Has anyone been on a Sunsail holiday? I have given in to the families’ demands for a beach holiday & we have booked their club Vounaki in Greece in May.

Has anyone ever been there? It promises to offer good MTB fun in the nearby hills. Do you have any tips please? Sounds great with biking aswell as widsurfing /dingy sailing.

As a family of windsurfers/sailors/bikers, we’d say Sunsail good, Neilson better. Biking is quite a new venture for Sunsail, but is a main activity with Neilson. But you’ll have a good time whatever. Just make the most of the wide range of stuff on offer.

Cheers PS44 we have booked it now. My family were getting a bit fed up with me dragging them to the mountains!

Radioman as an ex-bike guide for Neilson I can vouch for the quality of the product over Sunsails attempt at copying a formula. I worked just across the water from Vounaki in Nidri on the island of Lefkas. They also had a site in Gallini just up the road from Nidri. I used to see the Sunsail bike guides out on the trails and in the bars in the evenings. They would constantly complain about the bikes always breaking down and having no spares or tools to repair them! Where as Neilson used Orange and Gary Fisher high end bikes, Sunsail used bottom end Specialized bikes that fell apart on the rocky, dry and dusty Greek trails. The biking in Vounaki is a bit basic as well and watch out for the heat as it can hit 40 degrees there in the height of summer. I hope that helped and didnt dampen your enthusiasm too much?

Matt

I’ve been with Sunsail loads (we were Gold members at one point). Have to agree with what bikey says about the quality of the bikes – the guide on the last trip I went on was unimpressed and encouraging us to mark down the quality of bike equipment on the survey form in the hope they might get a hint (Gave him a 5 – he taught me to bunny hop with flats – the bikes a 1). That was the first time for a while though that I’d not taken my own bike, which is what I’d encourage if you want to get lots of biking in. Have to admit the bikes weren’t totally awful – I coped – but they could have been a lot better.

The advantage to me of Sunsail over Neilson is the whole package. The biking might not be as good, but you get a better combination of good windsurfing and sailing kit than at Neilson (last time I checked), which is handy if you want to windsurf whenever there’s enough wind, but like to sail high performance dinghys otherwise. The inclusive meals, and the childcare are also superior IMHO if you care about such things. For me on such a holiday biking is just something to do in the evening or when there’s not even enough wind for sailing.

Not been to Vounaki, sorry, just to Turkey (the wind’s better for windsurfing). However I’d encourage you to go out exploring – on my first few Sunsail trips I found some great trails the guides didn’t know about. Google Earth to check out potential trails in advance is also recommended.

Not sure about Sunsail copying Neilson though – apart from the biking maybe, my understanding is it’s largely the other way round (both copying from Club Med which is where we went when I was a kid).

Having also worked for Neilson in Greece but taken most of my holidays since with Sunsail, I would agree that the quality of the bikes and the guiding is far superior with Neilson.

However, in terms of the overall package, value for money and the child care in my opinion Sunsail holidays are better.

So if you want to major on windurfing/sailing and do a bit of biking then Sunsail is my recommendation.

If you want to mostly bike, then go with Neilson.

I’ll also vote for Neilson, although I’ve never worked for them! have used them a lot though, across Greece.

Riding is great, kit is great as is the guiding.

Sailing kit’s spot on for most people, unless you really want a loony tunes ride in one of the RS fleet, then just choose a sailing specific Neilson place. That said, I’m happy as a pig in poo on open water, solo in a Dart 16 on the trapeze, or humming along in a Laser. Plenty of baords as well, with a huge range of rigs.

Two things really swing it for me towards Neilson though;
1 – Wakeboarding – I board. With Neilson the cost is included in the holiday. At two to five sessions a day, that cost would soon really mount up!
2 – the staff – Neilson staff really are a great bunch! (Bikey, FieldMarshall, either of you ever do Sivota or Skioni?)