Peloponnese, Greece information please

Old Jan 26th, 2001, 12:17 AM
  #1  
farmgal
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Peloponnese, Greece information please

What is the easiest and most economical route to get to Athens from Seattle or Portland in mid-June?

Any experiences with the transportation from to Nauplion in the Peloponnese from Athens. Which is easier to travel; rail, ferry, bus or rent a car?

Any recommendations as to nice(clean and safe)lodging in Athens or the Athens Airport, Nauplion, Tolos, or Argos?
Thanks
 
Old Jan 26th, 2001, 01:26 AM
  #2  
Liz
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I always stay at the Attalos in Athens, in the Monistraki area. It's very clean, the staff are very friendly, and it has a bar and 24-hour reception.

Prices are also reasonable - 17000 drachmas for a double room with bathroom.

www.greecetravel.com/attalos
 
Old Jan 28th, 2001, 08:32 AM
  #3  
tom
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Last August 2000, took a car tour of the Peloponnese, tracing a roughly counterclockwise circle, starting & ending in Athens.

Getting in & out of the metropolitan Athens area was a hassle: poorly marked signs, heavy chaotic traffic, etc. Once out of the Athens environs, rental car was a fine way to see the Peloponnese. Driving in Greece can be a bit harrowing and NOT for inattentive drivers. But if you are a good defensive driver it is by far the best way to see the land, have the most independence, etc. As I recall it was about 2 hrs from central Athens to Nauflio, of which 45 minutes was spent just getting out of Athens.

Nauflio itself is a very pleasant town. We decided to be in, or near, the Old Town, which was reminiscent of Athens Plaka except cleaner, less tacky & touristy, and all around much nicer.

We stayed at the Hotel Byron, a small, charming, renovated building, right in the middle of the Old Town. From its breakfast room & terrace it was lovely looking out over the tile rooftops of the Old Town. It was roughly $75 per night. The only thing I missed was a swimming pool, as there is no room in the tightly packed old town (parking the car was sometimes difficult, also).

At the outskirts of Nauflio is the modern, spacious Amalia Hotel, with a large pool, gleaming marble public spaces, etc. The hotel grounds are very pleasant & nicely landscaped, but the immediate environs are unremarkable. It's about $120 per night.

The Amalia, being on the outskirts of town, a car (or taxis) is the only practical way to get to central Nauflio (shops, restaurants, etc).
A car is also the most flexible way to visit the Naflio environs: Mycenae, Epidavros, etc.

PS- Never felt unsafe in any part of the Peloponnese, but always take precautions (like not leaving valuables in the car, etc).
 
Old Jan 29th, 2001, 10:41 PM
  #4  
farmgal
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Thanks, for the all information. Tom, how long did you spend touring the Peloponnese? Can you tour the region in a week?
Since I am not fluent in Greek, can you get around with just english in Greece?
 
Old Jan 30th, 2001, 09:37 AM
  #5  
Paulo
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farmgal,
In 5+ days (leaving Athens in the early afternoon and returning late afternoon) we managed to visit Arachova, Delphi and Osios Loukas monastery, then Olympia, Assos, Micenae, Argos, Tiryns, Nafplio, Mistras and Epidaurus (with short stops in Langadia and Tolo). If you intend to also include Nestor's Palace and Monemvasia you should add at least one night, possibly 2. We spent a night in Delphi, another one in Patras (forget it, plan for spending a night in Olympia instead) and 3 in Nafplio. Using Nafplio as a base we visited Micenae, Argos, Tyrins and Mistras. We visited Epidaurus enroute from Nafplio back to Athens. We stayed at Amalia hotels (as described by Tom) both in Delphi and Nafplio. There's one also in Olympia. A car would be a must.

