Thanks Wizard

I also had a holiday booked to the same resort. Without referring to other hotels, it would have been back in 2006. We were booked at the end of the month and luckily when we got there it was fine. As you mentioned someone was putting posts on here so we knew what stage they were at. This hotel seems to be First Choice's and the internets best kept secret.

Pictures or more details of the location would be great. Someone must have been to Rhodes recently or if you are going soon and happen to see the building, please give us information.

Quite why First Choice are building in Kolymbia is a puzzle to me.The beach is nothing special. There are only a few bars & tavernas open these days.A lot of empty/ deserted buildings. The resort if you could call it that, is rather run down now.The First Choice web site is still only showing artists impression of the building. Its January & people have bookings to stay there in May!!!
We live on Rhodes in the village of Kalithies, so maybe sometime soon we will go to Kolymbia & take a look.

I found this on another web site. FC on 10th January says the building is complete & the pool is work in progress.If you have any concerns here is the person to contact. Heather Bailey in Pre Travel Communications tel 0844 561999
I Hope this is helpfull

Thanks for all your help.

Tpebop - If you do visit the area, some pictures would be fantastic!

a status report with pictures would be a tremendous asset to our member but only if you have the time to do it

efharisto poly
yasus
wizard

Hi
The New Holiday Village is going to be in Kolymbia, but exactly where i am not sure. There are quite a few hotels in Kolymbia, we stayed there 2 years ago at the Atlantica Imperial (fantastic !!), and we walked the stretch on the beach side and have looked at our holiday pics but still for the life of us can't work out where it is being built. We have even been on Google earth. I can tell you that whilst Kolymbia is only a small village there were a couple of lovely bars (The 'Sports Bar' stopped open until we stopped drinking at 4 in the morning!), and a few places to eat. The beach may not be soft white sand and you maybe as well to take beach shoes if you want a dip in the sea; but this is made up for by the pools and facilities in your hotel. Situated in between Falaraki and Lindos there is easy access to these by a reasonable bus service as well as being able to get a bus into Rhodes. Lindos and Rhodes are a must! We always said we would go back and indeed look forward to stopping at the new Holiday Village in June this year.

Sorry, can't really help with the lowdown on it, but whilst the location may seem bizarre, FC will obviously be making sure that with it being in a isolated area that the customer will have to rely on it for stuff, therefore any things outwith the AI will result in more money for them.

FD

Hi there

Im going over to Kolymbia on the 9th June this year, we went last year and stayed in the Atlantica Aegean Blue which is over the road from the new complex.. We loved it and so did our 3 year old. We are getting married over there when we go over this year!! I cant wait i am so excited about it. We also have booke the swim up rooms and are all well impressed with the layout and what its going to look like!!
Like everyone else i just hope its ready, although i have had an e-mail from the Manager at the Hotel stating that its well on schedule!! So fingers crossed!!

Chow for now!!

Hello all...we are going to the rhodes holiday village on the 26th may (2 adults and 2 children ) I honestly cannot wait just hope it is ready and there are few teething problems..fingers crossed.
We went to the cyrpus holiday village ( aliathon fishing village side) last August and had a brilliant time and would recommend this to anyone as soon as we got back we heard about the new one in rhodes and booked it straight away ( if it is half as good as cyprus it will be worth every penny )
This will be our 4th time to Rhodes it is a fantastic island, Plenty of people are mentioning visits to rhodes town and lindos which are both fantastic and def not to be missed but 2 other gems are the water park near faliraki and Anthony Quinn bay just between Afondu and faliraki.
Anyway roll on the may school holidays Royal Deluxe here we come.

Hi, we are from Belgium and booked the holliday village in Rhodos, has any one yet some more information about the hotel? We are going from 21/07/2010 till 31/07 and like many others wondering will it be ready in time ?

Hallo zijn er soms Belgen of Nederlanders die dit hotel ook boekten?

Vele grtjs / many regards from Belgium

In preparation for its opening I have added Holiday Village to our reviews here. Who will be first to review it I wonder?

Hi,

I am also from Belgium and We booked The Holiday Village from the 10th of July untill the 21st of July (swimup rooms).
Yes, it is yet a long time to go.
I am not worried that it would not be ready.
I trust my travel agency. They will find us something else equivalent.
Sure, it would be a dissapointment, but never the less ... we will enjoy our holiday.
On the 11th of December last year, I received an email from Elaine Finnemore Pre Travel Communications First Choice Holidays. She wrote to me the following: this hotel is planned to be open in May10 and is so far on schedule.

