3 reasons a Skyros holiday is perfect for solo travellers ...

Though sometimes we simply need to get away from it all, our friends and family might not be free at the same time as us. So, what can we do in the circumstances? Go to Skyros!! 

Thinking about the solo travellers who have frequented Skyros holidays over the many years, Skyros have come up with 3 top reasons why the holidays are just perfect for solo travellers. 

1) Skyros’ safe and congenial atmosphere, which brings people together in a way daily life rarely does, will make you feel immediately at home. Find yourself in a circle of new friends, establish new bonds, make lifetime friendships and open yourself to new possibilities. 

2) Skyros will match you in a twin share room with someone of the same gender and a similar age. This means that solo travellers can avoid single supplements.  'Single supplements are a headache’, writes Sophie Butler from the Telegraph, so why not avoid a migraine and choose Skyros this summer? 

3) Skyros' wide selection of courses and activities. There's so much to choose from including yoga, writing, life skills, sailing, comedy, windsurfing, dance, music and much more. On the other hand, follow the Skyros philosophy and 'do as much or as little as you want'. Take the afternoon out to lie on the beach with your new blockbuster.  Relax and enjoy the good food and great company!

With Skyros, travelling solo needn’t be a daunting experience anymore. Make 2012 your year of adventure!

Why not call us for more information: tel: +(0) 1983 86 55 66 www.Skyros.com e: office@skyros.com. 

Memory Bells Tinkling with Pleasure

Yannis Andricopoulos, Ph.D. is co-founder of Skyros, the leading alternative holiday, and author of several books including his trilogy In Bed with Madness, The Greek Inheritance and The Future of the Past (Imprint Academic).

Here Yannis talks about how he came across Skyros Island over thirty five years ago, and how the idyllic landscape wrapped him in its charms, just as it has done ever since with so many Skyros participants. 

        Sometimes memories are like a fishbone stuck in time’s throat. At other times they are like bells tinkling with pleasure. The latter is the case when I recall the time I discovered Skyros island, Greece, something like thirty-five years ago. Here are the notes I made at that time ...

I love this island’s primordial nature, wild and yet curvaceous and flowing, the pastel of its landscape, the scents of the mellow summer nights, the mellifluous breathing of the Aegean Sea in whose ‘lustral waters Zeus himself once delighted’.

I love its village, too. Curved centuries back up on the hill for fear of pirates, it has narrow cobblestone streets paved with unhurried intimacy and wholesome humanness. Its white cubic-style houses, shaded by grapevines playing voluptuously with the nuances of the glittering sunlight, are a testament of indestructible innocence suspended in time.

In the square, the villagers weathered by the lingering memories of the millenniums, watch with amusement the visitors from their future and, awed, wonder what the world has in store for them.

I feel I’ve arrived at an integrated, unflappable world, at peace with itself, serene in its wisdom, ethereal and yet as solid and nurturing as Mother Earth.

On a stone, a surviving vestige of what was once a Homerian wall, I let my imagination glide in time and acquaint itself with the shadows of the past.

There, in front of me, are children of the Bronze Age playing boisterous games, Achilles, Odysseus, Nestor and Ajax, glorious Theseus telling king Lycomedes all about the dreadful Minotaur of Crete, and Athenian statesman Kimon arguing ferociously with the proud Skyrians. There, too, are Byzantine priests urging their flock to repent before God lost patience with their sinful lot, Venetian sailors and Algerian pirates carrying on their back flanks of wine and young women, Ottoman officials, obese, debauched and drowsy, and coltish kids Mussolini had sent to conquer the world. 

And then Nicos Pavlis, the Skyros Centre neighbour, passes in front of me, on his donkey, and a friendly smile on his sun-hardened, lined face. Kalimera, he says and offers me a bunch of red grapes as delectable as Aphrodite‘s nipples. I recall Democritus, the father of the theory of atomism. ‘Enough’, he said, ‘is as good as a feast. True riches are found only in contentment’.  And, Oh God, I have more than enough!

The odoriferous grapes, the convivial smile, the sensual delights of nature’s breathtaking pastiche, the simplicity of life and the ancient breath of every stone have all engulfed me in a cloud of spiritual bliss. They penetrated my soul and tuned me into the eternal rhythms of life.

