Gulf of Corinth Explorations
We are staying on the south side of the Gulf of Corinth. We are about halfway between Patras and Corinth. We have done some trips east along the coast to Corinth and west along the coast to Patras. Overall, we are happy with the location along this stretch that we chose to stay in, just on the outskirts of Derveni, in Ligia. Based on our explorations, we don’t think there would be a better location along the Gulf for us to stay, with the possible exception of Akrata.
Our house is gorgeous, spacious, and feels like a family home. We have a yard for the girls to play and for us to eat. The house even comes with a bouncy castle, which our girls have been making full use of! Our main level is spacious, with a kitchen, living room, dining room, full bathroom, and laundry room. The upper level has three bedrooms and a full bathroom. It’s nice to have so much space. And air conditioning! Because it has been so hot in Greece!
We can walk to a beach across the street from our house, which is mostly private and we have never seen another soul there. The girls love this little area and the rocks they climb out onto and jump or dive into the water. We can walk 10 minutes down the street to a huge grocery store, and another 10 min beyond that into the heart of Derveni. We walk in there most days to go to one of our two favourite bakeries, a little organic produce shop, or a café. Our favourite café is Cafe-Bar Bolero which has a waterfront patio where Jon and I can sit and relax while the girls are down below at the beach, playing with the rocks or swimming in the sea. The patio has stairs that go right down onto the beach, so we can get to them easily if needed. We have spent a lot of time on this patio at all times of day, though our favourite is probably watching the gorgeous sunsets.
Despite the above paragraph, our area does not seem very walkable. When we walk on the sidewalk, we constantly have to step out onto the busy road that cars fly down to walk around garbage bins, cars parked on the sidewalk, bushes that extend out into the sidewalk, or the sidewalk just stops for a while. It makes for an uncomfortable walking experience, and walking is quite limited in general. There aren’t a lot of places to walk. We have struggled so much to get our steps in, most days falling quite short of our goal. This has been a strike against Greece, as we love to walk. We don’t think there would have been a better option, based on the other areas we have explored. In general, Greece just doesn’t seem to be an overly walkable country. Talking with some locals, they seem to agree that walking is just not something Greeks do.
To the west of us, about a 15-minute drive away is Akrata. It’s a small town, but much bigger than Derveni. We have spent a lot of time here, making new friends who are staying here in Akrata (Stephanie and her twin boys who are almost 6), enjoying the beach, and sampling food, wine, and coffee at the many beachfront cafes and restaurants.
We also found another beach at Paralia Akolis a little further west, about a 30-minute drive. It feels fairly secluded and has a great and relatively cheap little café/restaurant, Maritimo. The girls play on the beach while we order some food and drinks to relax. There are all kinds of these weird little jelly things we think are Venus Girdles in the Gulf of Corinth. They won’t hurt you, but my kids are so grossed out by them and rarely will go in the water if they’re nearby and in danger of touching them! Thankfully, this beach doesn’t seem to ever get them, which makes the girls happy!
We have done some other trips, exploring Diakopto, some other random small towns I forget the name of, and Corinth (which I discussed already in another post). Many towns, including Derveni, feel half abandoned with many houses having fallen into disrepair and looking like no one has lived in them for decades and empty storefronts.
We did a day trip to Patras. This isn’t necessarily an area of significant importance that I know of. But it is the largest city in the Peloponnese. We wanted to stop by and check it out. We walked around the pedestrian streets and looked at the impressive Orthodox Christian church, the Holy Church of Saint Andrew. Emmeline in particular was in awe to see this building. All the paintings, mosaic murals, and gold everywhere were impressive! As in all Orthodox churches, we were able to purchase candles and light them. While we enjoyed our day trip to Patras, it was at the end of the day mostly just another larger city. And, it was stressful to drive around and find parking! We are grateful we saw this city once but have zero desire to return!
Of course, we needed to go and check out a local Greek winery in the area! There are quite a few, but we found one up in a remote mountain village about 20 minutes from our house. We drove up the twisty roads to taste some local wines and bought several bottles. There was a delicious rose wine that we got, made from a mavro kalavrytino grape that is local only to this mountain area and vicinity. It doesn’t grow anywhere else in the world. And at only $9 CAD a bottle, of course, we bought three! We also tried some local white varieties, including a copper wine, which was interesting! I enjoyed it, but Jon did not! We did find a delicious local white wine that we both loved that we bought to enjoy back home, though.
All in all, this area we are staying in is nice enough. The beaches are gorgeous, the weather is hot and sunny, and the sunsets are stunning. If you are looking for a low-key vacation where you just relax the entire time on the beach, Greece is for you! But we are not those people, and so Greece is not really for us. Yes, there are a lot of fascinating historical points of interest to explore, but I’ve already explained in another post how far away each site is and how costly it is to do that. We are trying to enjoy soaking in the sun and beaches, but the repetitive nature and lack of diversity of things to do is trying on all of us.