Crag Catalogue > Europe > Greece
Greece
Greece is a mecca for modern sport climbing. We spent the majority of our time on the Peloponnese. We explored the Argolis (the most Eastern finger) which was full of cruisy, peaceful and scenic crags. We then moved West, towards harder lines – stopping at world-famous Leonidio as well as exploring some of Leonidio’s crag neighbours.
It was absolute peak kid-friendly-climbing, often climbing within view of your parking and a beautiful view to boot. And to top it all off – plenty of interesting towns, beaches, culture and epic history to vary the days between cragging.
Topos and other Climbing Resources
For Leonidio: the Panjika Cooperative climbing guidebook has all the latest -including a key for whether a crag is relatively family-friendly. You can pick it up online or at the Panjika climbing shop of cafe/bar and get to know the active climbing community too.
For the Argolid peninsula: the Olympus Mountaineering blog/site was a wonderful resource with detailed descriptions of the crags. I found the main map a useful way to navigate the site and find information for the locations we were visiting.
The Crag – always worth a look for any useful comments, latest logs etc.
RockAroundTheWorld also had useful crag write-ups. A bit difficult to navigate as posts are catalogued by date but using the search function throws up whether they’ve visited reviewed a particular area. A phrase they used in their Vlychada review has been on my mind ever since… “Carlsberg don’t make crags, but if they did…”
Van-Life Logistics
Roads
- Easy driving, good roads – especially after winding through Montenegro and Albania. Look out for the ‘kandylakia’ roadside shrines.
- The Rio-Antirrio Bridge toll was quite exxy as were the tolls from there to Corinth.
Camping – park4night was (as always) our go-to resource – free camping was relatively common with lots of use/recent reviews. In between free camping we needed to rely on campsites for services and this became a slight challenge travelling in the off-season on the extremities of the peninsulas. In these locations there are only a small number of campsites and they were often closed during the winter so we had to plan our service requirements carefully – the good news is that wild camping here is also convenient and very beautiful.
Beyond Climbing
- We entered North-West Greece from Albania at the ‘Tre Urat – Përmet’ border crossing. We explored the area around Vikos Gorge for a day and had hoped to swing by Meteora for some climbing and mountain-top monasteries. However we were pushed south by cold, wet weather and chased the sun to the East side of the Peloponnese.
- From ancient history to contemporary cultural towns, from beautiful beaches to mezze delicacies – in every spot we climbed there was always something else to explore/do/see right nearby, so check out the ‘Nearby’ notes in each crag to see what combos we came up with.
Crags with Kids 
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