Ionian Island Holidays Reviews 16

Accommodation changed 4 days before due to “storm”
Flight changed 3 times
Replacement villa ( next door) didn’t cut the mustard dark no sea view no sea balcony resembled a coventry prefab externally.
The pool area is not private like villa Ithica no balcony off bedroom to sit on. Nothing liked I had booked which I stated. We Had no hot water one day fixed the next( but offered the villa we originally booked!!!!! W…….t…
Rep very patronising and opinionated.

I felt i was not the one who picked my holiday or flight a bit pointless getting excited.
We are not materialistic and I did feel a bit ungrateful for car up grade but that’s not what we are about.
They would not give us a refund on the holiday we booked and the villa next door was side on to the mountains not facing the sea the balcony was facing a tree.
The manager said he was going to put red wine in our villa guess what that didn’t arrive either

Very disappointed with the unprofessional approach to our situation
We booked the villa on a Black Friday deal got a bargain so we thought

If you would like to reply without referring to your booking terms with a solution I would love to hear it . But I should have been able to have a refund as it was not like for like if you want to see photos I have them I asked 3 times for refund ?
On a positive note the pomegranate in the garden was lovely 🥰

Update.

We have been offered another holiday in our original villa and have accepted
Happy

Abusive car hire owner, substandard hire car, overpriced package holiday

Having worked in retail travel for 21 years, I fell on this company during a Google search - I’d never heard of them and after a bit of research, decided they looked genuine and we got a brilliant Black Friday deal.

We travelled to Fiskardo in Kefalonia (Waterfront Apt, Eleni) the first two weeks in October

Booked online, all very easy and confirmation received immediately. We had timely reminders for the balance payments but weren’t bombarded with emails and ATOL licences as we have with other operators. Everything was very clear and straightforward to understand.

Slight hiccup with the outbound flight during online check in, when we realised we’d been booked on the wrong flight - a quick email to Ionian and the correct flight was booked within 24 hours.

The whole holiday was faultless and right from the start had a feeling of a good old fashioned tour operator who cares about their customers. Everything had a personal touch, from the rep meeting you at the airport, a lovely food basket and welcome note to help you settle in, the reps in resort - everything was calm and very personal. Gordon, George, Gina were all superb.

We loved where we stayed - the apartment is perfect for being in the heart of Fiskardo and a wonderful place to watch the boats (and people!).

The weather was mixed but this was always a risk with travelling towards the end of the season. We also knew that restaurants would start closing. The operator really is at the peril of this, but worked hard to keep on top of knowing what was still open for incoming guests.

Would I travel with Ionian again? Absolutely - it took me right back to the days of good old fashioned tour operating, a rarity in today’s world.

We stayed in a great apartment in Paxos in August. The crossing from Parga to Paxos was horrendous, with many passengers sea sick due to bad weather and the unsuitability of the boat, the upper deck was out of bounds and the lower deck not big enough for the number of passengers on board. All was going well until day 8 of our 14 day holiday when Ionian Holidays rep, Athina and another 2 people, arrived at our apartment, parking directly behind our car so we couldn’t move, just as we were leaving for a lunchtime meeting with friends. She asked us to return to the apartment where she told us ‘good news, you’re moving’ when asked where she told us we had to move to a neighbouring apartment block to accommodate a ‘large family, with medical issues’ who needed to be accommodated in the same building. I was reluctant to move but asked when this needed to be done, she said immediately. I told her this was not possible as we were already late for a lunch reservation. Athina stated that maids would move our personal belongings in our absence so the other family could move in that afternoon. When I told her we were unhappy with this arrangement she became very unpleasant, saying that we were ruining another family’s holiday by refusing to move to another apartment with no notice and losing a day of our holiday. We later found out that the ‘ large family, with medical issues’ were a perfectly healthy family of 4 who wanted a private swimming pool and our apartment in Gaios was the only one that met that requirement. We were lied to and made to feel very uncomfortable by Ionian Holidays employees, making us feel our holiday was less important than other customers. I have given Ionian Holidays the chance to respond to this issue via their own feedback form, but have heard nothing.

