Walking the Menalon Trail

At Athens (ATH) or Kalamata (KLX) Airport your guide meets you off the flight. Morning arrivals are easiest, and anything landing before 5pm works. The private vehicle then drives into Arcadia and up to Dimitsana, a stone village above the Lousios gorge, for an afternoon arrival at the guesthouse.

Dinner is the first of five included, at a taverna in Dimitsana with the guide, who briefs you on the five walking days, the luggage transfers and the trail’s waymarks. Pack worn-in walking boots in your hand luggage.

A 12.5 km gorge walk opens the Menalon Trail. It starts in Stemnitsa, the goldsmiths’ village, and ends in Dimitsana, with 830 m up and 950 m down over the day. The guide leads you down to the Lousios and past two monasteries: Prodromos, then Philosophou, founded in 963. Lunch is a picnic the guide has packed. The last stop is the Open-Air Water Power Museum below Dimitsana, the watermills village, before a second night at the same guesthouse. Wear boots with ankle support, because the path changes between rock and cobbles.

Out of the Lousios basin the path climbs to the edge of the fir forest. It then follows a kalderimi, a cobbled mule path, past stone threshing floors to Zigovisti. This is the long day: 19 km, 900 m of ascent and the trail’s high point at 1643 m. The descent crosses a plateau of small caves and springs to Elati, the woodcutters’ village, where the walk ends at a woodcarver’s shop. A short drive brings you to Vytina for the night. Fill your bottles at the fountains in Zigovisti before the climb.

Elati is the start again, after a short drive from Vytina to the trailhead. From there the walk runs 18.5 km down the Milaon River valley, with 960 m of descent against 635 m of ascent. Cobbles alternate with forest path past the springs that feed the western Menalon villages. An old mulberry road runs under plane trees beside the ruins of three watermills before the climb to Nymfasia. Lunch is the guide’s picnic, and the vehicle meets you at Nymfasia for the drive back to Vytina. Walking poles help on the long descent.

After breakfast a short drive takes you back to Nymfasia, and the walk starts in oak forest. Kernitsa comes first, a women’s monastery built into a rock monolith. An old path then climbs to Magouliana, which at 1,275 m is the highest inhabited village in the Peloponnese. A stone path descends from there to Valtesiniko, the woodcarvers’ village, through walnut, chestnut, poplar, fir and apple groves. Lunch is the guide’s picnic. Tonight is in Vytina or Valtesiniko. Your bag travels by vehicle, so carry only water, a layer and lunch.

Valtesiniko’s square is the start of the last day: 13.9 km, with 600 m up and 780 m down. The path passes the viewpoint at the Byzantine castle, looking over meadows of walnut and poplar to fir forest. It then reaches an old quarry worked by the region’s stone builders. Lagadia, where the trail ends, is their village, built in an amphitheatre above running water. Lunch is the guide’s picnic, and the trail-completion dinner is booked in Lagadia tonight. House wine and soft drinks come with dinner.

Lagadia is the last bed, and breakfast there is the sixth of the trip. The private vehicle then drives you to Athens or Kalamata airport, whichever suits your flight. The bags you have not carried for five days come with you. Tell us your flight time when you book, and we set the departure from Lagadia around it. If you are flying out of a different airport from the one you landed at, say so early.