Good choice. The apartment is in a beautiful position, on the harbour and up the (quite a few) steps about 50 metres to the left of the clocktower.



Very convenient for Pat's Bar, where you will find rather a lot of regulars that particular week (including me, of course). If you want any further info on Symi, send me a pm. Are we going to have another countdown?

I've just added the Symi Tours page for it to my favourites - never thought about staying on this side before - I WILL get back to Symi one day. (Is Pat's Bar what used to be Elpida or is that still there?)

Pat has been there for 23 years and she doesn't seem to have changed much in that time. I shall ask around for Elpida's. It does ring a bell.

The symivisitor.com mod has just posted another load of photographs to encourage you back again. (The last 6/25 pages are about Tilos and there are quite a few cats.) Several pages of the harbour, as you would expect:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/symipix/

Might be 2009!! (2008 is taken care of!) Loved the photo of Paco's popped in there for a coffee when we went on a day trip from Rhodes a couple of years ago - the man himself was there at a table, it seemed odd - the last time I was in there (93?) he'd been the sole "employee".

Elpida was run by a Brit and a Greek lady (who definately had spent time in Australia by her accent - she asked me if I wanted "brines" with my meze....)

I've stayed at the Mouragio for the last 3 years and find them very good, basic and clean. Not too many steps up from the harbour but quite quiet. Elpida's bar is run by Elpida and Lynn. You get very reasonable ouzo and mezes there.

Thanks for all the information.

Unfortunately the accommodation / flight isn't available for the only time we were able to go this year

Good news we are going to book for 2 weeks going next September.

Before we book, I remember reading in a brochure last year that you could do a twin centre holiday with a week in Symi followed by a week in Halki (or vice versa) however I cannot find this on offer in any brochure for next year.

Does anybody know a company that still does this ? I have tried several travel agents but none have been able to help.

I have also looked in to going DIY but to be honest the overall cost is MUCH higher than just booking a single island stay package deal to either Symi or Halki.

Example for 2 weeks -

Accommodation = £650
Flights from GLA = £410
Return taxi to port = £38
Ferries = £20

Total £1118

A 2 week package to Anastasia Mouragio with Olympic £690.
£428 less than booking DIY

Any thoughts would be much appreciated as I would like to book the holiday this week if possible.

Thanks again
Graham

Laskarina used to do this but they've stopped trading. Most of the Laski properties on Symi are now handled by the previous Laski agent and the ex-Laski rep, trading as Indigo Holidays.

They only handle accommodation however so you'd still have to organise flights. I don't think any package companies now do a two centre holiday for Halki and Symi. The alternative might be booking a Symi package and then spending a week of this on Halki. This would be more expensive but might still be cheaper than trying to organise a two centre holiday independantly. Indigo holidays may be able to help you re info on Halki accommodation if you go to the Symi Visitor website.

I'm sorry I can't give you the web addresses as this stupid website won't allow me to post them even though I've been registered and made postings here for some time!

link wizard

Unfortunately http://www.indigo-holidays.co.uk/html/destinations.htm don't cover Halki but I have asked the local agents for suggestions. I'll let you know when I get a reply. Have a look at the Halki page on:

http://www.symivisitor.com

You're up early, Kojak. Spiders keep you awake?

Kojak and rpbristol

Re. Indigo
Thats an interesting company that I had'nt seen before. When Laskarina folded they were good enough to post all of their agents contact details on their website, unfortunately I failed to print it and it has now gone. Sunvil Holidays took on some of their properties and I imagine there are probably other small companies marketing some of the excellent ex Laska. properties.

rdv, Yes, I omitted to copy that page as well but I do have the odd contact number (somewhere). I'll see what I can find out next month. George Kalodoukas (you remember George, of course) has many of the old Laska properties listed on his website but he doesn't cover Halki either. He links to Indigo as well. You must be on about your 50th trip to Greece now.

Sorry, Graham, back to the topic:

Symivisitor suggest looking at their Halki visitor page, as I recommended above. It does have a list of their accommodation on Halki together with quite a lot of information about the island. I'm afraid that I cannot find anyone that does a package trip to both islands. Perhaps someone else will have more luck.

Thanks again

If we can't pre-book a holiday to both Halki and Symi we have decided to book Symi for 2 weeks and then try to get to Halki ourselves from there, even if it is only for a couple of days.

This leads on to the logistics.
We would go from Symi back to Rhodes, and then get the ferry from Rhodes to Halki, can this be done easily or would we have to stay in Rhodes overnight then catch the ferry to Halki ?

Am I right in thinking that the Symi and Halki ferries leave from different ports in Rhodes ?

Sorry to be a pain in the you know what

Graham

The Symi ferry goes from Kolonna, next to the commercial harbour. Don't bother with Mandraki as only day trip boats go from there and they don't allow luggage carrying passengers. The Halki ferry goes from one or two ports on the other side of Rhodes, depending on the time of day. If you look at the Halki visitor site - go from the link on the Simi visitor site, they give details of Halki ferry times.

I think the Halki ferry only goes from Kamiros Skala, halfway down the west coast (it did when I went many moons ago). There is a bus (the Monolithos/Embonas bus, I think) from the "bus station" which links in with the departures and sort of with arrivals. The ferry times can also be looked up on http://www.gtp.gr.

Take earplugs for the bus - it was the one all the schoolkids got - it was extremely noisy!

Thanks again Kojak and Elenitsa.

The main problem might be linking up the 2 ferry times without having to stay in Rhodes.

How easy would it be to find a place to say in Halki in September if we just turned up on the island ?

Thanks once again
Graham

Getting from Symi to Halki shouldn't involve staying in Rhodes. There's an early morning ferry from Symi and, according to the Halki Visitor an afternoon ferry to Halki at about 14.30 so you should have plenty of time. BE SURE to check schedules nearer the time you plan to go as they can change!

The boats been going at 14.00/14.30 for at least 13 years, so it will probably continue (famous last words when in Greece!) - Sundays and Wednesdays are a bit different, I think due to transfer and day trips.

Thanks everybody

That's it now booked for slighly later than initialy intended, we go on the 1st of october 2008 for 2 weeks staying in the Anastasia Mouragio studios.

Glad you have it sorted. Perhaps you could arrange a diversion on your gulet trip to have a quick look. A lot of gulets do visit the harbour.