Stone villages, two coasts
Pelion in one loop, without haste — Volos for arrival and tsipouro, the west-facing villages for architecture and views, the east-facing forest for the kalderimia and the better beaches.
- Length
- 7 days · 6 nights
- Months
- May – June, September – October
- Stops
- 6
The route on a map
1 · 1 night
Volos
A working port town, arrival night and a tsipouradiko dinner where the small plates keep coming.
2 · 1 night
Makrinitsa
A balcony village at 700 metres, cobbled and car-free at its centre, with the whole gulf below.
3 · 1 night
Vizitsa
Restored silk-merchant mansions around a plane-tree square, one of the quietest bases on the ridge.
4 · 2 nights
Tsagarada
The largest east Pelion village, with the Agia Paraskevi plane tree and paths dropping to the sea.
5 · 1 night
Mouresi
A small chestnut-forest village just above Damouchari.
6 · A day here
Damouchari
A tiny fishing cove reached on foot down a kalderimi, for a last swim.
Day by day
Day 1
Arrival in Volos
Sleep · Volos
Walk the waterfront and take a slow tsipouradiko dinner, ordering by the round rather than the plate.
Day 2
Up to Makrinitsa
Sleep · Makrinitsa
Forty minutes up; the afternoon on foot around its fountains and the Theophilos frescoes.
Day 3
Vizitsa and the ridge
Sleep · Vizitsa
A short drive south, with an afternoon detour to the Pelion narrow-gauge railway and its stone viaduct.
Day 4
Crossing to the Aegean side
Sleep · Tsagarada
An hour over the ridge; the afternoon at Mylopotamos beach below, reached by a steep short path.
Day 5
Kalderimi day
Sleep · Tsagarada
The waymarked path down through chestnut forest toward Damouchari and Fakistra.
Day 6
Mouresi and Zagora
Sleep · Mouresi
A short move, with an afternoon in Zagora's apple orchards and its Marmara church.
Day 7
Damouchari, then home
Departure
A last morning swim before the drive back to Volos; a departure day.