My extended family is taking a trip to Greece in May-June (3 generations of Greek descent, but most of us have never been to Greece before). Different family groups will be coming and going over the last 2 weeks of May and first 2 weeks if June, so we're hoping to rent a big (4ish bedrooms) house somewhere for the month and make day trips around as desired. We are hoping to find somewhere walkable that allows us to get acquainted with the local culture. I've been looking around Nafpoli and Kalamata, but an open to suggestions for a small town that might better fit those desires (and cost less than a bigger town).
Thanks for any ideas you have!
Posted by
France Southwest
2318 posts
What would be interesting when choosing a place is if your extended family could know what region in Greece their ancestors were from.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
They're from Koroni, which looks really cool, but remote enough that using it as a base for day trips would be tough.
Posted by
Colorado Mountains, USA
7937 posts
Looks like Koroni isn’t too far from Kalamata, so basing there wouldn’t be super distant, if you decided that Kalamata was too big/expensive. We did a tour of the Peloponnese over a couple of weeks at Eastertime 2018, and one town we stayed in was Aeropoli. It was wonderful, but pretty small, and also pretty far south.
Depending on where you wanted to make your daytrips (east, west, south, all over?), Napflio or Kalamata would be good first picks. We had a few nights in Napflio (with daytrips to fascinating ancient sights) and just one in Kalamath (big, but wished we had more time). Or consider Olympia? If you’re planning on 4 weeks of daytrips to every corner of the peninsula with a single base stay, maybe you want the most central location possible.
Posted by
Bend, Oregon
273 posts
Last April we based in Gythio and made day trips to Diros caves, Kalamata, Monemvasia and Sparta/Mystras. You should get clarifications for who wants to go where and when. Sparta or Tripoli might be a better base to visit most of the Peloponnese. There are good toll roads to Kalamata and Athens from those towns. And good highways to a lot of other areas and sites. DO NOT take Hwy 82 between Sparta and Kalamata unless you have lots of time - the toll roads are much faster.
Posted by
France Southwest
2318 posts
If I had ancestors in Koroni my choice would without hesitation be Koroni whatever happens, with the hope of finding distant family there.
But Kalamata can also be a good base for exploring a large part of the Peloponnese, it is a large, pleasant city with its seafront and quite a few accommodation possibilities but is not representative of the surrounding region which is rather rural and mountainous.
You can also go down towards Mani south of Kalamata, without going as far as Aeropoli. The entire coast is touristy but it will only be more or less large villages by the sea.
In a "seaside" version, another option could be in Kyparissia in Messinia, northwest of Kalamata.
In any case, regarding the "big cities" I do not recommend Sparta or Tripoli which are not touristically interesting.