Exclusive Naturist Holidays
We all at Vassaliki would like to congratulate our hostess Leanne from our naturist sailing trips on her marriage to her husband Lee.
Samantha and I were able to fly back to the UK for a beautiful sunny weekend to witness and be part of this amazing day.
Well done to you both and I must say its the best knot you have tied in all the time I have sailed with you Leanne!!
As of 10am this morning (10th May) Vassaliki is open for the summer 2018. We are really looking forward to a busy summer and meeting loads of our fellow naturists.
The resort is stunning thanks to loads of hard work from our resort team and our amazing volunteers.
Hold on to your hats and here we go!!
Well it may be a little early for most people to be thinking about 2019 holidays but we have already had several inquiries and confirmed bookings for next year. So we have now launched our prices and online booking is now open for 2019.
Well here we are back in Kefalonia getting ready for the 2018 summer season at Vassaliki. Samantha and I have had a crazy winter and the time has flown past so fast that it only feels like we have been away from Kefalonia for a few weeks. Thanks to all our volunteer helpers we are rattling through all the work, photos can been seen on our facebook page or group.
We have put together a little newsletter to keep everyone updated about all the things that have happened over the winter and news of new things for the coming summer.
The big event this winter was the 4th sell out Vassaliki Reunion Weekend held in January at the Moorhill House Hotel in Burley, New Forest.
The weekend started on the Friday afternoon as guests slowly arrived at the hotel which we had exclusively hired for the weekend. Samantha and I were greeting everyone as they arrived and as this is the biggest reunion we have ever held we were soon busy chatting and welcoming everyone.
Guests spent the first afternoon meeting up with friends new and old chatting and drinking in the lounge or in one of the two hot tubs that had been installed in the hotel garden especially for the weekend.
7pm and our first meal was served in the function hall, a Mediterranean style buffet with the sounds of a local guitar player/ singer. This was supposed to be a quiet first evening but being a Vassaliki Reunion, tables where soon being moved out the way and impromptu dancing took their place.
Saturday was time to explore the local forest and village, many guests seemed to find their way to the New Forest cider press which was a convenient short walk down the road as was the witchcraft village of Burley. While others relaxed in the hot tubs, pool and sauna which were of course naturist for the weekend. Lucy dog was at the event this year and was taken (we think…) for four walks, so spent the rest of the evening in our hotel room asleep.
The highlight for the weekend has always been the Gala dinner. Everyone was dressed in their finest clothes and descended on the lounge bar for pre dinner drinks and amazing close hand tricks from the magician. Dinner service was perfect with an amazing four course meal served by the hotel chefs. During the meal the entertainment started with a surprise visit from the ‘little man with the big voice: Rusty’s Songbook’. This is the new act from my brother Jason. Rusty was making his debut appearance at our Reunion and what a welcome he got. Have a look at the short film that was shot at our reunion: https://youtu.be/wvwL9tNgCU0
This year we ran a raffle in aid of Motor Neurone Disease in memory of one of our beautiful guests Dawn who died in August 2017 from the disease. We were so pleased to present £520 to her husband Mark who we were honoured to have join us at our Gala meal.
Once all the food had been consumed it was time for our favourite band The Unusual Suspects to play us through to the end of the evening with their superb mix of popular songs, finishing with the traditional ‘Hey Jude’ huddle!
Sunday came around too fast and everyone made their way home. Thank you to all of you who joined us this winter and keep your eyes peeled for the our next reunion in 2020.
Samantha and I (along with Nick the chef) feel ashamed of ourselves as we have been keeping a small secret from you all. During last summer we heard about a traditional village taverna not far from Vassaliki that is very popular with the locals. It is hidden away amongst the many small villages.
Samantha, Nick and I went off on a recognisance mission to check it out and found a garden restaurant that has been left back in time. The setting is idilic Greek and the food, well that was amazing, simple but tasty. A small simple menu, slow service, local wine, and basic beautifully cooked old style Greek food. Well we loved it so much we decided not to tell anyone about it as it was already busy and as we wanted to go the following week again we were worried we may not get a seat😂!
Anna’s opens late in June through to early September, so if you want to know where it is…well I’ll think about telling you when you get here…!
The news lately seems to be constantly about environmental issues and most of all about the massive amount of plastic in our seas. This came to light after the amazing Blue Planet 2 series on BBC1 when the program showed viewers huge fields of plastic waste floating on and below the surface of the sea.
We at Vassaliki, are big fans of the sea and spend most of our free time swimming, snorkelling, sailing, waterskiing and boating on the waters around Kefalonia.
Blue Planet has prompted us at Vassaliki to try and reduce the amount of plastic we use at the resort, so we will be only giving out card straws with drinks and reusable stirrers with the cocktails.
We also want to reduce the large number of plastic bottles we use. So we will now be selling Vassaliki reusable drinking bottles from our resort shop. All guests who purchase a bottle will have free access to use our new water coolers which will be situated around the resort.
