Personal Experience
04\12\2025
Stories from the Peloponnese Mountains
You’re in Leonidio sitting in the heart of the town. Striking red rocks tower around you. Drinking a morning coffee in your favourite cafe nestled in on the side of the road, you’re thinking that your hands are tired from climbing – “what else can we do today”?
After spending a month in Leonidio, I’ve listed my top three recommendations of ways you can explore the mountains of the Arcadia region.
Above the canyons is a sea of beautiful green and golden colours. These are the mountains of the Peloponnese.
The Peloponnese mountains are known to many as the birthplace of the ancient Greek myths and legends. The rugged landscape with towering mountains and dramatic valleys are said to be the inspiration of many of the heroic quests, adventurous journeys and famous battles in this magical, ancient land.
Looking over Leonidio towards Plaka beach, a ridgeline of the mountain of Agios Athanasios Chapel paints the silhouette of a woman peacefully asleep on her back. Locals call this mountain ‘The Sleeping Beauty of Greece’.
This experience was a signifying moment for me. On the surface, you can see a beautiful mountain. But, when you learn the story that sits beneath the surface, it holds a whole new meaning.
“As soon as our guide shown us what to look for, it enabled us to see a hidden world”
1. Hiking the mountains of the Peloponnese:
To access the mountains, you’ll need a car, so bear this mind before you plan your trip. When you do, the roads leading your way are an experience in itself. When I visited in June, the mountains were a welcome break from the heat. The landscape unlocked a whole new world – chestnut and pine trees that rolled over the hill tops, goats and farm dogs roaming the land freely. Within the woodland, it looked like a fairytale. Fresh running water ran along the hiking path, vines plaited the tree trunks as they towered towards the sky, and colourful butterflies danced around us.
With our guide from The Nomia Experience, we drank and ate the flavours of the land. We were given a local drink called ‘mountain tea’ that had been brewed from the fresh stream water that flowed past us. I had heard this name before as it’s sold in the Monday market, but had yet to try it.
The mountains themselves are home to an abundance of fruit ready to enjoy. We found tiny strawberries nestled beneath the leaves in the bushes and cherries sitting high above us in the trees. As soon as our guide shown us what to look for, it enabled us to see a hidden world.
Below are links to a variety of hiking options with Nomia Experience:
2. Vaskina - Experience an authentic Greek mountain village
Nestled up high in the mountains behind Leonidio is the Tsakonian village of Vaskina. This is home for Kokotas Restaurant; a family run restaurant which prides itself on its fresh local food and community culture.
The restaurant is covered in beautiful vines that climb the walls and hang themselves across the ceiling. On arrival, you feel like you’ve been welcomed into someone’s home as trays of treats are brought out and there’s a feel of tranquillity. A group of old friends sit around a table. A table which feels like it’s been their meeting point throughout the many chapters of their life. To me, Kokotas Restaurant is an anchor in the heart of the community, bringing people together and serving Tsakonian traditional fresh food.
We ate a variety of local delicacies – rose petal ice cream made from flowers freshly grown in their courtyard. The aubergine flavoured ice cream was a beautifully sweet treat. An omelette made with their own eggs was bursting with flavour from their local cheese on top.
It’s a must visit if you want to learn about local food and community.
A link to the restaurant is below:
- Address: Βασκίνα 223 00, Greece
- Phone: +30 2757 031287
As well as learning about the local food by eating it, I learnt how to make it too! I enjoyed a lesson on how to make cheese from the local produce with traditional practices. It was a special and unique way to be immersed in the local culture.
Nomia Experience offer Goat Cheese Workshop to people to try for themselves: link here
3. Stories behind the products from the Monday market
As well as drinking mountain tea on our hike and learning how to make cheese in a beautiful Greek village, there’s an abundance of stories to uncover around how the local produce is made.
One of my many adventures in Leonidio was with Illias, a local beekeeper, who took me high into the mountains to meet the honeybees and learn about the process of making honey. In ancient Greek mythology, honey is known to be the nectar of the Gods, so learning how it’s made was a dream experience for me.
To find the bees, we drove deep into the mountains. Once again, my understanding of the landscape was uncovered. Multi-coloured wooden boxes that lay against the roadside – boxes that I had previously seen but not known what they were for – these were home to the local honeybees.
The honey that’s sold in the Monday farmer-market is made with a variety of local flavours and as part of my honey adventure, we went to pick the oranges that are used for this process. An orange tree presents its oranges ready for picking only once a season, so to be part of this process was very special.
Seeing the transition of harvesting the honeycomb to picking the oranges fresh from the trees, was an immersive way to learn about the local area and be connected with the community, culture and its traditions.
To find out how you can be involved in local experiences below are some links!
Link here for the Local Experiences below:
- Shepherd’s Cheese Workshop
- Cooking Workshop – Tsakonian Cuisine
- Carob Workshop
- Herbal Workshop
If you’re already in Leonidio and want to explore more, Nomia offer local experiences. Fill the contact form or click on the link to find out more: https://nomianomad.com/weekly-experience/
Interested to learn more about the culture in Leonidio?
If being a part of the community and understanding the history that lives here is for you, stay tuned for my next blog on Tsakonia – the ancient language of the Peloponnese!
And stay tuned for more of Elly`s Solo Travelers Blog or check her page.
Stay tuned for more of Elly`s Solo Travelers Blog or chack Elly`s web page.
