Start of the summer 2018

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.

Reunion

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.

Secret piece of Kefalonia Magic!

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…!

Save Our Seas

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.

Last few rooms

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 https://www.viglanatura.com/book