Nu voor de Belgen onder ons ... 't is altijd leuk te weten, dat er nog landgenoten zijn, die in hetzelfde resort verblijven.
Het is alleen jammer dat jullie pas aankomen, wanneer wij vertrekken. Wat betreft het klaar zijn van het resort, hebben wij altijd nog wat meer respijt tov de Uk. Onze schoolvakantie valt een heel stuk later. Dus maar duimen ...

Onthaal aan de Griekse forums van Vakantie Truths [welcome to the Greek forums of HT]

but please post in english

Yasus
wizard

As a former resident of Rhodes I can only say I wish you all good luck.

This is Greece we are talking about. I would not personally book a hotel that did not already exist. In Greek there are two terms you soon learn to understand if you live there. Avrio (tomorrow) and meta avrio (after tomorrow). Avrio generally means some time in the next week or two, rarely actually tomorrow. Meta avrio generally means it is in the hands of the gods and may or may not ever happen. When you ask someone when something will happen and he says 'avrio' you then ask him, 'avrio' or 'meta avrio'? If he shrugs his shoulders it doesn't bode well at all. If I were any of you, I would be pleading with tpebop to take a quick drive down to actually see what stage construction is in. There are now only 2 months left before the first early May bookings. It doesn't take a construction expert to look at the site and determine if it is likely to be ready or not.

On Rhodes, different nationalities tends to congregate in different areas. So Faliraki infamously gets all the British lager louts for example while Rhodes Town itself gets predominantly Scandinavian tourists. Kolymbia has been a primarily German tourist area for decades. Over the last 15 years or so however it has fallen out of favour and quite a few of the hotels and shops have closed down. Frankly, the words I would use to sum it up, are isolated and dead. I would not choose to stay in Kolymbia personally. The beach is small and not necessarily adjacent to the hotel. There are few restaurants/bars and nothing to see/do in the immediate area, so I would expect you will be somewhat limited in that regard unless you are using a rental car. It is neither a busy area with nightlife nor a quiet little village with atmosphere. I get the impression this new hotel is going to be an All-Inclusive hotel and it is likely you will need it to be really all encompassing as well. Read the comment by fd1972uk above, I believe s/he knows what s/he is talking about.

I am sorry if I have rained on anyone's parade but I believe in telling it like it is. Again, I would really encourage tpebop to go have a look and report back.

Hello. We have today been to Kolymbia to see how work is progressing. We had hoped to take photos but the roads nearby are flooded so we could not get close enough. We did manage a shouted conversation with one of the contractors who said it is due to open on 9th May. From our vantage point we could not see there had much done to the grounds since our last visit over a month ago

thanks tpebop fingers crossed for our members

yasus
wizard

Hi

Just wondered if anyone had any news as to completion?

First Choice are advertising this hotel from the 8th May onwards which is exactly when hubby & I hoped to go away. Can book swim-up rooms on AI at a fairly reasonabale price but we are a bit worried whether it will be finished.

Any comments would be appreciated

Apparantly there were some unofficial photos on Facebook of the hotel. The Facebook page was set up by The customer services manager of the hotel. These have now been removed. I wonder why ?
Also about 2 weeks ago Thomas Cook stated that photos were being taken. So why on the TC web site are still artist impressions ?
I have been reading on another forum about Thomas Cook canceling flights & holidays recently from Ireland & Scotland.One couple in Belfast booked their honeymoon about 6 months ago & now Thomas Cook have canceled all Belfast flights. The bad thing is the couple have said TC have offered no compensation.With no flights from Belfast their honeymoon is in tatters.
Thomas Cook obviously have no heart.
I hope no one booked to the Rhodes Holiday village has to take action against the company.

Take action? Read the fine print and I think you will find all they have to do is refund your money as has happened with the Belfast people you mentioned above. Tpebop, if things didn't look close to completion when you were there at the beginning of this month, I would not hold my breath for the beginning of May. Call me cynical but I have yet to see anything finish on time on Rhodes. Any chance of you taking another drive to see what's up?

I would hate to see people who have saved for their annual holiday have it spoiled by a last minute cancellation or even by getting there and finding things not 100% completed. ie. The rooms are ready but the pump for the swimming pool hasn't turned up yet, so no pool or the grounds are still a construction site outside the front door.

I just think those kinds of things are all too common when it comes to hotel construction and I would think that people in the UK who watch the holiday nightmare programs would think twice before booking a 'maybe it will all turn out ok' package. I suggest using common sense and giving this place a miss till next year. But that of course is just my opinion.

May I ask those who have booked and who are following this thread, just why you are willing to risk it being ready? Is the price they are offering that much better than somewhere else on the island? Kook, do you really expect that if it opens on the 8th of May, that everything will be up to speed? ie. no bugs to be worked out in the first few months before things really operate as you hope they will? There has to be a learning curve just as with anything.