Athens City Add-On

This was a fabulous holiday and a brilliant mix of landscape, different historical cultures, walking and beach. The flowers and temperature at the end of May were a bonus and nowhere too busy. Messini was one of our highlights on the way to Olympia and the drive to the Temple of Apollo in the mountains between Olympia and Napflion, as recommended by the owner of the Pelops hotel. Take shoes with a good grip as the cobbles at the Acropolis in particular and in Monemvasia get very slippery when hot. 

Cocktails on the roof terrace of the Hotel Herodion are an excellent way to relax after the journey to Athens!

Check opening times of monuments carefully in advance – ‘winter opening hours’ seem to continue into May for some sites and times are not always as stated in the Inntravel notes. We found that, for the most popular sites, if we arrived relatively late, say mid-afternoon, then most of the tour groups would have left or would be about to leave and we then avoided the worst of the crowds. This worked well for the Acropolis which we did at the end of our day of walking around Athens – this also meant that we visited the Acropolis Museum before climbing to the monument itself which gave us more context about what we were seeing when we got there. Arriving mid-afternoon also worked for Mycenae and for Epidavros. Ancient Corinth is well worth visiting.  We fitted it in on the way out from Athens to Mystras and it was wonderful – peaceful, interesting and evocative. There is also a very good taverna for lunch on the right as you come out of the side exit from the site – ‘Tavernaki Tou Gamprou’.

We cannot recommend the Hotel Byzantion in Mystras as it is not really up to the usual standard of Inntravel hotels. Also be warned that Mystras village has very little to offer in the way of restaurants – although the lamb chops at the Mystras Inn are very good. If you do find yourself staying in Mystras then there is a lovely pastry shop just round the corner in the village square. The lady there is very helpful and the savoury and sweet pastries made a delicious picnic later while exploring the Byzantine city. We slotted in a visit to seaside Gythio en route from Mystras to Monemvasia and found that this made for a lovely day. Straightforward journey; delightful town to stroll around; interesting Museum of the Mani; wonderful lazy lunch at a harbourside restaurant and a late afternoon arrival at Monemvasia – perfect!

Monemvasia: wonderful hotel and a privilege to be able to stay in this glorious town. The ruined Upper Town is well worth the not-too-difficult climb – but it might be best to head up there early in the day before it gets too hot and in order to have time to get round everything that there is to see. We visited Areopolis on our way to Kardamili and it was quite interesting – there is another good museum there in the Pikoulakis Tower which is worth a visit. Instead of having lunch here we continued the short distance down to the coastal village of Limeni (careful – tricky turn-off to spot!) and had lunch at Takis. This was idyllic – sat alongside the water eating fresh fish – wonderful!

Kardamili: be aware that the hotel is a little way out of town so you really have to drive in each evening for dinner. (The Elies restaurant at Ritsa beach was closed in the evenings.) Our stay happened to coincide with the town’s annual Jazz Festival – organised by Norwegians! So the town was a little busier than we might have expected for the time of year, but it caused no issues and was actually rather nice. There was one particular evening when we ended up sat in a Greek restaurant by the sea, eating delicious fish while listening to a Mancunian band playing Polish-Yiddish folk music to an audience largely made up of Norwegians – bizarre and delightful! Recommended restaurants: Harilaos; Lela’s; Kiki’s. Also we had lunch one day at a bar down by the sea which is run by a real character. The ‘cold plate selection’ was wonderful. It is at the end of the street running down to the sea just beside the Post Office and I think the bar is called ‘Ta Kumaristria’.

Kardamili: We recommend driving up into the mountains inland from Kardamili and Stoupa – wonderful scenery and interesting villages, deserted monasteries and tower houses (Bradt guidebook has suggested tour). Kastania is particularly lovely – walk up the hill from the platea to find churches (actually open!) with amazing frescoes. The small taverna in the platea is a delightful place for lunch (wonderful local sausage!). We visited Mycenae en route between Kardamili and Nafplio and this worked out really well – except that lunch (in Mykines) was very basic. It meant that we arrived at the site a little after 2pm and there were not too many coach parties. We also had plenty of time to wander round this large and extraordinary site (the tholos tombs are mind-boggling!) and as the afternoon wore on there were even fewer people around so we could really appreciate the place. Arriving at Nafplio quite late in the afternoon worked well.

We visited the Heraion and Tiryns from Nafplio before exploring Nafplio itself. For us, trying to do Mycenae as well as other sites in one day would have been too much. Parking in Nafplio was horrific on the day we arrived – it might be advisable not to time your holiday so that you are arriving here on a Saturday!  Other days parking was OK. In Nafplio, if you head up through the gate from the hotel into the fortified area and then down to the beach below you will find a paved path that takes you along, under the cliffs, out to the western tip of the headland and then round to the harbour.  This makes for a lovely evening stroll – and delivers you right to the area where the best fish restaurants abound! Driving across to the delightful seaside village of Ancient Epidavros in the morning and having a leisurely lunch there by the sea means that, again, you can arrive at the Ancient Theatre in the mid-afternoon after the crowds have gone.  This was wonderful.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers combined a stay in Athens with our Journey through the Peloponnese