Holistic holiday in Greece

country:	Greece
location:	Sporades Islands
departures:	Departures 2010: schedule coming soon
price:	From £545 - £595 (8 days) and from £825 - £1095 (14 days) excluding flights, depending on session. Optional single supplement £95 per week. Price includes accommodation (fullboard), up to 5 hours of courses a day and up to 12 courses a session to choose from.
vouchers:	Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday

Holistic & wellbeing holidays

Greece holidays

the amazing things you'll be doing

Right by the sea and in the arms of a magnificent pine forest, the accommodation has a magical quality which delights the senses and makes inroads to the heart. Its allure makes you feel that you have just come back home – it is as if your soul recognises that this is the place it was born. Is it because people lived, and their civilisation thrived, in this area long before history began?

The main stone villa commands a supreme position in the bay. Its huts, in which most of the participants and staff choose to live, are situated in lush gardens and are shaded by pine and fruit trees.

The delightful community – 30 to 80 guests at a time – is friendly and bursting with life. In its ambience people feel free to explore new activities, stretch themselves beyond what they thought possible, make new friends and enjoy life to the full.

Out of the many courses offered participants can choose up to three a week. Courses range from windsurfing and sailing to dance, yoga, painting and music. They are usually held outdoors on beautiful stone terraces, between the pine forest and the sea. People are free to do as much or as little as they want. There is always time to sunbathe, swim, walk in the pine forest and enjoy the tranquility of the bay. The evenings are taken up by parties, lively discussions and hilarious, impromptu events.

The accommodation is run according to the traditional community structures pioneered over the years. These include demos (community meetings), œkos (home groups), co-listening and light community work such as vegetable chopping and fruit picking.

The beauty is its simplicity, its intimate connection with nature and its timeless detachment from the outside world. The atmosphere of trust it generates enables everyone to open up, venture into uncharted waters and make connections rarely made in the outside world.

courses

30 May - 6 Jun 2009 (1 week) £545
Flirtshop, Comedy - Alison Goldie, Yoga - Mathew Godebski, Windsurfing - Mark Gunston, Sailing - Sharon McDonald, Dancing the Rainbow - Lani O’Hanlon, Stained Glass - Stoney Parsons, Singing, Songwriting - Tsivi Sharett, Life's a Journey - Ernie Woolf

6 June - 13 Jun 2009 (1 week) £545
Free the Spirit - Hazel Carey, Yoga - Mathew Godebski, Flirtshop, Comedy - Alison Goldie, Windsurfing - Mark Gunston, Sailing - Sharon McDonald, Stained Glass - Stoney Parsons, Singing, Songwriting - Tsivi Sharett, Life's a Journey - Ernie Woolf

13 Jun - 26 Jun 2009 (2 weeks) £825
Body Magic - Silke Ziehl, Photograpy - David Babsky, Yoga – Ken Eyerman, Windsurfing - Mark Gunston, Speaking of Sex - Steve King, Music & Creativity - Richard Lewis, A Heart-Centred Life - Cate MacKenzie, Sailing - Sharon McDonald

28 Jun - 11 Jul 2009 (2 weeks) £925
Life Choices, Life Changes - Dina Glouberman, Yoga - Ken Eyerman, Windsurfing - Mark Gunston, Music & Singing, - Phill Haiselden, Holistic Massage & Beauty - Marcella Kennedy, Sailing - Sharon McDonald, Afro-Brazilian Dance - Cathy Skora, Mosaics - Roz Wates

12 Jul - 25 Jul 2009 (2 weeks) £995
T'ai Chi, Outdoor Art - Richard Layzell, Windsurfing - Mark Gunston, Music & Singing - Phill Haiselden, Sailing - Sharon McDonald, Afro-Brazilian & Belly Dance - Cathy Skora, The Courage to Change - Malcolm Stern, Yoga - Michael J Stewart, Mosaics - Roz Wates

26 Jul - Sat 8 Aug 2009 (2 weeks) £1095
The Courage to Change - Malcolm Stern, Massage, Reflexology - Virginia Evangelou, Style & Image - Andrea Gates, Windsurfing - Mark Gunston, Comedy Improvisation - Andrew Risner, Sailing - Sharon McDonald, Yoga - Michael J Stewart, Singing, Songwriting - Sarah Warwick

