Guests staying at the resort can explore the Athos peninsula and its environs with a host of activities and bookable excursions. Such experiences include cruises along the western coast to aforementioned Mount Athos, and around local islands such as Ammouliani and Drenia on one of the hotel’s yachts. You can also charter a private boat or rent your own and play captain for the day; there are quite a few different options with Explore Boat Trips. For the active and adventurous, there’s guided sea kayaking and sailing to nearby coves and bays, and hiking through the forest of Varvara, past waterfalls and through local villages, stopping to try traditional local sweets and liquor made by the Dryades, a women-led cooperative. 

Those with a taste for good food and wine will enjoy excursions to the resort’s organic farm where they can get involved in harvests and egg collecting, or wine tours via the city of Lerissos and path of Ancient Akanthios. You can try honey – lots of different varieties – as well as mountovina, a honey-based alcoholic drink that’s produced in the area. There are opportunities on this tour, the Route of Arnea, to learn more about the art of beekeeping at a local exhibition as well as two other museums; one on traditional folklore, one on textiles. You’ll also get to see the “Aristocrat Town” of Eastern Halkidiki and Church of Saint Stefanos which dates back to 1812 and has a remarkable glass floor displaying Christian, Byzantine and post-Byzantine archeological structures and artefacts which were discovered after the building nearly burnt down in 2005.