How to run a beach bar on Zakynthos in Greece - Video

Have you ever dreamed of leaving the office behind to run a restaurant or beach bar in the sunshine? If so, you’ll enjoy my video interview with Rob Wallace from Freddie’s Beach bar on the Greek island of Zakynthos.

I first made contact with Rob through his photography, as he is a keen photographer who documents the coming and goings at his beach bar on his Flickr site. I used some of Rob’s photos to illustrate one of my Zakynthos articles and when I was on the island visiting my sister who lives there, he invited me over to meet him and his Greek wife, Ritsa. At the end of the summer season last October, we sat and chatted in the autumn sunshine, about how he and his wife came to be running Freddie’s beach bar.

If you can’t view the video above, see it on Youtube

As we discussed the pleasures of living in the sunshine as well as the hurdles of Greek beaureaucracy and the unrelenting hard work, it struck me how many other people must dream of owning and running a business aboad. So I asked Rob to do a short interview about what it’s really like running a beach bar in Greece and this was the result.

Next week I’m off to Zakynthos again to visit my sister and hoping to catch up with Rob and Ritsa again at Freddie’s beach bar in Tsilivi. We’ll be enjoying a week of sunshine, swimming and lazing by the pool like all the other holiday makers. But if you’re considering making this kind of life more than just a holiday, then think carefully and take Rob’s advice. There’s a lot more hard work and frustration to it than meets the eye. If you’re serious, try working in a resort for a season and do your homework before committing to a permanent move. But you never know, you may end up like my sister, meeting the man of your dreams and ending up running a business in the sun.

You can follow Rob on his Flickr account as RobW_ or see his Freddie’s Beach Bar Flickr group. I like Rob’s idea of a photo diary with one photo for each day - you can see his 2009 Photo diary here as he travels to Paris, London, snowy northern Greece and back to Zakynthos for the carnival, Mayday and the start of the summer season.

Look out for more posts from Zankynthos very soon.

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See all my photos from Zakynthos on Flickr

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