Without even knowing it, I was on a spiritual journey. I listened to the whispering of the sea and I became that whispering. I absorbed the fragrance of the jasmine and I became the fragrance itself. I watched the eagles flying over the mountains and I became the proud high-flying bird circling the sky together with them. I had extended myself spatially and diachronically, being what my eyes could embrace in the sculptured countryside caressed by the Graces and what my psyche could trace in the fragmented memories of the mythical and more recent past.

I felt part of it all, humbled in reverence, ennobled by the experience, mesmerised by, and grateful for, the beauty revealing itself in all its simplicity.

And beauty was in everything – in the olive trees with the wrinkles of generations, the rocks with the wisdom of all times, the sea-nymphs dancing naked in the diaphanous shroud of the golden sunset. It was in the Greek sunlight, which, as Henri Miller said, ‘penetrates directly to the soul and opens the doors and windows of the heart’, in the odour of the freshly-baked bread, the fleshy figs on the table soaking in the early morning’s dew, the moist brown eyes of the Greeks.

I had internalised that youthful energy of the unfaltering eternity and was in tune with its indomitable volition that can recreate in its image our world. I was ready to play my part!

Alternative holidays began with The Skyros Centre - home to the renowned 'Writers' Lab' and 'Life Choices' programme - in Skyros' village in 1979. Later, in 1983, the holistic holiday by the sea in Atsitsa became part of the heart and soul of Skyros. Both centres are now part of the island’s natural landscape and even its mythology! 

Don't miss out on your chance to step into this magical setting, why not contact us for more details about our fabulous holidays. Tel: +44 (0) 1983 865566 www.skyros.com

Skyros Super Spring Offer ..

This fantastic sunny weather lately has reminded us here in the Skyros office that summer really is coming.... it's just around the corner! We're now really looking forward to the magic of the holidays on Skyros island and the bliss of Greek island life. There's just nothing to beat the combination!


John, Zoë, their newly-born baby boy, Felix, and the rest of the team (yes, Felix is already part of the team!) are due to arrive in Atsitsa next month to prepare the site for summer and supervise development of the bedroom facilities. Already in place, Julian and Andrew at the Skyros Centre in the village (left with Arthur Smith's group last summer) are busy preparing for the summer's guests, growing herbs ready for Vasso's kitchen and tending the gardens.

If you're now trying hard to choose between the holidays Skyros have on offer, then do get in touch and we'll do our best to help. And if you've already decided that this year you would like to go for what The Sunday Times described as 'one of the world's best holidays', well now's the time to put plans into action with the aid of our super Spring offer...

Book any Skyros holiday and pay in full between now and the 15th of April and you will receive £75 off your holiday. Combine this with your Friends of Skyros discount if you've been on a Skyros holiday before and you'll receive £150 off in total!

This means that your holiday could cost from as little as £69.50 per day including accommodation, three delicious meals per day, a choice from a wide range of courses and activities run by world-class facilitators, and the company of the most interesting, refreshing people you could hope to meet. Whether you arrive on your own or with friends you'll feel at home straight away. It's just that kind of place. But be sure to book before midnight Sunday 15 April. Don't miss this opportunity! You'll never look back....

... So hop to it like the Easter bunny and book your Skyros holiday today.

SKYROS, the holiday you can take home with you. www.skyros.com +44 (0)1983 865566

My experience in Atsitsa .....

Our guest writer this week is Megan Walker. Megan describes herself as a small town girl from New Zealand who in her year of adventure spent a summer working as a work scholar in Atsitsa, Skyros Island, 2011.

 
In this blog Megan shares her experience of Atsitsa, where she experienced a taste of the Skyros way of living - a community focused atmosphere that's perfect for building lasting friendships and making unforgettable memories.




Skyros island itself is a little rugged, with an old time feel that allows you to wrap yourself up in just being in the moment. There are around 3,000 residents and about 40,000 goats. Skyros Village is beautiful, and is built high up behind a great rock, to protect the people from Pirates in earlier times. According to Greek mythology, Achilles was hidden on the Island as a young boy by Lycomedes - King of Skyros - to prevent the prophecy that he will die should he go to war. Rupert Brooke, a British Soldier who was to serve at Gallipoli, is buried on Skyros Island in an Olive Grove in the South West of the Island. He famously wrote the WW1 poem 'The Soldier'. 


