A further 24 hour general strike against cost cutting reforms in Greece last night left many tourists stranded at ferry ports and some flights were cancelled.

The tourism industry is up in arms as a strike conducted last week in Piraeus was declared illegal yet the government had not acted on the court order.

At the time of writing I cannot find any information on whether the promise by Greek tourism and culture minister Pavlos Geroulanos that tourists affected by strikes would be helped/compensated. He had said at a conference in Athens: “We are guaranteeing to pay any extra room and board for any visitor in Greece even if stuck here because of a volcano in Iceland.”

To view the full blog click here.

If you are stranded in Greece or have been affected by the strikes, please leave a comment about your experience and whether you have received any help from the Greek government with regards to extra board during the time.

In an attempt to turn around debt-ridden Greece’s fortunes since striking and rioting broke out following deep spending cuts, Greek tourism and culture minister Pavlos Geroulanos said that the country would cover the costs incurred by tourists stranded there either by the strikes or ash cloud.

He told a new conference in Athens : “We are guaranteeing to pay any extra room and board for any visitor in Greece even if stuck here because of a volcano in Iceland.”

The country has been experiencing a major debt crisis and only avoided going bankrupt by using the first installment of an E110 billion EU and IMF bail-out; however, in order to get that money the government has had to make gargantuan cuts which have enraged the capital’s civil service whose pay and pensions have been affected. Strikes at airports, ferry ports and rail stations came shortly afterwards which meant that public transport ground to a halt.

One in five jobs in Greece is connected to tourism and the situation has seriously affected the numbers of visitors coming to Greece. Despite this, Geroulanos told the press conference that tourism was starting to pick up.

“The numbers are not really as gloomy as they were with the first cancellations. Some destinations have suffered greatly due to the crisis, but others are doing better than before.” He said.

I’d be interested to know whether readers of this blog have been affected by the strikes in Greece, if you’ve been put off booking a holiday there this summer, and if the news that Greece will foot the bill if you are affected by strikes or ash cloud will change your mind?

In recent research by flight search engine Skyscanner there are some differences between the actual cost and value of a holiday in comparison to what people generally perceive for certain holiday destinations.

Skyscanner asked around 1,500 people several questions about how they view different holiday destinations around the world. The first question asked was to note whether a country in a list of 30 was ‘cheap’ or ‘expensive’. Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Denmark topped the list. However, research into the actual cost of holidaying in each country revealed that, the priciest hot-spot was actually France.

Brazil was perceived to be just outside the top ten cheapest places to visit, when in actual fact it was the fourth most expensive, along with Russia as the fifth, which was also viewed as a cheaper destination.

When it came to asking people about the cheapest places, the perception was a lot closer to the reality with respondents correctly identifying places such as Thailand and Morocco as some of the cheapest.

According to the price research the most budget-friendly countries currently are Cyprus, Greece, South Africa, Dominican Republic and Morocco.

Results changed however, when the cost of flights were incorporated into the mix, long haul destinations made for more expensive destinations in total, such as New Zealand shooting from the top ten cheapest destinations, to one of the top ten most expensive!

I’ve put the whole research below to help you make your own mind up about where to go on holiday if budget is a factor:

Easyjet aircraft picture by Flickr User slasher-fun

EasyJet is expanding the range of destinations served from Bristol Airport with the introduction of a larger aircraft, the new 180-seat Airbus A320.

This enables medium haul routes to be offered to destinations such as the Canary Islands, Crete, Cyprus and Turkey.

Flights to Cyprus are introduced from tomorrow (Wednesday) with Crete, Dalaman and Bodrum starting in July, bringing the network up to 42 routes.

We’re expanding the Greek villas section on VillaSeek. We’ve split it down into several regions – so that you can go directly to holiday villas in Crete, Corfu and Paxos, Skiathos and Skopelos, and many of the other Greek islands.

We also list some holiday villas on the Greek Mainland. We’re always adding new villas, so keep checking back for new holiday destinations.

Hi everyone,

We’re just putting the finishing touches to the latest issue of Holiday Villas & Cottages magazine. I’ll add another post when it hits the shelves (and when we add it to the virtual newsstand here on Villaseek!) But before that happens, I wanted to highlight a few of the articles from the last issue (HV & C issue 2).

First up, Jos Simon discovers a quieter part of Crete – starting off at the Drapano Peninsula, near Chania.

And we have a brief intro to the other articles you can find in Issue 2, right here.