The Mani and Monemvasia: Tower Villages, Sea Caves and Byzantine Mystras

Leave Athens early and stop at the Corinth Canal, where a ship-width slit of six kilometres cuts through the isthmus between walls of honey-coloured rock almost eighty metres high. The motorway then climbs into the green uplands of Arcadia and descends towards the Messenian Gulf. By late afternoon you are in Kalamata: walk up to the Frankish castle of the Villehardouins, wander the old town around the church of the Holy Apostles and finish on the long seafront with a plate of the famous local olives.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: EKO Charge&Go (EKO Charge&Go Kalamata) — typical arrival 30%, about 35 min to 90%. Why stop here: Kalamata Castle, Church of the Holy Apostles. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

Drive inland to Ancient Messene, founded in 369 BC when the Messenians were freed from Sparta. Few ancient cities feel so complete: the stadium lies in an olive-filled hollow, the theatre and the agora are being brought back to light, and the mighty walls still stand around the Arcadian Gate. In the afternoon follow the coast road south as the Taygetos closes in, to Kardamyli, a village of stone houses and a pebble beach under the mountain. Walk past the restored towers of Old Kardamyli and, if the light allows, along the lane to the house where Patrick Leigh Fermor lived and wrote.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: DEI blue (DEI blue at Diapori Suites) — typical arrival 40%, about 60 min to 80%. Why stop here: Old Kardamyli and the Mourtzinos tower, Patrick Leigh Fermor House, Viros gorge. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

A short drive today, but every bend counts. In the morning walk into the Viros gorge behind Kardamyli or swim at Stoupa, then follow the road south into the Outer Mani, where olive groves give way to stone terraces and the first tower houses appear on the ridges. Stop above Limeni, a tiny harbour of turquoise water guarded by the tower of the Mavromichalis clan. Areopoli, the town named after Ares, waits on the plateau: on 17 March 1821 its square saw the Maniots raise the flag of revolt, and its lanes still lead to the carved bell tower of the Taxiarches church.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: nrg (nrg at Armantanis Luxury Suites) — typical arrival 35%, about 300 min to 90%. Why stop here: Areopoli square and the Taxiarches church. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

Begin at the Diros caves, where a boatman poles you for about forty minutes along an underground lake between stalactites and columns that drip into still green water. Then drive the empty road of the Deep Mani, past chapels with roof tiles of stone and villages of abandoned towers, to Vathia, whose cluster of towers on a hill looks like a fortress of chess pieces. At the end of the land, from the hamlet of Kokkinogeia, a path of about forty-five minutes leads over the bare cape to the lighthouse of Tainaron; on the way lie the remains of a sanctuary of Poseidon and the sea cave the ancients took for the gate to Hades. Return for dinner in the harbour of Gerolimenas or back in Areopoli.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: nrg (nrg at Armantanis Luxury Suites) — typical arrival 35%, about 300 min to 90%. Why stop here: Areopoli square and the Taxiarches church. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

Cross the Mani to the Laconian Gulf and Gytheio, once the port of Sparta, its pastel houses stacked above the fishing boats. A causeway leads to the islet of Marathonisi, ancient Kranai, where legend says Paris and Helen spent their first night after fleeing Sparta; a stone tower on it now holds a small museum of the Mani. Just north, at Valtaki beach, the rusting hull of the Dimitrios has lain on the sand since the early 1980s. The road then runs east through orange groves and over low hills to Monemvasia; arrive in time to cross the causeway at dusk, when the lamps come on in the lower town and the rock seems to float on the sea.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: Blink (Blink at Lazareto Hotel) — typical arrival 30%, about 300 min to 90%. Why stop here: Lower town and the Christ in Chains church, Agia Sofia and the upper town. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

Monemvasia takes its name from its single entrance, and once through the gate cars stay behind. Spend the morning in the lower town, a maze of vaulted passages, flagstone lanes and small churches, among them Christ in Chains with its belfry over the square; the poet Yannis Ritsos was born in a house by the main street. Climb the zigzag path up the cliff to the ruined upper town, where the church of Agia Sofia stands at the very edge of the rock above the sea. In the afternoon swim from the rocks below the walls and, in the evening, taste the sweet Malvasia wine that took this town’s name to the courts of Europe.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: Blink (Blink at Lazareto Hotel) — typical arrival 30%, about 300 min to 90%. Why stop here: Lower town and the Christ in Chains church, Agia Sofia and the upper town. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

Drive north-west across the Laconian plain to Sparti and charge at the fast station on the edge of town while you look at the modest ruins of the ancient theatre or the Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil. Then climb to Mystras, the Byzantine city on a spur of the Taygetos and the capital of the Despotate of the Morea, listed by UNESCO in 1989. Paths lead up past the frescoed churches of the Peribleptos and the Pantanassa, where nuns still tend the garden, to the Palace of the Despots, where in 1449 Constantine XI Palaiologos was proclaimed the last emperor of Byzantium. Stay overnight in the modern village below and watch the ruins turn gold at sunset.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: DEI blue (Kyniska Palace charger) — typical arrival 40%, about 300 min to 90%. Why stop here: Mystras archaeological site, Pantanassa Monastery. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

The long road home is easy on the motorway: climb out of Laconia to the plateau of Tripoli and stop at the high-power chargers of the Artemisio service area, then descend to the Isthmus for a last coffee by the Corinth Canal while the car tops up again. By late afternoon you are in Athens. If there is energy left, walk up Philopappos Hill as the sun goes down: from its pine-scented top the Parthenon stands directly opposite, glowing above the city like the final page of the journey.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: EKO Charge&Go (EKO Charge&Go BP Albetrol) — typical arrival 40%, about 35 min to 90%. Why stop here: Philopappos Hill. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.