Flights

[Joe Le Taxi]

Hello again everybody. Yes it's that time of year when a young(I wish) man's fancy turns to Symi. Mrs Taxi who normally does the booking tells me the Thomas Cook flight prices are a tad steep this year.Any other Thomas Cookers think this? Andy?

[STEVE]

Thomas Cook East Midlands/Rhodes 1 June 2016 for three weeks = £523 return for two people with 20kg luggage each and reserved seats. 2015 was £629 (for 4 weeks but still June) so a fair bit cheaper this year for us.

Steve

[Andy W]

Thomas Cook, and Thomson, exist as airlines to provide seats to the package holiday businesses. They sell a few seats to flight-only travellers, and if the package holiday business is good, there aren't very many of them, so the price goes up.
Personally I never use them because they are almost always dearer than flying scheduled by the time you've added the extras you can't really fly without - and then there's the ridiculous hand baggage allowance - a small laptop and a large camera and you're over weight!. I'm not just talking about EasyJet and Ryanair, Jet2, Aegean (connections in Athens) and British Airways are usually cheaper too. I also look for days that there are scheduled flights but no Thomas Cook/Thomson flights, these may be cheaper as they're not traditional changeover days.
However from some airports they're the only game in town and people have no alternative unless they're willing to travel to a different airport.

[Allan]

Joe, have you checked Andy's excellent full flights list?

http://symivisitor-accommodation.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/summerflightsUK2016v3.pdf

According to that you have Jet2 and Thompson as well as TC from Glasgow. The same two companies fly from Edinburgh too if that's any good.

[Oor Willie]

Joe we are going easy jet via Kos this year £450 total for the 2 of us from Glasgow in June including 20kg each hold baggage

[alan c.]

I noticed a big hike for Jet2 flights to Rhodes from Glasgow in June this year - about £100pp more than last year. Coupled with Greek tax increases will be an expensive holiday!

[Joe Le Taxi]

Thanks for the response everyone. If going via Kos,how much is the ferry?

[Allan]

Thanks for the response everyone. If going via Kos,how much is the ferry?

Picking a random date on the Dodekanisos website it's showing 24 Euros Kos to Symi compared to 18 Euros Rhodes to Symi.

[Joe Le Taxi]

Anyone got suggestions for Kos hotels for an overnight stay cos I think that's the way to go.

[Oor Willie]

Joe we usually use the Captains Hotel in KosTown nothing fancy but ok for an overnight in fact we had an enjoyable fortnight there about 13 years ago, we paid about 25 euros a night for 2 nights on the way back from Symi last year. Also if you travel on the Blue Star the ferry fare is less than the Dodecanese from Rhodes to Symi but the taxi from the airport is dearer than Rhodes so it works out about the same overall

[Jan]

There's a bus from the airport into Kos town, but it doesn't run frequently (5-6 per day) so may not coincide with your flight. If it does, the cost is peanuts: about 3euros one way.. Google 'kos ktel' nearer the time for a timetable - the one currently in operation runs till the end of March and shows just two buses per day.

We used the Kos route to come home (flew out to Rhodos) a few years ago. If an extra day or two of holiday isn't a problem (you might need an overnight both ways) then it's worth serious consideration.