Greece - Korina Miller [172]
No public buses run to Vasses. You could try to arrange a group to share a taxi.
Sleeping & Eating
Epikourios Apollon ( 26260 22840; Plateia Agnostopoulou; s/d/tr incl breakfast €50/70/85; year-round) This guest-house-cum-hotel has well-equipped, warm and cheerful rooms overlooking the central square or the valley behind.
For eating, try any of the half a dozen casual tavernas and grill places spread along the main street.
Getting There & Away
There are buses to Pyrgos (around €5.50, 1½ hours, two daily except Sunday), and to Athens (around €20.50, two hours, two daily) via Karitena, Megalopoli, Tripoli and Corinth Isthmus.
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KYLLINI ΚΥΛΛΗΝΗ
The port of Kyllini (kih-lee-nih), 78km southwest of Patra, warrants a mention merely as the jumping-off point for ferries to Kefallonia and Zakynthos. Most people arrive on buses from Patra to board the ferries. See Island Hopping Click here for more information.
There are three to seven buses daily to Kyllini (€6.80, 1¼ hours) from the KTEL Zakynthos bus station in Patra (some have connecting ferries), as well as two daily from Pyrgos (€5.80, one hour). Note: there are no buses from Kyllini to Patra. You can, however, catch buses from Lethena, 16km from Kyllini. A taxi ( 6973535678) to Lethena costs €13, and to Patra €60.
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KYTHIRA & ANTIKYTHIRA
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KYTHIRA ΚYΘΗΡΑ
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The island of Kythira (kee-thih-rah), 12km south of Neapoli, is perfect for people who want to experience a genuine, functioning and unspoilt island.
Some 30km long and 18km wide, Kythira dangles off the tip of the Peloponnese’s Lakonian peninsula, between the Aegean and Ionian Seas. The largely barren landscape is dominated by a rocky plateau that covers most of the island, and the population is spread among more than 40 villages that capitalise on small pockets of agriculturally viable land. The villages are linked by narrow, winding lanes, often flanked by ancient dry-stone walls.
Although Kythira is (officially) part of the Ionian Islands, some of the houses, especially those in the island’s main town, Hora, are more Cycladic in looks, with whitewashed walls and blue shutters. (And, although Ionian, we’ve included it in this chapter because most people visit the island from the Peloponnese.) Mythology suggests that Aphrodite was born in Kythira. She’s meant to have risen from the foam where Zeus had thrown Cronos’ sex organ after castrating him. The goddess of love then re-emerged near Pafos in Cyprus, so both islands haggle over her birthplace.
Tourism remains very low-key on Kythira for most of the year, until July and August, when the island goes mad. Descending visitors include the Kythiran diaspora returning from abroad (especially Australia) to visit family and friends (who themselves have returned after leaving the island several decades ago). Accommodation is virtually impossible to find during this time, and restaurants are flat out catering for the crowds. For the remaining 10 months of the year, Kythira is a wonderfully peaceful island with some fine, uncrowded beaches. The best times to visit Kythira are in late spring and around September/October.
Few people venture to the tiny island of Antikythira, the most remote island in the Ionians, 38km southeast of Kythira; it has become a bit of a forgotten outpost, although some ferries stop there on the way to/from Crete.
For information on Kythira, refer the commercial websites: www.kythira.gr, www.kithera.gr, www.kythira.info and www.visitkythera.gr. Definitely pick up a copy of the informative community newspaper Kythera, published in English and available in travel agencies, hotels and some shops. Keen walkers should seek out a copy of Kythira on Foot: 32 Carefully Selected Walking Routes (€10) by Frank van