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Andy's San Steph Holiday 2010

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Gillywoo:
Hi,

Just back from our 5th holiday to San Steph, remarkable to think that just 2 years ago we had never been to the place!

Anyway, I thought I would share my holiday experience for all you that are still to go:

GENERAL

San Steph was fairly quiet particularly in the first week, some days the town seemed empty although people came out at night, our 3 children joined us for our second week and remarked how quiet it was, however, they soon found the attractions of the Condor Bar and Athens Bar and I was dragged along drinking with them till 4am in the morning, just as well drink prices were reasonable.

WHATS NEW

The town has had a few changes since 2009, as you all know Bar38 is now part of a smart complex shared with San Stefano Car Hire, the bar looks very cosmopolitan with clientel to match, when Gill and I went for a drink the average age of those drinking doubled! It was however very friendly, we paid 2e for an Ouzo and 4e for a Baileys, Mythos was 2.5e. Bar code is now Creco Bar and was very quiet most of the time.

Delfino Blue is building a large extension over looking the beach which will be very smart when finished, no recession then at the top end of the market!

The Paradise Supermarket has closed as too has the newsagents on the Northern edge of town, Maria's is now the only place selling English Newspapers.

Much else is the same, the town remains clean and smart.

EATING OUT

We ate most nights at the Little Prince which was excellent as usual, Dimitri has a new chef so the food is even better than last year, prices as everywhere else in San Steph were very reasonable and certainly lower than had been forecast earlier in the spring, you could get two three course meals with half a litre of wine at the Little Prince for just 23e (19.50)! Such a meaL out would cost at least double that in the U.K. So dont let anyone tell you Greece is expensive this year, it isnt, its not just San Steph either, we travelled to Avlaki near Kassiopi which is on the expensive strip of North East Corfu, there 3 of us enjoyed a large lunch overlooking the bay for just 28e (£24). This was in a 'top of the shop' beach front Taverna in a Villa dominated exclusive resort so I would imagine prices in Sidari, Rhoda etc would be much lower.

We also eat out at Zorbas's which was excellent again and had several lunches at the Mango Bar and Athina Pool Bar all of which were superb, we worked out that with the improved exchange rate eating out in San Steph was actually cheaper than last year! Indeed, for the first time ever we actually brought money home with us.

WEATHER & BEACH

The weather for our fortnight was very good with only half a day of cloud, one windy day and afternoon temperatures between 28c-31c, it warmed up slowly as time went on, however, the locals said the weather the previous week had been very poor, Quote: More like November! Apparantly an early heatwave in May was followed by unusual cold and wind in mid June. The beach is recovering quickly from the Winter storms and when we left it was similar to last year but still much narrower than it was in 2008, however, San Steph is lucky, at Arrilas the beach is virtually gone with only a narrow strip remaining near the Village. On San Step Beach a wide sand bank is present just off shore which I suspect will grow into a new wider beach given time and fine weather.

FRIENDS

We bumped into many people we had met in previous years, in fact we stood behind a couple in the line at East Mids Airport who were staying in the apartment next to us, they had been coming to San Steph for 5 years as had may other people we spoke to. On our first night we were walking through San Steph at 2am carrying a toilet seat (will explain later) hoping to avoid the embarrassment of meeting anyone we knew, then we heard "hi Andy"... it was Don and Sandra who looked on in amusement as I tried desperately to hide the toilet seat!!

ACCOMMODATION

We stayed at the 'Mythos' Apartments which were very nice, however, we did have a few issues, firstly it took the intervention of the T.C. Rep. before we managed to get Air Con, despite the high price of 11e per night, worse still when we arrived there was no toilet seat, now call me fussy but one of life's essentials is a toilet seat! It was too late in the evening to get this sorted but we mentioned it in passing to Dimitri at the Little Prince, next thing Mike comes rushing out with a toilet seat, I asked him if it came free with the Bon Bon Lamb!! all we had to do was get it back to the Mythos without being seen and promptly bumped into Don & Sandra outside Tasty Corner.

Many people were booking accommodation for 2011 directly with the owners, Maria is offering 2 weeks in her apartments for 430e inc transfers and we will be looking to do the same for next year.

So we had a great two weeks in San Steph (despite the toilet seat incident) and are looking forward to our next visit in September when we are staying at the Fedra Mare.

Andy

tonyco1:
Hi Andy - lovely report, still laughing at you and the toilet seat - I hope Don took a picture - LOL
I have just returned from a well needed break and feel refreshed again - and not too long for our S S trip - the real Holiday!!
Your report helped to put us right back in the S S mood!! Thanks.
Tony

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