Hafen
Gythion

One of the world’s most beautiful cave complexes remained largely unexplored until the mid-20th century; today it beckons for your visit. Located on the west shore of Greece’s Laconian Peninsula, about an hour’s drive from the port, the Diros Caves are known by locals as Vlihada – a sprawling underground lake network set in the recesses of the Bay of Diros.

Thrill to the sensation of subterranean discovery as you travel deep inside this natural wonderland. Board a small rowboat with your expert cave pilot, sit back, and enjoy the glide as you float gently along beneath the glow of twinkling electric lights that illuminate the cave’s dazzling geological formations. Brilliant white columns rise from the lake’s surface. Forests of impressive stalactites and stalagmites appear to reach for each other, their formations echoed in the cool water.

While the total length of the cavern’s vast waterway system still remains something of a mystery, your guided journey ventures approximately a mile in – sometimes through passages tight enough to produce slight claustrophobia, if you’re so inclined. Ahh, but if you’re game for the experience, the visual rewards of penetrating this magical space far outweigh any momentary disquiet. Indeed.

Few places in the world offer more mysterious medieval character than the abandoned complex at Mystras, clustered atop a 600-foot hillside on Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula. A bit more than an hour’s coach ride from the coast, this 13th-century UNESCO World Heritage enclave seems forever frozen in time.

Cathedral

Ascending a rounded hill, winding lanes and cobbled stairways, Mystras Castle ruins crown the scene imposingly. Yet before arriving at that singular landmark, others await your rapt inspection. Visit the Cathedral of Agios Dimitrios, on the floor of which is a plaque featuring the two-headed eagle symbol of the Palaeologos Dynasty, last and longest-ruling family of Byzantine nobles. It is here that it is belived the final emperor of Byzantium, Constantinos XI, was crowned in 1449.

Mystras Castle

Further along, you’ll encounter the Church of Agia Sophia, built by the Despot of Morea in the mid-14th century and still proudly displaying its tiled bell tower. Nearby, the Monastery of Pantanassa reveals brilliant frescoes, miraculously intact given their 600-year age. And looming over it at the hill summit, Mystras Castle ruins await. Second only to Constantinople’s in importance to the Empire, this ancient Palace of the Despots was once deemed invincible – and still seems so. Learn of its long history on an expertly guided walk around its narrow lanes and many structures. Having explored Mystras, reboard the coach for the return drive to the pier.  

Travel by coach an hour north of Gythion, crossing the Laconian plains under the imposing shadow of Taygetus Mountain to reach Sparta. Unlike the famously basic town of legend, today’s Sparta is a modern large city – and home to a venue devoted to that quintessential Greek fruit, the olive.

The Olive Museum

The Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil highlights the cultural and symbolic importance of the olive tree, and celebrates the luscious consumables made from its bounty – a history traceable back some 50,000 years. From fossilized olive leaves to ancient clay tablets inscribed in Mycenaean ‘Linear B’ script  and ponderous stone crushing presses, the museum’s fascinating exhibits illustrate the evolution of olive oil production from antiquity through the early industrial era. Your hour-long visit will immerse you in, well, all things olive.

The Wine Estate
Barely 20 minutes down the road sits a sprawling estate devoted to the potables produced from fruits of a different variety: the vineyards of Theodorakakos. Once held in high esteem by the nobles of the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople, the wines produced here on this family estate remain elevated in stature to this day. Among the varietals you will learn about and taste during your leisurely visit are rare local vintages crafted in the traditional fashion such as Kydonitsa and Mavroudi. You’ll no doubt find yourself agreeing with the Byzantines as to their delightful flavor. At the end of your winery tour and tasting, reboard the coach for a scenic drive back to Gythion pier

Isolated by its geography and surrounded by the Laconian and Messenian Gulfs, the southern tip of Mani Peninsula is a world unto itself. Combined with the independent nature of its inhabitants, this has enabled some of its traditions to exist separately from the rest of the Peloponnese and Greece – and to remain little changed over the centuries. Even today, you’ll see tower houses and fortified family dwellings here dating from the Ottoman era.

A scenic hour’s drive from the port brings you to the first of the villages, picturesque Gerolimenas. Kissed by the crystalline blue-green sea and dwarfed by its mountain backdrop, this minute coastal village seems the kind of place one could blissfully disappear in for a decade or two off the grid.

Stacked up in local stone and perched atop a seaside hill, the fortress town of Vatheia presents a stark contrast: this is a place that saw its heyday in the 19th century before  contemporary urban drift led to its abandonment by 1980. Left behind is a time capsule skyline of two- and three-story towers that form a priceless architectural treasure.

Rounding out your tour is rugged Cape Tainaron, sequestered on the far southern tip of Mani and in antiquity fabled to be one of the entranceways to the Underworld. In modern times, this is where the Titanic's would-be rescue ship, the SS Californian, was torpedoed and sunk by German forces in 1915. And where the 1941 Naval Battle of Cape Matapan took place offshore between the British Royal Navy and the Italian Regia Marina. You’ll surely load up your cloud storage with photos of this remarkable spot on Earth before the approximate 90-minute drive back to Gythion port.