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We have featured Tolon for over thirty years, and seen the village grow into a thriving small resort with a very wide appeal. We are not surprised – beach apart, the sheer range of things you can see and do from here is enormous.
Tolon is particularly recommended for families and parties of mixed ages as everyone will find plenty to do whatever their interests. So much so that we can promise, with a Sunvil holiday to Tolon, you will not be bored!
Built around the curve of a sheltered bay, Tolon has a very long sandy beach - narrow at the village end, widening out as you walk around the bay - which has been awarded a coveted Blue Flag.
Water sports are available, small motorboats can be rented, and two pretty islets await exploration a short pedalo ride across the bay. A tempting array of cafés and small restaurants lines the beach – there are more in the village, as well as a sprinkling of bars.
Tolon lies in the heart of the Argolid, the north-eastern corner of the Peloponnese. All about is evidence of a turbulent and fascinating past. This was the arena of city states, whose battles are now legend.
From Tolon it is easy to visit ancient Mycenae, Argos, Tyrins, Corinth and the impressive amphitheatre of Epidavros (classical plays performed here during late June, July and August – our local representative can arrange transportation). All are accessible by organised excursion, hire car or local bus, as is Athens. Boat excursions run regularly to the Saronic isles of Hydra and Spetses.
A 20 minute walk over the headland is ancient Assini, from where a fleet was launched against Troy. There can be few, if any, Homeric sites which you can explore, then swim from the beach below followed by a lazy taverna lunch overlooking the bay! The site has recently had major funding and is a must to visit - entrance is still free.
Although busy at weekends and in the high season, largely with Athenians, Tolon has retained its charm and friendliness.
We would recommend Tolon in particular to parties of mixed ages or interests, first time visitors to Greece, and those with even a passing interest in history and archaeology.
A 25 minute bus ride (regular service) takes you to elegant Nafplion. Largely Venetian it is topped by massive fortifications (1,000 steps up!) and adjudged one of the most handsome towns in Greece.
Nafplion was the first capital of the modern nation and the narrow lanes of the old town, its mix of Venetian, Turkish and neoclassical architecture, the busy waterfront, the shaded squares and the many fine tavernas, make this historic town a magnet for Greek and foreign visitors alike.
Sunday flight Gatwick, Manchester or Birmingham to Kalamata. Then 2 hours by coach or shared taxi (for private taxi transfers please enquire). We can also arrange odd durations and tailor-made holidays with taxi transfers or car hire from Kalamata or Athens airport.
Tolon is an excellent place for activities, especially water sports for beginners and children, as it is such a safe, sheltered bay. To help make the most of your stay in Tolon we are offering the following to all Sunvil guests.
2 hours boat hire per booking
A very popular activity. Cruise around the bay, down the coast or to the back of Romvi island where there is a beach and crystal clear water for swimming and/or a picnic. Boats are 5.5m with 20hp inboard diesel engines licensed for 6-7 persons (even 8 if some are children). No previous experience is required as basic boat handling instruction will be given.
If you would like more than your 2 free hours you can extend for a local charge or pre-book additional days
Cost per day: £59 low season; £66 (02/07 - 26/08).
Price includes fuel. Pre-booked days may be changed in resort.
Free use of Bicycles
A communal pool of bicycles for all guests to use free of charge.
We have both adult and child bikes available (frame sizes from 20" to 26").
The area around Tolon is excellent for cycling, being on the whole largely flat with a network of small country roads running through orange and lemon groves.
Bikes are intended for casual daytime use around the local area only - they are not permitted to be ridden to Nafplion for example, as the main road is busy! Any loss or damage to the bicycle is the users responsibility. Locks and helmets are provided; and kiddy-seats are available at a small local charge (note: we do not supply helmets for small children). There is a small charge for repairs (punctures etc.) and should you need assistance outside Tolon a call-out charge will be made.
