Platýs Gialós - Panagía Vrísis - Kástro

Evaluation: This hike offers a beautiful connection between the beach of Platýs Gialós and the magnificent town of Kástro. The first part of the hike goes underneath the monastery of Panagía tou Vounoú, which you can visit if you want to. Halfway you pass the monastery of Panagía Vrísis, which has a wonderful ikonostási and which is definitely worth a visit. The second half of the trip consists of a beautiful path with great views on Kastro all the way. We give this hike an evaluation of **. Passionate hikers can continue this hike to Panagía Pouláti and Artemónas, as described in the second part of the hike from Apollonía via Kástro to Artemónas...

Estimated time: The actual walking time is a little under two hours, but of course you can spend some relaxing hours, either before hand in Platýs Gialós, or at the end of the hike in Kástro.

Route description: In Platýs Gialós you should get off the bus at the 3rd or the 4th stop: the departure of this hike lies in between these two stops, at a small road leading inland to a parking lot. When you arrive at the beach you can see a little stone pier in about one third of the beach. You return for a little while towards the beginning of the beach, until you see a little bridge on the left (there are also a couple of houses and some terraces). You go up some steps, you cross the main road and you go inland, on a concrete road on the bottom of a river (there is also a sign pointing at a parking lot).
You follow this road for about 6 minutes and when it becomes a dirt road you curve to the right. Already after 2 minutes, in a slight bend to the left, you find a beautiful trail. This trail goes straight and a little to the right, in between walls and olive fields. 5 minutes later, this monopáti gets again to the zigzaging dirt road, immediately on the right of a cistern. You follow the road going up for only about 100 metres, because already in the next bend the path continues straight ahead. For quite a long time you now walk next to a black plastic water pipe and you walk upwards, on the right of a very green valley. Very soon you even see some aqueducts and you can hear water splattering – at least in springtime.

You now walk underneath the monastery of Panagía tou Vounoú, although you cannot really see the buildings. During the next 20 minutes you walk over both flat stretches and steeper parts, usually with steps. In this way you finally get to the asphalt road coming from Platýs Gialós, about half an hour after your departure from the beach.

[One possibility is to follow this asphalt road to the right for about 4 minutes. You will then find another little asphalt road off the right and going upwards (there is also a signpost). Some 8 minutes later you will thus get to the monastery of Panagía tou Vounoú, with its wonderfully shaded court. The church itself is almost always closed. Thereafter though, you have to go back to where the path from Platýs Gialós gets to the main road.]

On the other side of the road, across the monopáti coming from Platýs Gialós there is a great shaded spot, an ideal place to have some rest. Unfortunately, you cannot continue on the monopáti that goes straight. You thus have to follow the asphalt road to the left for some minutes. In front of you, slightly to the left, you have a great view on the hill of Agios Andréas. Already after 3 minutes, about 100 metres past a sign pointing to some apartments, you reach a path to the left. Next to this path there is a nice drinking place with a tap, but without water. 

This is a beautiful trail; which goes up fairly steeply over the next 11 minutes – all the time you are guided by a blue plastic water pipe, next to the path. After 5 minutes you take a left (on the right there is an overgrown path). Some 3 minutes later you go right and after another 3 minutes you go right again – you still follow the water pipe and you have a view on Agios Andréas all the way. One minute further on the trail turns into a little road and again after one minute you curve to the left; you go up slightly and you walk underneath a hill. After 4 minutes you pass a road going up on the right and you go down towards the left. You continue until you are about 50 metres away from the main road, just underneath the hill of Agios Andréas.

At this point you take the path off the right, in between fairly high walls: this is the road to the hamlet of Symbópoula, and this road has already been described in the hike Apollonía - Agios Andréas - Moní Vrísis.

The path meanders above picturesque little fields with olive trees in the direction of the blue dome of Exambela. This brings you to a gravel road after 5 minutes. This road turns into concrete for a short while and it leads you past a very small church.
You can continue on this road; it first curves to the left, it passes some houses of the hamlet of Symbópoula and it then curves to the right. Another possibility is to take a shortcut; you can do this by taking a narrow path going down steeply, some 50 metres past the church and just before the houses. This path runs in between a new and an old wall and it is a little overgrown – but after some 2 minutes it will bring you again to the road.

You now walk on the right hand side of a stone quarry, you take a left beneath the heliport and about 50 metres further on you go to the right, up the white staircase towards a little church. You cross the shady cemetery and you go through the gate at the back. By taking a little dirt path crossing two fields you reach the back side of the large monastery of Vrísis – some 20 minutes after you have left the road down at Agios Andréas. The monastery looks life a fortress, but inside it is really beautiful, with a nice ikonostási from the 17th century.

After your visit you go down the broad steps to the road to Faros - in front you can already see Kástro, at the end of the valley that you will follow later on - and you walk to the left for about 150 metres. A little road off the left goes to the heliport and to the hamlet of Symbópoula. Just past the turn to Symbópoula there is a bridge (with splattering water in springtime) and then a path off the right, on the right hand side of a house with a large garden (there is also a sign to Kástro). This is really a wonderful trail and almost immediately you can see Kastro straight in front of you. Looking back you have a great view on the large monastery of Vrísis.

After 5 minutes there is a trail going down on the right – this only leads to a small church. You just continue straight on the beautiful and large trail, passing another path off the right and then a neglected path off the left. You walk almost flatly and after some 10 minutes you curve to the left, towards a church a little higher up. You then get to a rocky spot at a junction; there is a path going down to the right. In order to avoid confusion, these are some guidelines: on the right hand side of this descending trail there are some olive trees and there is also a little wooden gate. You can also see a red dot on a large rock and after some 20/25 steps there is bigger spot painted in white. This is the right - and not at all indicated - turn to Kástro.

You then go down steeply – there are some shrubs blocking the path, but this is definitely the right way to go. After four minutes you cross the bed of the river – on the 17^th of May 2003 we had to walk over quite a lot of water. You climb up for a couple of minutes and you go on on a very nice trail in the direction of Kástro. This path continues almost flatly for about fifteen minutes: underneath to the left you see two small houses and then a chapel with a double arch passing along. Then there is a chapel with a circular roof, a chapel with a flat roof and a pigeon tower. Closer to Kástro you descend for about 5 minutes until you get to another trail off the right which comes also down steeply: you have followed this trail on the hike from Fáros to Kástro. You continue going down for the next two minutes until you reach the valley.  Below, in front of you and a little to the left you see the staircase to Kástro – unless you want to follow the valley to the right in order to go for a swim on the beach of Serália.

The staircase crosses the asphalt road to Serália after a couple of minutes and after 80 steps. Straight ahead you take the staircase painted in white and in this way you reach the square next to the bus stop, after another 140 steps. You are now at the gates of Kástro, near the new entrance to the fortified village. This hike has taken a little under two hours.

Nearby you find the beautiful terrace of To Konáki; in the bakery of the same name, a little further down, you can buy delicious amigdalótes, which is the local speciality. It is also great to take some rest on the terrace of the restaurant To astéri, a little further to the left – over there you should go and try a 'pikilía' (little snacks) with the tirokeftédes (cheese balls), the saganáki (fried cheese) and the melitzanosaláta (a salad of eggplant)...