| | Greece, The Mainland, Stoupa, Olympia | |
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delboy Mad Destination Expert

 | Subject: Greece, The Mainland, Stoupa, Olympia Sun Aug 01, 2010 6:43 pm | |
| Stoupa revisited in May 2010 Mrs Delboy and I went to Stoupa 15 years ago on a cheap last minute deal. It was our first Greek holiday and we stayed at the Lefkatron Hotel on a bed and breakfast basis. During that stay we had a trip to Olympia and were shown where the flame for the Olympic Games is lit every four years. I will write a separate review on that trip. We don’t usually go back to the same place twice but we were very impressed by the friendly people and the laid back way of life in Greece and it converted us to see other Greek places. For certain reasons we wanted to make sure we had a good holiday in May this year so we opted to return to Stoupa. The volcanic eruption which then threaten closure of the airports on the morning of our flight left us unsure whether we would actually get away, but we did (airports closed 6 hours later) Stoupa is an 1 ½ hours coach ride from Kalamata Airport and the road travels around many scenic mountains, the crow would probably take 15 minutes. We booked with Sunvil who were advertising a group of apartments in Stoupa for the first time in their brochure. The tour company provided us with a taxi and the journey took less than an hour. Now Greek people usually have basic accommodation but our apartment had been freshly painted and tiled and the furniture all matched and the fridge was new. The bed was IMO too firm. We had a west facing balcony but it was too hot to sit out in the early evening, even in May.  Walking around the resort, I am pleased to say, it had hardly changed in fifteen years. IMO, Stoupa is a time capsule amongst the Greek mountains, where prices of food and drink have remained reasonable. Fillet steak and chips with coleslaw was 10 euro’s and lamb chops 7 euro’s at our favourite restaurant Perasma. Perasma Restaurant  Most restaurants only differed by the odd euro in their food prices. House wine was local and came in ½ litres for 3 euro’s and all the restaurants that we tried the wine in was very drinkable. Beer was around 2 ½ euro’s. Locally grown olives, drizzled on toast came as starters for free; in our favourite restaurant whilst others gave bread. When ordering the bill, customers were treated to a free liqueur or coffee. Generally, a table charge of around 2 euro’s was added on the total bill. Just a couple of random menu's I photograped   The Panorama restaurant IMO had the best view of the mountains and Kalogria beach whilst we were eating. Panorama Restaurant View   Whilst at the end of the town, a restaurant elevated from the promenade gave stunning views of the sunsets.      Stoupa has two beaches the first is the town beach and it has a promenade with restaurants and a few shops and a supermarket. The town’s beach, at this moment of writing, has a small area fenced off, as turtles have laid eggs. Town Beach       View of the town from the peninsular   The second beach Kalogria beach is much bigger and has several restaurants amongst the trees. One restaurant run by Dimitri’s called Prijipas had specials on each day, including a large beer for 2 euro’s and was very popular with the regular brits, who holiday there each year. Two chairs and a parasol was 7 euro’s on both beaches. There is a mountain spring which runs into the sea at this beach and the water is much colder than in the town Kalogria Beach         Until the end of June, a join in walk starts from the Lefkatron Hotel each Tuesday and all are welcome. On a cool day, there is also a coastal walk to the next town called Aghios Nikolaos which takes an hour each way and on arrival it has a lovely harbour and restaurants to relax in and have a beer. The Walk     flowers on the way   Aghios Nikolaos       My reward for the walk, Tuna salad and a beer.  Summing up a place for beach lovers, relaxing with a book, walkers and eating out in the evening PS see the resort live now on webcam up dates every few seconds double click on the webcam pictures to enlarge http://www.zorbas.de/webcam/eindex.php
Last edited by delboy on Mon Oct 21, 2013 9:11 am; edited 15 times in total |
|  | | Mick ALL ROUND GOOD GUY

 | Subject: Re: Greece, The Mainland, Stoupa, Olympia Sun Aug 01, 2010 6:57 pm | |
| Delboy strikes again.  Another fantastic review, again with the photo's, makes you think that you are almost with him in Greece, as he recounts the holiday. _________________ Mick
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|  | | Daryn Admin

 | Subject: Re: Greece, The Mainland, Stoupa, Olympia Mon Aug 02, 2010 12:30 am | |
| Fab review and if I remember on Ill stick the link for the webcam on our main site _________________  |
|  | | delboy Mad Destination Expert

