Our holiday to Messinia in Greece

We recently returned from an independent slow travel style holiday to Messinia in Greece. This was a wonderfully relaxing week away where we didn’t come home feeling like we needed another holiday! In fact, we really didn’t want to leave Messinia’s unspoiled beaches, distinctive old towns, or delicious Greek cuisine.

Where is Messinia?

Honestly, I didn’t have a clue until we booked our holiday to Messinia in Greece. It’s a far less obvious destination and much less visited area of Greece, but that means it’s so much more charming and authentic.

Messinia is on the mainland in a South Western region called Peloponnese. There are plenty of long sandy beaches, beautiful olive groves, ancient fortresses, and pretty little harbour towns.

Transportation in Messinia

The International Airport at Kalamata is about the size of a UK express supermarket, pretty tiny. It only has two arrivals halls and two departures halls.

We hired a car from Avis at Kalamata Airport. They tried to sell us car insurance, but Brett always buys this in advance. This meant their only other option to make some more money was to offer us a car upgrade. What do you think Brett decided to do?

Tip: We saved 150 Euro by upgrading our car through a discounted offer at Kalamata airport.

You could travel around Messinia by bus. However, I would recommend hiring a car. It is worth it for the leisurely road trips. The main roads are very quiet. However, we did explore some slightly more challenging single-track roads to visit some local sights of interest.

Where did we stay during our holiday to Messinia in Greece?

The staff were lovely and very friendly. There was a great selection of food for Breakfast. We also dined in the restaurant in the evening, and every time we ate there we received a free complimentary dessert. Thank you!

In the hotel, I found a leaflet for a mobile app called Messinia.mobi. This was a very handy local tour guide for the Messinia area, which includes myths and historical information along with accommodation, restaurants, and places to visit.

Our top 3 road trips during our holiday to Messinia in Greece:

Methoni Castle

Methoni Castle has an octagonal tower on a small fortified island called Bourtzi.

Admittedly, this was the pretty looking octagonal tower which I had already seen when I was planning & pinned on Pinterest. So, I knew I wanted to capture this shot for Instagram. However, I did not know that it would involve tentatively climbing up the 13th Century ruins to get to this particular vantage point. Nor did I know that historically this Guard Tower had been used as a prison!

Local legend states that the spirits of the prisoners and execution victims lurk in the Bourtzi tower, and they can be heard screaming at night. I can’t confirm whether this is true, because the Castle closed at 7 pm. Unfortunately, this meant that we also missed out on capturing a stunning sunset at Methoni Castle.

Polylimnio waterfalls (many waterfalls).

Polylimnio means many in Greek. There are 15 pools and waterfalls to explore, but we only visited a few of them.

We drove through the village of Charavgi, and then we followed the signs for Polylimnio Waterfalls. The dusty dirt track towards the waterfalls was quite bumpy and there was a patch with some large potholes. Although Brett couldn’t always see the road, thankfully he managed to drive around them without damaging the hire car.

Before going to visit Polylimnio Waterfalls, Brett read up about it on Trip Advisor and proceeded to scare the life out of me. As a plus-sized traveller with a backpack full of camera gear, I was terrified about an extremely steep hike which could involve hanging off the side of a mountain using just a few bits of rope and some metal rings!

When we arrived, there was a little restaurant with toilet facilities next to the car parking area. We started to walk down the path during the peak midday heat. I was so anxious about the unknown and how steep it might be that I was physically shaking. Please note that I have become more anxious since I developed hypothyroidism. Before, things like this didn’t bother me so much. Although, I have never been a big fan of hiking. It was steep and it took about 30 minutes to walk down, and we did see a falling rock. The rock was about the size of a watermelon and came crashing down onto the path in front of us. So, it is a little bit dangerous.

The waterfalls are in a deep mountain gorge, there is a lot of dense vegetation around the pools. Be cautious and wear sensible walking shoes or trainers.

We explored a few of the smaller pools and waterfalls, Panago’s Lake and Stathoula’s Lake. Whilst Brett ventured off the find one of the larger waterfalls, I sat down to take some long exposure images (and have a rest). He came back to tell me that he did have to climb up the mountain using metal rings and frayed bits of rope. I am glad that I missed out on this experience and glad that he came back in one piece.

After exploring some of the falls, I was dreading hiking back up to the car but I just took it really slowly. It wasn’t easy, but it was doable. On the way back, there was another plus-sized traveller coming down the path. I could see the look of fear on her face. She stopped to ask how bad it was. I tried to reassure her, but English wasn’t her first language so I mostly pointed and gestured and I think she got the gist.

The gorgeous ice-cold turquoise water at Polymionio Waterfalls was beautiful, so it’s definitely worth the steep short hike.

Voidokilia beach, Mainland Greece

Voidokilia, on the west coast of the Messinia, Peloponnese. Funnily, this beach is shaped like the Greek letter Omega Ω

It is a gorgeous semi-circle of shallow calm turquoise waters, surrounded by a golden sandy beach, pale sand dunes and beautiful green headlands.

I loved Voidokilia beach, and I am not generally a big fan of beaches. I took a little dip in the calm sea just before sunset. It was still warm because the water in the bay is quite shallow.

The best view of the beach is meant to be from the 13th-century Navarino Castle, which sits on the headland 600 ft above the beach.

We began walking up the sand dunes to experience this view from the Castle, but was pretty challenging and we were running out of time because the sun was setting.

Other people had a similar idea, and I managed to capture them enjoying the sunset from the headland in Messinia in Greece

We decided to begin walking back down the sand dunes. My legs were quite tired from the climb, and I had quite a bit of my camera gear in my backpack, so I was a little wobbly and I lost my balance. To avoid a rather embarrassing tumble into the bushes, I perfectly executed a controlled safety fall – I slowly fell backwards and sat down on the slope. Then, I continued to take photos almost like it was planned. Thankfully nobody noticed, not Brett as he strode off ahead or the people behind me watching the sunset.

Later that day, Holley responded to one of my Instagram story posts and I told her about my little tumble in the sand dunes. Holley writes a positivity and photography blog, she referred to it as a controlled safety fall, which made me chuckle so I told her I’d include this phrase in my blog post. Thanks, Holley ❤

Despite the controlled safety fall in the sand dunes, Voidokillia beach is my new favourite beach in the world! The Times also rate it quite highly too, it made their top 10.

Would you visit Messinia in Greece?

We really enjoyed our holiday to Messinia in Greece. Independent travel also enabled us to support the local economy by staying in a family-owned hotel and regularly eating in local restaurants. The pace of life is so much slower. This enabled us to relax and appreciate our surroundings more.