The Peligoni Club – Pace Week review

I am a (self-confessed) wellness retreat guru. I’ve been on an all-female surf and yoga retreat in Morocco, practised meditation with monks on an Ayurvedic retreat in Sri Lanka, sweated my way through an intense strength and boxing-led fitness retreat in Crete and hiked through the mountains of Madeira on a health and wellness retreat.
As such, I like to think I know a thing or two about what makes a retreat – where you can rest, replenish, heal or push your body outside its comfort zone – different to, well, just a sporty holiday with fitness activities.
The Peligoni Club, on the northeastern side of Zakynthos in the Ionian Sea, has quite the reputation as an idyllic family-run private members’ club in the sun. Described as a ‘barefoot luxury beach club’, this Greek getaway is incredibly popular with young families and yummy mummies (visited by the likes of Amanda Holden and Millie Mackintosh), and offers everything from watersports to tennis.
Twice a year (every May and October) The Peligoni Club puts on a wellness retreat like no other – aptly called ‘Pace Week’.
For five days, the fitness glitterati of (mainly) London descend on the Peligoni Clubhouse for a jam-packed schedule of mindfulness workshops, killer bike rides and sweaty strength sessions. There are – quite literally – hundreds of classes to choose from across the week, all led by well-known fitness and nutrition experts, including the likes of Jasmine Helmsley, Richie Norton, Sir Chris Hoy and Sophie Hellyer. And the best bit? You can take it all at your ‘pace’.
What’s the vibe?
Wrapped in stone walls and olive trees, The Peligoni Club has a laidback, easy-come-easy-go vibe with a creamy palette of floaty fabrics. Choose between a veiled four-poster day-bed with epic sea views or a sun-drenched sunlounger by the calming pool, featuring a swim-up bar.
Pace week attracts the fit and healthy – from reformer-Pilates-going mums, tennis-obsessed guys in their 30s and sporty IronMan-training pals. There are groups of friends in their 50s, mums and daughters, solo travellers and couples, and many are returning guests – raving about their previous ‘pace week’ experiences.
Pretty much anything goes here. If you want to work on improving your running fitness, there’s a run club every day. Or if you’d prefer to perfect your backhand, then there’s everything from serve-specific workshops to volley practice. If, like me, you’re looking for something a little less high-energy, there are slow-flow yoga classes, breathwork workshops and sharing circles. And, if none of that sounds like a bit of you, you can just lounge, rosé in hand, and make a dent in your paperback novel. You do you.
The accommodation
The Peligoni Club isn’t a hotel. So there are no rooms or any form of accommodation at the beach club itself. Instead, you book a nearby villa or cottage (through the Peligoni site) and the membership fee is automatically calculated based on the number of people in your party and when you’re planning on visiting.
The villas vary quite drastically in price, style and size. You can choose anything from a super modern holiday home that sleeps up to 12 people with an open-plan kitchen and an infinity pool or a basic studio apartment for two.
I stayed at The Caves – a one-bed private suite for two people – with my friend, Tori. It featured incredible panoramic views and its own plunge pool, but if I’m honest, we hardly spent any time there other than to shower and sleep.
We hired a car from the airport (it’s about a 45-minute drive) which was really useful since our accommodation was a five-minute drive up the hill from the club. However, if you don’t hire a car (and don’t fancy walking up the hill in the midday Greek heat) then the club does offer a mini-bus type transfer service to and from your accommodation via Whatsapp – you just need to book in advance.
How to book: 1) Choose a week you would like to visit. 2) Pick a villa. 3) When booking the villa, add your Peli memberships & watersports upgrades to complete the booking.
Pace week highlights (and lowlights)
As a keen cyclist (I’ve completed a 70.3 IronMan and recently cycled up Alpe d’Huez ahead of the pros finishing the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift) cycling with Sir Chris Hoy MBE – aka one of the most successful Olympic cyclists of all time – was high on my to-do list.
There are eight rides you can sign up to throughout the week – catering to all levels from beginners who’ve yet to learn the art of cycling with cleats to those used to putting in 300km in the saddle each week. With road shoes and helmets available to hire, you don’t have to use up valuable suitcase space with cycling paraphernalia – but if you’re experienced with cleats, there’s no harm in bringing your own.
I excitedly signed up for the very first ride of the week, starting 8.30am on the Monday morning – a ‘blue’ level ride (aimed at intermediate riders used to cycling circa 50km a week) – but my body had slightly different plans.
At this point, for total transparency, I should be honest and say at the time of heading to Greece I was 13 weeks pregnant. My first trimester has been pretty rough (I’ve spent the majority of the past 7 weeks becoming incredibly well-acquainted with my bathroom floor, sometimes throwing up as much as 10 times a day…).
But since I’d booked this week off work over 6 months ago, I was determined to try not to let my ‘morning’ sickness get the better of me (although why they call it morning sickness when it’s morning, noon and night sickness is completely beyond me!).
So, cycling kit on, I headed down to the Peligoni Club, electrolytes in hand. But my bubble very quickly burst. Within less than a minute of being in the car, I had to quickly pull over and started throwing up at the side of the road (not my finest moment).
By the time I reached the club, I felt shaky and weak, and I knew I had to listen to my body. If I couldn’t keep a Trek flapjack bar down, there’s no way I’d have enough in me to fuel a hilly ride where your heart rate is pushed into zone 5 from the minute you clip in. Sadly, cycling with Chris Hoy would have to wait (probably until post-pregnancy).
The rest of the week felt like a complete battle between my body and brain. My brain was telling me ‘you’re a fitness journalist, you should be able to run up and down those hills with ease’, while my body was battling waves of extreme fatigue and screaming at me to rest and slow down.
