Well it’s nearly that time when Samantha and I, along with our faithful hound Lucy, pack up our truck and head off back to Greece for another summer in the Kefalonian sun.
This winter in the UK has been a short stay for us as we got stuck in Greece due to issues with our vaccination paperwork. After many hours trying to explain that we had one jab in the UK and two in Greece, so we are fully vaccinated, we were finally able to get our papers updated and we returned to the UK.
Summer 2021 was not our best due to the very slow start to the summer and the short season, so Samantha and I have spent this winter working at a local hotel and bar as well as helping my brother with his gardening business.
We have not been able to get away for a holiday this winter, Samantha is biting at the bit to get back on her snowboard and watching the snowboarding on the winter olympics has made it even harder.
We have managed a few staycations and visited beautiful Wales where I tried my hand at fly fishing on a river, which was amazing fun, a little cold standing in waders up to my bits in freezing water. Don’t ask about the number of fish we caught! I will just say we had a delicious lamb dish for dinner.
We then managed to carry on up north to meet up with Arthur our amazing resort photographer and his wife for a weekend of hot tubs, saunas and dog walking. Just what the doctor ordered. Plus a fabulous stay in Scotland on the firth of forth with Samantha’s sister.
We now have one more trip to visit Samantha’s Dad Simon and his wife Sheryle who many of you will know from the summers they worked with us in Greece. We have not seen them for over two years due to all the pandemic so this is a very much needed visit that we are looking forward to.
So we head off to Greece in March optimistic of a busy and full summer season. Bookings are amazing for this summer with over 70% of our popular One Bedroom Apartments already sold.
Hope to see you soon.
Covid Update
Now with most countries reducing the restrictions and procedures required to travel we have seen a massive surge in bookings and interest in Vassaliki.
We know that this downturn in restrictions could change, but as we write, we are looking at fully vaccinated guests from any of the countries below being able to travel to Greece freely without taking any tests. The return trip to most of the countries listed will also be possible without tests. All guests will however have to do a Passenger Locatior Form before traveling to Greece and also a return PLF when returning home. We will send full details of the PLF you need to enter Greece a few weeks before your arrival and will assist with any retuning PLF forms you need at resort.
Visitors from EU member states and Schengen countries, as well as from the 33 non-EU countries participating in the EU Digital Covid Certificate scheme, namely: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Cabo Verde, El Salvador, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Israel, Iceland, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Panama, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, Switzerland, “Chinese Taipei (not recognised as a State by Greece)”, Thailand, Tunisia, Togo, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay and The Vatican
Unvaccinated guests will however have to provide a certificate of a negative test result, namely, negative molecular test result (PCR) performed up to 72 hours before the scheduled arrival or negative Rapid Antigen test result performed up to 24 hours before the scheduled arrival to Greece.
Staff
We are really happy to be welcoming two new members to our team this summer. First is Mel who will be taking over from Kerry to run our pool bar for us. Mel will be in charge of all your beer, wine and gin & tonics, so she is a very important team member! She lives on the island with her husband and three children and has great knowledge of Kefalonia. She has been running other bars around the island but has decided to join us this summer and we look forward to welcoming her.
Also we have Debbi joining us to run the food side of our pool bar. Debbi is a qualified chef and has huge amounts of experience in catering and working on Kefalonia. She lives on the island with her daughter and grand daughter. We cannot wait for her to join our team this year.
Unfortunately we have lost three of last years team. The most upsetting is Sheila who worked with her daughter Tinkerbell Sam doing housekeeping for us. Sheila sadly passed away in December after a short battle with cancer. Samantha and I managed to attend her funeral in the UK and she will be sorely missed by us all. Tinkerbell will be tackling the housekeeping on her own this year, so lots of hugs for her when you see her!
Last year due to lack of hours we could offer Kerry due to the pandemic, she very smartly found a second job working for a local wine merchant. She managed to do both jobs continuing to work in our bar in the evening and at the wine merchants in the day. She has decided this is too much and has taken the full time job with the wine merchants which gives her work all year round and not just the summer. We wish her well and we know we will still see her because we use the wine merchant for our supplies!
Graham who was helping with the food in the pool bar last year has decided to have a year off to concentrate on his new properties he has purchased on the island and to spend more time with family and friends. We wish Graham all the luck and we hope he will come back to join us another year. Hopefully he’ll pop in for a glass of wine occasionally and say hello!
Just for Fun
Last of all, I made contact through social media to a guy called Ben Nijssen (https://studionijssen.nl/comicstrip/). He is a talented cartoonist who does a regular naturist cartoon strip. I asked if he would be able to draw some of his cartoon characters having an afternoon at Vassaliki and he kindly agreed and sent this to us. I hope you enjoy.
