Plaka Castle on the island of Milos, Greece

Day 67 - Greece 🇬🇷

March 30, 2021

Greece is a place you can visit and be almost guaranteed to leave feeling happier, warmer and more fulfilled than you were when you arrived.

The Greeks are warm, inviting and possibly some of the kindest hosts in the world. The food is mouth-watering, yet casual and almost always eaten outside under the stars (at least in the Summer). The landscape is scattered with ancient ruins, and every place seems to have an intriguing story lurking beneath the surface.

Greece is one of the countries I’ve already written about most on this blog. All of these posts have been about an area in Northern Greece called Zagoria. Zagoria is mountainous, thickly forested and the perfect place to hike or go whitewater rafting, but it’s absolutely not what most people think of when they go to Greece. So to celebrate our virtual trip to Greece, I thought I’d write a quick guide to some other Greek places I’ve visited and fallen in love with.

Mani

Mani is a finger-like protrusion on the South of the Peloponnese, and like a lot of Greece the landscape of Mani is mountainous and inaccessible. The furthest south part of Mani, or Deep Mani, is also the southernmost point of mainland Greece.

Maybe because everyone is chasing that perfect Greek island escape, most visitors overlook the Peloponnese, and most visitors to the Peloponnese overlook Mani. Having said that, Mani is only around a four hour drive from Athens Airport. You wouldn’t know though. Mani is by far the quietest and most undeveloped part of Greece I’ve visited.

Deep Mani, in the south is even quieter. We stayed in the small village of Porto Kagio, overlooking the natural cove. We spent our days eating and drinking alongside, and swimming in the cove. It felt like being in a pirate cove at the edge of the earth.

Mani doesn’t have Greece’s best food, but it is decent. While the food in Mani won’t blow you away like may in Zagoria or Milos, Mani makes up for this with its tranquility, breathtaking sunsets and beautiful sea coves.

So, visit Mani if you want some time for reflection, reading books, and doing not much at all. It’s perfect.

Milos

For me Milos is the perfect Greek island in the Cyclades. As far as I can tell it’s mainly popular with Athenians seeking a short break from the bustle of city life.

While Mani isn’t a culinary destination, Milos is definitely known for its excellent seafood. Every single meal we ate in Milos without exception was excellent.

From the top of my head I’d here are some Milos food and drink tips:

Akri for a pre-dinner cocktail and to enjoy the beautiful harbour views as the sunsets
Bakalikon Galanis for the most delicious Greek small plates
Gialos for a slightly more upscale fish menu
Zygos for delectable barbecue if you fancy something more land-based
O! Hamos! Tavern is also excellent, but everyone knows this, so you’ll be waiting quite a while for a table

Milos has a wide selection of beaches from relaxed sandy beaches such as Paliochori Beach to a stunning inaccessible beach set in the remnants of the abandoned Paliorema Sulfur Mine.

If you like fantastic food, a wide choice of quiet beaches and beautiful island scenery, visit Milos.

Pelion

I wasn’t going to include Pelion, but Joe offered to write a short snippet about how lovely Pelion is, so here’s Joe’s take on why Pelion is worth visiting.

The Pelion peninsula for me is synonymous a stay we had at magical Hotel Faros. Perched on a cliff above the Aegean, it’s a working farm and olive grove. You can imagine how good their food was using ingredients from the farm or the sea. It’s possible to swim straight from the rocky outcropping at the hotel - and I remember while swimming one morning spotting a man diving down and collecting urchins. Every time he surfaced, he pulled out a small knife to open up the urchin and slurped up its orange flesh!

Another notable moment was meeting a senior civil servant from the UK over breakfast, who had apparently been coming to Faros for years. And also had some interesting stories about working with Theresa May.

Just a short walk from the hotel is another beach (Milopotamus) which one arrives to via climbing a neighbouring cliff with a gorgeous cafe which made the freshest, crispiest fried calamari served with a big slice of local lemon.

Hotel Faros certainly isn’t all Pelion has to offer. The peninsula is just picture perfect Greece and another town was even the set for some of the Mamma Mia movie.

Faros is not the fanciest place. It’s not a place for amenities. It’s not that easy to get to especially if your rental car is a small red Peugeot. And it didn’t even take credit cards back in 2015 as I learned when checking out without any cash and not an ATM anywhere close (they kindly just let me bank transfer when I got back to the UK - not sure why that was the option we had settled on!).

