Tui UK travelling to Thassos?

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Tui UK travelling to Thassos?

SJR1991SJR1991 Member Posts: 18
Hi all, is the any news in Thassos as to whether Tui UK will be travelling there this season? There's been news today that Tui will only be travelling to Corfu, Crete, Kos and Rhodes in July. Really don't want to miss out on Thassos this year!
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Comments

  • GangoGango Member (+) Posts: 38
    Hi we saw that too. I think the best bet is to fly to Thessaloniki and book the accommodation direct, which is what we normally do. Sadly this year we booked with Tui as it was such a good deal (should have flown yesterday). So now we are a bit stuck as to what to do for the best...
  • Leanne1976Leanne1976 Member Posts: 144
    They did say they will review in july, but I’m not Optimistic that they will bother putting on flights to kavala this year.
    So I’m stuck, can’t book anything else until they rule it out and can’t book anything else until they do.
    Also looking at next years prices, as they stand right now ii could go long haul cheaper!!
    I just hope the islanders can survive this year 😣
  • SJR1991SJR1991 Member Posts: 18
    I agree with you Leanne. As much as we want to go to Thassos (would have been our 3rd year in a row) I just can't see that Tui would put the flights on to Kavala for 7-8 weeks. From a business perspective I guess it doesn't make sense. But I also don't see how they can warrant inflating prices for 2021 so much! Fingers crossed they change their minds. If not we'll be reluctantly amending our holiday.
  • Leanne1976Leanne1976 Member Posts: 144
    Jet 2 was rumoured before all this to be taking over thomas cooks slot at kavala but I’m guessing that won’t be happening for the foreseeable, giving tui the freedom to charge what they like. I’m gutted I won’t be returning this year (didn’t get there last yr either) so just have to hope they bring next years prices down
  • DelboyDelboy Member (+) Posts: 359
    My holiday has been cancelled by TUI and just received the credit code needed for filling in the form for a full refund. I was offer and extra 20% as a voucher but declined it. With those price hikes one would need it.
  • AnthonyAnthony Administrator Posts: 22
    Good morning all,

    I just got off the phone with the Thassos TUI office, and they have informed me that they don't have any flights scheduled at the moment. Unfortunately, they also told me that they don't know when they will offer flights to Kavala/Thassos in 2020.

    At the moment there aren't many tourists on Thassos, so it's the perfect opportunity if you don't like crowded beaches! (see for your self!)

    Whenever the Greek government allows flights to Greece (hopefully we will know more information by July 1st, click here for more information regarding the current travel situation), I would highly recommend looking into an independent holiday to Thassos. Just because a tour operator isn’t coming doesn’t mean you can’t come!

    For those reading who aren’t aware of the independent option, this part is for you.

    First, you need to book your flight from the UK to Thessaloniki (or Kavala if possible). This part might need a little bit of effort in order to find the best routes and times, but it’s totally doable. We know plenty of people who travel here from the UK independently after learning how easy it is.

    Once you’ve arranged your flights, you’ll need to decide how you’ll get to Thassos from the airport. If you fly into Thessaloniki, it’s a very easy 2-hour drive to either Kavala or Keramoti (the two main ferry ports to Thassos). The highway is well maintained, uncrowded (except the sections just outside the airport), and very scenic. You might find that the highway is less congested and faster to travel on than many work commutes people experience in the UK. You can either drive this route yourself with a car rental from the airport or book an airport taxi ahead of time to bring you to Thassos. Flying into Kavala requires a simple 15-minute taxi ride to Keramoti.

    Once you arrive at the ports of Kavala or Keramoti, you’ll need to purchase ferry tickets, get onto the ferry boat, and enjoy the beautiful ride to Thassos. The ferries boats are stocked with refreshing Mythos beer and cream cheese and chives Pringles (my personal favorites when traveling on the ferry! 😁) You can find the ferry schedules and prices here.

    As for accommodations, you can stay anywhere that you want! A large number of hotels don’t even work with TUI, so you aren’t limited to what’s in their catalog. Take a look here for a list of accommodations that you can book directly. You can find great deals for your accommodation here. Shh!... It can be our secret on how you got your accommodation at such a big discount.

    Getting to your accommodation will be easy! Thassos has a very scenic and accessible ring-road circling the island which connects practically all of the villages where you’ll probably find your accommodation. If you get lost somewhere, locals will be more than happy to point you in the right direction!

