Well that was one very busy summer and the weather was amazing right to the end of the season ( and is still hot now!). Samantha and I have now returned to the UK. Elfie our young resort assistant has also returned to the UK for the winter. The rest of our amazing team Kerry, “Tinkerbell” Sam, Sheila and Shane live on the island so will spend the winter in Kefalonia. We are hoping all of them will join us again next summer.

This newsletter has some exciting news about our new online shop linked up with Marina’s Market, a review of Simon and Sheryle’s new naturist accommodation, an article about our fight against single use plastics and a reminder of the up and coming reunion weekend.

Hope you enjoy and we are always happy to hear your ideas for the resort or newsletters.

New online shop replaces welcome hampers

This summer we have been working alongside Marina’s Mini Market (our local convenience shop) to build an online shopping service to allow our guests to have a fridge full of food and drinks already in their rooms when they arrive.

This new service will replace our welcome hampers. The hampers have worked well but many items get left in the fridge when guests leave, creating unnecessary waste. We all have different preferences when it comes to food and drinks, so we feel now the hampers are not suitable.

So it’s simple… before you are due to arrive (a few days is best) visit our online shop at http://www.viglanatura.com/marinas-market Just fill in your name, booking details and then follow through the five pages of products on offer and select what you would like in your room. 

The groceries will be in your room when you arrive and the cost of the items added to your room bill. The service can also be used during your stay to top up on things you may need. In both cases a small delivery charge of 3 euros will be added to you room bill. 

The service also offers a small number of branded toiletries and sun products, so for those who wish to travel light and avoid paying for luggage in the hold, you can order all your shampoos and sun creams before you arrive. 

We hope you like our new service. 

Reunion Weekend

Now that the summer is officially over, we focus our efforts on the Reunion Weekend in Salisbury, UK on the 24th to 26th January 2020.

The 2020 Reunion is our fifth event and each year we have made the party bigger and better. We have moved to a new venue as we outgrew the last one and have found a great hotel only a short walk from the centre of Salisbury.

Salisbury is a medieval cathedral city in the south of Wiltshire. It’s 9 miles south of the iconic prehistoric stone circle at Stonehenge, which stands on the grassland of Salisbury Plain. The city’s ornate 13th-century cathedral has a 123m spire, a working 14th-century clock and an original copy of the Magna Carta (the Great Charter), a key document from 1215 A.D. This along with a bustling shopping / market city centre, there are many great things to see during your stay.

At the hotel you will receive breakfast both Saturday and Sunday morning. Friday night you will enjoy welcome drinks and a buffet dinner with live entertainment. You can visit the hotel’s Thermal Lounge with steam room, sauna and vitality pool throughout your stay but it is exclusively naturist for our guests all day on Saturday.

The Saturday night Gala Dinner is the highlight of the weekend with a three course meal, live entertainment throughout the night and a chance to dress to impress.

Mark and Samantha will be at the event throughout the weekend and we hope some of our staff past and present will join us for our Gala Dinner.

It really is a great way to wash away the winter blues and meet up again with your Vassaliki friends and reminisce about the blue skies and warm waters of Kefalonia.

We still have a few rooms available for an amazing price of £245 per person for the complete weekend. If you cannot make the full weekend then why not consider joining us for the Gala Dinner at only £45 per person.

Lets get the party started!

The battle against single use plastics

We all now know we have a major issue on our planet with single use plastics. We have become so dependent on them that we now seem to be unable to exist without them.

We are producing over 300 million tons of plastic every year, 50% of which is for single-use purposes – More than 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into our oceans every year.

So who is to blame? Who needs to sort this out? Well it’s clear every single one of us needs to step up to the mark and make some very fast changes to how we live.

So what are we doing to make the change? Vassaliki is constantly looking for and implementing ways to reduce waste produced on resort.

This year all our rooms have had recycling bins installed – this allows us to separate and recycle glass, cans, plastic bottles and cardboard/ paper. All this waste is collected by us and taken to a local recycle bins.

Our pool bar and restaurant have been recycling glass, plastic bottles and cardboard/ paper now for several years. We also now have a strict no plastic straw policy and we don’t automatically offer straws with all our drinks. Plus we don’t use plastic decorations to our cocktails.

