Latest Reviews for Gialova

Gialova is near Pylos in the south west Peloponese. The nearest airport is Kalamata, which operates between May and October. Outside this period one would have to fly to Athens and go by bus, car or train (that would be interesting)to Kalamata.

We flew to Kalamata by Astreus airlines booked through Freedom Flights. We were originally booked with Excel, and the change caused us some problems but Astreus was really good (more like a schedule flight).Complimentary meals, hot towels plenty of leg room and we took off on time.
Would certainly use them again.
Car hire should certainly be considered. We booked through Argus Rentals .com and they were there at the airport to meet us, unfortunately they leave the minimum amount of petrol in the tank which is a bit annoying.

The drive to Gialova takes about an hour (for a Greek, about 10 minutes) and is straight forward and quite picturesque. Beware of the roundabout at Messini. If you're not travelling on a Sunday, there's a Lidl supermarket at the aforementioned roundabout and this is the place to stock up with bottled water, fruit juice, red and white wine and feta cheese. Gialova is well signposted and so is Thanos village.

The accomodation. We booked a studio because we didn't plan on spending a lot of time indoors, although there are apartments and a villa, There was airconditioning, a fridge (a very quiet one),a couple of hot plates but no electric kettle. The pots and pans were a bit on the large side but who's going to do any serious cooking? The room was cleaned daily and the sheets and towels were changed six times during our two week stay. Olive oil is also provided, courtesy of Christos.

Having read the last paragraph it may give the impression of a large complex, this isn't the case. The studios (12 in all) and the apartments are separate, the latter being further up the hill. They both have lovely views of the lemon groves and Navarino bay and lovely swimming pools.
The owner, Christos Karalis and his family are extremely hospitable and each Sunday he invites the guests to have breakfast for which he cooks the most delicious bread. The other guests were friendly and of various nationalities, all looking for a peaceful holiday.

The resort. Gialova sort of straggles along the coast road without many signs of tourism. The tavernas are grouped together on the small harbour and they all served pretty good food at a reasonable price ( shared starter, two main courses and a litre of drinkable wine 17 to 20 euros).
The beaches. There are lots to choose from. At some the sea is shallow and perfect for children eg Voidikilia and Golden beach, some have sunshades and beds and small tavernas but not on a large scale. Be sure, you can find your own space.

Things to see. If you're into archeaology there'plenty of it. Nestors palace, ancient Messinia (fantastic), no end of Tholos tombs and Olympia if you fancy the drive. There are the castles at Methoni, Koroni and Pylos and beaches in between. Going through the small villages in the hills is fascinating. The Mani peninsular has stunning scenery, very different from Messinia. Kalamata is worth a visit but the traffic situation is not good, probably best to park away from the centre. alternatively you can lay on the beach and read about these places.
If anyone should want to stay in Gialova the web site for Thanos village is - appthanos com but there are other places to stay

We are familiar with the area and love it, so we will go back and we'll probably stay at Thanos.

We travelled independently for the first time having booked the accomodation, flights and car hire via the internet.
We flew from Gatwick to Kalamata with First Choice (who were superb landed early both ways!) picked up our car and after a 45 mins drive we arrived in Gialova.
We'd never been to this area before so didn't really know what to expect but we were very pleasantly surprised! Gialova is a wonderful little seaside town with about 6/7 tavernas all serving excellent Greek meals and 1 Italian restaurant which although a little more expensive was lovely. There are also 3 shops selling groceries and a few touristy items. Some buildings were just being finished when we left so they may be turned in to more shops.
Scattered around the hillsides are an abundance of small villas and apartments mostly hidden by olive trees, you just wouldn't know that they are there! It's not commercialised at all and has a very laid back feel about it.
The thing we loved most was the distinct lack of Brits! The only Tour Operators who go here are quite expensive - Sunvil, Simply Travel, Filoxenia, Simpsons travel and they only have a handful of accomodation between them. The few Brits we met had also travelled independently. There were lots of Italians, Greeks, Americans, Germans and Scandinavians, We were definitely in the minority which was wonderful. This didn't worry our 7 year old son he played happily on the beach and made friends with a little Greek boy, also made friends with some German children and the only 2 English children back at our apartments.

We Stayed at the Eleonas Villas (eleonas com) and had a 1 bedroom apartment with air conditioning (included in the price) and shared a fab pool with the other apartments. It was never busy and a lot of the time we had it to ourselves! The view from our apartment across the Bay of Navarino was fantastic and the sunsets were just amazing. We paid 44 euros per night for this accomodation which worked out to be £430 for the fortnight (You couldn't get a week in a caravan in cornwall for that price!!). Yiannis and Inge who own it were so friendly as was everybody we met in resort.

It was a 10 min walk to the town beach but we preferred Golden beach (which we could have walked to but it was too hot so much easier to drive!) It was lovely, extremely long but the bit up by the snack bar was probably the best - golden sand and no stones/shingle at all. It was also the only bit of the beach that was organised, just a handful of sunbeds and that was the only beach we saw them on which was good as we hate organised beaches!
Our favourite beach however was Voidikilia, (we could see the sand dunes from our apartment) it is a simply stunning horseshoe bay of beautiful sand and clear water with no sunbeds or snack bars allowed - heaven! On the other side of the sand dunes is the Gialova lagoon a huge area which is a haven for wildlife. The African Chameleon lives there and it is the only place in Europe it can be found! In fact we saw one crossing the car park at Golden beach and managed to get a photo it was lovely.
Pylos was our closest town and it was very nice typical Greek with a few tourist shops, Methoni a bit further down is lovely in fact we could quite easily holiday there, it has a good feel about it and is not commercialised at all. The castle is huge and def worth a look around.

There are lots of archaeological sites around the area - we went to Nestors palace about a 10 min drive away and also drove up to Olympia which took over 2 hours but was well worth it. The scenery driving up was beautiful and the road was so quiet! Olympia is an amazing place and I'm so glad we went. It is very hot there especially on the running track as no shade so take lots of water. There is a very reasonably priced snack kiosk just outside though which sells pretty much anything.

We absolutely loved it in Gialova it's a lovely little uncommercialised seaside village even a bit tatty (it was a wine producing area and there are disused factories about) but its everything we like about Greece. Developments are taking place but at a slow pace and maybe in 5 -10 years it will be in the mainstream tour operators brochures but I really hope not!

As we loved it so much we've booked again for this July!

PS We have been going to Greece since 1989 and this is the first time ever that we have stayed in an apartment where we can flush the loo paper! No bins - wonderful!