A summary of our trip round the Peloponnese

Norsk utgave (Norwegian edition)

Here's some of the great view from Mystra. The white town further away is Sparta.

And was everything just fun and games? Well, almost. The fact that the Drios Cave was closed because of flooding was a let-down, as was the fact that all the flowers at Olympia had been struck down by the weather. As for the weather, it could have been better, in particular because we always take lots of photographs. Some more sun would have been nice. We knew that the temperature wouldn't be that high, but we were well prepared with warm clothes and our own down quilts brought from Norway. Of course we all had rain gear but luckily this wasn't much in use. It would have been nice with a little less clouds, but there's not much you can do about the weather, you'll just have to endure and live with it. On average it must be said that the weather was as could be expected for the period we travelled there. Standard clothing for a day out was long trousers and a T-shirt, with a fleece sweater on top, this came off when it as warm enough. It was definitely NOT the time of the year to go swimming, although it must be said that we managed a few dips in the sea at Antiparos during the week after this trip to the Peloponnese.

Here's a nice shot from the Lousios gorge

And would we do this trip again? Yes. definitely! We might have changed our route a bit by visiting Mystra on the way to Monemvasia, it's a long haul from Náfplio to Monemvasía, and Mystra is about half way between the two.  Here's a suggestion for a better itinerary: Drive from Athens to Náfplio and take in the town, the castles and other places from antiquity in this area, like Mycenae and possibly Epidaurus with its large old theatre. After a few quiet days in Náfplio drive on to Mystra and onwards again to Monemvasía. From here out to Mani and the Drios Cave. Then up to Kalamata and if you have the time, westwards and then northwards to the mountain villages to the west of Tripolis and the Lousios gorge. Furter on to Olympia, up to Patras, which we'd skip, and on to the railway trip up to Kalávryta and the Cave of the lakes, and finally over to Corinth. If we had more time, we would have taken in Delphi, which is on the other side of the sound you drive along on the north side of the Peloponnese. Ideally, we should have set aside at least two weeks for a trip like this. Unfortunately we had to skip some parts of it because we only had a week and the weekend at either end, that is, 10 days in all.

Lower Monemvasia

Any definite highs? Oh yes!! On top of the list would surely be Lower Monemvasía and if you throw in a visit to Upper Monemvasia, this would only strengthen the impression that this is a very special place. But the runner-up would be more difficult. Among the contenders are Mystra, the Lousios gorge, Olympia with all the flowers and the railway trip from Diakoftó to Kalavryta. All of these would be high on our list. What would maybe come at the bottom of the list are some of the oldest "ancient places" as many of these are just heaps of rocks that have fallen down, to put it bluntly. (This of course reflects on us and what we think about places like this, but here we prefer to be honest.) It is often very difficult to visualize what these places may have looked in the past. To make the most of places like these it pays to have read up on their history beforehand, something we hadn't been too good at. On the other hand we much prefer flowers and the nature, and if possible in combination with old places with a bit of life in them, like we experienced in Monemvasía.

 

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This little chap we came across at the market in Nafplio

Here's a summary of our trip as described in the Question-tips column:

For this trip we hired a small Toyota Yaris from Hertz at the airport as we got to Athens. Hertz wasn't the least expensive to hire a car from, nor were they the most expensive, and the reason we chose Hetz was that they had exactly the car we wanted to hire, plus the fact that we could return the car at their office in Piraeus, witch saved us driving all the way back to the airport. We paid 380€ for 9 days including unlimited mileage and full insurance for the car. Separately, the last item might easily have come to 120€ in its own. We drove about 1700 km during the nine days and went through about 70€ worth of petrol, which cost from 0,65€ to 0,80€ per litter, depending on where you tanked, cheapest in the cities and most expensive in the countryside. On average we paid about 0,70€ per litre. Accommodation was somewhat more expensive than expected, on average we paid about 45€ for an OK room with 3 beds and hot water in the shower. Today we heard that accommodation was more expensive in the Peloponnese than on the islands. To try so sum up the trip, we can only say that we had a fantastic trip with wealth's of experiences, primarily an incredibly beautiful and lush natural landscape (which we're definitely not used to when strolling around the islands during summer). Finally we would like to encourage everyone who really want to see a green and luxuriant Greece in combination with a lot of places from antiquity and the Middle Ages to take a trip down the Peloponnese between the end of March an the beginning of May. You will never regret it!

After this fantastic trip round the Peloponnese we went on to our beloved Antiparos, but that's another story. Here's the sunset view towards Antiparos from Pounda on Paros.