Thomas Cook

[john]

Other than the cruise i did a couple of years ago, i haven't used a tour operator since 1992! I have to admit, the first time i went independant i was a little wary simply because i was so used to the reps sorting out the transfers etc etc.
Once i found my feet though i found it liberating to be free of the tour operators clutches.
Rollo, i have used travel republic several times too. The first time, we booked the flight to skiathos with them and also the hotel. We got them both for a total of £350 (a 2 week b&b package). First Choice were the operator using this hotel and their clients had paid on average £550 for the same deal!!
Travel Republic were offering return taxi transfers to my hotel for £45. I declined them simply because i knew i could get a bus to the door of my hotel. The cost?.........3 euros for the two of us! It's great when you have a little local knowledge eh?
For my Kefalonia holidays, i spent a little time wandering around talking to the accommodation owners, looking at their rooms and asking prices. Usually the prices worked out around the same (sometimes less) than the operators prices but they were always where I wanted to stay and not where the operators wanted me to go.
Excursions, car hire etc, always work out cheaper when you make the effort to do it yourself........and i find it more fun and i think the locals appreciate you more for doing it that way, simply because the money goes into their pockets and not the tour operator!

[john]

Everyone should expect considerable increases in the cost of their package holiday for next year! So, why not try to go independent?

Jed, i don't know if you have checked them out recently, but the cost of a two week Thomas Cook package in June (from my local airport anyway) has gone up by roughly £130 in the last couple of weeks! I had found one for £390 in Katelios a couple of weeks ago and now the cheapest i can find is £520!!

[dafydd]

I always travel independently. I have many good friends in Kefalonia who have apartments - better quality than the tour operators offer, exactly where I want to be, at reasonable prices and, when I pay, I know where the money goes.

A few years ago I was able to get very good prices with Olympic Airlines, from Manchester to Heathrow, Heathrow to Athens and Athens to Kefalonia. The timings were also convenient - overnight flight to Athens and take off from Athens just as the sun was rising.

I phone Makis, the taxi, and tell him what flight I am on and he meets me at the airport. I phone my friends where I am staying a few days or a week before I go.

Definitely the most relaxed way to organise and have a holiday!

All I need now is reasonably priced flights from Manchester - 30 minutes from home - and I get chauffered by a neighbour!

regards,
dafydd.