Monemvasia Visit
Monemvasia is a really special place in Greece about four hours from Athens by car to the south. It is a small town inside a castle on a tied island connected with the mainland through a narrow passage (see picture). Monemvasia has a long history (you can find details in Wikipedia). We went there on vacation about twenty years ago and had a great time. So, we decided to go there again. We stayed inside the castle again. There are several good hotel choices that are quite affordable. We met a couple that was afraid to stay inside the castle because they thought it would be too expensive. They ended up paying as much as we did. The best part of our hotel stay was the view. There are of course some challenges with staying inside the castle. Cars are not allowed inside the castle. We had to drive to the entrance of the castle, leave our luggage there with a family member to care for them, then drive on the narrow road that gets you to the castle and try to find parking. Often you end up with a 15-20 minute walk from where you parked the car to the entrance of the castle which is not very enjoyable during the summer because of the heat. Then, you still need to carry the luggage from the entrance of the castle to the hotel although you may be able to pay somebody to do that for you. Of course, I am too cheap to do that.
One of the other challenges with Monemvasia are the beaches. There are no great beaches nearby. The last time we were there, we ended up driving for quite a while to get to some beautiful beaches. If you can compromise on the quality of the beach you can reduce the driving a bit but you still have to deal with walking to the car in the sun and then finding parking on the way back and walking back in the sun. This time, we did something different. There is a spot called Portelo inside the town from which you can get into the water through some steps (or by jumping in). Originally, we were a bit apprehensive about swimming there but we tried it and we loved it. It was easy to get to Portelo from our room (6-7 minute walk from our hotel). The water was wonderful and we got to see the town and castle from a different perspective from inside the water. Surprisingly it wasn’t crowded at all because it is not very well known. There is no sand obviously and you get to jump right into relatively deep water but nevertheless it was my daughter’s favorite experience of our whole trip. We got in 2-3 times every day we were in Monemvasia. We even did it in the evening in the dark although we didn’t get to enjoy it. I got spooked a bit because we saw small crabs walking on the rocks we were getting in the water from, and I thought I got touched by a fish while swimming (it was actually not the case) so we cut that swim a bit short and I’m not sure my daughter forgave me about that.
We ended up staying inside the castle for the whole duration of our stay in Monevasia (a few days). We tried some of the local restaurants and were pleasantly surprised. Our favorite one was Oinomelo. Really good environment and great food. We didn’t get a view during the dinner (I think they have a very small number of tables with a view and they only allow couples to get them) but it was a great experience, nevertheless.
One of the places that is enjoyable to visit from Monemvasia as a day trip is Mystras. It’s a very historic area with many important events occurring there during the years of the Byzantine empire (between the 5th and 15th century AD). Even one of the emperors of the empire was coronated there. It is also believed that Mystras is located where ancient Sparta used to be. Modern Sparta is not that interesting. I’ve driven by a few times but never spent any time in modern Sparta.