Upon arrival in Atsitsa I was greeted by all sorts of welcoming faces. During the welcome speeches by John and Zoë, I finally worked out what those little bins were for beside the toilets... A fellow work scholar took me up to Hut 27 - my new home for the next couple of months. Some huts had power points, not ours, but it was certainly home. Marina and I were always coming back with something new to make it more homely. Our nearest bathrooms were just up the steps behind our hut, and it is notable to say that they had no ceilings at all. While this may sound a bit strange, it is pretty impressive to have a shower at night time, and be looking up at the stars! 


My hut mate, Marina Sossi and I quickly became good friends; she was an amazing support for me at Atsitsa, and a fantastic yoga teacher. 

We had an awesome group of permanent staff, from the Admin Team, the Kitchen Staff, the Teachers and the Work Scholars. Each and everyone had something to offer, and we worked well together. It was nice to be in an environment where personal development really meant exactly that, and we all had space and support to just be ourselves. There is a distinct lack of communication with the outside world which for the most part is embraced. Limited internet and terrible cell phone service mean that the outside world sifts through in only small increments. For me, it was a welcome respite from the internet. 


As Work Scholars, we saw to the day to day running of the Centre. We were rostered on to work shifts, either early or late most days, and we could be doing anything from helping in the kitchen, housekeeping, sweeping steps, working in the bar, setting up and clearing the dining room or making up huts. In our free time, we could choose to go to courses, go to the beach, lie in hammocks, and head in to the Village or to a neighbouring beach - anything we liked! Orla and I even took to stealing off with Dave the Sailor's scooter on our days off to get away and explore the Island. We ventured away to 20 minute beach, Aios Petros Beach, Lanaria and Skyros Village - bliss! 


The Centre is based on the ancient Greek philosophy of Democracy. Participants very much directed what would happen during their session, and there were regular community and 'demos' meetings to facilitate open communication and discussion about what was happening at the Centre. Any censure of behaviour was public, and then people moved on. Issues were discussed openly (a very strange notion to a conservative hard line kiwi!) and honestly, thus giving everyone the chance to talk about it and move on. Oekos groups were formed, where groups of up to eight people met daily to talk, and be listened to. Further to that, co-listening was also encouraged, where two people meet on a regular basis to talk and to be listened to - no discussion. I learned a lot about communication at Skyros, and even improved the way I interact with others.


The sessions were set in 10 day lots. New 'participants' would arrive on a transfer, and would spend the next ten days in huts and doing courses. The first four days would be a set of courses, then a day off in the middle (mid-session) to have a break and go into Skyros Village, and then another set of four days of courses. 

While I was there, I learned to windsurf, went on siesta sails, went abseiling, took writing and art classes, balloon making, took up yoga, meditation, and laughter yoga, sang and danced. We came up with cabaret performances, danced the night away in the bar, and laughed until we couldn't breathe. The more in-depth courses were things like 'body mind centring', 'how to have the best year of your life' 'dancing the rainbow' and 'image work'. Some of the courses were more challenging than others, and it was nice to be able to choose to do as little or as much as we wanted.


What a summer I had! Although my Grecian tan will slowly fade, the friends, the food, the courses and the Atsitsa sunsets will remain in my memories. I feel so privileged have been a part of the team this year, and I would love to return again to rekindle some of that Atsitsa magic. 


To Zoë, John, the Teachers, Marina, Paulina, Orla, Tara, Barbara, Matt, Kuky, Tom, Anna, David, Michelle, Mark, Dave, Virginia, Jamie, Takis, Dimitri (Fiona!) and anyone else I have missed, Thank you all for an amazing Summer. 


Megan shows us that there is much more to Atsitsa than its courses, such as a beautiful setting, yummy food and great company. All of which have a positive impact, making Skyros the holiday to remember. 


Skyros will be running holidays in Atsitsa from 21 July - 21 September 2012, or if you need that much needed break a little sooner, why not try our weekend workshops at The Grange by the Sea which take place throughout the year. See www.skyros.com for more.

Celebrate Spring with Kate Daniels and Alison Goldie

Shake off the winter grunge and join us for a long weekend at The Grange by the Sea on the beautiful Isle of Wight, for some fresh thinking, new company and amusing activities.

On this course you will invigorate your confidence and communication skills with classes in flirting and improvisation. Alison's infamous ‘Flirtshop’ is a crash-course in self-awareness, a guide to coming out of your shell, suspending self-censorship, selling your assets, and relating to others with ease and cheerfulness. Improvisation will reinforce your nerve and help you to say yes to creative adventures and explorations.

