Experience the best of Pylos

Pylos sits at the southern end of Navarino Bay in the Messenia region, below Niokastro, an Ottoman fortress built in the sixteenth century on a rock above the entrance to the bay. The Battle of Navarino took place in the bay in 1827, when a British, French and Russian fleet destroyed the Ottoman and Egyptian navy.

The Palace of Nestor, a Mycenaean palace excavated about 17 kilometres to the north, dates from around 1300 BCE, and clay tablets written in Linear B were found there in 1939. Sphacteria island shelters the bay, and the crescent-shaped beach at Voidokilia lies to the north, beside a lagoon rich in birds. The Venetian fortress at Methoni lies about 12 kilometres to the south.

Messenian food uses local olive oil and Kalamata olives from the region, along with fresh fish, grilled octopus and local honey. Summers are hot and dry, the sea stays warm into October, and spring and autumn are gentler for walking the ruins and the coast.