Sea Side Taverna

This was a holiday booked by my friend, through "More" magazine.

She paid £250 per person for a week on a self catering basis, at the end of September last year. After the hour and a half drive to the Sea Side Taverna resort in Kavos, us being one of the last three stops after dropping everyone else, and now feeling quite sick, we quickly disembarked the coach and collected our suitcases, jumping out of the way just in time for the driver to speed off! There were a group of about ten of us standing by the side of the road, desperately searching for a rep to meet us. We were tired (it was gone 1am) and feeling really rough, and all we wanted to do was go to sleep. The next thing we know, the heavens opened! Just as it started to pour down, we spotted a lady running towards us, shouting "follow me" and gesturing in the direction of a run down building at the side of the road. We followed over, and after ticking us off for being late (cos that was our fault!) she read names off, and handed out keys as she went. After giving out all keys, she barked orders of where to go. Luckily, our building was where we were standing, but most peoples were over the other side of the road, which meant another trek in the rain! The lady stormed off (luckily we never saw her again) and we were left to lug our extremely heavy luggage up 2 flights of stairs, tired, sick and exhausted, totally by ourselves.

We gritted our teeth, but all previous feelings were lost as we opened the door to the room! It was paradise -- two clean comfy beds, and generally a very clean room. We rushed in and began to enjoy the holiday. After a while I realised that we had left the key in the other side of the door. I tried to open the door, only I couldn't. The door wouldn't budge, and we were locked inside. Probably the worst fire hazard you could imagine. With the rock solid fire door and poky windows, there was no way of escape. I only thank my lucky stars that we didn't have one!! We started banging on the door and walls to get someone else along our floors to let us out. After almost twenty minutes of banging we realised we weren't getting out that way. "Phone the rep" I said. There should be a number on the sheet for the hotel or rep!? There wasn't of course, and by this time we had been locked in for quite a while and were growing panicky. "Phone home" I suggested, which we decided to do as we had no choice. We had to ring home (their time about midnight) and ask them to go on the internet, look up a number for here or the reps, and then ring them and ask them to let us out; all because we left a key in the door. Fifteen minutes later we got let out!!

The next morning, we hastily had a shower (yep no hot water) and got dressed - hot pants and bikini tops - perfect holiday wear, until we stepped outside. The rain had stopped, but it had left massive puddles and it had flooded the open plan corridor outside. Once we were outside the building, we realised it was freezing!! We looked across to the other side where the main bar and pool was. It was pretty deserted, so we thought we'd just buy the booze for tonight at the shop located under our apartments. It was ridiculously overpriced. None-the-less, we stocked up on Archers, Baileys, Malibu and this cheap looking home made spirit shock drink. We decided to give the bar a go, and went and sat at the stools. The women shoved the cocktail menu at us and walked off. We chose some interesting sounding cocktails, made with Baileys, choc milkshake, Tia Maria and cream. This was the highlight of the holiday. A different man came round the corner and expertly made these wonderful drinks. He chatted to us and told us that this afternoon there was the freestyle meeting, and we had to attend to decide which tours we were going on.

That afternoon we went over to the meeting, and the rep wed seen the previous night told us about the different excursions available this week. We decided on all the night ones (bar crawls) and the trip to the Laguna. When he came round to take the payment he became pushy because we'd said no to the Sea World one, saying "you'll be bored on your own, everyone else is going". Eventually he realised we weren't changing our minds, and he took our payment of 200 Euros and left.

That night we headed down to the bar to meet everyone else, for our first bar crawl. Kavos town centre is about a fifteen minute walk away, so eventually we got there and to our first bar, which to our delight was packed!! We were told to take our free shot (each excursion equated to 20 Euros a time, so how this was free I'm not sure), and we did this in another three bars. The group was getting bigger and bigger, until I got chatting to a guy. I asked what side of the road he was staying at, he replied "oh I'm not from the seaside taverna, I'm not on a freestyle holiday". I asked "how comes he was on the bar crawl with us then"? He told me that everyone goes on the bar crawl, they can't stop people tagging along. Besides it makes the group look bigger and more crowded, just most people don't pay! Angry as we were, but determined to enjoy the night, we returned home, by taxi, costing just 5 Euros.

The next day we noticed that another coach load had arrived, and that evening we met two girls who had arrived that day. They told us their awful experience so far. They'd moved rooms twice because they were relying on home cooking, as they hadn't bought much money, and they weren't going to be eating out. Their kitchenette hadn't worked in the first two rooms! Eventually, they'd been taken to the last available room, but it was OK really, as the money they'd saved for the excursions was there to play with. We asked what they meant, and they replied that because they were the last intake of holidaymakers that season, they'd been given the excursions free; the ones we'd paid nearly 200 Euros for the day before.

The next day was the first day I'd noticed the wasps. I'm petrified of them, and if you're like me, this is your worst nightmare!! They swarmed everywhere, and I couldn't get rid of them. They were crawling over the bar, the sun beds and all over the beach! Luckily we were going to the Laguna today, and I have to say this was the best day of the holiday. It was amazing! We went on this boat, and we stopped at an island for a little while, had a barbecue, and then went to the Laguna, which was the most amazing sight anyone can ever see. It's beautiful!! We dived off the boat and swam around in the crystal clear water for about an hour before heading home.

The following day was spent at the beach, which was terrible. It was really stony, and we got pestered to buy boats etc. The wasps were hovering around as well. Even in the sea, they were hovering over our heads. After the fifth day, we ran out of money, and after spending approximately 600 Euros, we thought we'd make food at home with our last twenty Euros. Unfortunately, our kitchenette didn't work either. The only thing that did work was the kettle, so we had to make do with what we had!

Overall, this holiday can most definitely be deemed as a waste of money. If you are forced to go with Freestyle then I suggest you don't get pestered into buying the excursions, as they are mostly free to anyone, and the Laguna trip plus others are available in town for much less. The food around town is OK. Not good, but not bad either; quite expensive though, and it can add up. The only place we found that we would recommend wholeheartedly was a cafe called Michael's cafe, which was a short walk along the road, away from town. He did an amazing breakfast for 6 Euros, and it would set us up for the day. Shopping and drinks wise, I would buy alcohol at the airport, or take it with me. And for food, I'd probably have breakfast at Michael's and then eat at one of the many cheaper restaurants around town. I would not recommend going at the end of the season for two reasons, one is the wasps, the other is the reps and all the staff seem to think that they can behave how they want, and give poor customer service because it's nearly the end of the season. I experienced the poorest customer service ever whilst out there, and the only redeeming factors I saw were: the cocktails, Michael's caf , the Laguna, and the cleaning staff doing a great job!