Sailing Holidays, www.sailingholidays.com

Returned for second year with sailingholidays.com. Efficient booking, flights and transfers. Clean well maintained boats. On both occasions we have had very helpful lead boat crew (Delphi for us in 2015 and 2016) who have a light touch approach to the flotilla but make sure you are safe and supported.

What sets this company apart from it's rivals is that it is a family run business and not part of a large corporate. It comes over in their staff and adds a feel good factor.

We are already talking about re-booking next year.

Previously enjoyed holidays with this company despite lax servicing and hence functionality of boats. However this year arrived to have boat filled with spilt diesel and fumes for two days, a full holding tank, that apart from meaning we could not use the toilet on board, was leaking sewage into the harbour, an engine and drive that required a full service and realignment, and leaking windows, though locked down, let rain in to soak bedding and seating. Poorly maintained vessels - including long term instrument failure - that are not fit for purpose.

I will not be returning to this Mickey Mouse company and would advise everyone else to choose a different company should they wish to explore the beautiful Greek Islands and enjoy a relaxing holiday. Avoid!

We have had two holidays with SailingHolidays.com and have booked our third, on one of their brand new 38' boats! 1 x north Ionian 1 x South Ionion and returning to the South again this year!

This type of holiday suits our family to a T! The crew entertain the Children of an evening, making up water games and races etc. (Adults get involved too) of a day we are let loose with their boats and able to stop in any bay/port we want to, to enjoy lunch with nothing but fishes for company! water is so clean and refreshing, snorkelling around the boat is unbelievable! the crew organise group meals a couple of times a week, apart from that you can eat on your own if you wish but most people choose to eat with the group anyway! bars and Tavernas are never in short supply! and the crew are only to happy to join you for a beer on your boat or tavern!

one thing I have learnt is nothing is too much trouble for the crew. I mentioned it was my wife's birthday and that evening a cake and champagne were supplied by the crew! we have only had minor problems with the boat and they have always been sorted by the lead crew as soon as possible! the engineer even changed our anchor winch one evening after getting one especially delivered to the next port! (ours occasionally slipped whilst pulling up the anchor) apart from that, we had a shower that drained very slowly (fixed within 20mins of reporting) one of the other boats had a problem with a holding tank, and the crew took the boat out for them whilst they enjoyed their evening meal to fix it! the crew do have to deal with horrible jobs (swimming in other peoples poo cant be nice) but I have never once seen a crew member with anything other than a genuine smile! always helpful and kind and never they stop working!

would recommend their holidays to anyone! 5* all the way!

Best holiday ever!!!

Great UK booking staff, we were offered a boat upgrade free of charge, they didn't apply the £40 charge when we had to make an alteration to our booking either.

Fantastic economy flights albeit we had to fly from Manchester rather than Gatwick.

We were welcomed at the airport with free bottles of water and smiles all round from the staff.

Very good coach journey, we were told it would take an hour more like 30-45min.

Great base at the Iris hotel in Nidri, the hotel staff couldn't have been friendlier or more welcoming.

Fantastic lead crew on board Kyra 24/8/14-31/8/14, the three of them gave us all the advice, support & entertainment (especially) we could have hoped for!!

Excellent beginners' flotilla set in the beautiful South Ionian - will definitely go again.

Thanks - Elektra

This was the best Holiday we have ever had.We had carried out level 1 Dinghy course prior to the Holiday and could not believe how we were able to sail a Jag. This was all down to the lead crew who were laid back and very supportive.This year we have booked to do the whole Ionian can't wait.We are also doing a further Dinghy course as we have caught the Sailing bug. No hesitation in telling everyone to do it and enjoy. Richard and Catherine.

I just returned from a one week Competent Crew Sailing course arranged by Sailing Holidays in the Ionian. As someone who has been intending to start sailing for a very long time and has high ambitions to achieve good sailing abilities, experience and certification, I'm happy that I did only one week Comp Crew course instead of two weeks and Day Skipper as originally intended.

Unfortunately I cannot recommend this company for a sailing course in Greece as the value for money, the quality of holiday and the quality of tuition should be much better.

- the boat was about 15 years old, very dated, the floorboards were squeaking and all the portholes were leaking from the heavy rain, the towels provided were also dated and ended up used to mop leakages

- the crew had to negotiate daily the amount of sailing to be done to get the best out of our course and to do more sailing and practice, we had to ask way too many questions to get various information and it generally felt like we were getting only the minimum necessary amount of tuition, that we are somewhat skimming over things and certainly will not try or be introduced into any of the more advanced areas unless we book the next course. There were no additional discussions on theory when we were not sailing.

