The Pelion
A mountain cloaked in chestnut forest plunging into the wild Aegean on one side and a gulf of oil-calm water on the other: the Pelion, mythical home of the centaurs, is the Greeks' favourite weekend — and the foreigners' blind spot.
Suggested stay — 2 to 3 nights
Between Volos and the sea, the Pelion peninsula contradicts everything projected onto Greece: deep forests of beech and chestnut, villages with flagstone roofs (Makrinitsa the balcony of Volos, Tsagarada and its thousand-year-old plane tree, Milies and its historic library), springs singing beneath the plane trees of the squares. The road that runs through it is a festival of shaded switchbacks — expect averages of 35 km/h and savour them: that is the point.
The contrast extends to the beaches: on the Aegean side, Mylopotamos and Fakistra line up white cliffs, pale pebbles and translucent water that concede nothing to the islands; on the Pagasetic gulf side, Kala Nera and Afissos offer calm family swimming. In between, the little Moutzouris steam train climbs from Lechonia to Milies on the line engineered by Giorgio De Chirico's father — and the Pelion tavernas, famous throughout the country for spetsofai (sausage with peppers) and tyropsomo cheese bread, complete the case for the detour.
Don't miss
- Tsagarada: the thousand-year-old plane tree on the Agia Paraskevi square and the Fakistra stone bridge
- Mylopotamos beach and its rock arch, early morning
- Milies and the Moutzouris steam train ride (weekends and summer)
- Makrinitsa at sunset, the bay of Volos at its feet
Our tips on the ground
- The Aegean-side beaches are reached by narrow, steep roads ending in tiny car parks: arrive before 10 am in summer, or choose June and September.
- The Pelion is a four-season destination for Greeks: book weekends firmly, even in November — and enjoy the weekdays, when the villages are yours.
- Try spetsofai where it was born, and the spoon sweets (glyka koutaliou) from the village cooperatives: the Pelion is eaten as much as it is visited.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“Greece on Your Own”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
Before you go
Readers' questions about The Pelion
Can the Pelion replace the islands for swimming?
On the Aegean side, yes without blushing: Fakistra, Mylopotamos or Damouchari (where Mamma Mia! was filmed) offer water as clear as the Cyclades, with cliff shade and forest thrown in. The difference lies elsewhere: no white lanes, no island nightlife — the Pelion is a mountain country that has beaches, not the other way round.
Is the driving difficult there?
Demanding rather than difficult: the main road is good but narrow and winding, the local buses take the bends wide, and some beach accesses drop steeply. A city car is more than enough; simply avoid driving at night under the forest and let the locals pass — they know every bend, and there is no hard shoulder here, only the widened corners that stand in for one.