Athina Studios Reviews

I would definitely recommend Vassiliki as a holiday destination if you're looking for beautiful scenery and peace and quiet - we went in August and were surprised at the lack of people on the (pebbly) beaches during the day, although more people do seem to come out of the woodwork at night. There are just enough harbour-side restaurants to eat (very well) somewhere different every night of the week - fish and traditional Greek dishes aplenty. Prices aren't particularly cheap - standard main courses range from about 7-15euros, and beer is around 2euros a litre, happy hour cocktails around 4euros. I was a bit surprised by this as the resort isn't heaving with cash-rich tourists, most of the visitors seemed to be Greek.

Activities are perhaps a bit limited - the windsurfing club 'Club Vas' is located down the far end of the beach and you can book yourself into group or individual tuition lessons, which was one of the highlights for me. The sight of all the windsurfers speeding about the water as the wind kicks off in the afternoon was awesome.

There are a few places to hire a car, although get there early if you don't want to end up with a crap automatic - useless for some of the more scary hairpin inclines you'll find on the west coast where all the best beaches are. It may sound obvious but check you've got petrol and if possible a mobile phone before setting off, garages are few and far between and roadside call boxes are almost non-existent.

Quite a few boats in the harbour do day trips to other islands - Ithaca, Scorpios and Kefalonia - but you're more likely to get a good deal if you go with a local travel agent than booking through the tour operator.

The apartments themselves are pretty basic, but clean and with reasonable balconies. They're only a couple of minute's walk to the shops/beach/harbour but far enough away from the bars to be really quiet at night.

All round a fantastic holiday, go and enjoy!

Well where do we start. It was fantastic. The best kept secret of the Greek Islands.
This was our first trip to Greece and certainly won't be our last.

We wanted a nice quiet(ish) holiday, and Vassiliki gave us everything we wanted.
Fantastic taverna's with great food (try as many as you can, but beware being cajoled into places on your first couple of nights.)Try all the Greek dishes on offer and the fresh fish is definately worth a couple of goes.If your not big eaters don't order starters as the portions are really quite big.

The scenery is breathtaking and a must is to hire a car for a few days (around 20 euro's a day) and go and explore the island. Porta Katsiki beach and Sivota bay highley recommended.
Vassiliki beach is mostly pebbles, but sunbed hire is very reasonable or just buy yourself a lilo at one of the shops in town. Alternatively take a car round the islands west side to the long sandy beaches(steps down the cliffside to the beach though, but again more than worth it.)

For drinking, if you're not one of the windsurfing brigade, the Vass bar is friendly and fun (say hi to Yannis and ask him for a ";killer"; drink!) Also try the Tunnel bar, owner lived in uk for 12 years and very friendly, as are all the Greeks we met.
We didn't have very high expectations for the accomodation, which was probably a good thing. It wasn't awful, but was just adequate. You had to remind the staff to change towels and sheets on the supposed twice weekly change.However no problems if you don't really plan to do any self-catering.

The Kosmar rep was lovely and very helpful for anything you wanted. However we wouldn't recommend any of the organised trips as we had a much better time when we did it ourselves, Lefkas night trip definately a no-no, once you've seen the one road of shops and eaten, reallly nothing else to do but wait the two hours for the bus to go back to Vassiliki.

To sum up, should you be looking for a holiday that is ideal for children, and has a noisy selection of late night bars and clubs, then choose Nidri further up the coast. If, however, you wish to relax after a hard day's sunbathing outside a friendly bar and watch the local population go about it's normal day's business then choose Vassiliki.

On the whole, my best ever holiday and definately a return trip in the near future.