Kayak the Pelion Peninsula in Greece
Paddle the sublime coastline of Greece's hidden gem from your base at a beautiful guesthouse on an organic farm
What's Included?
Small Like-minded Groups
Solo-friendly by design, join our small n’ sociable groups of up to 8 like-minded, active and outdoorsy people…
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What's it like?
Paddle to remote beaches and uninhabited islands for idyllic picnics and sea swims
Indulge in delicious Greek food including organic farm-to-table dinner experiences, washed down with local wines
Guaranteed fun, sun and adventure while surrounded by the emerald Aegean Sea and spectacular coastline
Stay in a unique and serene rural guesthouse, brimming with authentic Greek hospitality
Key Information
Day 1
Settle into Amanita Guesthouse
Meet your host at Thessaloniki Airport and enjoy the 3.5-hour drive to the East Pelion coastline, heading for Tsagarada village where the Amanita guesthouse is nestled. Check-in, relax and enjoy the serene surroundings before joining your group for a special welcome dinner prepared using ingredients from the guesthouse's organic farm.
Day 2
Damouchari Bay to Mylopotamos
Kayaking
Enjoy Amanita's award-winning breakfast before heading to the first put-in spot at Damouchari's old harbour, made famous by the movie 'Mamma Mia'. After a quick intro to sea kayaking, paddle along the coast, stopping in a secluded bay with natural water springs. You’ll explore a sea cave before reaching the remote and idyllic Fakistra beach for a refreshing swim. Further along, you'll stop at Mylopotamos beach for a delicious Greek picnic of bruschetta and tabbouleh. Paddle back to Damouchari in the afternoon and on to the guesthouse ready to grab dinner in a local restaurant.
Day 3
Paddle, swim, eat, repeat
Kayaking
Another sumptuous breakfast before heading to Marathias beach, your put-in spot today. Explore a sea cave before crossing to the tiny Cookie Island (aka Prasouda) which you can explore on foot, hiking over to an abandoned monastery dating back to the Byzantine era. Enjoy a blissful swim and some iced coffee or ice tea before hopping back in the kayak, paddling southward to Tzasteni beach - one of the highlights of the Pelion region. Tuck into today's Greek picnic and grab another swim before paddling back to Marathias beach where your day began.
Day 4
Another day in your Pelion paradise
Kayaking
Starting at Damouchari harbour, you'll paddle to a little hidden bay around the corner and on to Papa Nero; a long sandy beach for your first swim of the day. Pass along Agios Ioannis seafront, reaching Plaka, a gorgeous pebble beach that provides the backdrop to today's idyllic picnic and yet more swims. Back at the guesthouse, your hosts will be laying on another multi-course farm-to-table dinner experience for your final evening at Amanita.
Day 5
Beach time and farewell Pelion
Enjoy one last breakfast on the terrace at Amanita before checking out and leaving your luggage here. The rest of the morning is yours to do as you like; some time at the beach or a wander around the hillside villages. Early afternoon your host will arrange a transfer back to the airport in time for any evening flights.
The Area
Logistics
Starts
Thessaloniki Airport
14:00 on Day 1
Ends
Thessaloniki Airport
17:30 on Day 5
Transfers
Your host will meet you at Thessaloniki Airport at 14:00 on Day 1 and transfer you to Amanita Guesthouse in the village of Tsagarada, approximately a 3.5-hour drive away. You are advised to book any flight arriving before 13:00. On the afternoon of Day 5, your host will transfer you back to Thessaloniki Airport in time for any evening flights departing from 20:00 onwards.
Group airport transfers are included on Days 1 and 5, however, you can request a private transfer to/from either Volos or Thessaloniki Airports if you are arriving before or departing after the trip. See optional extras for details.
Travel options
Thessaloniki Airport is serviced by direct flights from the UK and Europe.
Although arrival and departure airport transfers are included in the price, you are welcome to make your own way to Amanita Guesthouse in Tsagarada anytime on Day 1 if you wish. Be sure to arrive before 18:00 if you'd like to check-in and enjoy the welcome dinner with your hosts and fellow adventurers.
Day 1
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Day 2 – Day 3
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Day 4
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Day 5
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
What is the food like?
Your breakfasts and two dinners at Amanita consist almost exclusively of locally-sourced, homemade Greek food, introducing you to some well-known and unfamiliar gastronomic delights. The marmalades, hand-kneaded bread, pies, cakes and desserts are all made by your hosts at Amanita guesthouse. Their approach to food is 'farm to table'. Each morning vegetables, fruit and herbs are collected from the organic garden and used for the day's meals. These ingredients are supplemented with locally-sourced products such as yoghurts, honey, oil and flour.
The seasonality of ingredients is strictly followed, so expect wild herbs, mushrooms and asparagus tips along with ripe seasonal fruit, such as greengages, plums, damsons, raspberries, pears, apples, persimmons and loquat. The picnics during your days out sea kayaking will vary but mainly include a salad tabbouleh, bruschetta and juice. The two dinners will include local starters, salads, cheeses, a first plate, main course and dessert. You have 2 evenings with no dinner included, allowing you to sample the local restaurants nearby.