We paid a lot of money for a week in Skiathos with friends. We are all over 60, two with health issues. We were looking forward to a break. The holiday turned out to be a major disappointment due to inadequacies with the car hire, which lead us to feel trapped in the villa. The actual villa was great and the views spectacular. However the cars and the reps on the island were ineffective.

We included car hire within our package. We paid for an upgrade before travelling and on arrival were given a Citroen C3 for 4 adults plus luggage to get us from airport to the villa. After landing we spent a while at the car hire depot working out how we were going to fit 4 adults plus luggage into the car which we eventually managed with considerable difficulty. The drive to the villa was uneventful until we got to the right hand turn off the “A road” onto the back road to the villa. Ionian Island Holidays written driving instructions warned us that “the road is quite steep in parts” and “you need to stay in first gear”. The rep also verbally warned us that there was a significant pot hole in the middle of the road. Whilst we were warned that the "bend is sharp” we found it was a c.45% bend on a very blind corner, both for traffic following you, and traffic coming in the opposite direction. It took us at least 10 attempts to get up the hill. We were only successful once the three passengers had got out of the car. Even then it was a severe struggle. On the attempts, it was not helped by the clutch biting point being extremely high and the handbrake struggling to stop the car from rolling back when fully loaded. I am pretty sure that on a couple of occasions the car self-disengaged from first gear. We later went to the supermarket and had the self same problem with one fewer passenger and no luggage. After we complained when we returned to the UK, Ionian said that they could not find anything wrong with the car. They did not believe us.

We came to the conclusion that the car was not fit for purpose. In later internet searches, we found reviews that suggested the C3 was not suitable for climbing hills…..We did not use the car again.

On Sunday morning, the fittest member of our group walked c.4 miles into Skiathos Town to attend the Rep Welcome Meeting. She gave what I assumed to be an overview of the things to see across the island, all involved transport of some form.

We complained about the car and after some "to and fro" an 'upgrade' car turned up. I asked the car delivery driver about checking the vehicle over and he motioned that we should take photos. There was no documentation, etc. We took photos around of the bodywork, it was somewhat shabby and dented. We then took a picture of the dashboard and noticed that the tyre pressure warning light was on….
So the second car was, in any objective opinion, not fit for purpose.The Rep came back saying that we had accepted the car (false, we did not have the opportunity to, the driver was off and away within minutes).

As we were running out of food(!) early on Monday morning, between 8 and 9.30, we made plans to walk into the local supermarket, up and down that steep hill, a c.55 minute walk there and back. We ended up, amongst other things, carrying 12 litres of water up the hill, plus shopping but without a car we have confidence in, what were we supposed to do?

The lack of a fit for purpose car was having a material effect on our holiday…..

On the Tuesday, the hire company, sent a guy to the villa with a tyre inflator, which did not work! He took the car away to a garage to get the tyre pressures checked out, and returned it and said the near side front needed air.

But the damage was done, we had so little confidence in the cars we were supplied that we actually only did c.60km across both cars during the week. To and from the airport, and to and from Skiathos Town a couple of times for the supermarket and airport.

So in our view, we had cars we paid for but hardly ever used. They were not fit for purpose and undermined our confidence. We could not take advantage of the visit recommendations and lost the opportunity to explore the island. This had a material effect on the enjoyment of our holiday.

The local Ionian Reps were ineffective. They appeared more motivated to keep the local suppliers happy than us.

On our return, we fed back to Ioninan through our travel agent, with whom we have a longstanding and mutually respectful relationship. We found that Ionian holidays customer relations response to our complaint was very dismissive and disappointing. We will never book with Ionian again, we would never recommend them, highly reluctant to entertain hire cars on holiday again and we are not likely to return to Greece.

Just returned from Paxos in Villa Kipari and we had a couple of issues eg outside shower not working and sun umbrella broken but our rep Athina was excellent and got everything resolved.
Just need to mention that when the coach arrives in Parga you have to get off and walk downhill to the ferry port which is quite a long way and even worse on the way back in extreme heat. Unfortunately we weren’t told about this so if you have trouble walking it will be very difficult.

