Holidays to Peloponnese

Flight to Kalamata (c 3 ½ hours) and onward transfer or car from the airport. Approximate transfer / driving times from the airport are: Chrani 30 mins; Gialova 45 mins; Methoni, Fiikounda, Kardamili, Stoupa 60 mins; Tolon a scenic 2 hours. Tolon can also be booked via Athens (also 2 hours). Tailor made and twin centre holidays are easy to arrange.

Car hire can be arranged from the airport (normally included for holidays with accommodation outside a resort) or delivered to your accommodation on the day of your choosing.

Any resort with any other. A week in the north (Tolon or Nafplion) combined with a week in the south is always popular – please book the north first. 

We can arrange car and motorboat hire for you in the Peloponnese.

We have three local representatives - one based in Chrani (visits Finikounda, Methoni and Gialova) one for Mani (Stoupa and Kardamili) and one for Tolon.

The Peloponnese is a large peninsula covering 21,500 square kilometres in southern Greece, separated from the mainland by the man-made Corinth Canal, constructed in 1893. There are two land connections with the mainland: a natural one at the Isthmus of Corinth, and the Rio-Antirio Bridge.

A map of the Peloponnese will show a peninsula shaped like a hand, whose outstretched fingers make up a heavily indented coastline. The interior is dominated by the Taygetos mountain range that stretches like a spine from north to south. At some points it rises precipitously from the sea and reaches a height of almost 2,400 metres. The north appears green and lush – certainly in comparison to the craggier, harsher and altogether more dramatic scenery to the south, which reaches an extreme with the arid landscape of the Deep Mani, as bare as the moon.

At Sunvil, we choose to concentrate on those areas that are most removed from the typical tourist enclaves and offer the best chance to experience “the real Greece”, so you will see from a Peloponnese map that our chosen destinations are on the bay in the north-east (Nafplion and Tolon) and in the less-visited south and south-west (Pylos, Finikounda, Chrani, Kardamili, Stoupa, Agios Nikolaos and Geroliminas). In the even less visited easternmost peninsula, Monemvasia is also included.

Off the coast to the north-west of the peninsula lie the Ionian islands, including our chosen destinations of Zakynthos and Kefalonia, and to the east the Saronic chain, including Hydra and Spetses which can be visited for the day by organised boat trip from Tolon.

Flights from Gatwick and Manchester fly direct to the Peloponnese, landing at Kalamata airport.

The more well-known Ancient sites such as Epidaurus and Corinth are well served by regular coach trips from Tolon, but given the wealth of its spectacular and historic sites a car is invaluable for getting around the Peloponnese and gives you the independence to explore less visited locations. Certainly it’s the best way to access the enthralling and exceptional topography of the Deep Mani region.

Organised boat trips run from Tolon to the Saronic islands of Hydra and Spetses further up the coast, and exploration of the local coastline can be made by the hire of a small motorboat.

An hourly bus service that takes around 25 minutes operates between Tolon and Nafplion in the north-east, and this particular region is mostly flat with a network of small country roads that pass through a mix of lemon and orange groves. The easy terrain lends itself to cycling, and these days bikes can be hired from various locations and are proving increasingly popular.

Until fairly recently some villages of the Mani could only be reached by boat, and the road network remains local and small-scale, linking one village to another. There is a bus service between Finikounda and Methoni and Pylos in the west and also a few local taxis, but to do proper justice to the area a car is required. In the Mani there is a narrow, winding road that follows the coast where, unsurprisingly, the views are often spectacular! The benefit for the tourist is that the area has retained much of its original atmosphere and traditional way of life, and consequently provides a deeper experience of “the real Greece”.

The E4 long-distance hiking trail stretches from north to south. Some of the trail follows walkways along riverbeds and is fairly comfortable, but other parts are strenuous and demanding, particular in the Taygetos Mountains, with the peak of Profitis Ilias at nearly 2,400m.

Swim and snorkel above the oldest submerged town in the world… 5,000 years of history beneath you
 
Just offshore from the remote south eastern finger of the Peloponnese (Greek mainland), a 2.5 hour drive from the city of Kalamata but only 12 km from the small mainland town of Neapoli, lies the oldest (5,000 years old) submerged town in the world - Pavlopetri.
 
Discovered in 1967 and subsequently explored and excavated, this underwater town dates from 2,800 BC but the remains which can still be seen are Mycenaean, from between 1680 BC and 1180 BC. Located in the Laconia prefecture of Greece, Pavlopetri was an important trading port, a centre for textiles and, from its location, it controlled the entire Laconian Gulf.
 
The submerged town, covering over two acres, lies 3m to 4 m beneath the waves, and between the tiny islet of Pavlopetri and the beach. You are not allowed to scuba dive there, but to snorkel is thrilling!

Pavlopetri is best explored as part of a Peloponnese fly drive. It is opposite the tiny island of Elafonissos, famed for its white sands and under an hour's drive (40 kms) from the atmospheric fortress town of Monemvasia on the south east coast. Sunvil can arrange stays at both.

Kythira’s little satellite island, Antikythira, is where the world’s first computer, known as the Antikythira Device, was discovered by divers over 100 years ago; in ancient times, this was a busy sea-trade route between Sicily and Italy in the western Mediterranean and Turkey and Greece in the eastern Med.   Doubtless the sea has many more secrets to reveal in this wonderful part of the ancient world!