Our biggest plastic waste issue has been the water bottles – We have been working now for a few years to reduce the number of bottles we dispose of each year. The last two years we have been offering guests the opportunity to refill reusable Vassaliki water bottles at one of our cold water stations situated on resort for a small fee. This has proven very popular and has made a huge reduction to our plastic bottle waste. Our drinking water is delivered in 20 litre water barrels and attached to a cooling machine. The barrel when empty is then returned to the water company to be refilled. 

Our next stage to get rid of plastic bottles is to install a larger water filter and cooling system at the bar area. This we hope will allow guests to either fill their own reusable water bottles or one of our Vassaliki bottles. We will then serve chilled filtered water in reusable water bottles to the tables at meal times. With all our other drinks being sold in recyclable cans and glass bottles we hope to be free of single use plastic bottles by 2020.

So what other changes do we have in the pipeline? Well unfortunately we are fazing out our complementary shower gel, shampoo and body lotion bottles, but we are looking into replacing them with a refillable shower gel bottle in the shower and we already have hand soap in refillable pump bottles.

We are also stopping supplying washing up sponge and scourers in each room from 2020 but the washable dish cloth, tea towel and oven gloves will remain on offer in your room on arrival. 

The other issue to tackle is the bin bags in the bathrooms as we are unable to allow paper down the toilets, so we are now investigating into biodegradable bags.

We are starting to do our bit and are always looking for further ways to reduce our waste. So if you can think of anything else we can look into, please let us know as we are very keen to improve on reducing our waste.

Naturist Break in Valencia, Spain with Simon and Sheryle – Written by Vicky B

Simon and Sheryle our 2013 – 2016 team members

This time last year we updated you about where Simon and Sheryle (2013-16 team members) have gone.  How they have moved to Spain and set up there own small holiday accommodation which is perfect for a naturist break. Our guests Andy and Vicky along with Jen and Pete (who they met at Vassaliki) took a trip to Simon and Sheryle’s villa in Villamarxant, 30 kilometres from Valencia, at the end of May and this is their report.

“Arriving at Valencia airport we hired a car and drove the short distance (15 minutes) to Villamarxant to meet up with Simon and Sheryle for our first Spanish lunch followed by a bit of shopping at the local supermarket. 

The villa is only a five minute drive from their local town in a beautiful rural setting amidst the orange groves. 

They have both worked immensely hard to create a superb 2 bedroomed accommodation with living area and kitchen on the ground floor. Simon and Sheryle have their own separate accommodation upstairs. 

Outside is a stunningly landscaped garden with swimming pool and sunbathing areas in sun and shade. Also there is a fire pit area and undercover seating area for dining and post dinner coffees and / or drinks. If required Sheryle will cook both breakfast and evening meals for a very reasonable cost. We had a delicious three course meal with them upstairs on our first night on the verandah overlooking the orange grove and countryside. The rest of the time we made use of the well equipped kitchen area and then one night the barbecue that is available. 

The villa is placed within easy reach of the metro to get into Valencia itself which we did for two days. Valencia has lots to offer for all with lots to see and do, we certainly feel we need a return visit. We also went to Xativa to explore an amazing castle high up in the Spanish countryside. Our last day together we went to El Palmar in the Albufera region where paella rice is grown. After a boat trip on the lagoon and canals we had a great paella lunch by the canal side. 

Simon and Sheryle are amazing hosts and made sure everything was available for a really comfortable stay and a great time. One evening Simon set up an outside cinema for a showing of The Greatest Showman. Hot dogs served by Sheryle at the end. The following night we had screenings of Live Aid and Mick Jagger, all with the aid of some extra heating from the fire pit area.

Our last day we took Jen and Pete back to the airport as they needed to get an early flight. We then spent some time with Simon and Sheryle  at a local Spanish market followed by coffee and then our last Spanish lunch. There was still time to doze in the sun for the afternoon before heading off to the airport for our late flight back. 

Many thanks Simon and Sheryle for an amazing stay, we will return for more!!”

If you would like to visit Simon and Sheryle then email them at lasco@btinternet.com