Free use of Canoes
Perfect for adults and children alike who wish to take advantage of Tolon's safe sheltered waters to paddle around a bit. The more adventurous can explore Tolon's own little islets such as Koronis in the bay.
Bicycles and canoes are subject to availability and fair usage policy - they are not intended for unlimited use. Please book them out via your Sunvil Tolon representative. As there is no charge made, no refunds will be considered for any reason.
We are sure that the provision of these facilities at no additional cost will enhance your overall holiday experience to Tolon.
Also available locally
There is a dive school in Tolon who also operate popular snorkeling boat trips. See:http://seabreaze.gr/
Please see your Sunvil representative on arrival for details of any of the above.
There is so much to see and do from Tolon that you may have trouble fitting it all in – at least if you want to leave some time for the beach! Below are some of the options available that can be booked locally by our representative, Joyce.
Coach Trips
All coaches are fully air-conditioned and escorted and sites are guided. Should numbers be small, excursions may operate by minibus or taxi (not escorted).
Epidaurus - Corinth Canal crossing, includes boat trip through the iconic canal itself.
Price is €65 per adult, €53 (student) and €38 per child (5-12yrs). (Entrance fee for Epidaurus - €12 & Canal boat - €25 are included in the price)
Athens including a visit to the Parthenon, Acropolis and Acropolis Museum (with English guide).
Price is €70 per adult, €50 (student) and €30 per child (5-12yrs). (Entrance fee for Acropolis - €20 is included)
Ancient Mycenae - Nafplio Palamidi.
Price is €50 per adult, €30 (student) and €20 per child (5-12yrs). (Entrance fee for Myceane - €12 & Palamidi Fort - €8 are included in th eprice)
Cruises
Operated by Pegasus Cruises on their fast, modern and comfortable boats.
Hydra & Spetses. Price is €34 per adult and €17 per child (3-12yrs)
Nafplion by Night (high season only). Price is €10 per adult and €5 per child (3-12yrs)
General excursion notes
Prices are subject to change. Children aged 3-12 reductions of up to 50% (under 3 free); entrance fees are included (reductions apply for over-65s and accredited students in full time education); major credit cards accepted; excursions operate subject to demand; there may be changes to last year's programme.
Ancient Epidauros is just 32 kms from Tolon (a 35-40 minute drive) and has a magnificent amphitheatre dating from 4BC designed to seat 13000 to 14000 spectators. This tradition continues today during the famous Epidauros Festival that runs on July and August weekends.
This is a unique opportunity to see classical Greek plays in a unique and quite stunning setting. Tickets are inexpensive and our Tolon representative can arrange a taxi to take you to and fro locally (cost c 80 euros return). Tip: take a cushion unless you are sitting in the posh seats!
JULY PROGRAMME AT ANCIENT EPIDAURUS THEATRE
AGAMEMNON by Aeschylus (THEATRE)
Essentials: 6 & 7 July 9:00PM
In Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, the tragic characters are doomed to suffer and die, whereas the members of the chorus are doomed to suffer and live, revisiting their misfortunes and seeking a way out. In a polis doomed to self-destruction, citizens, here represented by the chorus, must muster their strength and faith, and redefine their moral and civic values, thus ensuring their continued survival. This tragedy addresses the crucial need for reawakening citizens’ sense of duty.
PLUTUS by Aristophanes (THEATRE)
Essentials: 13 & 14 July. 9:00PM
From Aristophanes’ time to now, Plutus (Greek for “wealth”) is invariably the most powerful deity on the face of the earth; the driving force behind everything. Today’s inequality in wealth distribution is striking; the 100 richest people on the planet have accumulated more wealth than half the world’s population. Whether wealth is blind or has the gift of sight is completely irrelevant, what matters is that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
ELECTRA by Sophocles (THEATRE)
Essentials: 20 & 21 July. 9:00PM
Written in the shadow of the Peloponnesian War, Electra is one of Sophocles’ most brutal plays. From the very first scene, the return of matricide Orestes, to the final scene with the victorious battle-cries of the chorus, the entire play is structured as an interplay of light and darkness; a battle of contradictions built around a trial, a violated balance and the need to redress that balance. Sophocles invites us to watch the workings of the natural world – the law of retaliation – through the lens of civil conflict.
