Kardamyli

Kardamyli lies where the foothills of Taygetus fall to the Messenian Gulf, and Homer lists it among the seven cities Agamemnon offered Achilles. The old village, Palia Kardamyli, sits just inland: a compact group of eighteenth-century tower houses around the church of Agios Spyridon, with a carved bell tower and the Mourtzinos tower complex restored as a museum of Mani history. Below, the modern village strings along one street with tavernas and shops, and the shore is pebble and flat rock with clear deep water. Walking is the local speciality: stone-paved kalderimia climb into the Viros gorge and up to mountain villages such as Exochori and Petrovouni, and the writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, whose house nearby is now managed by the Benaki Museum, made the area known to English readers.

What you actually see

• Palia Kardamyli - the old fortified quarter and Mourtzinos tower museum.
• The Viros gorge - a deep canyon behind the village with walking trails.
• The kalderimia - stone-paved mule paths climbing to mountain villages.
• The stone shore - pebble beaches and clear water along the gulf.

When to go

Spring and autumn are ideal for walking as well as swimming; summer is hot on the paths, though the sea compensates. The village stays partly open in winter, when the gorge is at its greenest.

Honest expectations

Beaches are pebble and rock, not sand. The main road runs through the village and can be busy. Accommodation is characterful but limited, and the best walking requires a map and decent shoes.

Nearby

Stoupa and Agios Nikolaos are minutes south; Kalamata and the road to Sparta lie north.