Teenage Heaven - Kassiopi, Corfu, 2006

by Alison Boler

The Best Holiday with Teenagers Ever!!

Do you struggle to find a holiday destination that will please both you and the wife/husband and your teenage children? Somewhere that offers some diving too?

Do you want to become a total legend to your own dear surly Kevins?

We have found the answer and I promise you, you will also have one of the best and most relaxing holidays ever.
Read on.

Question from 16 year old daughter: "I've worked very hard for my GCSE's. Any chance that me and my friends can go away on holiday together alone this summer?"
Answer from parents who remember such holidays: "No chance at all"..... "but, you and your friends could come on holiday with us and we could be semi invisible except for dinner, quarrel refereeing, daily money dispensing..."

And so, it came to be that we found ourselves looking for a villa somewhere in the Med with the following criteria:
1. Plenty of nightlife but suitable for the under 18s not the Club 18 - 30 crowd.
2. Somewhere we could let them loose till the early hours without going grey and having to stay up ourselves.
3. Good eateries and pleasant surroundings for Bob and I.
4. Diving nearby.
5. No need for a car ie walk to all amusements. Didn't want to be running the unpaid taxi service on holiday as well as every other day of the year!



After a great deal of research, I stumbled across the village of Kassiopi in north east Corfu. It sounded perfect. It was. O-mi-god it was..... A pretty town with a lively but walkable centre clustered around a picturesque harbour. Plenty of bars and a couple of superb discos but nothing "hardcore". Much frequented by British families holidaying with teens but not the sort of place you would find hen/stag parties. It's lively enough that the teens will feel they are having a "totally wicked" time but you can rest easy in your bed knowing that they are safe enough.



Most people stay in villas and small pensions. There really aren't any large hotels nearby. We found a fantastic place courtesy of Meon Villas which I can't recommend highly enough. Villa Aliki was part of a group of three wonderful properties perched on the outer headland of the harbour, each facing out to sea but at a slightly different angle to remain very private. They even share a little cove accessed from the end of the gardens. But, walk down the drive and within literally 100m you are in the heart of the harbour nightlife. Perfect! It meant that Bob and I could retire at midnight and the girls could walk back together a couple of hours later. We worried a bit about night time noise being that close, but it wasn't an issue at all because of the way that the house faced. Plus with the a/c on and therefore the windows shut you really couldn't be disturbed.

The villa was absolutely first class with 4 ensuite double bedrooms all with private balconies and amazing bathrooms. There was a spacious lounge and kitchen which opened out on to the gardens and terraces. There was also an attached studio with double bed, bathroom and kitchenette. The garden sloped away to the sea and there was an idyllic infinity pool to lounge around.

There are plenty of places to stay though from rooms for rent upwards to absolutely amazing places. You can find something to suit your budget.




The pattern of our day went something like this:
0900 Bob and I get up. Total silence from elsewhere in villa. We enjoy the pool and gardens all to ourselves. Breakfast on the terrace. Utter bliss.
1300 Movement in other rooms and teenagers emerge blinking into the sunlight. We all eat serve yourself lunch on the outdoor terrace.
1400 - 1800 Everyone lounges round the pool/goes to beach/ventures out on manhunt around town (not Bob and I, you understand)
1800 - 2100 Showers and Bob and I enjoy sundowners and nibbles on terrace alone again to watch the sunset. Teenagers in rooms beautifying themselves for evening ahead.
2100 -2230 Dinner all together at restaurant in town
2230 - 0030 Bob and I sit out at one of the many bars enjoying Greek coffee and 5 star Metaxa and watch the world go by.
0030 Totter home

There were lots of cocktail bars/coffee bars/chill out zones where you could just peg out and enjoy the evening. If your tastes run to it you could go karaoke or watch and join in the Greek dancing in other bars. There were also films on show in some places, sports bars etc.

It was our first visit to Corfu and we were incredibly impressed. It would not be an exaggeration that Bob approached this holiday with an attitude somewhere to the right of Utter Dread!!! It is a testament to the place that he very quickly decided that this was indeed one of our most relaxing holidays and is keen to go back.

I'm sure there are hellhole resorts (all the stag and hen parties on our flight must have been going somewhere!) but the north east coast is just a treasure and picture postcard perfect. We will definitely go back again - we want to and the girls can't wait! Take my word for it, you and the partner will have a fantastic time and your teens will have the time of their lives and beg you - beg you - to take them back next year. It might even earn you some lawnmowing points.

Getting There:

We flew with Excel from Manchester into Corfu Town. The flight takes about 3 hours. It would be fair to say that the flight in both directions was quite dreadful: noisy, late, very very cramped seats (or am I just getting larger) and the worst airline food I've ever had. Excel are serving a new system where instead of a tray, you get a wierd rolled up mat effort. The food tasted as though it was reconstituted cardboard - you simply couldn't tell what the meat was! Anyway, there are loads of charter flights in the season and I hope yours is better than ours. It cost about £218 return including tax.