Sophocles is not interested in the morality of the issue at hand. Whether balance will be restored in a peaceful or violent manner is irrelevant. Violence pervades human relationships. Violence breeds violence: wrongdoing invites retaliation. The fact that revenge here, in the form of matricide, goes far beyond what is normally expected in a so-called civilized society is also irrelevant. Sophocles’ Electra calls for retribution rather than justice.
THESMOPHORIAZUSAE by Aristophanes (THEATRE)
Essentials: 27 & 28 July 9:00PM
In Thesmophoriazusae, one of Aristophanes’ three female plays, written in 411 BC, at a time when Democracy was overthrown and replaced by Oligarchy, women call for political stability. Nowadays, women are no longer in the same difficult position. They are no longer restricted to imagining a political future without having the right to participate in the polis. However, there are still plenty of minorities with no access to the workings of the polis. A play about gender issues, the quest of personal identity, the right to equal civil rights, the crisis in values, law and nature. Above all, a play bursting with humour and theatricality, enabling actors to be fully present on stage as political entities.
AUGUST PROGRAMME AT ANCIENT EPIDAURUS THEATRE
ORESTES by Euripides (THEATRE)
Essentials: 3 & 4 August 9:00PM
To what extent can a society caught up in a vicious cycle of crime find a way out? Three young people, Orestes, Electra, and Pylades are entangled in a spiral of blood and violence. Gods and humans have spun an intricate web of hatred and vengeance. Sibling love turns into complicity; friends become partners in crime; the people’s verdict leads to capital punishment. No end in sight for this war. The city will burn. Euripides’s tragedy lays the human soul bare. When everything terrible is said and done, only the “deus ex machina” (an unexpected power or event). Problem is, nobody believes in god’s fairy tales anymore.
THE FROGS by Aristophanes (THEATRE)
Essentials: 10 & 11 August 9:00PM
In The Frogs, Aristophanes attempts a phantasmagorical descent to the underworld. Much like Odysseus, Aristophanes seeks a path to his utopian Ithaca. One can only fulfil one’s life by discovering the true meaning of death. The polis must come to terms with its own lack of order to gain a more substantial presence. The Frogs stand in for humanity, humans are like amphibians, foreign both in land and sea, yet also feeling everywhere at home, ready to sing and dance. The carnival symbolizes humanity’s struggle to go beyond themselves, to conquer a distinct identity. This identity is not expressed in the dramas by the “realist” Euripides; it is expressed in the dramas written by the epic storyteller Aeschylus, this serious, imposing poet. Aeschylus constantly dismisses his opponent with the expression “lekythion apolesen,” or, “he lost his little oil flash,” an expression which is commonly held to be a joke about Euripides’ sexual impotence.
OEDIPUS AT COLONUS by Sophocles (THEATRE)
Essentials: 17 & 18 August. 9:00PM
Sophocles’ final tragedy is at once a meditation on human fate and a tribute to his favourite city, Athens. A tragedy about physical and metaphysical borders, about the mystery of human freedom in the face of gods’ omnipotence, about responsibility, about old age, about the political rule of the polis. Oedipus at Colonus is an intimate poem, a spiritual journey.
From Syracuse to Epidaurus, our tragedy will carry Oedipus all the way to the sacred forest of the Furies, to his final apotheosis.