But when I come back to Faros one day, I really hope that not a thing has changed.

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Exploring Megas Lakkos, the lesser known lookout point of Vikos Gorge

August 23, 2020

If you’re visiting Zagori and Vikos you’re probably likely to hear about the short walk to the Beloi lookout. The views are spectacular. You can see almost the entire length of Vikos gorge. The only problem is that this is the one viewpoint of Vikos that most people know about. Unless you go at dawn, you’re unlikely to have the view to yourself.

The last time we visited the Vikos National Park, we discovered Megas Lakos almost by accident. Megas Lakos is a gorge that branches off from Vikos. Even though you can’t see all of Vikos gorge from Megas Lakos, the views from the Kakia Skala steps are a great alternative (or addition) to the Beloi Lookout. They're harder to get to, but there are no other visitors and the views are wonderful. There’s also a little thrill about the whole experience as there are no barriers or walls to protect you from the sheer 600-metre drop.

We visited in July when wildlife was everywhere - we found many beautiful orchids, wild strawberries and the meadows were filled with butterflies and the buzzing of bees.

The walk is relatively easy, although the path can be quite hard to follow at times, and it was very overgrown for us. In fact, I wasn’t able to find any other references to this lookout spot online, so I don’t think it’s a well-trodden path at all!

The start point is where a farm track branches off from the road to Vradeto. We followed the track for a short while before reaching a very decrepit looking paddock. At this point, the path follows along the side of the mountain. The path is reasonably well defined at the point, just make sure you don’t follow the other path towards Vradeto.

The path continues to hug the hillside, with varied scenery and increasingly large rocky outcrops.

Eventually, the path reaches a hanging valley. To the left is a well-defined peak (with good views), and to the right a ridge. Even though the path isn’t well defined, the route descends into the valley through a lush meadow. At the bottom of the valley we kept to the right, and then right again up to a small ridge with a sign and a small cairn. This is the start of the Kakia Skala steps!

Even though the Kakia Skala stairway is called a “stairway”, it really isn’t a stairway. It’s nothing like the better-known (and engineered) Vradeto steps. In fact “Kakia Skala” roughly translates to “bad/hard stairway”. It is simply a path created by farmers and animal herders as a means of getting animals down to the valley for grazing, and for collecting firewood.

The descent from here was steep, overgrown and relatively difficult. Even though progress was slow, the views were wonderful. Luckily there wasn’t too far left to go. After descending for a few minutes we found a nice rock to in on to take in the view and eat some lunch.

The views

Route details

The route back was straightforward, and much faster now that we knew the route! If you’re interested in exploring Megas Lakkos and the Kakia Skala stairway for yourself, the walk is roughly a 7km return and I’ve mapped the route on AllTrails. You can walk the return route in around 2 hours, although we were much slower as we kept stopping to take in the scenery.

Route map on AllTrails

How to Hike Vikos Gorge

August 17, 2020

We recently returned to the Zagori region of Northern Greece. Specifically to visit Vikos Gorge.

We first visited back in 2015, but realised Zagoria was the perfect place to return to during Covid times. You can easily hike for a whole day without seeing another soul, and the villages are quiet, beautiful and almost always have a small taverna serving excellent food.

Both times we visited Zagoria we ventured down into the gargantuan Vikos Gorge from numerous points. It has to be one of my all-time favourite places to hike. This is a brief guide to hiking the still relatively unknown Vikos Gorge.

Option 1 - my favourite way to hike Vikos Gorge

This is our preferred route. Unlike other routes, you start and finish in the village of Vikos. This doesn’t mean the hike is any less interesting than hiking end to end from Monodendri. It has the advantage that you don’t need to organise a taxi, and you can also make the route as long, or as short as you wish. It’s also worth noting that the scenery is so incredible, it doesn’t feel like you are repeating yourself at any point on this walk.

It’s also easy to park at the outskirts of the village of Vikos (map)

The walk starts with a descent from the village of Vikos (map) into Vikos Gorge. From the very beginning, the view is spectacular. The first part of the descent is like walking through a long-abandoned garden, with herbs flowers and fig trees.

The path starts to get a little steeper once you reach a small stone shrine at a look-out point.

Throughout the descent, you are treated to a breathtaking view of the Towers of Astraka, the third highest peak of Mt. Tymfi.

You also get a fantastic view of the Voidomatis springs and the Panagia (Virgin Mary) chapel at the foot of the gorge.

After around 40 minutes of descent the path starts to level out a little and enters young woodland. It’s at this point you have the option of turning left and heading further down the gorge to the Voidomatis springs. Personally I’d recommend doing this on the way back as it’s the perfect way to cool off before the ascent back up to Vikos.

At this point in the walk we noticed how lush and vibrant the gorge is. Everywhere you look there are wild flowers, butterflies and fragrant smelling herbs. You can actually buy some of these wild herbs at a small shop right next to the lookout point (map) in the village of Vikos.

As the hike continues you’ll pass through a wonderful variety of scenery from thick moss covered forest, to lush meadows, rocky riverbeds and even cave like channels hugging the side of the valley. It seems that every few minutes you enter a different world.

In the summer and autumn the river past the Voidomatis springs is completely dried up.

The further towards Monodendri you go, the wilder the hike seems to get. We passed a few tortoises exploring the undergrowth and were constantly surrounded by butterflies in every imaginable colour. The sound of the birds and insects as you walk is almost mesmerising.

You’ll eventually reach a few places where the path gets quite rocky and you have to do a little (very easy) climbing to stay on the path.

After roughly 8km of walking we stopped, walked down to the riverbed and find a nice lunch spot to eat our greek pie for lunch.

We then started hiking back towards Vikos. The great thing about doing the hike in this return manner is it’s completely up to you how much of it you do!

The best thing about the return leg of this hike is the treat towards the end…

Swimming in the Voidomatis springs (map) are (literally) breathtaking. They emerge from out of nowhere in the riverbed at the foot of Vikos Gorge. They’re clear, clean and seriously cold at only 4 degrees centigrade.

There’s a rock which is perfect for jumping in too. We jumped in 4 or 5 times before heading back to Vikos.

The ascent is the hardest part of the walk. Having said that, even if you take it really slowly it shouldn’t take any longer than an hour. As with the descent, the views are spectacular, especially in the late afternoon light.

Option 2 - Monodendri to Vikos (with taxi back to Monodendri)

If you’re set on hiking from one end of Vikos Gorge to the other, this is probably your best option. You’ll have the same scenery but will possibly miss out on some of awe-inspiring views as you descend into Vikos Gorge from Vikos.

This route is around 12km and takes roughly 6 hours, although you’ll want to factor in extra time for cooling off in the Voidomatis springs.

The main drawback with this route is finding a way of getting back to Monodendri once you have arrived in Vikos. There are a few small tavernas in the village of Vikos and I’ve read that most of them will offer to call a friend to provide you with an ad-hoc taxi service back to Monodendri for somewhere between €20-30. If you’re planning this, Hristoforos Tsoumanis is a good place to ask, and they serve ice cold drinks which are exactly what we needed at the end of our hike. Back in 2015 we ended up giving a lift to an Australian couple who found themselves stranded in Vikos.

Route map and details

Vikos Gorge hike route map courtesy of AllTrails - expand map

AllTrails has a route map of the entire route from Monodendri to Vikos.

You can use this map for options described in this article.

If you’re planning to hike in spring, summer or early autumn I’d recommend taking a lot of water. Although the heat is generally dry, and there’s a lot of shade, we ended up drinking 2 litres of water each.

We’ve hiked Vikos Gorge numerous times, and although it can be hot in the summer, in our experience it’s never been uncomfortably hot.

Happy hiking!

Zagoria, Greece's hidden wilderness

June 29, 2016

Forget the island hopping and hordes of tourists; we decided to head to Zagoria, an unspoilt mountain wilderness tucked away in northwestern Greece.

When you hear about trips to Greece the most obvious destinations are islands such as Crete or Corfu, or perhaps city breaks to Athens or Thessaloniki. For the most part, mainland Greece is largely ignored by foreign visitors.

Recently, Joe and I embarked on a road trip hoping to explore some of Greece’s less travelled roads. For the first leg of this trip we spent 4 nights in the Vikos-Aoös National Park (map) in the Zagori region of Northwestern Greece. We spent our days hiking in the mountains, and swimming in remote rivers and eating delicious local food.

We flew into Thessaloniki and spent a night there before hitting the road in our battered Peugeot convertible. Getting to the Zagori region from Thessaloniki is a relatively uncomplicated three to four hour drive. Within an hour of leaving Thessaloniki the traffic had thinned out and we were leaving the expanse of a vast plane and heading into the mountains.

Metsovo

It’s possible to reach the Vikos-Aoös National Park in three hours if you choose to drive non-stop, but we stopped off in the small alpine town of Metsovo (map). Sadly on the day we visited, Metsovo was blisteringly hot and overwhelmed by vast crowds of Greek and Balkan coach tours. I really hoped this wasn’t a sign of things to come! After a brief lunch of souvlaki and salad we decided to skip Metsovo and press on to Zagoria.

Dilofo

We stayed in a small guesthouse named Aithrio with our wonderful host, Olga in the tiny village of Dilofo (map). Dilofo is without a doubt one of the most charming and well preserved villages in the Zagori region. This is partly because it’s impossible to drive a car through it’s extremely narrow cobbled alleyways, and partly because almost everyone who was born in Dilofo seems to have deserted it. An ex-local who had returned for the summer told us over a carafe of local (and surprisingly palatable) wine that there are now only six full time residents in the village. Sadly, most residents have left for work, and only return for the summer. This lends the village an eery, slightly ramshackle charm.

At the centre of Dilofo is a giant sycamore tree surrounded by a paved square and a wonderful taverna. We ate there most nights. The BBQ spit roast mutton was just too good to pass up, and the tzatziki was the best I’ve ever tasted. Thick, creamy, and properly garlicky. Dinner always evolved into drinks with the owners and other locals. By the end of our stay we knew pretty much everyone living or in the village, (as well as the feral horses which passed through the square each evening). Even though we were there for less than a week, we felt like we were part of the community.

Bridge of Kokkori (map) - one of Zagoria's many traditional arched bridges.

Hiking Vikos Gorge

The main focus of the Vikos-Aoös National Park is the vast, world-record-holding, twenty kilometre long Vikos Gorge. It’s utterly mesmerising.

While it is possible to walk the entire length of the gorge, it’s an 8 hour one way hike with no transport links at each end, so we opted instead to walk a portion of it. We set off from the village of Vikos (map) at the head of the gorge. The walk starts with a steep descent into the gorge. The views are simply spectacular, and it’s easy to miss the incredible views walking down a valley covered in wild herbs. sage, oregano and lemon balm. We made slow progress as Joe kept stopping off to pick figs from precariously hanging fig trees.

At the foot of the valley there is a small disused monastery perched on the banks of a deep azure coloured river which appears from nowhere out of the river bed around two hundred metres upstream. We spent a few hours lounging on the riverbank and daring each other to jump into the icy cold water before continuing our hike.

On our return we met a badly prepared Australian couple in their fifties, who had decided to walk the eight hour one way hike in trainers with a single bottle of water. At the top we shared a beer with them and discovered they were also staying in Dilofo. We offered them a lift back to Dilofo before remembering our Peugeot only had two seats. Somehow though, and with a lot of contortion all four of us managed to cram into the tiny car. When we arrived back in Dilofo they invited us to dinner at Dilofo’s more upmarket restaurant. The food was superb, and the views beautiful, but the cheaper taverna is better and more authentic.

Beloi lookout and waterfalls at Iliochori

If you don’t fancy a day long hike, there are still plenty opportunities to take in the incredible views of Vikos gorge. Beloi lookout (map) is around a two kilometre walk from the small village of Vradeto and offers some of the most spectacular views of Vikos Gorge (provided you don’t suffer from vertigo).

sitting on the edge at beloi look out vikos

The village of Vradeto is also home to one of the best tavernas in the area. As far as the internet is concerned, it doesn’t seem to exist. If you do find it, I’d recommend the stuffed baked peppers and filo pasty pies with local ‘horta' herbs (wild mountain greens).

After lunch in Vradeto, we drove North, towards Albania in search of a waterfall our host Olga recommended to us. As we drove North the landscape gradually transitioned into a mountainous, forested wilderness. It didn’t feel like Greece at all.

The waterfalls at Iliochori (map), a sleepy, all but deserted mountain village, are not easy to find. You have to follow a steep path down through the villages vegetable gardens, past a precariously perched monetary and down a trail which is more of a landslide than a path. The waterfalls are worth it though, we spent the rest of the day cooling off in the pool underneath the waterfall. It was the perfect way to cool down after a hot day.

Zagoria, (and specifically Dilofo) was an incredibly difficult place to leave; because of the wonderful hospitality, great food and wonderful views. As we left Olga gave us local wine and a packed lunch to take with us - we then headed off to Meteora.

If you visit, my only advice would be to stay for longer than 4 days!