Vegetarians, vegans and other dietary requirements and allergies can be catered for - please just request on your passenger info form.
What is the accommodation like?
Amanita Guesthouse
A big highlight of your trip is Amanita Guesthouse; your base for the whole adventure. Amanita is a traditional 4-star guesthouse based in the village of Tsagarada and offers authentic Greek hospitality against a backdrop of lush green mountains and the azure shimmer of the Aegean Sea. Your hosts Filaretos and Marianna run the guesthouse along with the adjacent organic farm from which they source the ingredients for your award-winning breakfasts and organic farm-to-table experiences in the evening on days 1 and 4. You'll stay in twin-share rooms split between one of the three separate buildings that make up Amanita.
Upgrades
For solo travellers looking for their own space, an optional private room can be booked for an extra charge, see Optional Extras for the price. Please request this at the time of booking - it is subject to availability.
Amazing way to see a less popular part of Greece. Amazing hosts with both accommodation and the kayaking, gorgeous local produce and food throughout and beautiful scenery and kayaking! Definitely extend the trip if you can and explore more of the area on foot. The hikes down to the beaches and Damachouri are beautiful!
Wonderful experience on the remote and less traveled Pelion peninsular.
A fantastic sea kayaking experience! With a stay up in the mountains, you descend onto lovely beaches to begin each day’s kayak. Wind conditions changed our itinerary however it didn’t take away from the experience. A fair bit of driving on winding roads but lots of time paddling and enjoying the scenery.
The whole trip was fantastic. Food and accomodation were amazing, very vege and cheese heavy. Kayaking was very well done and flexible, adapting the pace and locations for the whole group. We had bad weather some days for kayaking in certain areas, but Thomas took us to the correct parts of the coast every day so we hardly even noticed.
Stunning scenery, beautiful accommodation, the best people with awesome food and lots of it!
The trip was amazing great kayaking with beautiful views. The guide was friendly and very knowledgeable about the area. Food fresh and tasty. Great new friends and memories made.
Excellent trip, we had a fantastic group, some experienced and others beginners but we all paddled together and enjoyed it in a mixture of single and double kayaks. The guides were fantastic from Shakayak and our host at Amanita was superb and helpful. Food provided was excellent throughout. Highly recommend. Didn’t need waterproofs in June - sunshine everyday!
Had an amazing time out on the water! Loved every second
Awesome trip, everything was great. The highlight was the location and kayaking!
Sensational food and beautiful guesthouse with the friendliest knowledgeable hosts - guesthouse and kayak. Family feel to both sets. Relaxing holiday with just right level of pampering food wise and activity. Free first and last day effectively.
Netflix in the guesthouse meant I could freeze frame Mamma Mia to indeed confirm we launched and had coffee where it was filmed! Cheese heaven!
Highly recommended trip, with great accommodation and superb kayaking team. We would recommend you stay on for extra days to enjoy the all the guest house has to offer. And the local area. All the food and service was excellent and friendly.
Guides
Expert, English-speaking sea kayaking guides
Accommodation
4 nights in a traditional 4-star Greek guesthouse
Meals
4 award winning breakfasts, 3 Greek picnic lunches, 2 farm-to-table organic dinners
Transfers
Transfers to and from Thessaloniki Airport, and everything in between
Equipment
All your kayaking gear
Our trips are hassle-free by design. We include all the activities and equipment, as well as many of the meals, so you can simply rock up with your rucksack and share the adventure with your new pals.
Personal Expenses
You know your own spending habits best, so please budget an appropriate amount for things like optional meals and drinks, shopping, optional activities, and laundry.
What's included?
- All your kayaking equipment
- Drybag 20l & 8l (if you prefer to bring your own, we recommend anythign smaller than 30l)
What do I need to bring?
BAGS
- Soft overnight duffel bag or rucksack
- Daypack (20+ litres) - Optional for your activities pre and post the kayaking. Bags can be stored in lockers during the trip. If you wish to take a bag with you into the kayak, it must fit into the 20l drybag.
CLOTHES
- Waterproof jacket
- Breathable wicking layers
- Lightweight & quick dry trousers/shorts/skirts
- Rash vest/ long sleeve for sun protection
- T-shirts, underwear & socks
- Swimwear
- Sunglasses (with a strap)
- Sunhat with neck cover
- Sandals
OTHER
- Universal travel adapter (if you need to charge anything)
- Spare camera batteries (optional)
- Passports (and visas)
- Travel Insurance documents
- Earplugs
- Insect repellent
- Suncream
- Personal first-aid kit (inc. blister treatment)
- Personal items (biodegradable toiletries, sanitary wear etc)
- Quick-dry towel
- Alcohol hand-gel
- Reusable water bottle x1 litre (2 of these if you have room)
Pre/post trip accommodation Single/Twin/Double room
Payable Before Departure
Pre/post trip accommodation Single/Twin/Double room
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Optional private room upgrade
Payable Before Departure
Optional private room upgrade
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Private transfer Thessaloniki Airport to Amanita Guesthouse
Payable Before Departure
Private transfer Thessaloniki Airport to Amanita Guesthouse
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Private transfer Volos Airport to Amanita Guesthouse
Payable Before Departure
Private transfer Volos Airport to Amanita Guesthouse
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We partner with the World Land Trust to ensure this trip achieves Net-Zero emissions. We also support their Buy an Acre programme, helping local communities to buy and protect natural habitats in perpetuity.
