Paspalis Hotel - (Accommodation in Skala)

Albert H           

Recommended. Good location right opposite beach and just out of town centre. Air con reasonable at 5 euros a day. Reasonable meals. No hogging of sun beds by Germans ...

Nice pool - fun enough for kids, and those that were there were well behaved and not creating a nuisance!

Assos - (Resorts in Kefalonia)

Albert H           

Long walk up. Glad we didn't drive up to the castle though, as they'd just had the only storm of the week and it was getting very rutted. It is possible to find walking 'short cuts' to the top as oppsed to the track if you're brave enough and have decent shoes. Castle itself quite disappointing, but good views. Big traffic jam to get out as a coach came right to the end and loads of helpful individuals followed it, blocking the road so no-one could get out to make any room for them to get into the car park ...

Kosmar - (Tour Operators in Kefalonia)

Albert H           

We booked on the high street with first choice but it turned out to be a Kosmar holiday. We rarely have any need to speak to the rep on holiday and no change here - mainly because the trips looked unintersting and we had hired a car. On the one time we did want to talk to one due to the impact on filghts of added security checks, she didn't show up at the appointed time (apparently turned up about 2 hours late) but it didn't really matter as the office wasn't far away in town so we strolled up there and spoke to someone.

Skala Resort - (Resorts in Kefalonia)

Albert H           

Anna - it took us about 2 hours to drive from Scala to Fiscardo at the Northen tip, although it's probably only about 90km via Argostoli! We took this route as our Hertz car hire map showed it as being a much better quality road. This was not helped by a storm knocking out the traffic lights on the edge of Argostoli, adding about half an hour, or the useless map taking us into Argostoli when we were trying to go round the edge of it. About half that time coming back via Sami and cutting through to Scala. Do try to get a good map, though - again ours showed us roads cutting through where none seemed to be, and a decent surfaced cut through from Macropolo was shown as a dirt track.

First Choice - (Tour Operators in Kefalonia)

Albert H           

Made the mistake of hiring our car with Suncars/Hertz through First choice on the high street before travelling to avoid hiring a death trap. We were told it would be delivered to the hotel. We were NOT told we would be charged at point of delivery about 40 euros for this, after we'd waited more than an hour after the arranged time for it to show up. Also we did not get the make/model we'd specifically agreed (there is no way I would have chosen to drive an underpowered Fiat Panda up mountain tracks!)

We are now searching through our unpacking trying to find the receipt to go straight back to the travel agent and demand a refund for the delivery charge. That was definietky the worst bit about our holiday, which was otherwise very good.

Paspalis Hotel - (Accommodation in Skala)

Albert H           

Can't remember how much the safe was as we didn't use it, but I seem to remember it seemed quite reasonable. I thought the room was perfectly spacious, but the bath area tiny (perhaps they could annex some of the bedroom area!) There was a sink, with insufficient shelving as usual in hotels, a shower, and a loo squeezed between them that you had to be careful sitting on as the seat was wonky. The room was situated in a nice quiet area of the site, but only a few yards from pool and bar. However, living in a rural area I am used to silence at night and could have done without the noise from the fridge and couldn't sleep with air con on due to the noise, although it was quiet for an air con unit and the room was cool enough that we didn't need it on all night. Although I must stress that we were very happy with our stay there overall, my wife has just reminded me of a couple of things we could pass on as warnings. The 'orange juice' provided at breakfast and the meet-n-greet was undrinkable - just like undiluted kia-ora. Also, the rep notice board claims that there is a pool side courtesy area for changing and freshening up after you've checked out on the last day. This actually consists of the outside poolside cold shower and the toilets in reception area, so don't expect use of a spare room!

Fiskardo - (Resorts in Kefalonia)

Albert H           

WE took a long drive up from Scala (OK, we stopped at Assos which was good), but this place really didn't warrant the praise that had been heaped on it. May have escaped the earthquake, but it's tiny and not that picturesque. Yes, it's trying to be a mini St Trop, but that's also overrated and overpriced.

Fiskardo - (Resorts in Kefalonia)

Albert H           

Not worth driving the extra miles from anywhere else to see. Best bit was watching the quay staff expertly backing vehicles onto the ferry ...

Skala Resort - (Resorts in Kefalonia)

Albert H           

Quite a few wasps, especially near the sea. Tried to eat an apple on the beach and ended up trhowing it half eaten in bin after being hounded by them. We stayed at Paspalis right opposite beach, and someone got stung at breakfast,. These were the only 2 incidients in our week, though.

Sami Resort - (Resorts in Kefalonia)

Albert H           

I thought Sami was a great little town. Harbour and yachts were better than Fiscardo and you can also drive up to see the ancient city where they held out for 4 months against the Romans if you like that sort of thing, which we do. Yes it's ruins, but it's spectacular and some of the walls are still massive - I wouldn't want to try to storm it. It's also a short drive further to Antisamos. Just stopping at the viewing place to picture looking down at Antisamos is worth it.