Family survives horror trip to Rhodes: “Tui totally disappointed us”

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For the Alcolea family from Uzwil SG, this should have been the first long vacation since the corona pandemic: all inclusive, lots of sun, relaxation and lots of fun at Lardos in Rhodes. Instead, Daniel (37), Miriam (37) and their two daughters, Mia (9) and Lynn (5), experienced a real horror trip on the holiday island while escaping the forest fire.

“We had to go from the hotel to the airport and return to Switzerland on our own,” Daniel Alcolea told Blick. He makes serious accusations against the tour operator: “Tui has disappointed us completely. We are all still in shock.”

Alcoleas checked into the large hotel complex Lindos Princess Beach on Thursday evening. There was already so much smoke in the air on Friday that the family could not eat on the terrace and retired to their rooms. When Alcoleas heard that the government had evacuated the mountainous village of Laerma, he asked Tui about the tour operator’s contingency plan in case the fire spreads further. “The situation was taken lightly and we wrote that it is not dangerous,” the family man said.

Then panic broke out.

On Saturday, things turned around: WLAN and some electricity were cut off in the hotel. Alcolea said hotel guests became nervous when the government announced that more settlements would be evacuated. “We tried to reach the tour guide but no one answered.”

And instead of the sea view in front of the hotel, the family suddenly had a view of the sea of ​​flames. Alcoleas packed his bags. Minutes later, the alarm went off. “The hotel manager said he didn’t know if the buses would be able to pick us up. We must stay away from the fire. Panic broke out, »Alcolea describes this experience. The two girls cried and many hotel guests ran in panic at 40 degrees.

Alcoleas was extremely lucky: a British tourist drove them to Lindos in his rental car. “There we called the Tui hotline again. We were told that we should contact the local tour guide, but he was not available. We were completely on our own. It was a matter of life and death,” says Daniel Alcolea.

Around 7 pm, a Greek bus driver loaded it and took it to the airport. The family arrived eight hours after leaving the hotel. Tui reps were also not very helpful at the airport. “They couldn’t arrange a return flight for us and they wanted to put us in a stadium away from the airport, in the direction of the fire,” he says.

“A brother-in-law was able to book a flight for us to Athens at midnight, and from there we were back in Zurich on Sunday afternoon. The flights cost us 1,500 francs,” explains Daniel Alcolea. The family just wanted to go home. A day later, the fire, which still could not be brought under control, was removed on Monday.

Tour operator Tui reviews

As media spokesperson Sonja Ptassek wrote when asked by Blick, Tui regrets the plight of the Alcolea family amid the extraordinary circumstances in Rhodes. “The evacuations in the affected area took place in different forms as of Saturday, on the one hand, by Tui tour guides and Tui buses, but also by the hoteliers themselves.” Both partner hoteliers and tour guides have always followed local authorities’ instructions to ensure guests’ safety.

More than 300 Tui service personnel have been on site since the weekend. “In Rhodes, teams on the ground informed the 8,000 affected guests under high pressure and repeatedly. Due to the confusing situation and the large number of power outages, this was not always possible without problems,” explains Ptassek.

Of course, Mr. Alcolea’s complaint will be examined by all relevant departments and a solution proposal will be sent to him.

Source :Blick