Katakalon - Day Tour to Chlemoutsi Castle

[xenagurl]

Katakalon - Day Tour to Chlemoutsi Castle

 

Full write up and photos here:

 

http://travelxena.com/norwegian-jade-mediterranean-cruise-cruise-katakolon-chlemoutsi-castle-greece/

Excepts here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1739575

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review!

[xenagurl]

Thanks for the review!

 

Sure thing. Thanks for checking it out. :)

[Lady Anna & Sir Troy]

Thanks for the review. I would really like to see this place. Wish there was a tour there. I'm fine with cars, but not so sure about trying to read a foreign language other than Spanish or English. Any thoughts?

 

L.A.S.T.

[xenagurl]

You'll usually see two sets of signs. The first will be in Greek the 2nd in English. And after a while the names of places in Greek become recognizable, so if you have someone paying attention to the signs while someone else is doing the driving, you might get a bit lost anyway (like us haha) but at least knowing where you are will be fairly easy. :) HTH

[UKBayern]

We hired a car in Katakolon on the 7th of December at Avis and drove to Chlemoutsi Castle. The car hire was only EUR 37 and EUR 13 fuel. The copied map Avis has is very primitive, but the castle is not hard to find and the directions the staff gave us were right on the mark. Just take the main road to Patra until you see a sign Killini on your left, and then follow signs Kastro. You will already see the castle from many miles away. In Kastro, there are signs to the castle. We did not find the drive challenging, but we are used to driving in mediterrean countries.

 

We were the only visitors, and the exhibition was unlocked and lit especially for us. The man tried to tell us some things, but he basically only spoke greek. The small exhibition and the information leaflet are in very good english though. There are extensive restorations going on, they have uncovered some frankish ceiling frescoes in (what used to be) the church. When they are finished, it is going to look amazing (like the bit they already renovated where the exhibition is). You should plan in about 1 hour to get around and read about the history. There are no toilets, restaurants or giftshops (and no other tourists). Entrance is EUR 3, but my parents only paid EUR 2 because they are 65+ (you get senior discoutns everywhere in Greece).

 

After the castle, we drove to nearby Killini, which is a small beach/harbour town with ferry connections to Zakynthos. Because it was winter, the town was fairly dead, but there are some nice tavernas and cafes there for coffee or some lunch, and we could see that it will look amazing in the warmer season. From there, we just followed signs to Pyrgos/Olympia until we got to the turning Katakolon.