Swimming holidays in Greece 2013

The lovely, sunny and relaxing Greek Island Kalymnos again gave to us an unbelievable holiday atmosphere connected with swimming and family hospitality. The Kalymnos swim trip 2014 was great and we loved it.
This is the 2nd year that Vladswim organised this European trip. This time 5 fantastic swimmers, 2 coaches and local guru Sevasti created a perfect 7 day swimming holiday. Photos, videos and stories about the trip are boosting everyone’s thoughts about attending this trip next year.

What we were doing there?

Simply – we swam about 30km in total during the week with 11 swims of 1-2hours long at an easy “just relax” Vlad pace with time to stop and admire the underwater world along the way. Cliffs, fish, caves, drop-offs and a little boat wreck made our swims exciting. The swims at different locations took our mind to a place where we were flying over untouchable places down at the bottom of the sea. Adventures came up when we started swimming and we discovered new beaches, only accessible by boat, so private and beautiful. The camera was always ready to take a photo to record for our memories, but the real experience is unforgettable.

We were lucky to be there

Out of the water, we experienced friendly and generous hospitality from the locals. The hospitality provided by Sevasti and her family opened the door to understanding Greek mentality and life. We learned lots about the history, culture and food from talking with her over our plate of lunch on the beach between swim. This life experience increased our love of the island because, step by step, we were close to the core of the life on it. The swimmers even practiced local dancing, ate local food on the beach and had a drink with local people. One of the greatest surprises was lunch on the Island Platy, where we had our meal on the table next to the local church on top of the island – what a memory! Kalymnos Island is famous to rock climbers, free divers and scuba divers but after our second our trip, the Island is also known as Vladswim Kalymnos swim Island! Restaurant owners, beach chair hirers, and lots of local people stopped us wanting to talk about the swim group. That was a life experience we will never forget.

What to say at the end?

We had a fantastic time. We (finally!) learned to be relaxed in the water. We taught Sevasti to swim and we were there when she swam 1.8km only 3 days after her first lesson. We swam from the boat to the beach. We drew maps of our swims on one of the restaurant walls. We drank (a lot of) the local beer Mythos. We discovered the weather is always fantastic on the Island. We swam from one island to the next (1.5km) for breakfast and then swam back for lunch. We are happy to be swimmers, we are thankful to the Greek people and we are looking forward to returning next year.
Thank you to Dean, Kylie, Bridget, Gretchen and Trish for a fantastic time and happy, easy swims. And a huge thank you to my wife Viktoria for her hard work to make this trip happen.