Kate's workshop – Life is a Cabaret, encourages you to find your voice and to step out into Spring with presence and impact. If you have ever dreamed of singing but felt too anxious to try, then this is the course for you. If you ever feel you edit your life to make room for others - join up and learn how to take your space with style. Along with joyful harmony singing, the course you will use ideas from performance and motivational psychology to reduce self-consciousness and allow you to shine.



The fundamental elements of any of The Grange by the Sea workshops are in the same spirit as any Skyros holiday: great hospitality, like-minded people, a forum for experimental creativity and warm hosting, courtesy of Kate and Alison, two of Skyros’ most experienced facilitators.

Together, Kate and Alison will facilitate other inspiring entertainments for your optional pleasure. And in your free time, there’s the lovely seafront and countryside to witness, fresh and budding and beautiful…don’t ignore it. Come join us and Celebrate Spring!


Arrivals are from 4pm on Friday afternoon. Dinner, if requested, is at 7:30pm and this will be followed by an introduction of the course and a get together. Sessions will begin on Saturday morning from 10:30 to 12:30, Saturday afternoon from 5:00 to 7:00, Sunday morning from 10:30 to 12:30, Sunday afternoon from 5:00 to 7:00, and the final session will be on Monday morning from 10:30 to 12:30.


For more information or to book, please call Jenni on 01983 867644.

At the cutting edge ...

Our guest speaker this week is Yannis Andricopoulos, Ph D. Yannis is co-founder of Skyros, the leading alternative holiday, and author of several books including his trilogy In Bed with Madness, The Greek Inheritance and The Future of the Past (Imprint Academic).

Here Yannis reflects on how Skyros is at the cutting edge of modern holidays...

It’s often the plainest of details that take over our lives, blinding us to the larger picture which simply fades from view.

I’m talking here from personal experience. I live by the sea, which has always been my dream, but absorbed in my everyday work, I don’t even notice it! Part of my world are the robins and red squirrels that play in the garden, yet often I don’t see them because I’m preoccupied with one issue or another! And for years I have been in a great relationship but often I fail to appreciate it because I’m consumed by the day’s ups and downs.

The reasons for my failures always seem to make good sense. You can’t really miss the day’s deadlines, can you? If you do, the roof comes down! But in the process and without even realising it, your life is determined by all these details, destined to be forgotten and the beauty of the larger picture is as hidden as the sun on a rainy day.

The same has been happening to my relationship with Skyros. I focus, for example, on the films David Babsky is making with some Skyros facilitators, the re-making of the Skyros facebook page, the Skyros video film Nick Cohen is finalising, the request of an Australian journalist for information on our salsa courses in Cuba, the BBC’s Nick Easen asking about the situation in Greece, the partial renovation of the Atsitsa building and so on.

What, as a result, do I miss? Not the beauty of the Skyros vision which is in my blood, but the importance of this vision in the contemporary world. The latter was thankfully brought home to me recently by a few journalists. It was a sudden occurrence so swift that I felt as stunned as Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus, when he was hit on the head by a tile thrown at him from a rooftop by a woman!

One of these journalists was Kate Birch, editor of the UAE magazine Acquarius. She wrote: "The 'fly and flop' holiday is so passé… These days smart women are taking edu-vacations, where learning - not lounging - is the name of the game". The prime example she used to illustrate her story was the "world-renowned" Skyros Writers’ Lab.

Then it was the London Evening Standard’s Jasmine Gardner. She wrote: "Holidaymakers with money are shunning hotel ostentation in favour of more simple, unique experiences. They are moving from gold taps to simple pleasures, from more choices to curated ones, from money-no-object to value, from conspicuous to considered. In a world of über-choice people want what they can't buy so easily - experience".

But, of course, this is exactly what Skyros is and always has been!

And then The Guardian emphasised the importance of values-led businesses and the difficulties they face in the current economic climate. The issue was how those entities that generate social value can be supported without losing, as a result, sight of their values if, of course, and when they are taken over by multinationals with an eye to the right opportunity.

All the above are the criteria by which a contemporary cutting edge enterprise is judged. And all these criteria are easily met by Skyros. For Skyros is an educational holiday which, apart from various skill-development courses it offers, cultivates and stimulates the desire for something more substantial: to be rather than have, create rather than consume and grow rather than just exist. In the pursuit of this goal, it advocates a simple way of life away from conspicuous consumption and ostentatious living and upholds the virtues of the human spirit as opposed to those of our materialistic, consumer, technocratic culture.

