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

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.

Fab review and if I remember on Ill stick the link for the webcam on our main site

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)

Very enjoyable Del, many thanks.

Oh Dear Sarah

Do you mean accom as i found Stoupa to be much cheaper than Puerto Pollensa

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!