Greek Island swimming vacation

Planet

CARBON REDUCTION
This vacation by design encourages our guests to celebrate ways to enjoy our beautiful island with as little impact on the environment as possible. All of our activities are gentle and respectful and sustainable using only the power of the human body. Our walking activities included in this week are along specially chosen tracks to show you the most beautiful parts of the island with as little impact as possible. Our kayaking and paddleboarding activities offer an opportunity to explore the coast with minimal impact. No engines or noise, just the power of the human body. Much of the electricity on the island is generated through solar power so the accommodations that we use for our guests will be using solar energy to heat your water and generate the electricity used in your rooms. When it comes to choosing places to eat, we encourage our guests to favour the local businesses that are working hard to grow their own food, especially those who grow organically, and to dine in restaurants who source their produce from the local growers and producers, fishing boats and wineries. The Mediterranean diet is full of vegan and vegetarian options. Every restaurant and taverna offers a variety of delicious meat free dishes as well as the usual traditional Greek meat options and the menu is always seasonal.
ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFE
Any guided activities are led by phenomenally knowledgeable and passionate local people who make it their business to educate our guests about the history, flora and fauna and the challenges facing this island habitat. They have lived here all of their lives and are the experts on their home. The accommodation we use has signed up to the Green Key scheme promoting sustainable tourism in the hospitality industry. There is an organic rooftop vegetable and herb garden that provides the restaurant with seasonal organic food and has been planted to make maximum use of pollinators and companion planting. We also have a farm that produces olives and a range of fruits and vegetables and our guests are very welcome to come and visit and see the work that is going on here. All the toiletry products in the bathrooms are from a local company on the island producing their own olive oil based soaps and shampoos packaged in recycled containers. There are always resident cats who the owners take full responsibility for and take an active interest in the island neutering programme to help control the stray population.

People

LOCAL ECONOMY
Poros is a small island and we all know each other! Things get done because we understand and respect how important it is to support each others' businesses. The everyday running of this vacation would not go smoothly without the support of the fishing community, the baker, the butchers, the vineyards, the yoghurt maker and the cheesemaker.....the electrician, the plumber, the builder, the local IT expert who happens to also own the taverna down the road! All of these people are our friends and neighbours and we all rely upon each other to keep our businesses afloat and to make our guests happy. The bonus is that we have no option but to keep it local. Our accommodations are all owned by local people. We do not use any of the larger hotel establishments.
EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY
We have an abundance of beautiful local art and artefacts on our premises and we make it our responsibility to direct people to the producers. We encourage guests to use all the local shops and businesses and we regularly invite artists to come to our accommodation to showcase their goods. We also invite speakers to give presentations on local issues that might be of interest to our guests and also serves to educate on areas that we consider important in the interests of history, culture and environment. We have many different cultural event evenings including Greek dancing, language and music. This employs our local community and keeps the very special Greek customs alive in the minds of our visitors, as well as being a great deal of fun. We aim to make all of our activities and accommodations inclusive and accessible to everyone. We do our very best to accommodate any special requests due to diet, mobility or any other concern and if we can, we will provide the best experience possible.