Driving Greece in an RV: Mountain Passes and Big Bridges

What’s it like driving a big camper around Greece in winter? We filmed a few of the drives from the cab, so here they are, in the order we drove them. The full story of those weeks is in our Athens and Peloponnese post.

6 February: an arch over the motorway

That morning we’d had the theatre at Epidavros almost to ourselves. After that came the long haul across the peninsula to Kalamata, most of it on the Moreas motorway. Around one o’clock, south of Megalopoli, the road swept down under a huge steel arch bridge.

7 February: breathing in through the Mani

The next day was the opposite. We headed south from Kalamata into the Mani, past Kardamyli, toward Itylo and the caves at Diros. The road goes straight through the villages, not around them. Just before two, in the little stone village of Agios Nikon, the walls closed in on both sides. Stone houses, stone walls, a church tower, and our camper squeezing down the middle with what felt like a hand’s width to spare.

Half an hour later we were looking down over Limeni bay.

10 February: over the Taygetus on the Langada Pass

This was the big one. After a short stop below Mystras, we took the road from Sparta back to Kalamata, straight over the Taygetus through the Langada Pass.

Past the village of Trypi, the gorge narrows and the cliffs lean right out over the road, and we crept along under the overhangs.

A few minutes later the road just goes into the rock: a rough tunnel carved straight through the mountain, no tiles, no lights to speak of. Then it was hairpins, huge views, a kiss at a pull-out near the top, and down the other side to Kalamata.

16 February: across the Gulf of Corinth

Our last drive in the Peloponnese was the grandest. We’d spent a few days in Patras and slept right under the Rio–Antirrio bridge, watching it light up from the camper window. That morning we finally drove across it. The cables fan out above you and the gulf is wide and shining on both sides. It left us in awe, as we said in our Maps review.

On the other side the road turned north, and by late afternoon the rocks of Meteora were waiting. That part of the story is in our Meteora post.