My husband, my daughter and I have just returned from our first visit to Thassos; what a wonderful Island! We had a fantastic holiday! We travelled with Golden Sun (15th/22nd August 2002) and stayed at the Athrion Studios on the outskirts of Skala Potamias. The studios are a leisurely 20 minute stroll from Skala Potamias in the south of the bay, roughly the same distance from the resort of Golden Beach in the opposite direction and less than 5 minutes from what we think is the best part of the beautiful, 3km long, soft, sandy beach. There are a few other studio complexes in the area, 3 or 4 Tavernas and a couple of very well stocked supermarkets’ just at the bottom of the road.

The studio we had was on the top floor and we had fantastic views of the mountains behind us and also of the sea to the front of us, get up early one day and watch the sun rise over the bay, it's amazing! The studio was basic (aren’t they all are in Greece) but we did have 3 sockets and an electric kettle. It was kept spotlessly clean and it's the first time ever that we haven't had to share our studio with ants on a Greek Island. The studios were cleaned three times in the week we were there and our sheets and towels were changed once. The studios don't have air conditioning but you can hire a fan from the owners (who live on site and were very friendly) for 4 Euros per day. We kept the fan running on low all night and never had any problems sleeping.

The studios were perfect for us as in the evenings we could stroll into Skala Potamias for a meal and a beer and then stroll back home’ to the peace and quite of our studio to sleep without being disturbed. I have read reports of the building work in the resorts, we didn't visit the resort of Golden Beach so I can;t comment on that but we didn't see or more importantly hear any work going on whilst we were in and around Skala Potamias. They did tarmac the road outside the Athrion Studios whilst we were there but this happened in one afternoon; we went to the beach on a dirt track’ and returned on a dry tarmac road!

We did see the wasps but they only really made a nuisance of themselves at meal times and they certainly didn't affect our enjoyment of the holiday. The wasps weren't the least bit interested in us but they always insisted on trying to share our food! A great tip we picked up from the Taverna owners was to line a small ceramic dish with tin foil, add some Greek coffee and then set light to it. It smoulders away and once the wasps smell it, they just leave; it really does work! We did visit some of the other towns on the island whilst we were there and were very surprised at the lack of wasps in most of these; it seems to be the Golden Beach / Skala Potamias area which has the most.

We thought Skala Potamias was the best resort on the Island. It is quite small and was very busy in the evenings as we were there in high season but although it was lively, it wasn't loud’ and had a brilliant, upbeat, friendly atmosphere. It has a couple of small fairground rides for the little ones and Dodgems for the little bit bigger ones!

There are a number of Tavernas in Skala Potamias; far too many to try all of them in a week, but our favourites were the Steki and the Nautilus and I would definitely recommend these two. We did try the Krambousa as I have seen this recommended several times but on the evening we were there it was very busy and we had to wait quite some time to be served and between courses etc so this put us off going back there a second time.

If you're out and about on the Island I must recommend Zooom’ in Potos. It's on the main road through Potos, if the sea is on your left, Zooom is on the right hand side of the road towards the end of town. I had the most fabulous chicken in mustard, garlic and honey sauce here; it was delicious!

We hired a jeep for 3 days whilst we were there to explore the Island and the best deal we found was Potos Car Hire’ on the front in Skala Potamias; prices varied depending on the season, but they were almost half the cost of the international care hire places such as Avis, Auto Union etc and the only difference we could find was the excess on the insurance policy; with Avis it was 50 Euros, with Potos it was 125 Euros and considering were saving 95 Euros by hiring from Potos we felt it was worth the risk.

Thassos isn’t an 18 / 30’ island and night life is limited so I wouldn't recommend it for groups of young people but for couples and families, I would say it;s great! I;ve always said that I didn;t want to return to the same place twice as half the fun for us is exploring our surroundings, but for Thassos I will make an exception! I will return to Thassos and will happily stay at Athrion Studios again. I just wish I were still there now!