Olympic Holidays

The whole experience was very good.From the time we arrived at the Kefalonian airport,they started to look after you until you left for home.Pretty efficient tour operator.Staff are friendly and know their stuff about the resort/island.Return flight delayed for an hour though.

went to Katelios on 8th June. Disastorous outbound flight, wife got severley burned with coffee then we spent 5 hours on the tarmac at Athens due to the earthquake. Filoxenia apartments were excellent. Got on great with Angelika and her boys. Found out two days before leaving that she hired fans for the rooms - pity the rep. didn't mention it at the welcome meeting! Ross took over for the second week I think because we never saw him. Flying home not much better - taken to airport when it must have been nown that the flight was running extremely late. it didn't leave manchester until 4.07pm uk time. Seems a critical report but was great value for money.the rating is mainly based on the journeys.

Flight    Excellent

Transfer Good

Apartment Excellent

I stayed at the Filoxenia apartments in Katelios. The apartment was clean, tidy and very roomy; the pool area was excellent as was the pool. It was about a 10-15 minute walk to the beach along a quite lane.   The rep Ross was extremely helpful and knew a lot about the area and Island. The restaurants along the front are very good and do a wide selection of meals. If you fancy a drink go to the music bar very good service and friendly staff.

 overall service : excellent

flight : outbound uncomfortable

transfer : excellent

accommodation : excellent + .

apart from the outbound fligth which was a change of aircraft, the whole holiday was excellent, from checking in being meet at the airport, transfer to the Irilena Hotel  the service from India the rep. Anna. Athena and her daughter Irilena. made you feel like family. if you go to lassi try the Ionio taverna their food is excellent and the staff are great.  hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Olumpic were great. We stayed at Fiona appartments, which were basic but you get what you pay for! Rep was always there to see if you needed anything and did not bother you if you were not interested in any excursions. Very happy and smiley.

The outgoing flight was fine.  Came through Customs painlessly though if you are at the back of the queue you will be standing outside the terminal.  Olympic staff were there to meet and greet but we had hired a car independently so did not use their coach.  Upon arriving at the Fiona and deciding the accommodation was not as expected, we asked the rep if she could help us find alternative accommodation, anywhere on the island.  Clearly Olympic were not interested in moving us, apparently the island was heaving and no other rooms used by Olympic were available!  The change of apartment was at our expense which we fully accepted but felt that Olympic could have done more .  The best they could offer (eventually) was a change of room at the Fiona. We booked outselves apartments on Lourdas beach which were great: simple, air conditioned, roomy with a balcony and run by a very nice Greek father and daughter.  The airport is small so as the return flights were delayed it ended up a bit chaotic with limited seating  Keep a book handy.

I used this web-site to book a holiday inKatelios and found it to be very helpful. I had not been with Olympic before this but everything was fine. Flew with Excel Airways from Manchester - outward flight excellent and on time - return trip delayed a bit but still OK. Efficient transfers, helpful reps, good accommodation. Of course the reps have to try to sell trips and car hire etc but all company's require their reps to do this. Actually the Olympic car hire with dpr cars was good value.

Speaking as we found, Olympic were good. The online service is very good. Sadly though although  the apts we chose stated no under occupancy suppliment, we found we had to pay one their excuse was that there were only 3-4 bed apts left???

The rep Patrick was fantastic! He turned up at stated times and treated everyone with civility. Sadly, he was moved to another resort during our last week ... not a good move Olympic, especially as he lived in the resort we were staying??

Olympic were good with us when we arrived in Lassi. Welcome meeting explained what excursions they offered and a bit about the area. Reps always turned up at advertised times to our apartments. They put together a good folder with lots of info on kefalonia which was available in the apartments. overall, nothing bad from the reps over there.

Would definitely book with Olympic again.  I accidentally booked the wrong apartments on the internet (my own fault, not a website design flaw), panic struck I rang the customer service team, expecting no joy and the lady I spoke to changed our holiday details with no problems and no extra costs etc.  We flew from Manchester and the flight there left early and was right on time on the way back.  The rep we had didn't try to "shove" excursions on us, let us choose ourselves and answered any of our questions.

  we thought the whole holiday was absolutley excellant and will most certainly be returning. the flights both ways were on time and everything was perfect!!! thank you very much to everyone and  especially of course to kefalonia itself for being so beauifull!!!!!!!!

Apart from having our flight changed from early morning to afternoon,

Olympic were quite good but let us down on a couple of things. The flight times were changed about 3 weeks before departure, it was only 2 hours later but it was enough to make an ok flight time into a bad one. The other thing was that on the pick up transfer to go home, I discovered that our coach also picked up another flight which was to depart ahead of us. Nothing wrong with that you might think, but what it really meant was, Olympic saved themselves the cost of transferring us seperately, but we were dropped at the airport 3 hours and 15 mins before departure instead of the usual 1 1/2 - 2 hours and thought that was a bit of a cheek.

