Something Deeper Than a Suntan

Located close to the Aegean sea in mainland Greece, Kalikalos offers a summer programme of holistic workshops, retreats, living-in-community guest weeks and alternative holidays.

Drawing on concepts pioneered by several international ecovillages and spiritual communities, the programme is unique in that it provides an holistic community experience in the form of workshops and retreats combined with a beach holiday. The 2010 Kissos campus venue is a pension on the fringe of the village in the lush Pilion Forest an hour and a half from Volos, the 6th largest city of Greece. We are about 3 miles (5 km) from the sea.

In keeping with the community nature of the summer programmes participants share in maintaining the centre—in particular, cooking, cleaning, gardening and washing up. In practice, this amounts to about 5-6 hours of karma yoga during the week. Participants help with the cooking and preparing of the main (usually evening) meal which is coordinated (focalised) by one member of staff. This typically amounts to one 2 1/2 hour cooking shift (6pm - 8:30pm) per week per person. Additionally, guests sign up for a couple of 35 min dinner clean-up shifts, one 90 min garden shift and participate in friday morning Centre clean-up. Taking responsibility as a group for our meals and cleanup makes the Centre's programmes very affordable as well as providing the daily work experience out of which we build authentic community. We are committed to demonstrating the principle made famous by the Findhorn Community that Work is Love in Action.

Click to read more about the Vision of this Centre

The picture to the right shows the outdoor dining area at the Kissos campus. Centre food is whole food Greek vegetarian, with as much organic local produce as possible. Vegan meals can be arranged by special order in advance.

The staff team in the summer of 2010 are coordinated by Jock Millenson, former Findhorn community herbalist and naturopath with long term interests in community building and nonviolent communication. Jock will be working with several present and former Findhorn colleagues including Johanna Aro Louis, Judith Bone, and Roger Doudna. They will be joined at different times during the summer by long-term Auroville resident, Ambre Stoll, former Theravadin Monk, Gosh Pos, NVC Trainer Gina Lawrie and others. In addition to the revolving resident staff, we generally take a couple of adjunct work exchange students and/or wwoofers to support the staff. All staff members and adjuncts are volunteers or in some cases actually contributing a bit financially towards their food and accommodation.

All these ingredients are brought together in the uniquely Greek healing tranquility and vibrancy of the mountains, the azure sky, the lush woodlands and the intense blue of the Agean sea. The schedule of every workshop, retreat or seminar includes daily beach time!

As the cooking is generally done by the community—staff, participants, and guests—we usually stick to basic tasty, vegetarian meals using mainly local produce. We provide a buffet breakfast and a main meal (usually dinner). Lunch is snack meal, generally a beach picnic box consisting of bread, butter/marge, olives, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers and fruit. Once a week (usually Tuesday) the staff have a day off from coordinating a main meal, so most everyone eats out that evening at one of the local tavernas, where a basic meal with a glass of wine runs about £12.00 (€13.00). The Tuesday taverna meal-out is not included in the basic price of your workshop/retreat.