8-day Pelion Peninsula Walking Holiday

Arrival in Portaria from Volos, Thessaloniki or Athens airport. Portaria is a nice village with beautiful mansions and a cosy central square. Time permitted you can make a stroll through the village and discover the network of cobbled streets.

Today you make a round walk from Portaria. You walk to the traditional mountain village Makrinitsa  with its characteristic  stone  houses  with slated  roofs. You  walk through maquis vegetation where you smell thyme  and  oregano  to  an  idyllic church. Through forests you ascend and then via a dirt road you descend towards Portaria, whilst  enjoying views on Volos city. Before reaching Portaria you come through a small green gorge.

Challenge: 4,5 hours, 12 km / 8 mi, 550m ascent, 550m descent

 From Portaria, you will be taken by taxi to Agios Ioannis at the coast. You start your roundwalk via the villages Mouresi and Damouchari. A roundwalk which ascends from the sea and the beach of Agios Ioannis along a cobblestone path, between houses and estates with olive trees, intersecting with some stretches in tarmac road. You reach the central square of the Mouresi village with a series of little streets and very well maintained cobblestone paths. From here you descend to the beautiful hamlet Damouchari at the coast through a southern route, following again paths and good cobbled paths.

Make a break in Damouchari and enjoy a drink or coffee in one of the 2 cafés/restaurants before you walk northwest to the nearby Papa Nero beach, with final destination Agios Ioannis. You will enjoy amazing views over the mountain and the sea.

Challenge: 3 hours, 7 km / 3/5 mi, 430m ascent / descent

Today you can opt for a relaxing day on the beach or you make a nice circular walk. You walk along the beautiful Plaka beach and ascend then via a cobbled path. You can make an optional loop to the Faneromeni chapel (which means you descend again down to the sea and to ascend the same way back, extra 2,7 km, +100m/-100m). You walk then partly on a tarmac road until you follow an old paved path up through dense forest. You descend then back via a little tarmac road in a beautiful surrounding back to the coastal village of Agios Ioannis.

Challenge: 3 hours, 8.5 km, 300 / 300m ascent / descent

You walk along the coast and via a walk on a very pleasant cobbled path you reach the hamlet Damouchari, a tiny fishing village in a bay. Though tiny it was of strategic importance in earlier times, when it was the only natural harbor on the entire coast between Volos and Katerini. Today the bay provides a natural swimming pool with a pleasant pebble beach. From Damouchari you can make an optional loop back and forth along the coast to Fakistra beach where there is a possibility to visit the ‘Hidden School’ in a cave. Back above Damouchari bay, you walk uphill on a path to Tsangarada, a wide stretched village with numerous churches and squares. Your hotel is in the section Agia Paraskevi. From the terrace of this characteristic accommodation you see the village square with a 1000 year old plane tree with an incredible diameter.

Challenge: 4 hours, 8 km / 5 mi, 700m ascent, 300m descent

Today you will cross the mountain range at 700m elevation towards the south. First you walk through the lush village of Tsangarada along old churches and squares. Then you will ascend through forest and across the ridge. You walk via old mule tracks that were mainly built to facilitate the transportation of products from one place to the other. You walk through lime stone landscape covered with chestnut- and beech trees. You descend to the picturesque mountain village Milies whilst enjoying great views over the Pagasitic Gulf. Around Milies you find many old olive groves. Your hotel today has a lovely pool for relaxation moment.

Challenge: 4,5 hours, 12 km / 7,5 mi, 350m ascent, 400m descent

You descend via old cobbled paths from Milies towards the coast whilst enjoying great views. Last section before reaching the coastal village of Koropi is via dirt roads through olive groves. From Koropi you walk to the nearby touristic village Kala Nera, where you might have lunch in the shadow of the big plane tree on the village square. Then you ascend via cobbled paths via a hamlet until the narrow gauge railway tracks, that you follow until Milies. The tracks are 200-300m above sea level. It is great to follow the tracks that ascend gradually. Wherever mule tracks cross the tracks, stone road bridges have been built: interesting civil engineering features from the past. You will also walk past the cave where, according mythology, the centaur Cheiron taught Asklepios about medical plants and herbs. During the summer months the steam train operates once per day only on Saturday and Sunday.

Challenge: 4 hours, 12 km / 7,5 mi, 475m ascent, 475m descent

After breakfast end of arrangement. Travel to Thessaloniki-, Volos- or Athens airport.