Twenty-four locals,
proud of the home
they grew up in.

Giannis Tzimas

Lives at the foot of Mount Penteli. Runs the trails at six in the morning before tourists know there are trails.

Natalia Petropoulou

Runs the Athens Riviera days — the swims at Limanakia, the long lunch in Glyfada, the sunset at Cape Sounion.

Alexandros Samaras

Plaka boy. Knows every flagstone. Will get you to the Acropolis at the right hour, then to a lunch you'll remember.

Fotini Makri

Works the long beaches of the western Peloponnese. Knows where the river currents help you and where they don't.

Pavlos Galanis

Lives ten minutes from Ancient Olympia. Walks the site before the gates open. Cycles the back roads to Foloi when he's done.

Evangelia Zarkadi

Walks the cliffs at Cape Maleas in the wild months. Has the Heraion ruins to herself most mornings before nine.

Spyros Kontos

Third-generation Nemea winemaker who quit the family vineyard to guide. Still drinks Agiorgitiko. Still goes home for harvest.

Vassilis Doukas

Runs the Nafplio bike base. Quiet on the bike, talkative at coffee. Knows every dirt road across the Argolic plain.

Christina Roumeliotou

Mycenae, Tiryns, Epidaurus — without making any of it feel like school. Tavernas afterwards, picked carefully.

Manolis Stathopoulos

Sails out of Nafplio harbour. Knows the Saronic islands well enough to skip the famous ones for the better-but-quieter ones.

Giorgos Vlahos

Forester by training. Will stop the group to point out a black woodpecker. Will stop again three minutes later. Sorry.

Katerina Mantzou

Spends summers on a road bike in the Menalon foothills, winters in her family's taverna in Vytina. Both involve a lot of cheese.

Thanasis Papas

Has walked the Menalon Trail more than two hundred times. Built a chunk of it himself with a pickaxe and a few cousins.

Andreas Petrakis

Walks the Taygetos foothills with the patience of someone who has walked them a thousand times. Because he has.

Irini Mavrou

Grew up in the lower town of Monemvasia. Tells the Byzantine history without making it feel like a school trip.

Panagiotis Roussos

Bolted half the routes on the Mars wall above Leonidio. Knows the cave-canyons of the Parnon better than the map does.

Sophia Leventi

Walks the goat tracks of the Messinian Mani in the mornings, runs sunset yoga on the terrace at our Koroni base in the evenings.

Kostas Mantis

Pylos kid. Voidokilia is his backyard. Knows how to time the entry to the bay so the morning light is right.

Maria Stamou

Olive-oil sommelier. Will explain peppery early-harvest vs sweet late-harvest at the press, in your hand, with bread.

Yannis Vassiliou

Was on the Greek national MTB team. Now spends his days finding back roads through olive groves that no map shows.

Dimitris Papadakis

Born in a stone tower in Areopoli that his great-grandfather defended from the Ottomans. Will tell you the story if you ask. Probably even if you don't.

Eleni Koutsogianni

Marine biologist by training — points at urchins and explains them. Walks the Viros gorge in winter when nobody else does.

Nikos Stathakis

Grew up in Stoupa. Knows every cove between Kardamyli and Cape Tainaron — including which ones break in a north wind and which stay glassy.

Nikos Drakakis

Born and raised in the Mani, Nikos has been leading rides on these roads since 2011. Greek Federation MTB Leader, off-season carpenter, lifelong cellist of the local panigyri band.

Yannis Kostas

Yannis is one of our senior guides — Taygetos ridge walks, Nemea winery weekends, anything that involves a map and an early start. Writes the practical pieces.

Maria Stavros

Maria writes our food pieces from a kitchen in Kalamata. Trained as a chef in Athens, returned home for the olives, stayed for the gogges.

Markos Vlahakis

Markos leads our sea-kayak trips out of Kardamyli and writes from the water more than from a desk. Prefers a 6am start and a long lunch over almost anything.

Elena Papadaki

Elena is our field editor, based in Nafplio. She has been writing about the Peloponnese for Explore Greece since 2019 — mostly from the passenger seat of a very slow car.

Fotis Kontargiris

Versatile outdoor professional; you will find him in the mountain or deep in the gorge.

George

Trifonas

Katerina