Just back from 2 weeks staying at Villa Valmira in Ligia, Lefkada. It's important to break this down a little:
Booking - was fab, really simple, good to deal with and no upselling. Reasonable knowledge, but didn't 'pretend to know.'
Lefkada - Not for me. It's just not especially beautiful and feels rather run-down (pretty much everywhere we visited). The 'village' of Ligia is not great, it's one very busy main road (I do mean very busy), with an assortment of eateries along it. Bluntly it's a fairly depressing, non-descript place with constant traffic. There's a good mix of restaurants but few feel traditional, the prices are also high for what you get - (60-100 Euros nightly for 2 adults, 2 children) oddly some obvious favourites Souvlaki/calamari etc are rarely to be found?
The villa - this was the real downer - we booked late, so in fairness had few options - especially if you wanted WiFi.
It's a two bedroom villa for up to four people. Why then only have one, two person seat in the living area? The only option is to bring in uncomfortable chairs from the veranda.
There were ants everywhere, to the extent we had to bin much of our non-refrigerated food three days in.
The general wear and tear was poor - lots of laminate flapping lose from surfaces, cracks etc it just generally felt poorly maintained.
The pool area is lovely, although again only one mangey umbrella for four people? And the sunbeds were frankly awful, uncomfortable and need to be changed.
With two kids - 11-14, two weeks is a long time to expect a pool to entertain. We knew there was no satellite tv and the 'limited channels' turned out to be no channels other than BBC World Service news. We were specifically told there was no facility for DVDs - on arrival there was a dvd player. It's a small point but that little bit of detail would have made a big difference to some of our evenings.
As a final note, the drive back to the airport is not massively complicated, but it would have been nice if the anticipated (and promised) visit with departure info had actually happened. We just got a note through the door simply telling us we needed to be out by 0900 (? ) and to follow directions to the airport (which are few and don't even start until you're about ten minutes away).
We haven't had any follow up - how was your trip, hope you had a fantastic holiday etc so no opportunity to give feedback.
Holidays are expensive, small things matter, for over 6k self-catering, we've experienced a lot better.

Excellent again. 27.07.24 - 10.08.24. Kefalonia Fiskardo last year at the no.6 Karteri apartment and this year at the no.1 Waterfront apartment. Two weeks both occasions. Lovely accommodation and everything you need which is walking distance. Beautiful location.
Brilliant time, brilliant staff. The location is brilliant. Fiskardo is beautiful and carers for all financial pockets. The restaurants, bars, shops and surrounding beaches are great.
Boat trips are worth it and even a car hire for a couple of days. You can even hire your own motor boat and go up the coast to the fish farms stopping at quiet little beaches and coves.
A big shout out to our reps Andy and Gordon this time, the staff in the local Fiskardo seafront office who can organise anything for you. The apartment cleaning staff who are lovely and George who works at the apartments too.
Definitely going back again. It's only an hour transfer maximum and beautiful scenery to see on the way.
Thank you again to all the team. 👍💐

Recently returned from a 2 week Ionian & Aegean holiday. We have previously been with this company when everything went well.
However, on this occasion not so especially when you consider the cost we paid.The first week was spent in an apartment on the mainland in Parga which was ok.
The second week was in Paxos staying at Villa Helios which didn’t go well right from the outset. The pool had not been cleaned plus many other issues, some of which were health & safety related. We did receive a small amount of compensation from the company but not enough in our opinion and ABTA were pretty toothless to be honest.
If you are thinking of booking with Ionian be sure to be thorough checking reviews first…

We hadn't heard of this company before book so we're unsure but we needn't have worried. Right from booking communication was great (thank you Bernadette) and everything was very smooth. We travelled from Heathrow T5 and were met by staff for a coach transfer, easy to follow instructions to our accommodation. A lovely wcome basket and very helpful staff on the island. Our villa was wonderful, clean and private a treat! Onky issue was the air con but that was quickly explained. We wish we could have stayed longer and we'll definitely use this company again.

Update 27/09/2024
Since I posted this review Ionian Aegean Island Holidays have come back to me with an improved and more adequate level of compensation. A change of personnel in customer relations has resulted in a completely different approach to handling complaints - thank you Thomas! It is just a shame that it took a negative Google review to be heard properly. We have had many great holidays with this company - hopefully our experience in Ithaca was a one-off.

