Pelion Peninsula holiday in Greece, tailor made
Highlights
Thermopylae | Pelion Peninsula | Tsagaratha | Melapotomos | Ntamouchari | Meteora MonasteriesDescription of Pelion Peninsula holiday in Greece, tailor made
The Pelion Peninsula is a finger of land sticking out from mainland Greece, just above Athens. The thickly-forested Mount Pelion was said to be home of Chiron, the centaur who taught many of the best Greek heroes, from Jason to Hercules. Today its couple dozen little villages, hilly hikes and fishing bays offer a great Greece escape.You’ll stay in a traditional Pelion ‘mansion’ in Portaria, a three and a half hour drive from Athens. This is a tailor made holiday which includes a transport from Athens or Thessaloniki airport, and the use of a professional tour driver. You’ll get breakfast every morning before you start your exploration.
Before hitting the peninsula proper you’ll have a tour of Thermopylae - site of a famous battle between the 300 Spartans and Xerxes’ Persian army. Then spend a day exploring the northern Pelion’s villages and beaches – so pretty that one (Ntamouchari ) featured in the 2008 film Mama Mia!
Next, devote a day to the UNESCO-listed Meteora Monasteries. They look as though they might tumble at any second from their precipitous perches, but the Meteora Monasteries have sat atop the meteora rock formations for hundreds of years, and a make a thrilling spectacle. On your penultimate day you’ll reach the southern end of the Peninsula, with its charming villages. You won’t be able to resist a farewell swim in the Aegean.
Travel Team
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01273 823 700 Calling from outside the UK? rosy@responsibletravel.comDeparture information
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Pelion Peninsula holiday in Greece, tailor made
Carbon reduction
Your holiday will help support local people and conservation. We must also reduce CO2. Learn about the CO2 emissions of this holiday and how to reduce them.
Environment
We depend on the sustainable natural beauty of the Pelion peninsula which draws visitors all year through its diversity of pristine mountain, forest & sea ecosystems along with its many small charming villages. Not exploited or used for mass tourism development, Pelion has remained untouched due to its ‘off the beaten track’ location, being at a distance from major airports & cities.
Our policy over the last 5 years has been to develop authentic activities reflecting these qualities and to do this we are helped by a network of trusted professional guides who are chosen not only by their service but also through their contribution in maintaining and working in harmony with the local environment. For example, ancient stone paths criss-crossing the small villages of Pelion were once the only communication routes in the area and fell into overgrowth & disuse with the advent of the car and road. We involve walking in this area as much as possible and include sailing yachts using wind power. Our trip to local produce and craft producers use sustainable local resources. In this way, all our trips maximize both the positive environmental impact and enjoyment.
Our base, a renovated traditional Pelion stone mansion with one meter thick stone walls is itself an ecologically friendly building and was designed to maintain a constant living temperature during Summer & Winter without need for air conditioning. Recently we invested in environmentally friendly systems for water and energy conservation such as heat on demand sinks in the kitchen area, a heat pump system for the general hot water use with a high energy efficiency negating the use of Petrol or Gas, and conversion of all our lighting to LED along with movement sensitive lighting in the most used areas.
Community
Our focus is on the provision of an ‘Authentic experience’ which is rooted in ‘real Greece’ with all the best that has to offer. It is especially true in this respect that Community must go hand in hand with Environment. A small guest house, we nevertheless contribute strongly through employment and after ten years here we are integrated into the local village & area and are more than happy to share our local knowledge with guests on everything from festivals, food & trip planning, local markets & crafts in the area, to how to say good morning (Kalimera!) in Greek.
In renovating our stone house we specifically chose not to extend the original house with its 8 rooms because we felt we wanted to be able to get to know the guests, something not possible with a ‘mass tourism’ approach. Furthermore, the trips you will experience on your holiday directly support the excellent local guides we have have selected whose contribution and positive impact on their community is proportionally very large.
1 Reviews of Pelion Peninsula holiday in Greece, tailor made
Reviewed on 06 Aug 2016 by Julie Griffiths
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Seeing the monasteries in Mereora.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Hire a car.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Beautifully restored house in Portaria where I stayed.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
A little bit too long. A week would have been enough. 2 days in Athens. Two days in seeing Delphi and Meteora and three in Portaria.
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