The water is dispensed from 20L bottles that are returned and refilled when empty. The water is offered cold or room temperature.
We hope that with your help we can reduce the number of water bottles used at Vassaliki by over 600 bottles. THAT’S approximately 1/4 ton of plastic that won’t end up in our seas!
We will continue to recycle all our cans, glass and non reusable plastic bottles as well as cardboard and paper from the resort.
The resort is now looking like it will be as busy as last summer. We have reached all our booking targets but have a few rooms we would love to sell.
We have just sadly had a cancellation for the fully booked June period so we have just got a 20 night period from 23rd June to 13th of July in a One Bedroom Apartment become available for €130 per night. You can book all or part of this period.
We still have some nice rooms available for July and August. This period is the best for the weather and the island is a buzz with events.
September is now fully booked from 26th of August until September 26th when we still have rooms available at discounted rate until we close on 10th October.
All bookings up to now have been for a minimum of seven nights, but we have just launched on our online site, the ability to book for four or more nights for those of you who only have a short break or maybe want to travel on to other parts of the island. This will hopefully allow us to fill some of the holes we have between bookings.
So if you are traveling through Kefalonia and would like a short stay with us book now online at http://www.viglanatura.com/book
Throughout the summer season in 2017 I hosted twice-weekly art sessions at the Vassaliki Naturist Resort. These were an opportunity for guests to spend some time drawing or painting in the tranquil resort setting in Kefalonia in the warm fresh air, in small friendly groups. The sessions were very informal, catering for a full range of ability and all age groups.
Most people joining the sessions had little or no experience or artistic background. Many showed some reluctance to try their hand – typical comments were “I haven’t picked up a pencil since I was at school” or “I’m rubbish and will only make a mess”. However it seemed to me that once people engaged and got stuck in to producing a sketch or a simple painting they really enjoyed the experience and were genuinely surprised that they had the ability to produce an original picture with their own hands. Lots of people came along to 2 or 3 sessions and found the results improved each time. I was delighted that several people went away at the end of their holidays inspired to join some lessons back at home, or just to buy some basic materials and get going themselves.
The Vassaliki sessions give guests a chance to try out pencil, charcoal, pastels or watercolour paints. The subjects include still life, landscape and life studies (there is a ready supply of nude models!) or anything that take the fancy of the session members. Participants are encouraged to develop their own style, and it is always fascinating to compare how different people interpret a given subject – ranging from the realistic to the quite abstract.
Doing some art is a great way to relax, but is also stimulating to the mind and allows the brain to see and respond in a way which is different to our normal everyday experiences. I will be facilitating more art sessions at Vassaliki in 2018 and I hope to see some new faces and perhaps some old friends coming back for more! Here are some examples of the 2017 sessions produced by guests, with a few contributions from me.
Colin Eversden
We are now full on into the resort set up and our team of staff and volunteers are arriving by the day and putting in long days work gardening, cleaning, building and fixing, but its not all hard graft we do take plenty of time off to enjoy the island and warm weather. Samantha took a few people to visit the waterfalls which only run during the wet winter months. I on the other hand organised a beach walk and litter pick up.
Our small team of four plus Lucy dog managed to collect two large bags of plastic bottles off the naturist part of Avithos beach (right side). The beach was the best I have seen it for many years and we were able to completely clear the whole beach into two bags which in the past has taken many more trips.
Well done to the team and as a reward had time for our first skinny dip of the summer and also found Marina Cafe in Kourkoumelata open and we all had a glass of wine and dessert.
The news lately seems to be constantly about environmental issues and most of all about the massive amount of plastic in our seas. This came to light after the amazing Blue Planet 2 series on BBC1 when the program showed viewers huge fields of plastic waste floating on and below the surface of the sea.
We at Vassaliki, are big fans of the sea and spend most of our free time swimming, snorkelling, sailing, waterskiing and boating on the sea around Kefalonia.
Blue Planet has prompted us at Vassaliki to try and reduce the amount of plastic we use at the resort, so we will be only giving out card straws with drinks and wood stirrers with the cocktails.
We also want to reduce the large number of plastic bottles we use. So we will now be selling Vassaliki reusable drinking bottles from our resort shop. All guests who purchase a bottle will have free access to use our new water cooler
s which will be situated around the resort.
The water is dispensed from 20L bottles that are returned and refilled when empty. The water is offered cold or room temperature. We hope that with your help we can reduce the number of water bottles used at Vassaliki by over 600 bottles.
THAT’S approximately 1/4 ton of plastic that won’t end up in our seas.
We will continue to recycle all our cans, glass bottles and non reusable plastic bottles from the resort.
BOOK THIS AMAZING OFFER NOW BY CALLING +44 (0)20 8144 2166
Well that’s it for 2017, the resort is now all closed and Samantha and I are well and truly settled back into the UK routine.