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A warning to anyone who is considering booking a villa with this company
I booked Villa Green on Ithaca with Ionian Island Holidays for a week in May, hoping to enjoy a relaxing and peaceful holiday with my wife to celebrate 25 years of marriage. I was very disappointed and angry with the service and the condition of the villa. Here are some of the issues we faced:
The villa we stayed in, Villa Green, was advertised as having a private pool and a hot tub. However, the pool was not filtrating and was full of insects that had landed in the water. There was no net left for us to clean the pool ourselves. The hot tub was not operational and was an eye sore filled with detritus. We could not use either of these facilities, which was one of the main reasons we chose this villa.
A nearby property was having ground works undertaken, which resulted in very loud ground drilling for 4 of the 7 days we were there. The noise was unbearable and we could not relax or enjoy the villa. We were not informed of this before we booked or arrived. We had to leave the villa nearly every day to escape the noise, which defeated the purpose of having a private villa. We had specifically asked if any building works were being done on that part of the island before we made the booking and were assured that the building work that we heard last year had been completed.
When we complained to Ionian Island Holidays, we were only offered a very stingy £300 cash as compensation, which was nowhere near enough to cover the inconvenience and the disappointment we suffered. £300 according to them was a 67% refund as we hadn’t complained about the flight and transfer. In reality it was a 17% discount. Whoever does the thinking or maths in this company need to go back to school. The only other villa they could offer us was in ear-shot of the ground works and was inferior, so it wasn’t worth the move. They also offered us 2 days on a boat – but we had paid for a private villa and that was what we expected.
We feel cheated and mistreated by Ionian Island Holidays. They did not deliver what they promised and their level of compensation shows they do not care about our satisfaction or well-being. We wasted our time and money on a holiday that was supposed to be relaxing and enjoyable ocassion to celebrate 25 years of marriage, but turned out to be stressful and frustrating.

I urge anyone who is thinking of booking a holiday with Ionian Island Holidays to think twice and avoid them at all costs. They are not trustworthy or reliable and they do not respect their customers. There are many other better options for a holiday in Greece. Do not make the same mistake we did.

Second time booking a Villa with Aegean and Ionian Holidays this year. Our first experience of the company was in Meganisi last year and this year we went to Cephalonia. Online booking is easy and after sales service, if required, is very good. In Meganisi the villa we had booked was taken off rental outside the control of Ionian holidays but they allocated us another, larger and better villa in a superb location for the same price.
Our Villa in Cephalonia this year was absolutely superb, brand new and well equipped. Overall Aegean and Ionian Holidays provide a first class package holiday service with excellent properties in some gorgeous locations.

We stayed in Kefalonia. Great service from booking, confirmation details, rep support on island. We had a problem with air conditioning in one room, the rep tried their best to get repaired quickly, it ended up getting replaced a few days later. Ionian Island Holidays dealt with this properly, gave some compensation without quibble. Recommended travel agent.

Never, ever again! We were unfortunate enough to spend a week at Likoudis Villas in August 2018. A group of three families, some of whom were awfully unpleasant were also staying at the apartments. Sadly one of the families were friends of the owner, therefore there action taken about their loud and bullying behaviour. We stayed in a ground floor apartment which had the terrace of another apartment overlooking it, and was used as an access route by the apartment above. We complained to the Ionian representative during our holiday following excessive noise and disturbance, but there was no other accommodation available so we had to stick it out and face filthy looks and unpleasant comments. We wrote to Ionian on our return, they didn't bother to respond. If you want peace and respect from your fellow guests, our experience would suggest that you don't book these apartments or with this company. The apartment was very pleasant with a lovely view, but with absolutely no privacy.

We have explored our special places in the Greek islands with Ionian island holidays since they began trading - well a year after to be true - we have seen the way the company has grown - and we have now lost count of the number of times we have booked with them - over 17 years - maybe 25 times I think !
They deliver again and again - constantly excellent levels of service and standards of properties - and with few ( but a couple ) of exceptions the story is always a great one with a happy ending
I can not praise this company enough !
Truly magical holidays
Friendly service
And just THE BEST

I have had several holidays with Ionian who specialise in Greek Islands luxury villas & apartments.
They have great passion for the holidays they provide and the quality and customers are at the forefront of there unique business.
They provide amazing customer service, not just overseas but over the phone with there amazing knowledge of the areas and properties they feature, for me they are the best tour operator I have travelled with & for me nobody else even comes close.