JULY PROGRAMME AT LITTLE EPIDAURUS THEATRE
THE LIBATION BEARERS by Aeschylus (THEATRE)
Essentials: 6 & 7 July 9:00PM
“Am I shouting to the deaf and fruitlessly wasting my voice on people who are asleep?”. The greatest mourning song of ancient Greek literature. A premeditated crime set up on stage, with the complicity of the audience. The VASISTAS group approaches the play as a profound conflict between human instincts and social conformity, focusing on the chorus, this powerful voice that is constantly on stage, pushing things forward and inciting to murder. The two main characters of the play, Orestes and Electra, are like two puppets with barely any right to make choices for themselves. They are weighed down by the burden of the past, forced to follow it all the way, making a seemingly impossible choice. Their future is inextricably bound to the act of murder.
ANTIGONE by Sophocles (THEATRE)
Essentials: 20 & 21 July. 9:00PM
Arguably Sophocles’ most popular tragedy, Antigone is set in Thebes, shortly after the civil war that resulted in the mutual killing Antigone’s brothers, Eteocles and Polynices.
Following their deaths, Creon, Antigone’s uncle who inherited the throne, has banned the burial of Polynices, believing he was a traitor and enemy of Thebes. Nevertheless, Antigone defies the law and buries her brother. Creon locks her away in prison and she takes her own life. By the end of the play, Creon is a tragic figure, one of the most harrowing characters in the entire canon of ancient drama.
AUGUST PROGRAMME AT LITTLE EPIDAURUS THEATRE
PROMETHEUS BOUND by Aeschylus (THEATRE)
Essentials: 3 & 4 August. 9:00PM
In this performance, the director focuses on the power of language and spoken words, reciting the text in a rhythmical and melodious manner. Refraining from a conventional dramatic performance and instead making discourse central, insisting on a clear recitation of the words and their meaning. The use of masks and carefully planned movement will infuse the performance with theatricality. The production will adopt a very strict motif of music and movement, allowing performers to express themselves inside a very tightly constructed aesthetic universe.
ANCIENT STADIUM OF EPIDAURUS
THE EUMENIDES by Aeschylus (THEATRE)
Essentials: 14 & 15 July 6:00AM (note this is a Sunrise performance)
In the third part of Aeschylus’ trilogy, Orestes finds himself at the Delphi oracle, asking Apollo to help him escape the Furies, who have been following in hot pursuit ever since Orestes murdered his mother. The god urges him to leave while the Furies are asleep and to seek refuge in Athens. The Furies are banished from Apollo’s temple and chase Orestes all the way to Athens, whereupon they find him as a suppliant at the statue of Athena. The goddess appears and demands she hear both sides: the prosecuting Furies and the defendant Orestes. In the ensuing trial, Athena’s tie-breaking vote absolves Orestes, an act that is tantamount to the foundation of both democracy and patriarchy. The Furies are ultimately appeased and transformed into Eumenides, “the kindly ones.
This performance meets a very specific need: to delve into the depths of the human soul, exposing dreams, insecurities, and fears before a live audience in an attempt to bring together the conscious and the unconscious.
Just a 20 minute stroll over the headland is Tolon's very own archaeological site. Ancient Asine (Assini) has been a strategic location since a fleet was launched from Asine against Troy. The site has recently had close to a million euros spent on it, making it well worth a visit. There are now well-made pathways, imaginative circuits around the promontory, a multimedia room, a guide to the many types of flora (and fauna in the form of wild tortoises) and much, much more, including information on the archaeological discoveries made in the 1920s by the Swedish Crown Prince and the damage caused by the Italians in World War II.
Entrance is still free of charge making it a must-see for all visitors to Tolon! There is a fine shingle beach below - ideal for a cooling swim after exploring the site - and a handy taverna a little up the hill above the sea (equally ideal for a cooling drink or lunch after your swim!).
We can arrange both car and motorboat hire for you in Tolon and Nafplion.
Our resident representative is based in Tolon. Note: for guests in Nafplion our representative is always contactable but will only visit if required.
GMT + 2 hours
Euro
Greek
3 hours 25 minutes
Average rainfall
Departing between Oct 27th 2018 & Nov 4th 2018
2 Adults
Bed & Breakfast
London Gatwick Airport
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