from Parga Town. However, you can also take a water taxi between the two, and that is a really nice quirky addition to the holiday.
For families, my favourite was Sentido Apollo Palace Corfu. This hotel has lots of different room types to suit different-sized family needs, and the pools are stunning. There are tennis courts, mini golf and water slides. It is less than five minutes to the beach where there are lots of bars and restaurants for those who don’t want to go all-inclusive. It is also five minutes from the nearest bus stop so really easy to go out and explore.
Time-capsule travel
We visited quite a few smaller properties too, what I would call traditional Greece. Most of them are two-star but when we met the owner or the family or the host, you could tell how much they loved what they were doing.
One that stood out was Lambrini Studios in Parga. We met Mrs Lambrini, she was in her 60s, possibly even her 70s, still doing everything and loving it. And another was Tria-Adelphia in Corfu.
They had two dedicated apartments just for Olympic clients so we saw exactly where our clients would stay. There is a small pool and they have their own bar, where there’s entertainment a couple of times a week. It’s family-run, the grandson is now involved and the grandma who originally started it still bakes every day and brings guests cake mid-afternoon when they’re round the pool.
Corfu is well connected to other Greek destinations, and Albania is also a short hop away
This is where my clients are going next week – I was able to show them videos and photos I’d taken, and I’ve emailed the owners I’d just met so they know to give them an especially warm welcome.
The only issue with these places is they are out of the way, they’re not on the beachfront or central to the resort areas, so not the best option for a young family with toddlers and buggies.
But the flipside to that is they are very authentic and you do feel like you’re holidaying in Greece. It’s like a throwback to the 80s and 90s, before the rise of the four- and five-star resorts.
Easy hopping
When your clients are island hopping with Olympic Holidays, the ferries and transfers are booked for them. It’s all very easy. The weather was great, the seas were calm and again, it felt like going back to the Greece of 20 years ago. I don’t think I fully understood how easy island hopping was until I experienced it for myself. The ferry rides are quite short, you’re not on them for hours.
My biggest takeaway was the sheer variety available for clients within quite small geographical areas. You’ve got the five-star resorts, family hotels, adult-only properties, niche boutique properties and then that more traditional family-run accommodation. There really is a Greek holiday for everyone.
And the Olympic team is just so excited and knowledgeable about every single place we visited, they’re gushing to tell you every last detail, you can tell they just adore what they’re selling.
As told to Katherine Masters.