First time with Olympic and we would use then again, though we had two problems which Olympic had no control. The first was a delay to our Excel Airways flight on the way out for over 1 hour, as the baggage handlers did not turn up to put the cases in the hold and secondly on the way back because Kefelonia airport is so small and was busy because of an earlier delay (not Excel)we spent most of the time in queues.

Very good experience with Olympic.
Flew with Excel Airways there and back, all on time, staff good.
Resort transfer good, Fiona our rep very good, helpful and informative.
Trips a bit ecpensive.
We booked in advance as we knew exactly what we wanted and when, but the late bookers had some really good prices. Always the case. !

Good flight and edible food with Excel airways. Both flights went on time, transfers were in air conditioned coaches and the accomodation for the price was fantastic, Maria Anna in Lourdas. Would go with Olympic again.

We had no problems with Olypic Holidays. Our Rep Kat was always there to greet us with a smile and any queries or questions we had were dealt with very promptly.

The two flights were on time and the transfers OK.It took longer going as there were a few more drop-offs before ours-we were last!A lot quicker going back meant an extra hour in the resort.The reps were alright but the girl who covered our resort,Agia Efimia did not know any local information(Bus times,taxi prices,where to walk etc)but she had only been there 2 weeks.Offered 4 trips but the only one we wanted did not start for another 4 weeks!!We wanted to keep our room but we found it easier to deal direct with the owners who live on the premises,had to change room but they did not want paying.Check-in was protracted due to the fact that most Greek airports now have ONE X-Ray machine where you have to put your luggage through,everyone using this machine.As the plane was on time it did mean only a short time in departures.

Having travelled to the Buena Vista Studios in Lourdas with Olympic for the last 10 years, often twice a year, I have never had any reason to complain about the company at all. Comments regarding delays are not really the problem of Olympic Holidays more that of the airline, air traffic control etc.
Local staff have always been friendly and informative, but on the wages they are paid is it a surprise that they try to sell excursions and car hire, the commission is needed.
I have booked direct with the company over the phone and it is the only company (and I am an ex travel agent) where the booking clerk gave me a direct line to contact them.
I cannot comment about the current transfer arrangements as I collect a car at the airport, but in the past the only smile was raised when the Rep told the clients if the weather was inclement that "it wasn't like this yesterday and won't last".

Have now got ABTA involved and have the address of a specialist Holiday Lawyer to whom I have sent paper work. Also got in touch with Holiday Travel Watch who gave some sound advice. Jane, would be good to compare notes. (adehit@yahoo.co.uk)

Adrian Hitchman ( July 02 2003 ) is looking for help regarding a potential legal case against Olympic Holidays. I may be able to help as we are doing something similar.

The flight was good and on time. The rep on our coach on our way to the apartments was very nervous and sounded like it was her first day on the job.
Never saw our rep the whole time we were there, we just got a questionare under our door and then another note a few days later asking us to fill it in. Olympic said they would inform us about our departure time for our flight 24 hours in advance, but this never happened & we had to phone up their office to find out, but several hours later we got a note under the door giving us different depature times & asking us for the questionaire (again!). Went to hand my questionaire in at the airport but alas not a rep insight!
The reps were a bit usless as we never saw them, but didn't really need them and had a great holiday none the less.

We flew with HOLA airlines from Newcastle and started with only 2 check in desks compared to 3 or 4 with other holiday companies creating long queues. The flight was late and the in flight meal,a sandwich,and other service was poor. The rep at the airport was unhelpfull apart from "your on coach E", her manner abrasive and ignorant. The accomodation was basic with a good pool however only 10 sun beds for over 20 apartments. I cannot fault the description in the brochure. We really enjoyed the island and will go back, not with Olympic.When leaving were held on the pavement outside the airport for 40 minutes in a never ending queue, the flight again delayed for an hour. When reaching the check in desk there were no seat allocation which resulted in pushing and jostling for groups attempting to sit next to each other. The Hola flight lived upto expectations with a third rate service and an old dirty plane.

Well, many many thanks to Kelena for always smiling , no matter what went wrong !! ( lots of rain on 1st day )

Aside from her, Olympic are v poor and Excell Airways far worse - tiny planes !!

Flight across ok, cabin crew nice. Greeting at kefalonia by tour rep poor, no smiles no welcome just whats your name? and get on bus a. Rep in site only interested in selling tours, trips and hire cars all linked to olympic of course! Expect to be invisable to her if you are under 30! She often walked past us at resort without so much as a hello! Return journey..flight delayed by over and hour and no explanation. And the cabin staff were very rude and un helpful.