When you think Greece you usually think sun-filled summers, pristine sandy beaches and white-washed architecture. However, Greece is quickly becoming a popular all-seasons destination exerting much creative effort to attract the keen year round traveler, who seeks a unique experience as they escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life in the big city.
It’s difficult not to be impressed by the Grand Forest Resort located in the outskirts of Metsovo, a small traditional town of exquisite beauty in Northwestern Greece. The hotel stands at 1350 meters above sea level and is in absolute harmony with nature, perched on a hillside overlooking the breathtaking settings of the Pindos mountain range and surrounded by a virgin pine forest.
As I sit in the lobby waiting for the hosts, and owners, of this jaw dropping 5-star accommodation for a tour, I’m offered a home-made refreshment made directly from the region’s mountain tea and local spices. Immediately, I feel the warmth and hospitality of the place.
Ellie Barbagiannis arrives with a large smile to take me on a tour of her family’s latest endeavor. The 62-suite hotel opened its doors in 2013 and offers guests luxury class accommodation with scenic mountain views along with health & wellness facilities including a mountainside infinity pool, a fully equipped gym, a beauty center, an indoor heated pool, a wide range of outdoor activities (e.g. horse riding, hiking & excursions, paragliding, mountain biking, rafting and even wild truffle hunting) in addition to airy and comfortable spaces for events and conferences.
I’m here to find out the story behind this 17 million Euro investment – how it all began, its vision and future. After the tour I sit down with Ellie and her father Themis Barbagiannis (T.B) who take me back to the very beginning.
T.B: Part of the land, where the Grand Forest Resort happily sits today, belonged to my mother. With a lot of patience we bought neighboring parcels, one by one, until we were happy with the land size we were looking required to make the Grand Forest Resort a reality. The natural environment is extremely important to us and hence we kept the resort’s built area to 10,000 square meters.
T.B: This is my home town and it was always a dream of mine to build a mountainside resort on the family land which lies on heavenly soil. It was difficult for the locals to understand my vision. Aside from my grandfather’s hut, there was nothing else here – no infrastructure, no roads, no services just an immense forested area. But I saw the opportunity when the Egnatia highway was being built in the 1990s – it was a major infrastructure that would give easy access to this stunning yet very inaccessible region. Additionally, I had wanted to create something unique and modern that didn’t exist in the area. That was my dream: to bring a new and fresh idea to Metsovo which had always been a traditional and historic town. I like to think that we paved the road in this hinterland for high quality infrastructure, a bright future and job creation.
T.B: The paper work started in 2006 and took approximately 3 years to gather the necessary permits from the archeology, forestry and city planning departments. Construction started in 2010 and in 2013 we opened the doors to the public. The local town planning office was especially helpful and believed in the project and the vision from the very beginning. Unfortunately, you hear a lot of stories over having to bribe officials in order to get the appropriate building licenses. This was not the case for us and I’d like readers to know that Greece is changing and becoming more transparent.
T.B: The hotel was built during the recession and it started to welcome guests in the recession. Dreams however are recession proof. Thankfully, even within the recession we’re doing well and we expect to start making a return on our investment in 6-8 years. I would urge all investors to believe in Greece and believe in themselves. Times are changing for the better.
T.B: When you’re building at an altitude of 1350 meters, you will encounter challenges. The major challenge was the fact that the area was deserted, the land was entirely virgin and we didn’t have a reference point to go by so we had to start all plans from absolute scratch. We also had to build a 3 km road ourselves which takes you from the Anilio exit on the Egnatia highway straight to the resort. That required additional planning and permission. It was also impossible to work during the winter months and we had some delays. But with enough good will and perseverance we overcame the obstacles.
T.B: The land, built area and the road that leads to the hotel totaled 17 million Euros. The resort was possible thanks to a NSRF grant in addition to our own funds. Looking forward our long term vision is to a) expand the Grand Forest Resort into a small settlement and b) become completely self sustainable. Hence the next phase will include the establishment of approximately 20 mountainside villas, the creation of our own organically grown production and the implementation of renewable energy sources so as not to rely on conventional sources since we already possess the infrastructure to produce geothermal energy.
We, at Tekmon Geomatics, would like to thank Themis and Ellie Barbagiannis for sharing their experience and we welcome all our readers to visit the Grand Forest Resort for an unparalleled stay in the best of Greece’s scenic countryside.
The land development in Greece blog aims to promote the positive side of Greece. If you have a story on how you made use of your Greek land, don’t hesitate to contact us at irene@tekmon.gr we’d love to share your story.