Hidden Greece

with Simply Simon Holidays

Moving with the times

A year ago we transformed our website by putting full details of all our accommodation – with copious pictures – on to our website; but we left the general information and resort descriptions in our traditional brochure. We believe it was a step in the right direction as our clients got more information more quickly: our bookings rose by some 8%.

This year we are putting all the details into the website. This means more illustrations of the places to back up the written descriptions and puts all the information in one place in a format we hope you will find easy to use.

But possibly not too easy because we would like to remain in business. If everyone uses brochures and websites as free travel guide-books and then reserves his entire holiday on-line, there will soon be no tour operators left. We have therefore invented fictitious names for much of our accommodation to discourage direct bookings for the more modest establishments where the commission does not provide a living margin for us; with dearer hotels our net rates cover most of our administrative costs so you gain.  End of travel industry economics lesson.

We have travelled widely across Greece for many years and, though we say it ourselves, our brochures have always brought favourable comment for being useful and honest; our website aims to attract the same approval which the extra pictures should enhance.

Does that mean no brochure at all?

We have under consideration the production of a modestly sized, quite glossy, light-hearted coffee-table brochure concentrating on our approach to tour operating, to Greece and the Greeks. It will not necessarily be reissued annually and will anyway not appear until well into 2008.

Meanwhile, if you are a stickler for the printed word we can send you a copy of our 2007 brochure with an up-dating sheet and/or can send you print-outs of the destinations and details you require; please ask. And of course we are still as happy as ever to talk to you on an old-fashioned telephone about our holidays.

What our website provides

A description, backed up with maps (and with many more pictures than our brochures could contain) of all our destinations.

These are divided into five regions of Greece (see our main map) for quick and easy access. In each section you will find an introduction to that area, followed by write-ups and pictures of the individual places we feature.

Details of each property we offer

In the right-hand column you will find listed all our featured accommodation, again with supporting pictures (click on more pictures to display them). After each description we list the seasonal dates applicable to that property (every one has differing criteria for what comprises low/medium/high/peak season) enabling you to ascertain from our Price Guide Tables (at the end of each of the five sections) the approximate cost of a one- or two- week holiday there.

A profile of our company

Under the heading The Hidden Greece Concept. If you know us already you may skip this section; if you don’t, you should read it to make sure our modus operandi will suit you – we treat our clients as independent adults, not sheep needing molly-coddling.

A table Where for What?

Showing which destinations are most likely to meet your criteria for what you want to find – or avoid – on holiday.

A Booking Enquiry form

On which you can indicate which destinations appeal to you, when you want to go, how many of you will be traveling, which airport you want to fly from and how long you want to stay. The form will be automatically returned to us and we will check availability and contact you by e-mail or phone with a quote more quickly than would have been possible if you had used the post – even if you chose one of the days on which the Post Office still collects mail.

And what it doesn’t provide

The chance to book a holiday straight off the shelf on line in a few minutes flat. It cannot do quite that for several reasons. Firstly, what we offer are not bog standard arrangements with limited choice, but the ingredients for the most flexible d-i-y tailor-made holidays on the market. Secondly, air fares are never exact until booked so we can't give you a definitive price until we have contacted the relevant airlines. Lastly, you have to submit (by law) a completed and signed booking form, including a declaration that you accept our conditions; those conditions (and other details which you may well find more scintillating) are found under The Boring Details. That said, by letting the booking form do its self-guided missile act as a warning shot to us, we can be that much quicker in telling you the price of the holiday you want and confirming its availability.

Hidden Greece: now Internetting in a big way

We feature Greece - and Greece only

What better than a lazy lunch on the water-front ...

... and a seat with a view to relax on afterwards?

How sad such an imaginative airline no longer serves Greece!