Open Water Swim Safari the Messinia coast

Our host meets you at Athens Airport or Kalamata airport and drives you to the hotel on the Kalamata waterfront. A morning flight is best. Anything landing before 17:00 works, and we are flexible around later arrivals.

The rest of the day is free, with the beach in front of the hotel. Welcome dinner is at a taverna in Kalamata. There the guides brief the group on the week: the five stages, how the support kayaks and SUPs work and what each swim asks for. Pack swim kit in your hand luggage, so a late bag cannot cost you the first stage.

From Kalamata the drive runs west to Pylos. After a morning briefing, the swim crosses Navarino Bay to Sfaktiria and on to Fanari islet, through the gap between its cliffs, with kayaks and SUPs alongside. The swim back ends in Pylos and covers about 4 km in all. The guides lay out lunch on a beach: bread, cheeses, vegetables, dips, fruit. The afternoon is at Voidokilia and a beach bar nearby. Dinner is at a seaside taverna back in Kalamata. Bring a dry warm layer for the drive home.

The Methoni crossing is the one stretch of open channel on the trip. It is about 2.5 km from Methoni to Sapientza, after the drive west from Kalamata, with the support kayaks and SUPs alongside. Two shipwrecks lie near the island’s northern cape. Lunch is a picnic on the Sapientza beach, and then a powered boat carries everyone back to Methoni. The afternoon is at a beach bar in Finikounda. Dinner is fish at the Kalamata marina. The wrecks come late in the crossing, so keep looking down as Sapientza gets close.

Morning starts in Kardamyli, on the Outer Mani shore south of Kalamata. The swim follows the rocky coast for about 4 km, with the guides paddling alongside, and ends at Foneas beach. Lunch is there. The afternoon moves a short way south to Kalogria beach in Stoupa. Dinner is at a beachside restaurant. Water shoes help: the entry at Kardamyli is over rock, not sand.

Kalamata is yours today, with no swim and no drive. The guides give recommendations the evening before. One choice is the historic centre, where the bakeries sell pasteli, the sesame and honey bar the town is known for. The other is the beach in front of the hotel, for arms that have swum about 10 km in three days. Dinner tonight is free. Ask the guides at breakfast and they book you a table.

Our guides drive south past Kardamyli to Agios Dimitrios, where the swim starts. It runs about 4 km along the rocky Katafygi coast, the second-longest stage on the trip. Lunch is a picnic on Katafygi beach. For anyone who wants it, there is a visit to a cave above the sea. Ouzo and mezethes (small plates to share) follow at the port of Agios Nikolaos, then dinner at a taverna there before the drive back. Sit on the right of the vehicle going south for the coast.

Kitries is about 20 minutes east of Kalamata, the shortest drive of the week. The last stage is a 3 km swim from Kitries harbour around the cape below the lighthouse, with a stop at Dikalamos beach before the swim back. It is a half day, so the afternoon is free at the hotel. Farewell dinner is in Kalamata. Use the afternoon to rinse and dry your kit before packing.

Breakfast is the last included meal, at the hotel on the Kalamata waterfront. After it comes the private transfer, with luggage, to Kalamata airport or Athens Airport. Athens is the longer road of the two. Send us your flight time when you book and we set the departure from the hotel around it. Keep a towel and swimsuit out of the main bag if your flight leaves late in the day.