Kassiopi:
Kassiopi is about 50 minutes by taxi from the airport. It's a very scenic drive along the coast road, a bit hair raising at times depending on your taxi driver and his over taking policy. The town itself is very pretty and has more than enough bars, restaurants, little shops and supermarkets to keep you going for several weeks. The food quality was extremely good - the best we've found in Greece. Prices were reasonable - anything from about 6 Euro to 15 Euro for a dinner.

There are several internet cafes if you want to keep in touch. They seem to charge 1.5 Euro for 20 minutes - seemed pretty reasonable.

You can take a number of tours: Albania (just across the water and very clearly visible), monastries, mountains, beaches, boat tours, Corfu Town. We spent a fantastic evening in Corfu Town which is an intriguing mixture of Venice, Paris and Palma.

There are about 5 or 6 walkable local beaches. Most are pebbly and the larger ones come equipped with sunbeds and umbrellas and watersports. The equipment looked good. There were no jetskis (thank goodness) but you could ride the big banana, the inflatable sleigh, the ringos, waterski, boardski.

Renting small motor boats is extremely popular as many of the coves and beaches are only accessible from the sea. There was a large fleet in Kassiopi harbour for 1/2, full day or weekly rent - pretty reasonable.

Quad biking was also very popular and there were a couple of places to rent them in town.

Diving:
Diving in Kassiopi is all about a fantastic character called Angelo.

Corfu Divers' shop is just above the harbour in the main street of town and we stumbled in there on the first night to enquire about diving. We were met by Angelo who is the owner and main instructor and a truly larger than life character. He offers sports diving courses and guided diving but is also a Trimix instructor and a talented freediver and technical diver. He was part of one of the early Britannic expeditions and his family are locals - everyone knows him. The shop has rental equipment plus a full range of other retail goods. Angelo runs all manner of training courses, experience dives and divemaster training. He has plans to open a technical diving facility in the future.

Let's say right away that diving with Angelo (and his 3 other diving instructors) is a very laid back affair especially above the water. There is a refreshing absence of bureacracy which may make you feel that it's going to be sloppy once you get in the water. Do not worry. Angelo is as sound as a pound and watches over you with an eagle eye whilst never being dictatorial. His 3 other guys are all fine too (especially Henry who both my daughters fell madly in love with)!

The rental equipment is in very good condition and it doesn't seem to affect the price whether you have it or not - nothing is a problem. You need a thick wetsuit. The water is pretty warm in the upper 9m but once below that level the thermocline is sharp, sometimes down to 16C from 30C. You need the thick suit and the hood up and that's from someone who wears a 3mm in the Red Sea regardless of season.

Angelo knows over 100 sites nearby, mostly very undived due to the difficulty of diving in Greece up to this year. I doubt anyone is more knowledgeable about this part of the island and its underwater topography. At the moment all diving is from shore, from his beach base in Kassiopi but he plans to have ribs in the water for the 2007 season now that legislation has been relaxed. This will open up many more dive sites.

We dived a number of the reefs around Kassiopi and also one very special dive on an historic wreck site that was littered with amphora. The reefs are pleasant without being spectacular - typical Med scenery - but there were more fish than I expected. Some quite sizeable schools and plenty of starfish, octopus, bristleworms, anemones. Visibility is pretty good. Near the shore you can often find haloclines where fresh water is running in and this creates a shimmering effect.

The wreck dive was really amazing especially as it was only a short swim off a popular beach. It started in about 25m and went on down. Probably of Roman age, there is very little actual wreckage left other than some encrusted timbers but there are hundreds of amphora just lying around. You can see where it hit the reef and then slid back down quite clearly.

Kitting up was very easy. Angelo has a line deployed from the shore to one of the rocks and the bcd/tanks/regs are deployed along the line. You get into your wetsuit on a wooden jetty, take your mask, fins and weightbelt into the shallow water and put them on and then finally get the rest on in standing depth. It couldn't be easier in the very sheltered shallow water. Also, with temperatures well into the 30Cs it is such a fabulous relief to get your wetsuited body into the water!

Dives cost around 35 Euro each including all equipment and you can stay a good long time for your money. No enforced short times. Prices decrease the more you dive. If you take 10 dives, it costs 250 Euro all in, for example. They start the first dive around 9am but are incredibly flexible at fitting you in, it's really a case of name your time. With 3 qualified instructors on hand and a couple of divemasters, they can be.

They teach PADI at the moment but hope to take on the BSAC programme in the future. I saw a lot of teens having the Discover Scuba course and others - like mine - out on dives. Angelo is great with kids! One of his instructors (Henry) has been diving with him since he was very young right up through DiveMaster and has now passed his Instructor exam in the UK. It would be a great place to learn.

Links:
Meon Villas Website
Corfu Divers: +30 26630/29226. Mob: +30 6946 821138
email:corfudivers@yahoo.com
Website
Kassiopi Local Site: Website

Alison Boler, BSAC National Instructor, SSI AOW Instructor, alison.boler@bsactravelclub.co.uk
Bob Boler, BSAC National Instructor, SSI Platinum Pro Instructor
Lucy Boler SSI Master Diver
Daisy Boler SSI Junior Advanced Open Water Diver