Skyros has no gurus to preach the ‘truth’ and does not intend to provide answers. But by questioning and challenging our culture’s assumptions, it helps people to get in touch with their gut feelings and do what they need to do to lead a happy and fulfilling life.

Is this all news to me? Of course not! But involved on a daily basis with the nitty-gritty of the enterprise, I had overlooked the fact that Skyros is once again at the cutting edge of the current thinking and, as it happens, the holiday world. It is in vogue again as it has been for years since the very beginning, back in 1979, the time it opened the path to what is now known as educational holidays which inspired hundreds of other holiday ventures and influenced the thinking of even multinational holiday operators.

Skyros, The Guardian wrote, is still the leader – ‘the first and still the best’. I can, somehow, see it better now that I can see the whole forest again, the sky, the ground, the sea on the side and the mix of all the details that create the very unique experience that is Skyros. Rather than bits, I can hear again the whole symphony. And the big picture isn’t just the endpoint, the arrival at the dream; it’s also the launchpad for future developments.

Wow, I never thought I would say one day "Do you want to be trendy? Then take a Skyros holiday"!

Skyros runs holidays in Greece this season from July. For a copy of your brochure call 01983 865566, or email the team at holidays@skyros.com.

Alternatively, for more information about Skyros, including how it all began, visit www.Skyros.com.

Skyros - a holiday to take home with you.

Our Guest Speaker this week is Jenny Denton. Jenny went on her first Skyros holiday in 2007, where she got a taste of the Skyros community way of living - in which everyone has a part to play.

Here Jenny shares the story of how, on her return from Skyros, she set up a local community group which now has over 100 members and continues to go from strength to strength.

The Skyros Holidays brochure talks about offering a transformative experience and a taste of community whose function depends on the participants and the staff. The fantastic thing about my visit to Skyros was that not only did it transform my own life, but also undoubtedly the lives of so many of the people who live in my local area. People repeatedly tell me how the ideas and initiatives that I brought back with me have touched their lives and those of their families.


I came to Atsitsa for the first time in 2007 and then again the following year. During my second visit I took the opportunity at Demos (the morning community meeting where thoughts and news are shared) to tell everyone about how I had taken the Skyros spirit home to my own street and started to develop a local group – the Wheeldon Avenue Group – now the Six Streets Group….


The Six Streets Group

Six Streets is a not-for-profit, non-political and non-religious community group. It exists to increase neighbourliness and friendship. It began with the 'Wheeldon Avenue Group', started in 2007 when one resident (me!) had the simple idea of posting letters through every door in my street asking if anyone would be interested in getting together over some communal activities. And many were, with several people saying that they had always wanted to do something like that but never had.  They hadn’t been to Skyros!

Over the last four years, the community group has grown and transformed – it now even boasts its own website and forum. It includes book groups and walking groups, street sales and community picnics; plus funds have also been raised so that events such as Christmas and Halloween parties can take place, along with a newsletter to keep people in touch.


An important theme throughout its development has been the way people have been able to help each other out - from babysitting or sharing DIY tips, to lifts to the station or sharing a veg patch. Something that I wrote in my letter to me on both years I was at Skyros (Skyros participants are encouraged to write to themselves explaining how they feel at that moment, so they can read back at a later date) was that I had learned that you must not judge people and that everyone has something to offer. This is something that is central to the Six Streets Group and has proved true over and over again.

This Christmas we held an annual Christmas party with about 100 residents! At the beginning of December 2011 we launched our first living Advent Calendar with 28 households unveiling a display in their front window on an allocated date.  Plus 2012 looks to hold just as much excitement, with a highlight being the Six Streets Group latest initiative – an Art’s Trail.

The Six Streets’ aim is to build a spirit of community, bringing people in the area together to develop a sense of neighbourliness, shared community and reduced isolation. I cannot encourage other Skyros participants enough, to think about doing something similar!


With thanks to Skyros for the inspiration,
Jenny Denton


Jenny is a brilliant example of how Skyros Holidays can have a positive effect on your life. We are all at The Skyros Holidays office, truly inspired by Jenny's motivation and enthusiasm, and privelledged to have played a role in such an inspiring community.


Skyros Holidays will be running holidays in Greece from 21 July - 21 September, and weekend workshops at The Grange by the Sea throughout the year. See www.skyros.com for more.