Kefalonia Garden Village

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Where:
Kefalonia is one of many Greek Islands. The Kefalonia Garden Village (KGV) is near the resort of Lixouri, on the Western side of the island.

Bangs:
Be aware that the island has some small tremors (yes, earthquake type things) from time to time. This causes the place to rumble a bit and you hear a few 'odd' noises!

Getting there:
We flew from Gatwick (North terminal) on a flight that ...
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Cost:
For 4 people (1 adult & 3 children) travelling almost at the peak time of the year (August) and taking the 'All Inclusive' option it was about £2,300.

Who its for:
The Village is geared up for families with children. Couples would enjoy this or people with children. This would not be so suitable for older people due to the hills (see further on). The package is advertised as half board but consider the 'All ... more

This Holiday location was selected from the Thomson web site and booked direct through it. Attendance was in August 2008. Its official rating is 4 star.

Where:
Kefalonia is one of many Greek Islands. The Kefalonia Garden Village (KGV) is near the resort of Lixouri, on the Western side of the island.

Bangs:
Be aware that the island has some small tremors (yes, earthquake type things) from time to time. This causes the place to rumble a bit and you hear a few 'odd' noises!

Getting there:
We flew from Gatwick (North terminal) on a flight that was about 3hrs & 30 mins each way.

Cost:
For 4 people (1 adult & 3 children) travelling almost at the peak time of the year (August) and taking the 'All Inclusive' option it was about £2,300.

Who its for:
The Village is geared up for families with children. Couples would enjoy this or people with children. This would not be so suitable for older people due to the hills (see further on). The package is advertised as half board but consider the 'All Inclusive' option.

Thomson/Tui:
Our check-in going out was the 'new' South terminal at Gatwick airport. They tend to have one long queue for the +12 checking in positions and generally this was quite quick and easy. All positions dealt with all flights rather than just a couple of open counters for your flight with a jolly long queue. Useful with the kids in tow!
If you pre-pay extra money when booking they will guarantee you will sit with the rest of your group otherwise you may risk being separated from the rest of the party (that might not be so bad then!).

Arrival:
Once off the flight and swiftly through passport control and the customs, Thomsons Reps were there to guide us to the correct coach, merrily waiting with the air con on. With temps in the 80's, that was certainly needed (Just what was that big bright hot thing thing in the sky?).
Then the drop offs start. The coach headed towards the port to catch a ferry to Lixouri with various people being dropped off on the way.
A ferry across the bay (paid for by Thomsons) takes nearly 30mins and the journey continues to the village.
This takes about another 25 mins and the coach ends up travelling through narrow lanes and sharp bends. To say it's rather tight at times, is an understatement (especially looking at the corners of some of the houses!).

KGV:
A short sharp uphill drive of 200 yards brings you into part of the village. Some car parking is around the vehicle turning area. As you climb out you can see the 'quite-long' pool and multitude of sun beds.
The best way to describe KGV is it consists of 6 levels. Along each level are blocks of apartments and the lowest of these 'ground' apartments run parallel with the coastline.
Each block consists of about 10 apartments, 5 on the ground floor and 5 on the first floor. These apartments on the lowest level are numbered in the 100's. Behind them and higher up are more apartments, numbered in the 200's. The next set, even higher and behind them are in the 300's.
So, guess what. If you were in a room in the 600's, you are in the highest-level rooms. Flights of steps run at the ends of the levels joining them up and they have a road at one end. This section, which is considerably steep, has been nicknamed cardiac hill. It's steep so those who are not too mobile wont like this at all.

Reception:
The reception is in the main village building. This building also houses a couple of bars, pool tables, a TV lounge area, the evening entertainment area and the restaurant.
The reception generally copes and will flog you some Euro's, in exchange for other currency, or will sell you a very reasonably priced coach ticket for a return trip to Lixouri (for a morning or a days shopping).

Village Apartments:
They have 298 across the village. Some are 1 bedroom apartments and some 2 bedroom apartments. Ours was a 2 bedroom apartment that had 2 small beds in 1 room, complete with a TV and balcony access. The 2nd bedroom had 1 double bed and also a TV and balcony access. Both rooms had their own air con units, which would not work if you left any doors open, or failed to put the power key into the power slot.
This power key was on the door key. A small lobby by the front door had a fridge freezer in it (this always stayed on). The bathroom contained the toilet and bath/shower unit.
All rooms had windows or doors which were secured by metal shutters across them.
A safe was available but, typically, this was an extra 18 Euros to hire for the week (Requires a safe key to work).

Clean & tidy:
Maids came in 6 times in every 7 days to clean and replace towels as appropriate.