9 Aug - 22 Aug 2009 (2 weeks) £1095
A Happy Life - Andrew Risner, Massage, Reflexology - Virginia Evangelou, Windsurfing - Mark Gunston, Creative Improvisation - Christopher Heimann, Singing, Songwriting - Sarah Warwick, Sailing - Sharon McDonald, Hatha & Vinyasa Yoga - Andreas Vetsch, T’ai Chi, Mime, Storytelling - David Zucker

23 Aug - 5 Sep 2009 (2 weeks) £995
Walk Tall, Feel Fabulous - Kate Daniels, Windsurfing - Mark Gunston, Alexander Technique, Raqs Sharqi - Judy Hammond, Sailing - Sharon McDonald, Hatha & Vinyasa Yoga - Andreas Vetsch, Strictly Dancing - Laurie Yates, Singing - Helen Yeomans, T’ai Chi, Mime, Stories - David Zucker

6 Sep - 19 Sep 2009 (2 weeks) £945
Writing, Creative Arts - Julie McNamara, Holistic Weight Loss - Katrina Brunsden, Watercolour - Michael Gahagan, Windsurfing - Mark Gunston, Alexander Technique, Raqs Sharqi - Judy Hammond, Creating Happiness Now - Alexandra Massey, Yoga - Carol Macartney, Sailing - Sharon McDonald

19 Sep - 26 Sep 2009 (1 week) £595
Mindful Living - Michael Eales, Holistic Weight Loss - Katrina Brunsden, Back to Nature, Jewellery - Kevin Dibb, Watercolour - Michael Gahagan, Windsurfing - Mark Gunston, Yoga, Salsa Cubana - John Harris, Sailing - Sharon McDonald, Writing, Creative Arts - Julie McNamara

how this holiday makes a difference

When you book a holiday at Atsitsa Bay you are joining a 30-year tradition of supporting the local community and working together to maintain a responsible lifestyle. We aim to create a total living experience which can lead to changes beneficial both to the individual and to the world we live in.

At Atsitsa Bay:

All accommodation is locally owned and maintained

Furniture and furnishings are sourced on the island

Building construction is fully in tune with the natural environment - accommodation has remained simple partly in order to avoid the industry’s excesses

Motorised sea sports have never been introduced

Kitchen and shower water and waste/left over food is recycled/composted for the gardens

Visitors are requested to limit the use of running water, which is pumped out of our own well

Showers are heated via solar panels

External lighting is solar-powered

We are working with the local authority to bring further recycling to the island – plastic, glass and aluminium

Although we can accommodate up to 80 participants at a time, the site is self-contained with all the facilities our participants need – because of this, and as a result of the environmental policies we have put in place, impact on the local community and environment is minimized. Guests wishing to visit bars and tavernas offsite will also be directly benefiting the local economy as internationals are virtually unheard of here. Visitors are also requested to help with a few chores to assist with the running of the on-site community, from sweeping the yard and chopping vegetables to fruit picking from the garden. The objective is the creation of an ethical mini-society in which decent human behaviour counts more than money.

As part of your booking, you will be provided with a copy of the company philosophy and pre-trip information on the host community to raise cultural awareness and help you to make decisions on how to integrate responsibly. During your holiday you will have opportunities to learn some local language, and will be fed on locally-sourced national cuisine. Many holiday sessions include courses on local history and culture, language or art forms, visits to the woodcarvers, potters, cheesemaker etc. (depending on the time of year some visitors can even tread the grapes to help with local wine production!). On some sessions there are other opportunities to further integrate with the host community in various ways e.g. volunteering to enter the mini-marathon which brings visitors and locals together.

We also have a long-standing history of supporting the local community financially– e.g. the company has contributed £18,000 toward the purchase of medical equipment for the local health centre and £3000 towards the refurbishment of the island’s school theatre. Our staff and holiday makers also raised £11,000 to help locals recover from a devastating forest fire on the Island.

However our commitment to positive action is not restricted to this island alone. At our administrative offices various environmental policies are in place, including:

All single sided printed material is stapled into booklets and re-used for notepaper

All staff living within a 3 mile radius have elected to walk to work

We have made available downloadable versions of literature from our site to reduce reliance on printed brochures and encourage online booking as an alternative to paper-based methods

Waste materials are sorted for recycling wherever possible
Staff, guests and suppliers are also actively encouraged to suggest further ways in which we can increase our environmental responsibility. Over the summer we have made a donation to the Skyros Folk Dance Society, a donation to the fund for stray cats and dogs and a further donation to the Skyros Fire Fund.

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.