written by Sarahjane2003 on 18/09/2011
I booked our holiday with Nadine (operator 27) over the phone, as I had previously tried via the website and was not contacted back for more than 3 days and then only when I called them. I booked to go to Zakinthos on 29.08.11 for 11 nights, myself, partner and 3 year old. Having been to the island a few times previously we knew what to expect from the resort and the type of accomodation we had booked. Nadine was very helpful when we booked the holiday and returned my e-mails when I had a few concerns after booking.
After booking the holiday I read quite a few negative reviews referring to Holiday Gems. I was concerned but thought Hey ho, it's booked now, how bad can they be??? Maybe because we had been before and knew what to expect we were perfectly happy with the holiday. We had a great time and would definitely book via Holiday Gems again. Two points I would like to make - £45 for 20 kilo luggage is extremely steep, most operators charge £28 and the cost of transfer from airport to resort is ridiculous. If you are travelling to Zakinthos there is an island website called justzante.com and they give the prices of taxis from airport to any resort on the island. It only cost us 26 euros return in a taxis where Holiday Gems were asking £56 for the coach with multiple drop offs. We were in our apartment within 20 mins of collecting our luggage!
Overall we had a great holiday costing about £500 less than if we had booked with Thomson or one of the other big operators. Would definitely use again if I was going somewhere I had been before.
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