Wrist Attachment bangles:
For those on 'All Inclusive' the staff needed to know who is. You get issued with a plastic bangle to wear round your wrist, with the kids getting a different colour to the adults to stop them getting alcoholic drinks.
This entitled (adults) to all soft drinks, wine, beer and a choice of about 5 cocktails. The menu had a further 12 cocktails available but you had to pay for them though you got a 30% reduction if all-inclusive.

Restaurant:
All the meals were served in the restaurant. This also had a couple of beer pumps and soft drink dispensers. In one corner was the wine unit! This was a tough one to work but 1). Place glass under wine tap. 2). Press button of the relevant colour required until glass is full. 3). Return to your table & enjoy! (Yessss).
The restaurant is self-service and the staff simply clear up as required. People getting drinks were watched to see if they had the all-inclusive bands on. Those who were not all inclusive have to pay at the time.
There were about 10 outside tables with about another 90 tables inside. Sometimes it was a bit hit and miss getting an empty table at busy times. Always find the table first, before getting the food to save wondering around with it getting cold.

Drinks:
As stated drinks are available in the restaurant, when it is open. There is also a bar unit by the pool, in the water park, in the entertainment area and the lounge area. You select your plastic beaker and simply help yourself to your drink but, WATCH OUT: ** WASP ALERT** There were many wasps around these units and on at least 4 occasions as I filled up my beaker, a wasp landed in it as well. They loved the soft drink units (Coke, Fanta, Sprite) and would crawl up inside the nozzle! Staff simply gave up and never seemed to bother trying to get rid of them.

Food:
Breakfast (7.30am - 10am): Fried or boiled or scrambled eggs, bread, toast, sausages, b.beans, mushrooms & leeks, cakes of all sorts, etc.
Lunch(12.30 pm - 2.30pm) : A whole unit of 10-12 assorted salad items, various cooked items like fish pieces, fried meat, meat in sauce, chips, mixed vegetables, etc. Puddings were fresh fruit, ice cream, or cake type deserts.
Dinner (7pm - 9pm): Similar to lunch with salad items and various meat and fish dishes. Some were with 'Greek' type sauces (going by the name given). On all evenings a chef would be doing some cooking, such a burgers or kebab's and you'd help yourself from the pile. Puddings were the same as lunchtime.
There were various vegetarian options of sorts so no one would starve.
Still hungry: In the afternoons, about 4pm, some snacks such as fish pie, ham rolls and fish fingers were available from the pool bar room and also about 9pm from the entertainment bar area.

Entertainment:
Various things during the day like darts & pool. The entertainment team would announce these over the tannoy and wonder round getting names. NO hard sell or pressure at all.
In the evening there were things like Bingo, Karaoke, singing & dancing and their version of 'The Generation Game'. The typical children's disco took place before the adult stuff. It was all quite basic but acceptable.

Pool/Lounger:
There was one pool with a few hundred loungers around it. Shade was available with about 1 umbrella between every 2 beds. After 9am you'd be hard pushed to get a space by the pool.

Shop:
A small one but it sold drinks, food, sweets, English papers, magazines and quite a selection of souvenirs. Postcards and stamps were also available.

Beach:
This is described as sand and shingle on the Thomsons web site. There is sand. There is shingle. There are plenty of rocks as well. Can be a bit dodgy on the feet when entering the sea.
As the area is connected with faults in the Earth (tremors and all that) you can stand on one side of the beach and see gas bubbles coming from under the sea. The sulphar smell is a good clue as to the volcanic activity!
They have about 20 sets of shade and loungers on it, only for the hotel use and there was always space here.
The beach was about a 10 minute walk from the village complex (going down to it) but about 15 returning (uphill).

Water park:
Quite simply walk along the side of the KGV up the hill, past the rooms in the 600's, then over the hill and on the other side you'll see it. Medium sized pool, about 100 loungers with shade and 5 water slides. They also have a bar with all the usual drinks and wasps.
Watch the shower area though. We saw a good few leeches crawling around.

Thomson Rep:
Obviously contact details are available when there. They have the usual array of trips but NO hard sell. Our guy (in his 6th year) told the group about them and how people found them. Highly rated by all (we agree having been on it) was the 'Sun Cruise' trip which was a dolphin spotting trip with a B.B.Que on a beach, in a GLASS BOTTOMED Boat!

OVERALL:
If you want a relaxing and gentle holiday with lots of pampering and no hassle, FORGET THIS.
If you don't mid some hustle & bustle, getting your own food and drinks, a bit of walking around, enjoying water slides and swatting a few wasps, then this is for you. 

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