We have a busy winter ahead with work already started towards summer 2018. Bookings are going well and once again we are meeting our booking targets for 2018 with some periods already becoming fairly full and many other popular periods selling well.
There are exciting new flights with BA from Heathrow & some early bird special offers, further details on all this found below.
We have all the rooms sold for our popular reunion weekend 19th to 21st January and we are working hard to make this even better than last year!
Samantha, Mark and all the team at Vassaliki would like to wish you, your family and friends a great Christmas and a prosperous & healthy New Year.
We now have scheduled flights direct to EFL (Kefalonia) from London Heathrow with British Airways. They fly Tuesdays and Saturdays and at the time this newsletter went out they were £59 each way on the Tuesday flight!!!! Get booking now, there is still availability for the summer months for 2018!
We are really pleased to announce that Colin and Alex have agreed to join us again for next summer and will continue to offer their Pilates and Art classes which have been amazingly popular along with their never-ending energy.
We are sad to say that Nick the chef has decided to take next summer off. He has some other projects he wants to do next year and he will be missed by us all. But not to worry, we will still have our restaurant running as usual with many of Nicks ideas and recipes still being used. Nick has left a hard act to follow but I am looking forward to the challenge.
Little Sam (Tinklebell) has also agreed to return next summer and will once again be running the housekeeping side of the resort for us. Her laugh and energy are infectious and we look forward to having her back on the team next summer.
Do you fancy joining the team? We are considering getting another chef to work in our busy restaurant. Do you have the skills and want a summer in the sun? Have a look at the job on our website. http://www.viglanatura.com/join-the-team-in-2018
Sheba
One of the things many of the guests love about Vassaliki is our four legged friends who have lived with us at the resort. We have had a dog on resort since we opened in 2007 when we brought Sheba with us from the UK. Our white and tan labrador/ collie cross was a big hit with guests and she became very much part of the team here. When she passed away in October 2012 Samantha and I decided we would take some time off having a dog but soon found we had a big part of our life missing and many guests commented on the fact it was nice having a dog on site.
Archie
In 2013 Simon and Sheryle joined our team and they brought along Archie, who soon settled into resort life. He is a little water baby, loved swimming in the sea and the guests splashing him from the pool. He had his favourite guests (normally the ones who brought him treats) and the resort seemed to be back in balance again.
Dexter
We have now over the last 10 years rescued four dogs from Kefalonia. The first dog that came to us was Dexter in the summer of 2013. A crazy ball of fluff who was about four months old when he was left with us. We had him all sorted with injections and a passport to bring him back to the UK with us, but there was an issue… Dexter was travel sick and with the lifestyle Samantha and I live we needed a dog who can travel and we weren’t really looking for a dog at this stage. We quickly found Dexter an amazing new home on the Isle of Wight with a young family. He was flown from Kefalonia to reduce travel time for him and was collected at Gatwick by his new family. We still visit Dexter and he is doing amazing work with children who are finding life a little difficult, we are so proud of him.
Lucy
Samantha and I have always been lovers of animals, I even spent time working for the RSPCA in the UK. So when we took our collection money we made from our reunion raffle to the Kefalonia animal rescue centre we stupidly stopped at the puppy pen (Samantha’s fault) and we found Lucy Lou. She was about 8 weeks old covered in fleas but we just fell in love with her. She soon become a perfect resort dog, still to this day she loves meeting our guests and she even runs guided tours to the local mini market. She travels in the car with us back and forth between the UK and Greece each year, she copes with anything we put her through as she is just happy to be with us.
Wilf
Next was a rescue for some friends of ours who have a house near our resort. They found a spaniel-cross who they wanted to take back to the UK with them. They had to leave Kefalonia so left him with us at the resort while we prepared to return to the UK ourselves in our camper. Wilf stayed on resort for about four weeks before joining Lucy and us on our four day trip back to the UK where we delivered him to his new family in Cambridge.
Olie
Our latest rescue was this year. While visiting the local olive press we came upon a small tan and white puppy who was about 8 months old. He was very friendly and in amazing condition. His coat was clean with only a small number of fleas, the press owner said he was dumped that morning by an old man. Our sailing trip hostess Leanne wanted to get a rescue dog so a few phone calls were made and the decision was to collect him and get him to the vets for a medical check up. He was in good health so all the necessary paperwork, injections and procedures were completed to allow the young dog to return to the UK. He stayed with us at the resort until he was ready to join us for the long trip back to the UK. After three throw ups in the first 11km (the Kefalonia roads are twisty) he settled down really well and seemed to take the trip in his stride.
Olie is now settled with his new family near the New Forest and we are lucky enough to see him most weekends when we all meet up for a forest walk where we seem to keep finding pubs on route!
All the dogs we rescue have been very lucky to find new homes and loving families. Samantha and I are proud of the small amount of work we have done to help these few individuals.
This offer is not available online so call now 020 8144 2166 to enjoy this amazing offer.
