Activities at the Anastasia
This was the first time that I or any of our staff had tried a Neilson Beach Club holiday. The flight takes about 3 hours, and the transfer down to the resort is approx one and a half hours.
Once at the resort, you are greeted by the staff (surfer dude types who are mostly between ages of 18 and 30), that escort your luggage to your room.
The resort has approx 91 rooms, and they do have interconnecting for families if required, with in-room TVs, and air conditioning. Rooms also had a fridge, so if you wanted to go to the local supermarket called Smile (part of the Carrefour chain), you could buy drinks and other incidentals, which were very reasonably priced.
The sports facilities are quite extensive such as tennis, mountain biking, waterskiing, dinghy sailing, kayaking and windsurfing, to name a few. If you want to do the activities, then it is best to sign up the day after arrival, at the welcome meeting, as many activities were popular and you could end up missing out. Ben, at the ski villa on the beach, is a very patient instructor. I didnt quite master the art of waterskiing, but my husband much to my dismay, managed to do it first time.
The hotel has a lovely ESPA Spa, offering anything from a manicure to hot stone massages, with a full price list on display around the hotel, in your room and in the spa. There is also a hammam steam room, sauna, whirlpool Jacuzzi and indoorpool which have sliding doors that open out to face onto the beach and sea. There was also a small gym here. There were plenty of sun loungers around the large pool area, and also on the grassed area above the beach. Beach towels can be hired for 10 Euros for the week in case you forget to pack them.
The nearest town is Neo Skioni, which is 45-minute walk away, or you can take the mountain bikes out for free between 9am and 6pm, but you must take the bikes out in pairs for safety and as a tip, I would recommend you take closed shoes otherwise you cannot take them out.
Meals included all your breakfasts and lunches (hot and cold buffet style), with tea, coffee and water complimentary, except on Mon, Tues and Thurs nights which they term the non inclusive nights. On these nights, evening meals were not included but you could pay 25 Euros per adult and 20 Euros per child, otherwise you could take the shuttle bus from the hotel for which there is a 5 Euro per person charge, and eat out in the village where they had a variety of restaurants to suit all tastes and budgets. Drinks at the hotel were quite expensive – a bottle of wine costing approx 20 Euros.
Entertainment was low key, but they did have film night a couple of times a week in the open-air cinema, and karaoke and quizzes also.
The childrens clubs looked fabulous, and the children all seemed happy to be in there, which gives the parents a break. The clubs are from children aged 4 months to 17 years of age.
