Itinerary Feedback - Spring 2025

You will indeed be driving for hours from Delphi to Kardamyli and from Kardamyli to Nafplio via Monemvasia.

Remember that these are often small winding mountain roads where you will not drive more than 40 mph
and that the Peloponnese is a region where you can stop almost every 15 minutes to enjoy the scenery, see villages, etc.
That's why it takes me all day to do a 2h30 drive, but you probably don't travel like I do.

And if you want to spend those hours driving from one site to another rather than visiting a country, that's your choice.

Listen to JoLui he has pinpointed the flaws in your plan. While the map indicates, this is a short hop, it can take hours for a short drive simply because there may be mountains and for sure there will be tempting sites where you did not plan to stop but you do anyway.

On one of our trips it took us 10 hours to do the drive from Nafplio to Monemvasia. We averaged 13km per hour. There were so many ancient sites on that route we just had to stop.

While Kardamyli is lovely the road is mountainous quite narrow and will take way more time than you expect.
Instead I would suggest you take a day to visit Ancient Messini. It is an amazing ancient site and is never crowded. It has been called the best ancient site that hardly anyone visits.

From there head to Nafplio. It is a great base to explore the surrounding area. Lots to see and do.

On the way back to Athens take a stop at Corinth. It has the canal but also the site of Ancient Corinth and right next door the great fortress at Acrocorinth.
Here are some images of our visits to Greece
Nafplio https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157632094108982
Nafplio 2024 https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72177720319228274

Delphi and Meteora https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157698930270992

Corinth Area. https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157711755443483
Peloponnese, Mani and Monemvassia. https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157711323535897

Thank you for your feedback. It confirms my thoughts that we have too many towns on our Peloponnese trip (and too much driving).

Our must sees are: Santorini, Kalambaka, Nafplio, and Athens. I think adding in Delphi, either to or from Kalambaka, makes sense.
Rather than staying in Kardamyli do you have suggestions of other towns closer to Nafplio, which would eliminated the drive to Kardamyli?

Is the trip from Nafplio to Monemvasia and staying there overnight worthwhile? Not so much seeing Monemvasia itself (RS said a couple of hours were sufficient) but the scenic drive there and stopping at Mystras on the way back.

Honestly I love Monemvasia. Staying in a period room inside a walled village from the 14th century is amazing.
Having said that visiting Mystras on a day trip from Nafplio would be my choice. Too much driving to go all the way to Monemvasia for a night.
Chances are very good you are going to fall in love with Greece and you will want to come again so you can do a couple of nights at Monemvasia then.

Unlike Stan I admit that we hated Monemvasia, yes it is nice to take some pictures for an hour or two, but it is a place without life, without any local inhabitants, only dedicated to tourism with poor underpaid guys who transport tourists' suitcases to the hotels in wheelbarrows, like in the colonial era.

Staying there was a disappointment for us, and above all a waste of time when I imagine that we could have spent this time much better in other places.

Just a perspective on liking Monemvasia.
We are from North America and there really isn't anything like Monemvasia there. I can understand that Europeans might find it to be a run of the mill experience as they can live with it daily. But coming from a country that considers the 17 hundreds as ancient past, a visit to Monemvasia is a real treat.

I have to agree about the amount of driving you'll be doing and the time involved getting from Point A to Point B especially in the Peloponnese.

It's not because the roads are bad but it's the terrain that slows you down especially in the mountains or along the coasts.

Not to mention all the stops for photo ops.

If you plan on driving anywhere in Greece especially the Peloponnese expect it to take much longer than you planned.

In addition I would recommend some type of navigation system. I use Google Maps and it really makes a difference on how to get somewhere especially in the more rural areas.

As for Monemvasia I found it pretty but not my cup. Since I was relatively close to it I decided to go.

It was OK but seemed sterile with more tourists than locals.

However many like it so do what's best for you.

Thanks all for your comments.

I think we'll resequence the order of the towns we'll stay in and remove Monemvasia from the itinerary. That will shorten the longer days of driving from about 6hrs to 3 1/2 - 4 hrs (without sightseeing stops). Longest driving days are from: Athens to Kalabaka; Delphi to Nafplio, and Kardamyli to Athens (with a stop at Mystras).

I intend to use Google Maps for navigation, along with a hard copy of the driving itinerary. Did you find that Google's driving times, without stops, were reasonably accurate?

Still thinking of getting to Kardamyli from Nafplio. Have any of you been, and did you find the time/effort to get there worthwhile (we want to relax, do some hiking, etc.)?

Google maps were fairly accurate on driving times if you stay on major roads or the newish highway in the Peloponnese.

Once you get to more rural areas times take longer.

However, I usually stop along the way to take photos or maybe a unexpected quick stop that looked interesting so the approximate time Google gave me won't take into account the time for those stops.

Have you considered Gythio on the southeast part of the Peloponnese? It's a very nice town with long waterfront and wonderful traditional back street neighborhoods.

I used it as a base to explore the Mani, Mystras and since I was fairly close to Monemvasia I decided to go.

As an alternative to Kardymyli consider Areopolis further south. Wonderful Old Town area and not as developed/touristy as Kardymyli.

stanbr - I was reading some of your older posts from 2020 where you mentioned staying on one of your Mani trips in Gythio, Aeropoli and Kardamili, I appreciate if you shared the names and thoughts and the hotels you stayed at? Thanks

Sorry I do not remember the hotels we stayed in. We travel in May mid June or September early October so we had no problem just arrived in a village and looked around for a hotel. Never had a problem finding a decent hotel. The advantage of this approach is we could stop any place any time. It provides flexibility and removes the concern that we have to get to the next destination.