Tsagkarada

Tsagkarada is unusual in having no single centre: it consists of four quarters, Agia Paraskevi, Agios Stefanos, Agioi Taxiarches and Agia Kyriaki, each with its own square and church, spread over several kilometres of forested slope facing the Aegean. The plane tree in the Agia Paraskevi square is the landmark, with a trunk over fourteen metres in circumference and a claimed age of around a thousand years, shading the whole square and the taverna under it. The village sits in dense chestnut, beech and plane woods on the wet eastern side of Pelion, threaded with old cobbled mule paths, the kalderimia, that connect the quarters and drop through the forest to Mylopotamos and Damouchari on the coast below.

What you actually see

• The great plane tree - a vast ancient trunk filling the main square.
• The four quarters - separate hamlets with their own churches and squares.
• The kalderimia - cobbled mule paths through the forest.
• The forest and sea - dense woods dropping toward the Aegean.

When to go

Late spring for greenery and open paths, autumn for colour and mushrooms; the eastern Pelion is genuinely wet, so rain is common outside high summer. August fills the coast below.

Honest expectations

The spread-out layout means walking or driving between quarters, and there is no village centre in the usual sense. The cobbled paths are slippery when wet and steep. Roads in are winding and slow.

Nearby

Mylopotamos and Damouchari beaches lie below; Milies and the Pelion railway are south.