    If you are lucky and spot a goat while traveling to your hotel, post a photo of it here! The first to post their photo will win a beer... a Mythos beer for you... a yourthos if you will)*

    * My offer is only for the first person to post the photo, with a timestamp of the date to prove the date of the photo. This offer is only valid to people of legal drinking age, all others will get an apple juice.
  • Leanne1976Leanne1976 Member Posts: 144
    Delboy was it July you were due out? We don’t fly till 13th September so stuck really. We’ve decided to just accept we won’t be travelling this year as we cannot book anything else until tui refund, luckily we booked though hays so when the time comes we don’t have to mess about with vouchers.

    Hi Anthony, thank you for the info. The biggest problem us poor brits have is that we cannot get to kavala via britain without TUI and even when they are flying to kavala their prices for flights alone are as much as booking the full package with them.
    We looked into the Thessalonski last year after thomas cook went and for whatever reason escapes me decided against it, however i will review that for next yr, was really really looking forward to returning this yr 😢
  • DelboyDelboy Member (+) Posts: 359
    Hi Leanne,
    We should have been on the beach today but it was never going to happen. So never had the thought of a good holiday materialising this year.

    Hope all gets sorted for you in September
  • SJR1991SJR1991 Member Posts: 18
    Hi Delboy/Anthony/Leanne

    @Del boy so sorry your holiday got cancelled. My boyfriend and I were in Thassos a year ago today. What a difference a year makes! Please let us know how you get on rebooking, with Tui or someone else. I've seen previously that Sunvil do holidays to Thassos but have never been with them. We went with Thomas Cook before they went under!

    @Anthony, the independent holiday sounds like a great solution, but are we protected the same way if anything goes wrong? It's one of the main reasons I've always gone with a Tour Operator rather than doing things my own way!

    @Leanne my boyfriend and I are due in September too. I wish they could just tell us now whether they intend to fly to Kavala or not. And like you said there's no other flights available. I also emailed our Hotel yesterday before Tui finally made their announcement and they seemed to think all July bookings were still valid. So it seems they're being left in the dark too!
  • DelboyDelboy Member (+) Posts: 359
    Hi SRJ,

    Yes we were in Golden Beach a year ago today and yes what a difference a year makes. Being of an age where this virus can be nasty to our group I would not be happy on a plane with a lot of people at the moment. However, the choice was made for us by TUI. At the time of booking early January this virus was unknown to us and thought we were going to have another lovely holiday.

    This was the thread Leanne mentions where we had big discussions on how to get to Thassos.

    As Sunvil does not have any planes they are likely to use TUI and will probably be a tad more expensive

    https://community.go-thassos.gr/discussion/520/spanner-in-the-works-getting-to-the-island
  • Leanne1976Leanne1976 Member Posts: 144
    Aww del that’s rubbish 🙈, myself and my daughters were due to be in Lanzarote a couple of weeks ago.. I HATED going in work that week. Let’s hope we can go next yr and enjoy a mythos

    SRJ from a business perspective I guess it makes sense for them not to tell us all we’re not going, it does make it hard though not knowing for certain, until they say so there’s still a small chance of us going (teeny tiny)


    To be honest though as much as we are disappointed to be missing on long awaited holidays it’s the shop owners, hoteliers, tavernas etc etc that is feel sorry for the most. (I really hope the really lovely man who owns the little shop we use is going to be ok and come out the other side)
  • AnthonyAnthony Administrator Posts: 22
    Good afternoon all,

    I just got off the phone with the Thassos TUI office, they confirmed that there will be no TUI flights to Kavala (KVA) this year :'(

    To answer @SJR199 's question, You will not be covered in the same way a tour operator would cover you, but you can purchase travel insurance from a trusted insurance broker that will cover your needs in case anything goes wrong...then you are good to go :)
  • Leanne1976Leanne1976 Member Posts: 144
    Gutted ... inevitable but still gutted. Now to just hope they bring their prices down for next year
  • SJR1991SJR1991 Member Posts: 18
    Hi Anthony, thanks so much for letting us know. As much as I'm not surprised we're still gutted. Like Leanne said we just hope those living and working in Thassos are ok. Here's to Thassos 2021 🤞
  • Leanne1976Leanne1976 Member Posts: 144
    SRJ and Delboy we should time our thassos 21 get Augie and anthony and all have a good greek knees up 😀😀
  • StuartLStuartL Member Posts: 7
    Hi

    Was due to travel 19th July with TUI, was advised yesterday that this is now cancelled sadly. However I have amended my booking for the same time next year at no extra cost. If you amend your booking you automatically get a £500 credit which covers the price increase, couldn't ask for better than that could you.