 | Subject: Olympia Trip Sun Aug 08, 2010 7:24 pm | |
| Whilst staying in Stoupa fifteen years ago we decided to have an excursion to Olympia. Stoupa is quite remote, it’s surrounded by mountains, and the trip involved an early morning rise. The coach took us back to the town of Kalamata (airport) which took about an 1 ½ hours and we stopped and had breakfast before journeying a further 1 ½ hours to reach Olympia.  It was in the nineties, as we followed our guide around. Lots of the columns of the ancient city still stand but an earthquake has left everything in ruins.  The guide took us to the place where the flame is lit for the Olympic Games. The history says that the original games had a flame burning throughout the tournament and it was introduced again in the 1928 games. The torch relay system was later used in 1936 and since that year many athletes and celebrities carry the flame to the Host Nation’s Games. The place where the flame is lit is in the foreground of this picture and consists of a group of rocks and inside there is a concave mirror. Eleven virgins perform a ceremony and the flame is lit by the sun at a certain point of the day.  The ancient games area, which one would imagine a great arena, was rather surprising, as it was just a sanded area surrounded by grass banks, legend says that Hercules paced out 200 steps and called it a Stadion (Latin for Stadium which became a distance). Most of the events involved running, boxing, wrestling, a pentathlon, combat events and even a chariot race. Mrs Delboy reminded me that the Athletes ran naked and it is said that a cook from a town called Elis was the first Olympic champion. (So with all these virgins and naked men about it must have been quite an event?) Some of the valuable artifice found in the city has been displayed in the museum opposite the site. Various statues of gods are on display there but the original statue of Zeus, which was 39ft high and once adorned the Olympic Temple, it became one of the original Seven Wonders of the World and was said to have been removed by Roman Emperor Theodosius II to Constantinople and later destroyed in a fire in 426 ad. I assume that we were not allowed to take pictures in the museum at that time as I do not have any photographs. On the way back we stopped at a tavern for tea All in all, an archaeologist heaven (Sorry If any facts are wrong as I am not an archaeologist)
Last edited by delboy on Mon Oct 21, 2013 9:17 am; edited 3 times in total |
|  | | Mark Majorca Mad

 | Subject: Re: Greece, The Mainland, Stoupa, Olympia Sun Aug 08, 2010 10:39 pm | |
| Very enjoyable Del, many thanks. |
|  | | sarah

 | Subject: Re: Greece, The Mainland, Stoupa, Olympia Tue Sep 07, 2010 10:36 am | |
| Oh Delboy, what have you done??? it's been 3years since we were in Stoupa, went for many years, beautiful place, but so expensive now, need to win the lottery, just looking at the pics, I was transported back in time, fab location and the people, taverna's bars, not to mention the ice cream parlour!! glad I found this forum, ploghing through slowly, take care Sarah |
|  | | delboy Mad Destination Expert

 | Subject: Re: Greece, The Mainland, Stoupa, Olympia Tue Sep 07, 2010 10:55 am | |
| Oh Dear Sarah
Do you mean accom as i found Stoupa to be much cheaper than Puerto Pollensa
Last edited by delboy on Sat Jun 25, 2011 3:36 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|  | | sarah

 | Subject: Re: Greece, The Mainland, Stoupa, Olympia Tue Sep 07, 2010 11:02 am | |
| We looked at Stoupa last year and it was difficult getting flights to Kalamata, the cost had almost doubled, and because of the collapse of Kosma the holiday lets are very few and far between, I know that we could have got a friend who lives there to organise a holiday, but the cost was just out of our price range, where as it was £365.00 each self food and flight, we usually took the same again for catering, drinks etc, it was a good deal more, sad to say, I love Stoupa made some good friends, heyho.. perhaps another year, at the moment we have 'discovered' AI, which for us is great, I do nothing but enjoy the rest . Take care Sarah. |
|  | | theboss Girl Power Member

 | Subject: Re: Greece, The Mainland, Stoupa, Olympia Wed Jun 06, 2012 12:15 am | |
| Once again . . . lovely familiar pics . . . love them all - what I like best about Stoupa is the contrast of the mountains as a backdrop . . it's hard to capture it in a photo . . they always seem to look lower than I remembered them . . . but your 12th pic shows them off beautifully . . . Rep! |
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