Travel to Messinia

Air - To Athens or Kalamata?

The ideal way to reach SW Peloponese harbours and resorts is to travel by air to Kalamata (KLX). These charter flights are only available May to October, and only on Sundays from London Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester.

In 2007 there were charters to Kalamata from other European cities including Amsterdam but we don't know about the 2008 season. There are internal flights from Thessaloníki and Iráklion (Crete).

On any other day, fly to Athens (ATH) from any London airport or continental hub airport and travel on by car , taxi or bus.

From regional UK airports it is worth exploring the possibility of flying to a continental hub and picking up an onward flight to Athens.

_________________________________________

Air to Kalamata

Charter flights to Kalamata (KLX) are ideal, but only run on Sundays from London Heathrow, Gatwick or Manchester. Charter flights can cost up to £400 return when booked months ahead, but for those who don't mind uncertainty, late bargains are cheap at around £100. The best way to track availability down is to ring around the tour operators with 6 days to go. Try the following airlines: Excel (telephone: +44 (0)871 911 4220), and Thomas Cook . The tour operators to phone are Mark Warner, Kosmar, Manos Holidays, Simply Greece, Neilson Sailing, and Thomas Cook. Sunvil operate a London Heathrow flight (telephone: +44 (0)20 8568 4499). A site that usually has a good selection of flights from several tour operators is: http://www.cheapflights.co.uk/flights/Kalamata/. There are many other sites for charter flights, but the internet is not very reliable for finding late availability..

- Onward from Kalamata.

Onward travel by taxi is cheap at about €1 per kilometre (approximately €1.20 to £1); that's about €10 to Kalamata marina, €25 to Pylos, or €40 to Finikounda. From Kalamata town bus station to the marina (€8 taxi) it is possible to catch buses (timetables here), but they're not really frequent enough to be convenient - especially on Sundays! Car hire can be arranged.

Air to Athens

British Airways (BA) and Olympic Airways run three flights a day to Athens from Heathrow, Aegean Airlines run two a day from Stansted (from 15 May 2008), while easyJet run two a day from Gatwick and one a day from Luton. When booked well ahead, return flights cost about £120. Late bookers pay a lot more - up to £500 for a return flight. Your choice of flight time and operator will depend which method of onward travel you choose, car or bus. Your links are:

      www.ebookers.com - a range of scheduled airlines
      www.easyjet.com -
      www.britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_gb,
      www.aegeanair.com
      www.olympicairlines.com.

- Onward from Athens

By Car. If you hire a car from Athens (http://www.carhiresearch.co.uk/ppc/Greece/Athens-Airport/17096.html ) for the period of your visit (from about £150 a week, depending on size) the onward drive is about 4 hours to Kalamata, and 5 hours to Finikounda. Aim to arrive in Athens by 15:00 so that much of your drive will be in daylight. It's a picturesque, mainly good road, and the traffic is very light by English standards, if a little undisciplined. Click here for detailed driving directions . Car hire is available through Gordon and Wendy in Finikounda if you choose to travel by bus instead.

By Taxi. A one way taxi trip from Athens airport to Finikounda will cost €200, a not unreasonable sum for the convenience if you have four passengers. The trick is finding a driver whom you feel safe with! Our local Finikounda man,Takis Tsonis, is a sound driver with a new Mercedes (telephone: +30 27230 71312; or mob: +30 69 45 73 43 47). He doesn't speak too much English, so its best to book him through Gordon & Wendy's site, or us.

By Bus. A cheap but more challenging alternative is to take the bus, which takes about 6 hours to reach Kalamata (with changes) and about 1hr 30min onward to Finikounda. My preference is to take an overnight flight, arriving by 6am, then spend a gentle day cruising through the Peloponese in their rather comfortable coaches. Click here for a full description of the bus journey and time tables.

To plan your return flight you may need to know the return bus times. Timetables are here.

Go Top

________________________________________