    Will miss it this year for sure but the countdown for next year has begun!
  • tonybtonyb Member Posts: 33
    After trying to book a holiday after May was cancelled only to find out tui wasnt flying to the island this season, gutted, was to be our first visit to Thassos, after reading the brochure and the comments on this forum had to visit, roll on 2nd May 2021 later than we wanted but worth the wait, just hope what has happened here (live 5 miles from Blackpool ) doesnt happen in Thassos, as the shops etc are opening price's have risen dramatically even takeaways have introduced a service charge trying to recoup lost revenue due to the virus and they cannot understand why business has shrunk, someone has to pay for the wages of people not able to go to work, rant over, roll on May.
  • Leanne1976Leanne1976 Member Posts: 144
    Tony great news about tui helping with the extra for next year. I’m yet to hear from them (told deadline is july 17th) so will see.
    Re prices of food etc i suppose it’s inevitable prices are rising in shops/takeways. I’ve noticed a significant rise in my weekly food shop as well. I guess we will just have to ride it out for now, there’s much worse to come in December
  • DelboyDelboy Member (+) Posts: 359
    yes no shopping offers of three for two any longer. I hear the hairdressers are even raising prices when opening and can't imagine what a dentist will charge in the future. At least we now have toilet rolls in stock and not empty shelves lol.
  • Leanne1976Leanne1976 Member Posts: 144
    Oh del i do hope the hairdressers bit isn’t true... although at this point i would probably pay anythinf 🙈😂
  • DelboyDelboy Member (+) Posts: 359
    Hi Leanne,

    My wife did get a call from her hairdressers on Friday to try and fix in the shops regular customers first and did say there would be a small increase in price.
  • Leanne1976Leanne1976 Member Posts: 144
    Hmm, well I suppose a small increase would help them get back on their feet. I’m booked in a week on Tuesday. She hasn’t mentioned an increase but I guess I will find out lol
  • tbonetbone Member Posts: 1
    Hi I am new to this site and found you as was watching the beautiful live webcam. We are meant to be travelling to Thassos on 31st august with TUI. I had seen the comments on here so I contacted TUI head office today and they said they are flying to Kavala this year. They even confirmed our flight number TOM4726. I hope they are being honest. It will be our first time to Thassos and we are so looking forward to it. I will be ver disappointed with TUI if they know already but are not being honest with their customers. Does anyone know any more about this.
    Thank you in anticipation
    Tina
  • GangoGango Member (+) Posts: 38
    Hi Tina
    All I can say is that we were supposed to come with Tui on 21st June which was obviously cancelled. We wanted to change to end of August last week using our credit note and were keeping an eye on prices online. All of a sudden it looked like everything was sold out so my husband rang them to ask about availability and they told him they were not offering holidays to Thassos this year and tried to get him to book for next year. We took a refund instead and have booked flights only and contacted our host directly (still a bit of a gamble but hey). We were disappointed too as we normally travel independently and had only booked Tui as it was such a cheap deal at the time we booked.
    I hope your holiday goes ahead (Thassos is the most wonderful place on Earth) but if you look on their website and try to book Thassos for any date it's been greyed out.
    Gango x
  • AnthonyAnthony Administrator Posts: 22
    Hi Tina (@tbone),

    I phoned TUI UK on their number: +44 (0) 2034512688 .

    I asked them: Will TUI offer flights and holidays from the UK to Thassos Greece in 2020?

    They replied: In order to see if flights are running from the UK to Greece, check the Greek embassy's website to see if travelers from the UK are allowed into Greece.

    As this answer was completely unhelpful, I decided to get more specific and asked if they could confirm if flight TOM4726 will be operating this summer.

    They replied: We don't have that information. We can only inform you if you have a specific booking number. More information from TUI will be available on the 10th of July.

    I then tried phoning the Thassos TUI office to ask them directly but they didn’t answer the phone so I will try again later today.
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