So, instead of pushing through, I decided to switch out all my high-intensity classes with low-impact classes.
I flowed my way through gentle heart and hip openings in a slow-flow yoga class with Puravi Joshi, found a little strength and balance in a vinyasa class with Maddie Rowland, gave my body some TLC with a lengthening stretch class with Tamara Harnett and fell into a deep sleep during Jasmine Hemsley’s sound bath.
Perhaps for me, the most empowering thing I did during Pace week was an open-water guided swim with Sophie Hellyer. I was a competitive swimmer growing up and I’m no stranger to open water swimming, having completed a number of triathlons – but swimming hasn’t been part of my weekly workout regime for some time now. Yet, once in the water, I felt weightless and more like ‘me’ than I had in weeks. I immediately seemed to transition from a nauseous, bloated pregnant person to someone who could move with ease, effortlessly propelling myself forward with each stroke. I felt free. Peaceful. Perhaps, swimming (a low-impact aerobic activity) is something I could do throughout pregnancy, I thought.
Meanwhile, my friend Tori was trying out all the ‘woo’ classes on offer – opting for transformative workshops with fourth-generation psychic Estelle Bingham to, and I quote, ‘discover the inner knowing of who you are here to be’.
She also raved about the energy healer Sama Trinder and her somatic movement and ecstatic dance class, where Tori literally spent 45 minutes shaking her arms and dancing with strangers, while I giggled from the safety of my sun lounger.
What about the food?
Alongside the restaurant at the Peligoni Club, Tasi – which serves a mix of pizzas and Greek salads – there are daily lunchtime pop-ups from Detox Kitchen and smoothies, juices, and coffees available from the café.
If you are looking to make the most of the self-catering at your villa, you can ask for an arrival hamper to be delivered to your accommodation. Our fridge was stocked from the ‘Peli Deli’ on arrival with water, juice, butter, homemade granola, hummus and bread – all the essentials.
During pace week there are also set ‘feast nights’, hosted by guest chefs – ranging from 55€–62€ per person. Tori and I booked tickets for the Monday night welcome feast, hosted by seasonal and plant-centric chef Bettina Campolucci Bordi and her friend Niki Webster of Rebel Recipes, and the Wednesday night feast hosted by Brother Marcus.
Both of these feasts took place on long sharing-style tables in the open-air courtyard and were incredible. Bettina and Niki’s menu was, of course, completely plant-based. Featuring a range of delicious dips (butter bean, leek and tahini, and tomato and chilli) and homemade focaccia to start and a giant whole roasted cauliflower on a bed of muhammara, a fresh tomato, orange, pickled cucumber and feta salad and more-ish hasselback potatoes for the main.
The Brother Marcus feast was inspired by the fresh Greek produce on the island. Think: Toasted fluffy pita bread with roasted beetroot houmous, fennel tzatziki and smoked aubergine baba ghanoush to start. Followed by a juicy tomato salad, crispy aubergine skewers, pan-seared halloumi coated in black fig and honey and grilled lemon chicken with smoky charred hispi cabbage.
What else can you do at the Peligoni Club?
With so much to experience on-site, you won’t want to venture too far too quickly. On top of all the sports and fitness facilities, there are a few treatment rooms where you can book yourself in for a restorative massage or post-windsurf sports massage. And for guests with kids, there’s an on-site crèche with qualified nannies.
If you’re up for exploring, Zante is home to the world-famous Shipwreck Beach – one of the most photographed attractions in the world. You can organise a boat trip via the Peligoni Club to visit the bay, as well as the spectacular Blue Caves.
WH Verdict
Pace week is unlike any other retreat I’ve been on. With around 200 guests, this is no intimate wellness retreat where you return home with a deep bond with everyone else on the retreat. Instead, pace week offers the flexibility to do what feels good to you. There are no strict eating rules (alcohol certainly isn’t off-limit) or mandatory classes – everything is very laid back, and the power is truly in your hands when it comes to deciding how much (or how little) you want to tackle.
On a personal level, the Peligoni Club transported me back a decade or so ago when I worked as a seasonaire on other nearby Greek islands, during my university summer holidays. There was a weird sense of deja vu, but this time I was a guest, not a tanned member of staff rigging boats. The Peligoni Club has that same easy-going watersports club vibe as, say, a Neilson resort or Mark Warner – it’s just more upmarket.
Is pace week something I’d recommend? Absolutely. If you’re into fitness, sunshine and Mediterranean food, you will likely love it here. In fact, I’m already planning when I can go back – but next time, I’ll be checking the baby into the crèche and tackling those cycle rides with a newfound appreciation of my body.
Pace Week at The Peligoni Club will be taking place in 2025 between 17th-24th May 2025 and 4th-12th October 2025; visit peligoni.com for more information.
Go there!
- A ticket to PACE week – which includes a week’s membership to the club, paddleboarding, kayaking, all the fitness and yoga classes, meditation and wellness workshop – costs £480pp.
- A full watersports upgrade (for access to sailing, windsurfing and wingfoiling) costs an extra £65pp.
- Villas range from £945 pw to £14,500 pw.
- Staying at Emerald Cave Suites starts from £2,100 pw.
- The Peligoni Club is a 45-minute drive from the island’s international airport. It’s wise to hire a car if you’re staying more than a 5-minute walk away from the Club (the Peligoni hill can be quite uncomfortable to walk).
- On Saturdays, British Airways, EasyJet, Thompson, TUI and Jet2 all fly direct to Zante from London Airports. On Sundays, the two main airlines that fly are EasyJet and Thompson (3½ hour flight). The hotel can arrange airport transfers.
- Or search for flights on Expedia, eDreams and Skyscanner.
Don’t forget to pack…
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