- you would expect to be able to have a holiday on top of your sailing course as you’re cruising in the Ionian, but it was not the case- most times we stayed in some tiny harbours where there was nothing to see or do in the evening

- At nearly 900 pounds plus flights this course was at least twice as expensive as it would’ve been in a UK based RYA training centre and there was no added value.

Company booking procedure and arrangements were great and all contact with them was helpful, but the actual course/ holiday is a total rip off I am definitely taking my sailing interests for courses and flotillas elsewhere.

Booked through bareboatsailingholidays.com (a subsidary site of sailingholidays.com)_

Good service from the UK branch, quick response and easy booking.

However, the story when we arrived in Greece wasn't so good.

The handover of the boat was handled exceptionally badly. We arrived at 1.30pm (and were well aware that handover was not formally due until 5pm). No signposts or signs to indicate where the Kiriacoulis (the Greek partner supplying the boat) base is, it took a good half an hour of wandering around trying to find someone who knew where they were.

We finally met up with one of the team, who took us through the formalities of deposit, cleaning fee, certificates and so on, who told us that the yacht was on the way and would be at the base before 5pm, or 'at the very latest, 5pm exactly' – he would call or text us when the boat arrived. Having only a few hours until this time, we decided to get some food at the local tavern and some shopping. 5pm came and we were told – “just another half hour or maybe an hour” – this pattern then continued for the next 3 hrs, being consistently told that the boat was “just around the corner”. Finally at close to 8.30pm the boat arrived and we were able to board.

As a skipper with a reasonable amount of miles accumulated in varying conditions in the UK and abroad, I appreciate that conditions can slow down progress and that getting a boat back from another port is not always going to be straightforward, delays can happen through circumstances beyond control. However, my complaints are:

· The conditions were constant through the day – they didn’t change. Given the boat didn’t leave Paros until gone 1pm (according to the Kiriacoulis skipper on board) there was no way it was going to be back for 5pm into a headwind and average swell. Had we been told early on that the boat would be delayed by a few hours, we would have had the option to go into Mykonos, wander around a bit and come back relaxed at a more appropriate time, instead of being fobbed off with lies every half hour. An honest approach would have been appreciated. Not sure why the boat left so late, given that handover should have been at 9am – it should have been a priority to get the boat to sea asap.

· They claimed to be in communication with the skipper as he was bringing the boat back. Given that they clearly had no idea when the boat was going to arrive, I can either conclude 1) they were lying and had no idea where the boat was or 2) the skipper is massively inexperienced and has no idea of how to passage plan and make an estimated ETA based on the conditions and the ability of the boat

· The level of assistance was shocking. We had to consistently ask for help, which I would have expected to be offered as a matter of course (ie allowing us to store baggage on their office boat, showing us the location of the local facilities, supermarket etc). The offer of some water or a cup of tea after we had been hanging around for a few hours after 5pm waiting for the boat would have made a massive difference to our view of the team there. All we got was a shrug of the shoulders, nothing in the way of an apology and the sense that we were being brushed off. We had arrived in clothing more appropriate to September in the UK but were offered nowhere private to change. In short, we were treated like we were an inconvenience to them.

The handover and boat quality

We asked for handover to be at 9.30am the following day, so we could get going with our holiday. Handover started at gone 10.30am and by the time we tackled some of the major points below it was gone 1pm before we were able to leave. To summarise, the level of equipment, maintenance and safety on the boat was shocking – even more shocking was the off-hand attitude of the Kiriacoulis team that seemed to want to skim over things and just ignore any potential problems

Key safety failings

· VHF radio – this took over an hour to get working. Initially, we were told it was fine but again, we had to ask specifically for it to be shown working, which they were unable to do. We asked them to do a radio check from their boat – and were then told that their VHF was not working, which is appalling in itself! We felt like we were being pressurised into just accepting it and leaving. They finally said that we could get it repaired or looked at in Paros, they had no spare parts or available hand-held VHF units – passing the responsibility on to me as skipper to leave in a force 6 with 2 metre swell without adequate safety equipment on board. I am very used to such conditions and have no qualms about sailing safely in such wind / swell – however I am not happy to compromise the safety of my crew in the way I was being asked to do without a working VHF. Eventually, after pressure from the UK as well, they found the skipper from the previous evening, who came on board and casually mentioned that the radio could be got to work by fiddling with the hand receiver unit – the controls on the main panel of the VHF (squelch and volume) did not work. They also then managed to conduct an adequate radio check. I accepted that this was working, but still far from happy - the receiver unit was held together with electrical tape, bare wires just about wrapped up with tape were holding the connection to the main unit together. We had no other option though, so proceeded with this.

