As visitors to Greece, we encourage you to travel lightly and visit with care to maximise the benefits and minimise the negative effects of tourism.
Our home is the Pelion Peninsula, a relatively undeveloped region which still retains many of its traditional values. Please help us to do everything we can to preserve its uniquely Greek quality. Here are some tips on travelling lightly and visit with care.
Travel Lightly
- Plan your route to minimise carbon emissions, travel by train and public transport where possible (we offer a 15% discount if you do), and minimise internal flights. See seat61.com for information about rail or coach travel to Greece.
- Minimise flying time and stopovers – the worst carbon emissions are emitted during take off and landing.
- For the flights that you cannot avoid, offset the carbon emissions of your flight with ClimateCare.org. Your money is invested in carbon reducing initiatives around the world, offsetting the emissions caused by your flight. DEFRA have an informative area on their website regarding carbon offsetting which can be found here.
- Remove all excess packaging before you leave and recycle whatever is possible – waste disposal is difficult in remote places.
- While we provide vehicle daily transport to and from the local beach, we encourage you to walk when convenient to help reduce pollution and carbon emissions.
Visit with Care
- Read up on the local Pelion, Greece culture which dates back thousands of years. Learn a few words of Greek – travelling with respect earns you respect.
- In your free time, take time to discover more about the local culture and people’s lives and livelihoods.
- Please refrain from buying products made from endangered species, hard woods or ancient artifacts.
- Respect the local Greek village culture, traditions and holy places – if in doubt, ask for advice.
- Although Mt. Pelion is blessed with abundant pure water, please use it mindfully.
- Remember that local people have different ways of thinking and concepts of time – this just makes them different, not wrong! We invite you to cultivate the habit of curiosity and inquiry rather than assuming you know all the answers!
Kalikalos Holistic Centre and the Environment
- We do our best to buy organic food from local suppliers who we know and care about.
- We compost our food scraps and use the compost for our organic permaculture vegetable garden.
- We share our cooked food waste with a neighbor who feeds it to her chickens.
- We recycle all possible materials we use in the office and use recycled paper for all our correspondence.
- We recycle glass, metal, some plastics, paper and cardboard. Before you throw something in the rubbish, please check to see if it can go in the recycling.
- There is a special container in the kitchen for exhausted batteries.
- Take plastic bags with you when you go shopping.