Paulo
 
Old Jan 30th, 2001, 12:27 PM
  #6  
michelle
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My husband and I just got back from almost 2 1/2 weeks in Greece. We spent
6-7 days driving around the Pelopennese. We picked up the car at Athens airport. The drive out of Athens is difficult due to poorly marked streets and tremendous amounts of traffic but once you get outside of the city we found the driving to be easy. We highly recommend staying at the Palace Hotel in Nauplion if you can afford to. Its up on the hill directly overlooking the town(you ride an elevator down from the hotel). It is somewhat more expensive than the Amalia which we also spent one night at but is much more memorable because of the spectacular view. The Amalia was very clean, nice and quiet and only a 5-10 minute drive away. We highly recommend a drive to Monemvassia.While it is about 4 hrs each way from Nauplion it actually ended up being one of the highlights of our trip. We stayed at Hotel Malvasia which was fantastic but in high season you would have to book in advance. We were disappointed in Olympia- a long drive with the sight in relatively poor condition ( We have travelled a lot - better Greek ruins are in Turkey and Italy) Mistras was also excellent as was Mycenae,Epidauros,Ancient Corinth (modern Corinth is not). To be perfectly honest, the best thing about our trip was that we went off season. Tourists do not go to Greece in December and we had many ruins, museums and even hotels essentially to ourselves.The weather was cool(60's during the day) but 10 minutes of rain the entire trip and blue skies. We also spent 5 days on Crete and 3 days on Santorini and it was the same story. In Oia,Santorini we saw only one other tourist couple in the entire town! If at all possible I would recommend that you not go to Greece in high season even if you do not choose to go in December. The islands we went to are wall to wall hotels and I think your experience would be much more enjoyable. One more off season find on Crete- Hotel Porto Elouda
on Elouda Bay. Early December price was
$85 including an excellent 5 course dinner for 2 and breakfast. Ocean view rooms, 6 swimming pools, golf course and out of about 200 rooms, there were only 5 couples staying!
 
Old Jan 30th, 2001, 01:04 PM
  #7  
traveller
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We travel to Greece pretty much every year, usually through Seattle or San Francisco, so I know a little bit about the trip. In my experience, Portland doesn't work as a place to get a good flight to Europe. I think you'll be bettter off flying from Seattle. To get to Athens, you pretty much have to fly to another European hub city for a connecting flight to Athens. We often go on British Airways, but one problem with BA, and something you need to look out for, is the length of the layover in the hub city and what time you arrive in Athens. For a number of years, the timing of the Seattle-London-Athens flight is such that there is a 10 or 11 hour layover in the London airport, and then you arrive in Athens at 4:15 a.m. Neither of these things are good. The early morning arrival is bad because it is too early to check into a hotel, nothing much is open, and you will be exhausted by your trip. What we've been doing lately to beat this problem is to do a one night layover in London so that don't get so tired. Plus we always find something interesting to see in London.
I've had better luck with connections flying SwissAir, also I like
SwissAir better in terms of service and comfort. But it also tends to be a little more expensive. Lufthansa also has some decent
connections. I'd recommend you go to www.travelocity.com or
www.expedia.com and do some price shopping for the period of time you want, paying close attention to the layover and time of arrival in Athens issues.

You ask if you can get around with just English in Greece. Certainly you can in Athens, although to be polite you should always ask if a person speak English before you just start speaking it to them -- Melate anglika? (may-lah-hay ahn-glee-kah) Depending on where you go in the Peloponnese, English may be more of a challenge. Generally speaking, the smaller the community, the fewer English speakers. A good phrase book and lots of gesturing will always get you through. People are very
nice and patient, and even those who don't speak English will go out of their way to try and communicate with you.
 
Old Jan 31st, 2001, 07:05 PM
  #8  
tom
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good language advice from Traveller above.

In Athens, I was pulled over by a traffic policeman for an illegal turn, within 5 minutes of picking up the rental car. Policman (apparently) knew little English, which I ascertained by asking "Melate anglika? "

But because I made the effort, and I had some limited Greek speaking skills, he waved me off after a bit of a back & forth conversation.

I am sure I would not have been so fortunate, had I not made the effort to communicate in Greek.

Most people say that an Int'l License is not "mandatory", but I think in this instance it helped .. the policeman clearly recognized it as valid document, which he might not had I pulled out a California license. Besides, I'd rather risk getting the Int'l License confiscated, than my "real" license !
 
Old Jan 31st, 2001, 07:20 PM
  #9  
tom
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Another comment about driving in Peloponnese. I took the "mountain road" from Olympia to Nauflio, and I am VERY GLAD I did.

Some have warned against it .. but it really was no big deal in daylight, but I'd think twice about doing it after dark or in rainy weather.

