Simply Travel Greece

[Lilliput]

Have looked at Mark Warner and bored everyone to tears with questions about that and am now looking at simply travel to Greece. People seem to rave about it on here but two things, can you get a babysitter in the evening and is there enough to do? Thinking of either Lefkas (but not sure they do October) or Peiyali villas.

lefkas - yes you can get babysitter - need to book ahead tho' with nannies and pay them (quite alot from memory!)
there's enough to do if you're happy to hang out/entertain yourselves/drive round the island etc. not like mw tho' where there's a range of stuff laid on, depends what you want! personally, much prefer lefkas to mw tpye hols.

It's got to be cheaper too I reckon?

More to do in evening in Lefkas than Periyali - Lefkas town more bustling and much easier to get to than Zante.

cannot rave about simply enough. lefkas loads to do if you like pottering around exploring. Boat trips, horseriding, chilling out, lovely little main town. Babysitters at Lefkas are about £6 an hour.

I can't seem to get a quote for Lefkas for October, maybe it stops in September. I don;t even want to go at half term. Bugger!!

isn't it interesting I didn't take to lefkas.

Why not Beetroot?

they def do october, but prob early. Make sure you are putting a date in on a sunday into the search tool, as that's the day the week begins at Lefkas.

Can only get the first week of October and really need the second. Double bugger! Will have to look at Zykynthos. Any recommendations?

phone them, don't rely just on the internet site...they are really helpful - give them a buzz tomorrow and see what they can do.

Also look at my thread - any alternatives to lefkas - Cod has suggested some good sites...

Sunvil do a Lefkas holiday - 10 villas round a shared pool - very similar to the simply thing - but no childcare which is a bummer.

Also Tapestry Ocakkoy in Turkey looks good.

Got to have childcare I'm afraid, I've already looked at that thread, one of the hols looked good but ds would be too young for the kids club.

I found lefkas compared to other islands i have been had awful beaches and just didnt have the same wonderfulness about it.

However I don't do holidays with childcare so i will have different requirements

really Beetie? must have been to some great islands then! I've only been to a couple inc Skyros which was wonderful - truly unspoilt and v atmostpheric (but not v kiddy-friendly for a hol). Admittedly beach nr mousses isn't great -but can look dramatically windswept, if that's yr thing. from memory beaches in the south of the island are lovely - but we were lucky as went in May so v deserted. this time be there in july so might be rather a shock to see Lefkas with so many more people.

I'd also been looking at Mousses, but no availability/bit exp for end August/beginning Sept. I'm now investigating Ocakkoy in Turkey - has anyone been? Any thoughts? Seemingly they don't do a proper creche now, but do have 'someone who looks after the children' - we are looking for morning childcare for our 2-yr-old. The 'no creche thing' could be because I'm trying to be sneaky and book direct rather than through Tapestry! All I want is a few other toddler types for J to play with. If anyone has any view on Ocakkoy, do let me know, am desperate to get something booked!

Strange, only available point seems to be when Cod and I will be there. Do we think tis is coincidence?

Beetie - Lefkas does have some lovely beaches - albeit more shingle than say sandy Zante. Water is crystal clear, tbh first time I saw the beach near Mousses the sea looked like something you see in the Caribbean, that incredible turquoise colour. Think you are better off going down the West coast though, and avoiding Nidri and surrounding area. Love Lefkas town at night - far better vibe than Zante town or certain places I went to in Kefalonia. Then again, haven't been to the harder to get to islands like Ithaca and such - imagine they are blissful.

Mischief - we've been to Lefkas in July, not heaving, don't panic!

Lilliput - might be worth looking at babygoes2.com - they often have good offers for booking through them, so you might find Mark Warner cheaper than booking direct.

(kamaKate, I've been to Occakoy with a toddler, we all loved it. very simple, peaceful, lovely child-friendly pool area, great staff. Could creche be full (it's very small), and they're just reluctant to lose a sale? FYI I did a thread on occakoy when we came back -- do an archive search.)

Just looked at the babygoes2 website and found an account of someone holidaying in Zakynthos in October, I've printed it out for dh, it seems to cover everything, food, things to do etc. Anyone any idea of the flight time to Zakynthos?

Just looked at the babygoes2 website and found an account of someone holidaying in Zakynthos in October, I've printed it out for dh, it seems to cover everything, food, things to do etc. Anyone any idea of the flight time to Zakynthos?

oops!

same as lefkas - about 3.5hours

(Thanks bakedpotatoe, I'll do a search and read up! DH used to work for MW and despite therefore going on their holidays for 10 years (him not me) seems to think that this is the only option for toddler families - and I'm determined to prove him wrong! However if it goes wrong that'll be it - it will be MW for evermore! Hence the requirement for extensive research!)