· Flares – the handover person had no idea where the flare box was on the boat. We eventually found a part-ripped plastic bag in a personal cabin locker with rusting flares over a year out of date. My surprise at this flagrant breach of safety was only heightened by the attitude of the team, who didn’t seem to think this a problem – we had to ask them to remove these from the boat, they didn’t offer to do this as a matter of course. Subsequent to this, as we looked around the boat, we found a more secure box with in-date flares.

Salt water causes the internal aluminium casing to corrode and swell, it also makes the propellant unstable. Therefore if you pick one up it may go off of its own accord and if you are holding it, it may explode as it cannot exit the casing via the top as it may get stuck in the casing. To leave these rusting flares in a plastic bag in a cabin locker is unforgiveable, highly dangerous and potentially prosecutable.

· First aid kit – all the items in the first aid kit carried expiry dates of 2008 or before. Need I say any more about how this reflects on the standards of the shore crew or Kiriacoulis in general?

· Main halyard extremely frayed – whilst this was a boat with in-mast furling of the main, and therefore didn’t need the main halyard in normal day-to-day operation, this is a system that is prone to the occasional problem and jamming. An alternative method of quickly dropping the main if needed is imperative – given the state of the rope, I wouldn’t have trusted this not to jam or cause problems.

· Labelling on water / diesel points – The diesel fuel cap was labelled petrol – any inexperienced boater following the labelling and putting petrol in the tank would have severely damaged the engine – compromising safety at sea. The forward water point was closed with a cap labelled “diesel” –again, any inexperienced sailor mistaking this for the fuel input would compromise the health of anyone on board, and indeed would require a full change of the tanks – flushing would not be adequate. Thankfully, we were an experienced bunch on board so did not make these mistakes.

· Anchor light inoperative – We anchored several nights in bays with little light, but with fishing vessels coming in and out at all times, an anchor light is imperative. This wasn’t working from the start.

Other significant failings

On top of the above features, which I consider significantly affecting safety and came close to pushing me to refuse to take the boat over, we experienced the following:

· Holding tank blocked from the start – blocked and venting out of the top pipe close to one of the cabin portholes from the moment we first used it, significantly affecting the occupant with the smell and requiring us to divert to Paroikia on Paros, to speak to the Kiriacoulis team there. Again, we had to get the UK team involved, we texted several Greek number that had been given to us to ask for assistance, with no reply. On arrival in Paroika, it was a couple of hours before someone turned up, shrugged their shoulders and said they would be back at 9.30am the following day. True to form, it was gone 10am when someone turned up, taking over an hour to clear the blockage and once again delaying our departure time.

· Condition of the boat at handover – fridge with over 3cm of stagnant dirty water in it, worktops with grit and dirt on them, front cabin and the mattresses were completely soaked. Both heads were grubby and marked. The boat was far from clean at handover, we spent a good hour between 5 of us cleaning surfaces, trying to dry the boat and tidying up – I massively resent paying over 100 euros for a cleaning job that someone clearly spent no more than half an hour on. We left the boat in a condition significantly tidier and cleaner than it was handed over to us.

· Expectation to hand back with full fuel tanks, when it wasn’t refuelled on arrival – the boat would have done over 7 hrs at sea at an average of 4 litres per hour. We filled up in Tinos and motored no more than 2 hrs to get back to base.

· Water tanks not full ­– down to us to check and refill before leaving

· Cabin locker – rear port-side cabin locker was missing a door. Many other locker doors were missing the buttons, making it painful to press the metal studs in to open the door

· Front heads toilet seat – very loose and the thread broken, making it impossible to tighten

· Charts – many of the charts were just photocopied! Again, exceptionally poor and a reflection on attitudes to safety.

· Dinghy – one of the oars was broken and there was a missing nut for the lock on the rollocks, making it very hard to row ashore. Dinghy was partially deflated at handover.

