Areopoli and the Deep Mani villages
TLDR
- •Areopoli has the fuel, cash machines, pharmacy and supermarket
- •Everything south of it gets sparse: do the jobs here
- •Limeni, five minutes below, is the swim and the photograph
- •Vathia is the tower village everyone photographs
- •Gerolimenas and Porto Kagio are the practical bases further south
Areopoli is not pretty in the way Kardamyli is pretty. It is useful in a way Kardamyli is not, and understanding the difference makes the southern half of the Mani much easier.
Areopoli
The practical capital of the south. Stone, severe, and built around a square, with a network of lanes behind it that reward half an hour on foot.
Do the jobs here. Fuel, cash machines, pharmacy, supermarket. South of Areopoli all four get sparse and opening hours stop being reliable. Going into Deep Mani on a quarter tank is a genuine mistake rather than a cautious-sounding warning.
Limeni
Five minutes below Areopoli, and one of the best swims on the peninsula. A tiny stone harbour on water of an implausible colour, now largely given over to hospitality.
Limeni Village describes itself as "a hotel built of stone and wood, consists of 16 towers tied up as rooms and suites", which is the tower form sold back as accommodation and now the dominant idiom on this coast.
It is five minutes off the main road and most people drive past it. Do not.
Oitylo
Above the bay of the same name, and the stop almost nobody makes.
In October 1675, some 730 Maniots boarded a Genoese ship here and left for Corsica, arriving the following March and settling at Paomia, in what is now Cargèse. A substantial share of everyone who lived in the village, gone in one sailing, because the ground could not feed them.
Stand above the bay for ten minutes with that in your head. It is the most affecting thing on the peninsula and it costs the parking.
Pyrgos Dirou
The village above the Diros caves, and a fortified settlement at Fourniata nearby where Olea Stone House occupies "a fully restored building of 1858" with five rooms.
Further south
Gerolimenas is a small harbour village and the practical base for the deep south.
Alika is inland from it, and useful because the resort there publishes its own distances: Cape Tainaron 10km, Vathia 4km, Gerolimenas 3km, Areopoli 20km.
Vathia is the tower village on the ridge that appears in every photograph of the Mani, and it earns it. Go late in the day.
Porto Kagio is at the very end, with a sandy beach and places to eat by the water.
Kotronas and Kokkala, on the east coast, are the sheltered side and the quiet one. Thirty minutes across from Areopoli, and the answer when the west is windy.
The practical shape
Base at the waist or in Deep Mani for two or three nights of a week, and run the southern villages early and late rather than in the middle of the day. There is more in our regional guide, and the house we use in Outer Mani is the other half of that week.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Areopoli worth staying in?
As a practical base for the southern half of the peninsula, yes. It has the services that nowhere further south does, and Limeni and the caves are minutes away. For charm, Kardamyli and Limeni both beat it.
What is there to do in Limeni?
Swim, principally, and it is one of the best swims in the Mani. There is a small stone harbour, several places to eat by the water, and very little else, which is the appeal.
How far is Areopoli from Cape Tainaron?
About 20km to Alika and 10km more to the cape, on the resort's own published figures. Allow roughly twice as long as those numbers suggest, because the roads are slow.