Greece Pelion Peninsula Loop from Volos

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Volos

   Volos sits at the head of the Pagasetic Gulf, a calm sheltered bay in central Greece, and the Greeks say it was from here, from the ancient city of Iolkos, that Jason and the Argonauts set sail in search of the Golden Fleece. A replica of the ship Argo rests near the waterfront, a handsome piece of nonsense that still draws the eye. The modern town is largely newer than you would expect, because earthquakes in 1955 damaged much of it, and so there are many broad, practical concrete blocks. In the neighbouring Nea Ionia, the name recalls the refugees who arrived from Asia Minor in the 1920s and brought with them a taste for strong spirits and good food.

   Read the complete Volos write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Volos is where the day begins. Next is Makrinitsa.

2. 2. Makrinitsa

   Makrinitsa is called the balcony of Pelion, and the name is exact. The village hangs on a steep slope more than six hundred metres above the Gulf of Volos, and from its terraces and the central square you look straight out over rooftops and plane trees to the blue water, with the city of Volos small and distant on the shore. The square, shaded by a huge plane tree and cooled by a marble fountain, is the centre of village life, and the church of the Virgin, with its fine frescoes and carved iconostasis, stands beside it. In the late afternoon, when the sun slants through the leaves, it is one of the most pleasant places in Greece.

   Read the complete Makrinitsa write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Makrinitsa comes up about 7 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chania Pelion.

3. 3. Chania Pelion

   Up above Makrinitsa, where the villages thin out and the forest takes over, the road reaches a wide mountain saddle called Chania at about twelve hundred metres. It is the closest Pelion has to a high alpine place, with a small ski area on the slopes and a scattering of cafés and lodges that serve walkers in summer and skiers in winter. The surroundings are a deep, cool forest of beech, fir and chestnut, dotted with clearings where mist drifts through the trees, and the air is crisp even in July. After the heat of the plains, it feels like a different country.

   Read the complete Chania Pelion write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 11 km into the recorded legs you reach Chania Pelion. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Tsagarada, mostly downhill.

4. 4. Tsagarada

   Tsagarada is not one village but four, strung down a steep wooded slope on the Aegean side of Pelion, each with its own square and church, and linked by lanes that wind through chestnut, plane and walnut trees. They climb from the sea toward the mountain crest, so that the highest hamlet has the smell of wet leaves and the lowest has a view over the water, and the whole thing feels more like a forest with houses in it than a village with trees. Streams run through the lanes and fountains splash everywhere. It is one of the wetter corners of Greece, and it shows.

   Read the complete Tsagarada write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Tsagarada, about halfway. Next is Milies.

5. 5. Milies

   Milies owes its fame to a train. In 1903, the narrow-gauge railway from Volos to Milies opened, built by the Italian engineer Evaristo de Chirico, the father of the painter Giorgio de Chirico, who spent part of his childhood in Volos. The track is only sixty centimetres wide, and the little steam train, nicknamed Moutzouris, crawls up the mountain through tunnels, over stone bridges and around the slopes of Pelion, with views of the gulf. The most famous structure on the line is the high stone viaduct at Kalamaki, with its curved arches. The train still runs on some days in summer for tourists, and on those days the village fills with visitors.

   Read the complete Milies write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Milies sits at 38 km, late in the day. Next is Volos.

6. 6. Volos

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Volos write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 47 km.