One upon a time I did this frequently, as the price of the overall holiday was a bit cheaper, this was pre-child days when it didn't matter too much about times of flights and hotel etc, as long as it was clean and I had somewhere to lay my head that was all that mattered. Now I don't I have gone past the child stage, but I pick the hotels that I want to stay at now.

You can get some good deals that way, and you used to select the type of 'star' you wanted i.e. not less that 3 star for example.

Don't know about Greece sorry

Only did it the once when we had to cancel a holiday to Mexico, as hubby had been in hospital with pneumonia. We went to Cyprus instead, and we were very disappointed with the accomodation we were allocated on arrival - made the holiday much more expensive with having to eat out.

Personally I wouldn't consider it, you would probably end up in Kavos, (party capital) and if you found accommodation in say the north of Corfu there would be extra expense with taxi fares. So you would end up spending more money in the long run.

Done it quite a few times. Used to get villas in the Algarve allocated on arrival and got some really nice places. Once did an allocated on arrival where the only thing we knew was the country we were going to (Austria). One thing we do though is get AOA with a high star rating (4 or above) as you're less likely to end up with something atrocious. Its quite good fun not knowing where you're going and you often get great value.

Price is not much more than flight only. Would the chances of ending up in Kavos be high during August (with all the 18-30's). Could end up somewhere in the middle of nowhere, which would be worse . Not been to Corfu since 1983 so not sure what the resorts are like.

Believe it or not, resorts can be more full of 18- 30's at other times of the year, because of the high peak season prices. I've always been of the opinion, that AOA is a big risk, just depends on whether you want to take it, and whether you'd be happy enough with your holiday, if it wasn't just what you'd imagined. Ours was supposed to be a 4*with Thomson - it was in fact more like a *2. We were half board, and were handed an A4 sheet of paper full of food stains, on the first night, as a menu. With no exaggeration this is what was on it steak - plain - steak- with Diane sauce - steak - with bearnaise sauce- steak with pepper sauce - 7 days worth of steak. For pudding it was ice cream- with raspberry sauce - Ice cream - with chocolate sauce get my drift. We had this for 14 nights, the only thing that changed was the meat, next night was pork in sauce e.t.c. We spent a fortune on eating out, and actually ran out of money because of this. No doubt there are great AOA's - this is just our experience, and since then, the star rating hasn't meant jot to me. Whatever you decide - have a great time

First time to Turkey many years ago AOA with a last minute Teletext Holiday booked Saturday flew Monday. Only knew the country we were going to, landed at Izmir then a pleasant 4 hour transfer to Gumbet Ok for adults but I wouldn't do it with children.
Jules

Did some brilliant AoAs in Slovenia in the 80s for walking holidays - after all there were only a limited number of resorts that we could have been sent to and just a couple of hotels in each so it didn't seem much of a risk. Only finding out where we would be staying once we landed at Ljubljana was all part of the fun and as we were there for the walking as long as we had conforatble beds in clean rooms we weren't that bothered about other facilities.

We've only done AoA for one holiday for a beachside holiday - in the Algarve - in the mid-90s. We got a really good two week SC apartment deal at a price that was less than we'd have paid for the flights at that time. Again we struck lucky and ended up in Alvor, basic but clean and right on the big beach. But it was the last AoA we did because we were the last people to be dropped off on the transfer from Faro and my heart kept sinking more and more as I saw more and more places that we could have ended up in. And that looked truly awful! Decided that I couldn't go through that again and we have never done it since just in case we ended up somewhere we hated.

But also, since then the rise of 'no frills' carriers has meant that we haven't done any sort of beach hotel or SC type package for some 10 years now - going DIY makes any cost saving to be had with an AoA negligible and if we end up somewhere we don't like we only have ourselves to blame but so far we've never had any the problems that put some off from going DIY.

SM

Just re-read the original post and realised that the above isn't really relevant to your query - sorry!

How many of you going...and are there children in the party?

We've just come back from backpacking that area - very quiet - even in Paxos where it's normally full there was plenty of accommodation ie studios to be had.

;o) Even if you do get stuck other side of island in Corfu it don't take that long to get back to the port...hydrofoil across to Paxos - Dodo's have rooms free.... or then hitch a lift on Vicky II excursion boat across to Parga like we did LOL!

We used to do it all the time and ended up at some reasonable a/i hotels - 2 weeks for £299!
We visited the Tanit and El Greco in Ibiza,Torremolinos Beach Club and the usual
Lorret/Tossa hotels - none of which we would pay the current asking price to return.
They were all good value for the money we paid and fine at the time but now we would not risk it, especially
when we watch Holiday Hellish programmes and the price that people now have to pay for AOA.
Better to pay a little extra to know exactly where you are going - plus you have the excitement of researching the
apartments/hotel and area through all our pals on HT!

I had a look at Olympic and for a few pounds more you can book named resort/accommodation.
If you would like any help finding somewhere post your details and we could have search for any deals.

We did a AOL about six years ago to Corfu and ended up in Kalami, couldn't complain about the accommodation for what we paid, but it was situated at the top of a hill!! the resort is pretty but very small and it was dead quiet apart from where we were staying, even though it was peak season....Caz.

Only done thid once and ended up being placed in the hotel we least wanted to be in , so never again i now always book my choice . I know it can work in a positive way and thats what made me want to try it after people on the coach were told where they were staying i thought to myself lucky you .

Our first visit to the Greek islands was done via an AOA in Corfu 20 years ago. We had our two young sons with us and had a lovely holiday- in fact this is where our love of the Greek islands began. We ended up in Acharavi ( not a very popular or big resort at the time) in a self catering villa. Although it had no pool we were only footsteps from the lovely beach and we found out at the welcome meeting that we could use a pool up the road which we made good use of.

We haven't done AOA since so I'm not sure what sort of places they're using in Corfu these days. Good Luck!

Thanks for your replies. Now looking at Gouvia or Sidari!! Has anyone been to both resorts who could give me some info?

I have never done AOA as I have never been brave enough!!

I am sure it works out great sometimes and not so great!

Yes I did it once when I was only 21 but wouldn't do it again now I've got a family. It was in Gran Canaria, we arrived early hours of the morning not having a clue where we were staying. Ended up in a villa crawling with cockroaches and smelling of gas. We ended up staying on the floor in next doors villa until the next day so they could sort out the smell of gas. Turns out the pilot light had gone out but every night when we came back to the villa my boyfriend had to check the whole place for cockroaches before I set foot in there. Luckily we never ate in there and it was for only a week.

Thanks everyone for your replies. Have booked flights and 3 nights in Sidari followed by 4 in Kassiopi. Gx