Walk Pelion

Working as a walking guide I have spent many years exploring the network of dirt roads, pathways and goat tracks that criss-cross South Pelion. The original routes between the villages, the cobbled kalderimi donkey paths, still exist, but many have fallen into disrepair, overgrown with trees and shrubs. Researching maps and Google Earth looking for possible links between villages has filled countless winter evenings. Exploring the possibilities by car, vespa, and foot has filled a vast number of days. 


These twenty walks take you off the beaten track, from coast to coast, and into the heart of Pelion. Out of hundreds of paths I have explored these are my favourite walks. I love them because they are a manageable length on a hot summers day with time for a relaxing lunch in a gorgeous location, and the routes are easy to follow. It is possible to walk for hours and not meet another soul. Or should I say another human? Sheep and goats? Every time. Wild boar? Once or twice. Butterflies? Too many to count. I love to be out in nature, hear bird song, cicadas, buzzards, bleating goats, and the sound of the waves on the shore. Walking along a dirt track with the smell of chamomile underfoot, picking wild asparagus, marjoram and thyme, eating a fig fresh from the tree, or drinking clean spring water. These are delightful pleasures!


I have walked each of these routes many times, with family, friends, and strangers, sometimes with a picnic of diropita and spanakopita (cheese and spinach pie), warm bread from the bakery, olives, feta, and tomatoes just picked from the garden. Other times we have stopped at a local taverna, where the food is delicious and home cooked, with warm mountain weeds in lemon juice and olive oil served with whatever fish they caught that morning.


The twenty walks in this book can each be walked individually, there and back, but as circular routes they feel like an adventure and are enormously satisfying. This guide contains detailed information for all the routes to help you plan your daily walks, along with beautiful photographs and interesting facts about the locality.


Described as the Tuscany of Greece, the Pelion Peninsula is a rare find. Unspoilt and uncrowded, there are no unsightly holiday developments, no packed beaches or bars blaring loud music throughout the nights. This is an area of rural peace and splendour.


The Pelion Peninsula is only 80 kilometres long and 35 wide, but has a remarkably varied landscape. To the north, Mount Pelion rises up to over 1600 metres. Alpine, wild and rugged, with pine forests and clear mountain streams, it provides a towering backdrop to the verdant orchards, woodland and scrubland further south. The east coast is forested with chestnut and beech, with small villages clinging to the steep slopes, overlooking the Aegean Sea. In the south west, the coast of the Pagasitic Gulf with its burnt umber soil and cypress, lemon and eucalyptus trees, has a Tuscan flavour. The hillsides are abundant with olive groves. Traditional villages of white painted cottages clad with deep blue shutters are scattered across the hills and shoreline. The turquoise water of the Pagasitic Gulf is calm, warm and crystal clear.