Anyone deciding to venture out to Rhodes has a lovely trip ahead of them - our hotel of choice, the Atlantica Imperial Hotel, was fantastic and the location was stunning. However, despite Thomson advertising their 'Gold' holidays as a 5 star 'all inclusive' option, my partner and I felt that our trip was, on many occasions, not at all '5 star' and more importantly, distinctly not 'all inclusive'.
The holiday cost us over £2,000 for the week and yet despite treating ourselves to a luxury 'all inclusive' break, we found ourselves hounded with 'little extras' added on to our final bill:
1. Sunbeds
we found finding a sunbed around the pool area impossible (unless you are prepared to get up at 6am every morning to reserve one), so spent most of our time on the beach - where sunbeds are not free! 6 euros per day for two sunbeds.
2. Safe
you would expect a 5 star hotel to provide a free safety deposit box service for guests, so imagine our surprise at having to fork out an extra 25 euros for the use of a safe for the week.
3. Mini Bar
similarly, the mini bar did not contain complimentary drinks, despite our 'all inclusive' tag - total mini bar bill: 30.00 euros
4. Midnight Cut Off
the all inclusive 'tag' did not extend past midnight at the bar - so no free midnight mojitos for me! 12.80 euros for two very unfree mojitos, purchased in drunken error...
5.'Free' A la Carte Night
Ah! the a la carte restaurant, which was very beautiful; all inclusive guests had one night free dining during their stay. Fantastic! we thought - until we were given the set menu for all inclusive guests (fairly bog standard) and were then presented with the proper a la carte menu (fantastic) which we could indulge in for a few euros extra - 50 euros extra, as it turned out :-(
6. Late Check Out
come on, we've spent over £2k with you, can't we just have our room for a few tiny extra hours to change out of our swim wear?? Nope. Late check out charge: 55 euros
7. Thomson Day Trips
We decided to treat ourselves to a catamaran trip, which was described as a 'VIP champagne catamaran cruise'. Hmmm, not sure how Victoria Beckham would have got on with this one. The catamaran nets were out of bounds for maintenance! So no sunbathing on the nets, VIP somehow included 32 people huddled onto hard plastic seats and not an awful lot of room to move around, given the 'out of bound nets'. The captain and skipper did not speak one word of English, and we stopped at a grotty beach for lunch - and sailed straight past all the nice places! We did feel a bit cheated on this trip - 170 euros cheated, to be precise.
8. The Most Expensive Newsagent in the World
don't use the hotel's shop, I felt violated paying £3 for the Sun!
9. Tipping Confusion
we could not fault the buffet food, it was amazing - but were stunned to find out that people were tipping the waiting staff before their meal, in exchange for quicker drinks service??! (reminder: it's self-service food). We have always tipped waiters at the end of a meal (are we wrong here?) - and were not sure about the etiquette for tipping waiting staff in a self-service restaurant - confused.com
10. Staff
the Thomson staff were, overall, lovely, but it was not long before the stories of poor salaries and reliance on commission came out...a bit depressing on a holiday really.
11. Extra Leg Room
my partner and I are both tall and will pay for extra leg room where we can get it - on the way out we got great seats in the middle of the plane, lots of leg room. However, coming back, we were scrunched up at the front of the plane, with no more leg room than a normal seat - and had paid £100 for the privilege :-(
All that said, we did have wonderful holiday, but we won't be using Thomson Gold again, and wouldn't recommend them to anyone else. We will definitely be sourcing our own travel arrangements next year - however, don't let that put you off going to Rhodes, it is, like the rest of Greece, utterly gorgeous!
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