Learn to sail in Greece, Halkidiki
| country: | Greece |
| location: | Halkidiki, Mainland Greece |
| price: | From £949 - £2065 (14 days) including flights from the UK. Price depends on choice of yacht and departure dates. Includes accommodation, transfers, RYA tuition and courses and beachchlub activities |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
the amazing things you'll be doing
New for 2009 is a wonderful sailing area based around the coastline of Halkidiki. A region commonly known as 'Greece's Secret Paradise', this area offers sailors good variety with golden, sandy beaches, picturesque bays, traditional villages, small islands, sheltered bays and pine clad hills descending to the clearest of blue seas. The islands and mainland of the northern Aegean are rich in ancient history and mythology - our flotillas will be sailing the same seas as the Greek fleets of legend on their way to the ancient city of Troy. Less crowded than the Cyclades and Sporades, moorings and safe anchorages are easier to find and consistent summer winds blowing steadily from the north create ideal sailing conditions for all abilities.
sailing holiday
The first week of your sailing holiday in Greece will be spent at our beachclub, the Anastasia. The stylish and modern Anastasia offers a touch of luxury with it's smart feel and contemporary spa. The whitewashed buildings are set behind seafront gardens, which are scattered with olive trees and bean bags, providing comfort and shady areas under which to relax.
Facilities: The green grass stretches towards to the beach, where sand and pebbles give way to the beautiful blue waters for which Halkidiki is renowned. A large, sophisticated reception area and adjacent bar welcome you as soon as you enter the Anastasia. Italian furniture by designers such as Phillipe Starck immediately contributes to the impression that this is no ordinary hotel. Moving through to the terrace area, our restaurant offers both covered and alfresco dining beneath generous shading. Breakfast, lunches and evening meals are served as a buffet, with the mouth-watering high standard and variety expected from Beachplus clubs. Passing from the restaurant terrace, the impressive pool is nearby, with its convenient bar offering snacks and drinks to keep you sustained during a day spent alternately getting active or relaxing in the sun.
An accompanying children's pool is generously sized and positioned in such a way as to allow easy supervision of children as they splash in the shallows. A short path leads across the lawn to our watersports equipment, kept conveniently for easy launching on the long beach which remains almost exclusively enjoyed by our guests. Our waterski and wakeboard pontoon floats temptingly nearby. Two brand new tennis courts are situated alongside the hotel's buildings. Our children's clubs enjoy a mixture of indoor and outdoor play areas with their own dedicated bases. Our fleet of mountain bikes is stored in the club's grounds, with easy access to the scenic trails of the Kassandra peninsular.
After all the activity, the Anastasia provides the ideal opportunity for relaxation with its own spa centre, featuring an indoor heated pool, a sauna, a plunge pool, a small gym, a 'hammam' aromatherapy steam room and an adjacent 'chill out' lawn area. Is soon becomes evident that The Anastasia is the ideal club for anyone seeking to maximise their pampering and wellbeing during their holiday.
The second week of your sailing holiday will be spent sailing around the beautiful coastline of Halkidiki. You will visit the peninsulas of Kassandra and Sithonia, enjoying some wonderful, uncrowded sailing along the way.
Example route: Nea Skioni - Sani Marina - Nea Moudhania - Nea Fokea - Nea Marmaras - Porto Koufo - Nea Skioni
yacht types
Moody S31 - Beneteau 323 - Beneteau 331 - Beneteau 343 - Beneteau 373 - Dufour 325We offer the highest specification flotilla boats on the market and operate a lead crew and support service second to none. All of our boats have been built and specifically modified for Mediterranean sailing with aft cockpits, headsail roller reefing, electric anchor windlasses, holding tanks and bathing ladders. Showers, cockpit cushions and sun awnings provide essential comfort with biminis fitted to all boats. Comprehensive safety equipment is inspected every year and we add VHF radios for further security, ensuring we always surpass the most stringent of safety standards.
how this holiday makes a difference
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As part of our responsible business policy, the team at the Anastasia Hotel have chosen to adopt the following long term commitments on the activity side of our programme:
By avoiding fully-inclusive board arrangements and by recommendations in our literature and in briefings, we encourage our guests to eat out where possible to enhance their holiday experience and boost the local economies. Where we manage accommodation units all food and drink is sourced locally where possible. On our shore-based activities programmes we have been employing and training local people as assistant instructors with the long term goal of their achieving professional Royal Yachting Association Instructor Qualifications. The majority of our activities programmes are based on wind, pedal or muscle power, providing enough energy to satisfy most thrill-seeking speed-freaks in the most environmentally benign way we know how. We can also cater for our more sedate guests, however! We no longer use anti-fouling on our day boats and where possible we use 4-stroke outboard engines on our powerboats to reduce noise, fuel consumption and emissions. We have tasked our overseas staff to identify 3 long-term initiatives that will bring positive benefits to the economies, communities and environments in which they live and work.We are working with The Travel Foundation to seek ways to develop practical, sustainable tourism solutions to help protect and enhance holiday destinations. And we are also working with the Federation of Tour Operators to develop responsible travel codes of practice.  Kids can make a difference too! We encourage children to take an interest in the destination they are holidaying in and they’re loving it. We have been working with the Travel Foundation to produce a play and puzzle book aimed at 7-10 year olds, called "Hatch the Turtle". "Hatch" is a friendly little fellow who has lots of stories to tell about all the people and animals living in the amazing places our guests go on holiday. He encourages children to try local dishes, buy locally made crafts and speak a few words of the local languages. There are even a few words of Turtlish! This activity book will be piloted in the childrens’ clubs this summer. In addition to this exciting new initiative, we have a range of activities running in our childrens’ clubs overseas and here is a selection of the kinds of things they get up to:
 We have been auditing all the hotels and operations we run to see how they perform against a sustainability checklist created by Travelife, an independent initiative, funded by the EU and supported by the Federation of Tour Operators. Hotels are classified according to their sustainability performance and this resort has gained the Travelife Gold award, for businesses who lead the way with advanced sustainability actions, encouraging others to become involved. They encourage others to be involved, seek continual improvements and actively communicate their progress. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |