We are getting married June 10th 2001 and want to honeymoon in the Peloponese to visit the ancient sites and family that I have never met in Kalamata. We want to visit Sparta and Messeni while there. We were thinking of Nauplia for a base to see many of the sites and someone mentioned to me an old castle on the south west shore of the Pelop.Please tell me if you know about this castle. We know that Kalamata is not a good place to stay. All of your suggestions are welcome. My concern is the lack of quality beds. Please advise of hotels with minimum queen size beds. I have been told that king and queen size beds do not exsist in the Peloponese. After all the stress of planning our wedding we want an excellent hotel with a large good bed and reliable air conditioing. If this does not exsist we will happily go another time but for our honeymoon we want everything perfect. We are eagerly awaiting your response so we can beging booking our stay. Thank you so much.

In Nafplio we stayed at the 4-star Amalia. This is some 2/3 miles out from the old center, just off the road to Argos, very close to the Tiryns ruins. If one has a car, going back and forth to the center is no problem. We found plenty of parking space available. Beware, though, that if you're staying during a weekend, Nafplio may be packed with Athenians ... we went there a little later in the year (beginning of July) and we didn't find a room for a weekend (we had to switch the sense of our tour in order to fit in). Hotel rooms are very nice, have all ammenities including a large (queen) very good bed, a/c, etc. There's also a nice pool that you'd welcome in the late afternoon after your sightseeing if its hot. <BR> <BR>The best hotel in Nafplio is supposed to be the Xenia Palace. We didn't go inside. It's up the Acronauplia hill and the views are outstanding. You may give it a try. <BR> <BR>Didn't hear about the castle you refer to ... I would be very much surprised, though, if you manage to be beter lodged anywhere in the Peloponnese than in Nafplio. <BR> <BR>We found that, excluding a very good restaurant where we had lunch after having visited Mistra, Sparta is entirely "skippable". <BR> <BR>Paulo <BR>

Hello, thank you for responding. I looked at the Almaia hotel on the Dilos site and only saw 2 beds pushed together. Not my idea of a true queen size bed but thanks for your time. We are still looking in Nafplion, Kalamata does have some nice places we still need true large beds for Olympia and Monemvasia. This being our honeymoon it's very important and perhaps this is why the Pelop. is not a popular honeymoon local. We are open to all suggestions. Thank you.

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You're right about the Amalia, Tammy. It puzzled me because I was pretty sure to have seen a double bed in our friends' room (we had had asked for twin bedded rooms for all our trip to Greece and Turkey). As it turns out, they indeed had pushed them together (had to do it also in Athens and Delphi). <BR> <BR>You may consider to give a look at the following site I found in my bookmarks (Candia House is supposed to be in Nafplio's vicinities, not exactly in town, though) <BR> <BR>http://www.greekhotel.com/peloponnes...house/home.htm <BR> <BR>Paulo <BR> <BR>

I never found anything in Greece approaching North American standards of "deluxeness", and we stayed mainly at A class level hotels last month. <BR> <BR>In general air conditioning was just marginally adequate, & didn't have the cooling capacity I'm accustomed to. Often the room air conditioner just recycled the same room air over & over, requiring a window to be left open just to get fresh air, thereby further taxing the air conditioning. The maids almost always turned off the A/C, to save electricty, so when I got back to the room (hot, tired, & dusty) I'd have to wait 30 minutes fore the room to cool down again. <BR> <BR>I never saw a true "queen" sized (let alone king sized) bed anywhere; a "double room" meant they pushed two "single" beds together, so you'd have a gap between the 2 beds. I hadn't used single beds since I lived in a college dorm - they are small! <BR> <BR>In Naflio I stayed at the Byron Hotel, a quaint modernized building in the middle of Old Town, very convenient. If I were doing it over I might use the Amalia (as Paulo did). I stopped in & looked around, it was a very nice upscale property with good looking pool, gardens, & public areas. Didn't get a chance to actaully peek into a guest room, though. <BR> <BR>As Paulo mentions, the Amalia is far enough out of Naflio town that a car (or calling taxis) is necessary. <BR> <BR>I've read & heard that the Xenia Palace is a government owned hotel (as are other Xenias), and that it was decrepit & crumbling - despite the admittedly good views. However I did not actually walk into the Xenia to see first hand. <BR>If it still is government operated, I would avoid it like the plague.