· Frayed lines – in addition to the frayed main halyard, two out of the three mooring warps were significantly frayed – I wouldn’t have trusted these to hold in a blow or significant swell. The in-haul for the main furler was also very frayed (see point above about in-mast furling systems jamming / main halyard!)

· Rear electrical socket – the connection on the shore power socket was very poor, probably not least due to the fact that there was no cover for the socket – exposure to salt spray would have easily corroded the connections.]

· Engine oil – very dark / muddy and clearly hasn’t been changed for a long, long time.

· Broken gimbal on the oven / hob – virtually unusable at sea and a danger even when moored. Someone had attempted to mend it inadequately with a screw that was about to drop off and cause the whole oven unit to fall out – a huge danger if in a large sea.

· Poorly repaired porthole closure – the rear cabin window hatch broke within a couple of days – it was clear that it had previously been inadequately repaired. This left the hatch partially secured, thankfully we didn’t experience much in the way of spray

· Overall general condition – the general condition of the boat – the state of the hull, fraying and rusted guard wires, fenders with leaks (hence deflating on compression), poorly stowed diesel tanks, broken bucket – was very poor and reflects years of lack of maintenance.

When renting an older boat, a few of these niggles are expected and accepted, but on the background of so many problems and so many of these directly affecting the safety of the crew and integrity of the boat, this is unacceptable, particularly on the background of the lackadaisical attitude of the team in Mykonos.

I would book with Bareboat Sailing Holidays again, but only if they guaranteed they would not be using Kiriacoulis in Greece to provide the boat and a certain reassurance that safety issues are not overlooked.

We spent 2 weeks with Sailingholidays.com in August in the Saronic Gulf. Very good holiday but the boats are tired and need better maintenance.

Company booking procedure and arrangements were flawless and all contact with them was efficient and helpful.

We booked a Benetau 361 for a family of 2 adults and 2 teenagers (14 & 16). We had checked Sunsail, Neilsen etc for price comparison but they all seemed to be about the same price. However, given the price, this is an expensive holiday albeit one, you as a family, will remember for many years.

Sailing in the Saronic has better winds than the Ionian, therefore motor sailing is kept to a minimum. The 361 has furling genoa and inmast reefing which is easy to use. The passages were well planned and interesting with a variety of pleasant bays, different type of mooring ( anchoring, rafting, stern-to etc). There was no 'follow the duck syndrome' - the Lead Skipper briefed the flotilla on the destination and would be there to take your lines and guide you in once you arrived - very easy and stress-free. This allowed us to explore on our own but also enjoy a good social scene. We were concerned that the children may not enjoy it but they want to do another flotilla next year! There was a good mixture of youngsters who all mucked in and had a great time which allowed the adults some free time to do their own thing as well.

Our boat engine failed twice and the windlass also broke. They were quickly fixed but, for the price of the holiday, I would expect the yacht to have been 3-5 years old, not 10 - 13 years old.

Generally, great holiday but standard of the yacht made rebooking unlikely.

We had an amazing week with Sailing Holidays in the South Ionian Sea last week. Five of us travelled on a 36ft Beneteau yaught in good condition and although we had some sailing experience it was great to have the support of the lovely lead crew: Skipper , Engineer and Hostie. They set our route for the week and were there to help moorning up each afternoon and with any small issues that needed attention. There were 9 boats in our flotilla and we quickly got to know each other at the group meal, morning briefings and punch party. We had a lovely relaxing week with some thrilling sailing, fantastic food and beautiful scenery. I would recommend Sailing Holidays to anyone considering a sailing holiday in this part of the world.

We have sailed with Sailingholidays Ltd for 12 years and like them a lot, very relaxed, nice sailing areas, nice people to meet, the crews work really hard and they are flexible. We had been with them 12 years running, had recommended and bought friends and really supported them.

They are also reasonably priced espacially out of July/August when we would not go anyway, too hot, too crowded, not enough wind.

Last year we thought the state of the boats was slipping, we have just come back and its now poor. Other people had serious trouble, so they needed the crews to work on them first, this meant that people with substandard and relatively minor safetywise, but annoying stuff, did not have things fixed. Things always go wrong on boats and nothing can be perfect all the time, but this was far too sloppy.

We are really disappointed and will talk to them about this, so who knows, we would like to be back with them again. The crews work really hard, but with so many maintenance problems eventually it spoils the relaxed feeling of the holiday too, as they were so stressed.