[Lifestyle] No cars, just donkeys’: readers’ top tips on off-the-beaten track Greece

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Walks through gorges and lovely quiet towns plus secluded coves to swim in: our readers give the lowdown on the Greece you really want to visit.Winning tip: Ideal island retreat, Gulf of Corinth

Trizonia, in the Gulf of Corinth is a small island visited mainly by Greek families and “yachties”. We spent time there while sailing round the Med, from our home on the Isle of Skye. Filled with olive groves and wildflowers, Trizonia is a 10-minute ferry ride from the mainland and makes for an ideal retreat, or a base for exploring the mainland. No cars, just donkeys. There are tavernas and bars in the pretty village, and various accommodation options. Porto Trizonia Taverna is our favourite. A mainland town nearby is historical Nafpaktos with its Venetian harbour.

Fiona Mandeville

 

Spectacular train ride to the coast, Peloponnese.The Odontotos train passes over the Vouraikos River. Photograph: Isidoros Andronos/Alamy

While backpacking last summer, a local farmer gave me a lift on his tractor to the mountaintop village of Kalavryta in the northern Peloponnese and told me about a beautiful train ride to the coast. A spectacular trip on an old narrow rack railway, called Odontotos (the toothy one), took me across 49 bridges through the Vouraikos gorge and river. The main route was opened by Hercules – who, according to legend, split a massive rock blocking his path to the sea and his lover. It’s a lovely area, off the beaten track, full of dense forests and fir trees, and there are locals ready to offer fruit from the roadside stalls you pass.

Nick

 

Promenade and throw pots in Preveza.Alamy

Base yourself in Preveza,on the mainland’s west coast, south of Corfu, and you can sunbathe on the white, sandy Monolithi beach (which runs for nearly 14 miles). You can also explore the ruins of the ancient Roman victory city of the Nicopolis, shop in Parga, and kayak on the Acheron River, entrance to the mythological realm of the dead. Or you can swim in the early morning at Alonaki beach, celebrate Easter by throwing pots from the balconies and spend your evenings promenading along the seafront before choosing your favourite taverna for the evening.

Jennifer.The island of Chios doesn’t attract the same attention as its more touristy Aegean neighbours. It retains a Greek feel and has a wealth of history, from the beautiful Unesco-listed Byzantine monastery of Nea Moni to the mastic villages around Pyrgi, with their characteristic geometric exteriors. The island has a bloody past in the Greek war of independence, the fortified villages of Avgonima and abandoned Anavatos bearing testimony to the resilience of the po[CENSORED]tion. The coastal town of Vrontados comes to life every Greek Easter, with thousands of homemade rockets fired between two churches in the village.

Chris.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/apr/14/readers-favourite-places-greece-off-the-beaten-track