Hooked on Cycling: Crooks on Bikes?

So we signed up for a tour of the beautiful island of Kefalonia in Greece, using Hooked on Cycling as the organiser. On the surface it looked all good: as you would expect bike hire, accommodation, transfer of luggage all included. It did seem a bit expensive, but hey no hazzles. It wasn't till we tried to organise an extra night accommodation that things went from hooked to crooked. Despite asking for a cost first, we were immediately confirmed for an expensive place. And when we tried to cancel, we were told that they would deduct a substantial part of the deposit. At that point we sniffed a rat and sure enough, it quickly became clear that Hooked on Cycling charged like wounded bulls for 'organising our trip' when in fact we realised we could do it for a fraction of the cost ourselves.

So we did what we should have done straight away: we booked our own accommodation & bike hire and organised a better itenerary. All very easy, reasonable prices, and great service (in particular from http://www.rentabikekefalonio.gr who charged a minimum for the luggage transfers). We cancelled our trip booking with Hooked on Cycling and lost the full deposit (half of the full trip costs) but still saved quite a bit of money overall.

Moral of the story. DIY bike holiday tours are worth checking out first. If you do want to get it organised for you, go with a local operator. And avoid organisations like Hooked on Cycling who are in it for an easy buck by simply doing the Internet bookings on your behalf from another part of the world.

p.s. We loved cycling around Kefalonia!