What's the number?
It works out on average at 220kg of CO2 emissions per person, including all local transport, accommodation, food, activities, guides, staff and office operations.
The only thing it doesn’t include right now is flights and travel to the destination. We do make an overall estimate across all our customers separately, but as we don’t book flights, have customers from all corners of the world, and no way of reliably knowing their travel plans, we simply can’t include an individual number in the figure on display here. We’ve got a goal to fix that, so that when you book, there is a way to measure and mitigate the carbon emitted by your flight too.
But what does the number mean?
Yep, hard to picture eh? To give you an idea:
- Driving 1000 miles/1609km would be approximately 281kg of CO2 in an average car (or 140.5kg per person, if there were two of you in it).
- A return economy class flight between London and New York would be approximately 1619kg (1.66 tonnes) per person.
- 10 trees in a temperate forest are estimated to remove approximately 250kg of CO2 from the air in a period of 5-10 years.
What are we doing about it?
Our trips are relatively low-carbon by design, and we're working with all our hosts to develop long term carbon reduction plans. We partner with the World Land Trust to ensure this trip achieves Net-Zero emissions. We also support their Buy an Acre programme, helping local communities to buy and protect natural habitats in perpetuity, ensuring the protection of the reserve and its wildlife.
Want to know more?
Amazingly, no international travel company has ever publicly published their carbon measurements before, as far as we know. We believe that must change, quickly. So we’re openly sharing the method we used in the hope that other companies will be able to more easily follow suit and build on what we've done so far. You'll find it all here.
Tipping is not obligatory, and it is up to you and your satisfaction level with the guides to give a tip. On average for a single day of kayaking, a 10€-15€ tip will be welcome. At restaurants in Greece, the most common practice is to leave 10% of your total paid amount as a tip, but still, it is not obligatory.
In the Pelion region, tap water is amongst the best in Greece, fresh from the mountains. So you are advised to fill up your water bottles before heading off to the sea kayaking each day. During Day 2 and 4 there are freshwater taps to refill en route, although this is not possible on Day 3. The support motorboat has extra water in case you need to refill your bottle at any stage.
As you'll be staying at your base the whole 4 nights, you can simply leave your luggage in your room from the start of the adventure to the finish.
Sure can! Over 70% of our travellers travel solo, it’s a great way to meet like-minded people.
Our team of Adventure Hunters co-create exclusive adventures which are run by highly vetted, specialist hosts. The trip is run by our trusted host partner in the destination. We only work with independent, local, in-destination experts who know the very best places to explore and how to stay safe. Read more information about the local teams we partner with. You’ll be introduced to the host straight after making a booking via the Much Better Adventures platform.
Much Better Adventures refer to the UK Government’s official travel advice when designing trips and monitoring trip operations. We recommend that all customers are familiar with the practical information provided on the Government’s FCDO website, where current travel advice can be found by searching for the applicable destination(s).
For customers joining this trip from other international destinations – please also read the official travel advice applicable to your country of residence/origin, as this may differ.
We recommend checking out the country-specific information and also talking to a travel nurse.
We automatically convert prices from the local currency that a host receives to your chosen currency. We update our exchange rates on a daily basis so this does mean that prices displayed on the site are subject to currency fluctuations, which is why you may see them change over time.
If you wish to change the currency you pay in, head to the bottom of the page.
All of our group adventures are specially designed for adults to enjoy as we want these adventures to bring together outdoorsy people who are truly like-minded. You must be over 18 to join one of our trips.
You're always in good company on one of our adventures.
Our trips are typically made up of a mixture of solo travellers and small groups of 2 or 3 friends, with most in their 30s-50s.
Our sociable adventures are solo-friendly by design and naturally attract outdoorsy people with a shared mindset; a love for adventure, a desire to push themselves and meet awesome, like-minded people along the way.
It’s this camaraderie that has so often turned a great adventure into a life-changing one.
Don't just take our word for it:
- 95% of people rate the group dynamics on our trips 5/5
- 90% of people recommend joining a trip to make new friends
- 75% of people have met people on our trips that they would now consider friends
See here for more info about the Much Better Adventures tribe.
Need help finding flights?
From logistics and how to get there, to fitness, group dynamic and trip difficulty, Rory and his team of friendly experts are on hand to help.
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DEPARTURE DATES
