Private Pelion Coastal Journey

The Pelion peninsula — in the central Greek region of Thessaly, four hours north of Athens by road — is one of the country's quietest secrets. In Greek mythology it was the home of the centaurs; in modern Greece it is a mountain peninsula covered in dense beech, oak and chestnut forests, with traditional stone-built villages clinging to the slopes and small beaches of white pebble and turquoise water at the base.

What makes Pelion unusual is the topography. The villages — Makrinitsa, Tsagarada, Milies, Vyzitsa — sit at altitude, often above 600 metres, with views down to both the Aegean and the Pagasetic Gulf. The architecture is distinctive: stone houses with grey schist roofs, narrow cobbled streets, large central squares shaded by enormous plane trees that are sometimes more than five hundred years old. The food is mountain food — wild greens, slow-cooked meat, spoon-sweets made from forest fruits — completely different from the seafood-and-olive-oil pattern of the coastal mainland.

Our three-to-four-day private Pelion escape combines the mountain and the sea. Two nights in a stone-built boutique guesthouse in one of the higher villages; one or two days at the eastern beaches (Mylopotamos, Damouchari, Fakistra), where the water is some of the clearest in mainland Greece. The driving between villages is part of the experience — twisting mountain roads through forest, with sudden sea views appearing through the trees.

From €2,650 for three to four days, the journey includes the private vehicle and driver throughout, accommodation in pre-selected boutique village properties with breakfast, on-board Wi-Fi and water, and a small Greek farewell gift. Pelion is the right choice for guests who have done the classical sites once and want to see a Greece that almost no group tour ever reaches.