In good weather, I intentionally averaged a low speed, about 25 mph. The drive was VERY rewarding. Rugged, beautiful scenery, interesting small, medieval hillside towns (like Dimitsena).

Get an early start (9-10 am is early enough), plan on frequent stops (choose roadside stops wisely, for safety!), and enjoy the views!

I think if I was to do the big "circle" tour again, I would do it clockwise, two main reasons:

1) driving from Rio (or is it Antirio), heading east toward Delfi on the north shore of the Corinth gulf, I would be on the Gulf side (south side) of the road. This would make it MUCH easier to stop along the road to Delfi, as the views are stunning ... steep drops of mountains into the sea, occasional seaside towns as you round a curve, etc.

2) rising from ocean UP to Delfi, thru the olive groves, looked more visually appealing than descending (which I did).

But both directions are OK, I wouldn't undo an itinerary for it.

Oh, and a #3 reason:

Going from Athens to Delfi, I missed the small, poorly marked Delfi turnoff THREE times, having to go 8-10 miles past the turnoff to find a U-turn, only to miss the turn-off again. I was ready to scream. At least that problem would be less likely if going from Delfi back to Athens ..
 
Old Feb 1st, 2001, 08:10 AM
  #10  
Paulo
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I must have been drunk when I mentioned Assos, above. This is in Turkey. I meant Bassae ...

It's amazing how just about everybody misses the Delphi (actually Thiva) turnoff, Tom. It's indeed very poorly marked. But we had better luck, missing it only once. Instead of returning on the divided highway, we took the parallel two-way road, and asked for directions in a gas station

I agree with Tom on what concerns the mountain road and Dimitsana. From Olympia we got to Andritsena and Bassae. Then to Karitaina and north on the mountain road through Dimitsana, hiting the northern road between Olympia and Tripolis and making the 10km-detour back and forth to Langadia (also a very nice village). We managed to leave Olympia at 1pm and arrived in Nafplio quite late in the evening, at 8:30pm. Of the 7+ hours enroute I figure the driving consumed some 4:30 hours.

Regarding which way to drive the circuit, I also agree with Tom's remarks but IMO the determinant factor would be days of week to be spent in Nafplio. On weekends in June the city should be packed with Greeks fleeing Athens. We had planned the circuit clockwise but had to change it when we weren't able to find vacancies in Nafplio hotels.

Finally, if possible, one shouldn't miss the Daphne monastery (we missed it twice because of opening hours).

Paulo
 
Old Feb 1st, 2001, 01:34 PM
  #11  
farmgal
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It sounds like driving is the best way to get around, except in Athens. What is an International License and where would I get one? The AAA in my state? Can a person rent a car outside of Athens, like in Corinth or Nauplion itself?

Did anyone on their drives happen upon a very small village, called Manassi? It is somewhere east of Argos.
 
Old Feb 1st, 2001, 05:42 PM
  #12  
tom
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An Int'l License can be obtained from an AAA office, even if you're not a member. It was about $20 (I think). It's just a small multi-page booklet in several languages, that serves as a license.

About rental cars outside of Athens: the smaller the town, the less the choices. I do recall seeing a couple of the major rental chains in Nauflio, but it would be especially important to book & confirm well in advance (& re-confirm again!).

In a smaller town, if there was something wrong with the rental car offered, they might not even have a second car to substitute.
 
Old Feb 1st, 2001, 06:44 PM
  #13  
hydra
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I spent three weeks driving around the Peleponnese a few years ago. It was great fun and I would recommend it to anybody who wants to get off of the main greek tourist track. One stop that should not be missed is Elephonisos. It is a small island off of the south coast by Nauplio (Not Nauflion which is in the northern part of the Peleponnese). In my opinion the beach here is the best in Europe. The island is small (only one fishing village) and is only serviced by a walk on ferry from Vinglafia or a car ferry from Nauplio. When were there we were the only non greeks on the island. Wonderful fish tavernas and greek life. I'd recommend it to anyone.

One note if you are planning to drive. Get a map that has greek and english translations. Often we would find spelling mistakes in the english translation of towns and more than once we found ourselves hopelessly lost with only greek signs to help us.
 

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