Well Summer 2020 was not to be for Vassaliki. With the onset of Covid 19 and all the travel restrictions put in place by the governments in each country, back at the beginning of June we had to make the very difficult but unavoidable decision to cancel the few bookings we had left.
So what’s been going on? Samantha and I have remained in the UK with our families, but as you know Samantha and I don’t like to sit around waiting, so we have both been very busy.
Samantha has been working five days a week at a local hotel doing the breakfast shift. After her first day she was promoted to breakfast supervisor and has very quickly become a respected and appreciated member of the team. On her days off from the hotel she has also been working at our sister-in-laws children’s shoe and school uniform shop. Plus the pub she has worked at the last 15 winters, regularly calls on her for weekends and evenings.
I have also been busy helping at the shop, in that I built them a new website with a comprehensive online shopping experience for customers to order their children’s uniform online and have it delivered to their homes. I also implemented an appointment service so customers could book a time slot to visit the shop and avoid having to queue outside. With the shop now working online as well as on the high street, Samantha has been helping the team at the shop with processing the online orders and our parents have also been drafted in to deliver the orders to local houses. It’s been a really great family effort!
I have also been lucky enough to be able to continue my winter work with my younger brother into the summer. He runs a gardening and fencing company and we spend our days clearing gardens, fixing and replacing fences for both private individuals and commercial companies. It’s heavy work but is keeping me fit ( I need the exercise as I am not running up and down the stairs at Vassaliki all day!)
Vassaliki!
So what about Vassaliki? Samantha and I headed out to Kefalonia at the beginning of September to complete some important yearly maintenance on the resort.
Things were going well, but on the 18th September the island was hit by a Medicane (a Mediterranean cyclone) lasting two and a half days. The resort was hit with 100kph winds and over 250mm of rain fell in under 48 hours. Our villages were left without water for 3 days and no electricity for a week. The results were devastating for many people and businesses on the island.
Vassaliki has sustained substantial damage with two large tress falling and hitting the rear of the property, the pool bar roof has come completely off and all the fencing has been lifted out of the ground.
This is a nightmare for us as we now have to pay to repair all the damage after a year of taking no income. But this will not stop us! Samantha and I along with the Greek resort owners are determined to get this damage repaired and have Vassaliki back open for business.
Our trip to Kefalonia was only set to be 4 weeks but with the amount of work needed doing I (Mark) stayed for a further two weeks and we are really pleased with the progress we have made so far.
With the complete loss of this summer most of our 2020 guests moved their bookings and deposits to 2021 and so we find ourselves with nearly 60% of our rooms already booked. So I am sure you are as desperate as us to get back out to Kefalonia again, so please if you plan to visit us book now. Your deposit is fully refundable if you are unable to travel due to government travel restrictions. We are optimistic that summer 2021 will happen and we really want you to be part of it at Vassaliki.
Launch of Villa Vassaliki
We have also been working on a new project in Kefalonia which we have just launched for summer 2021.
We have been asked many times if we have accommodation for larger families and groups, but also asked about accommodation for people who are not sure about naturist resorts and want to try it out but not stay on site. In the past we have sourced rooms from local resorts but this is difficult with the variations in quality and prices.
So Villa Vassaliki was purchased in January this year but was in need of some TLC and refreshing. We have just completed a refurbishment on the villa to bring it in line with the quality we offer at the Vassaliki resort.
The villa is available as a complete three bedroom house, two bathrooms, kitchen and living room. The Villa also boasts a private pool and outside dining area with BBQ. The Villa is secluded, so nudity is not an issue and it is situated only a few minutes drive or 15/20 minute walk from Vassaliki.
All the details are at www.villavassaliki.com so if you have friends or family (Who don’t know you are naturist) who you think may enjoy Kefalonia, we would really appreciate you sharing this link with them.
You can also book direct through our resort website www.vassaliki.com