Holiday Booked

Next holiday is booked ... we are going back to Praia da Luz in the Algarve in June. While we have stayed in the Algarve every Christmas for many years, it has been 7 years since we stayed there in the summer, so I am sort of looking forward to it!

Usually we like to go to Greece in June, it is a great time to go, the weather is lovely and the sea is beautifully warm. In my heart I would dearly have loved to have booked a break in Greece. However, it seems this year that flight prices to Greece are more expensive than ever. I booked with Easyjet to Faro and it cost both of us around a third of the price of any flight to Greece I could find.

Easyjet have recently put some new routes to Corfu, Crete, Mykonos, Rhodes and Thessaloniki onto their schedule from London Gatwick Airport, great for everyone in the south of the country. When will one of the budget airlines to put some routes to Greece from the Midlands? (preferably East Midlands airport!)

Additionally, XL Airways have taken the route to Kalamata off the East Midlands and Manchester airport schedule, which is an absolute crime for those of us who love the mainland Pelopponese and live in the middle of the country.

It seems to me more and more that Greece and the Greek islands needs tourism to enable businesses to stay open year after year and survive through the winter. Every year, when we go to Greece, we hear tales of shorter holiday seasons on the cards, slower business and lower visiter numbers and it is terrible to return to a place and see lovely tavernas and bars going out of business or changing hands.

The new departure lounge in Zakynthos has been finally handed over and should be open for the new season this year, so come on budget airlines let's have more flights into Zante. I have sent a couple of emails to Easyjet, Ryanair and BMI Baby but have had no reply.

When the day comes that we can go to Zante for a long weekend, as often as we wish in the summer, for less than it would cost us to go to Skeggy for the weekend, then my life will be complete!!!