Getting here, and the car question

Kalamata airport, KLX, is about an hour from the house, with seasonal direct flights from northern Europe through the summer. It is small, it is quick, and the drive out of it goes straight down the coast you came to see.

Athens is roughly four hours away by road. That is a real drive and it eats a day at each end, so it only makes sense if you are seeing more of the Peloponnese on the way here or on the way home.

Buses run between the bigger towns and there is no way to see the Mani on them. The house sits high above the bay, the good beaches are spread along 40km of coast, and the best evening you will have is probably a 20 minute drive away.

Hire the smallest car you are comfortable in. The streets in Areopoli and the villages of the deep south were laid out for mules and nobody has widened them since. A big car turns every lovely “shall we stop here?” into ten minutes of reversing.

Every road here goes round an inlet, climbs, and then goes round the next one. Allow an average of 35km/h in Outer Mani and 25km/h once you are south of Areopoli, where the road narrows to a single lane with passing places.

Kalamata to Kardamyli is about an hour. Kardamyli to Areopoli is about 90 minutes. Areopoli down to Cape Tainaron and back is half a day, not an afternoon.

Fill up in Areopoli or Gytheio before you go south. Below Areopoli the petrol stations are few and their opening hours are a matter of opinion.

Drive the deep south in daylight the first time. Those roads are unlit and unfenced and the drops are real. In the daytime they are a pleasure.