Western Greece Travel Guide
The Rio-Antirrio Bridge at sunset. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Western Greece faces the Ionian Sea. Patras, Greece's third city, is the carnival capital and the main ferry port for Italy. The Rio-Antirrio Bridge (Charilaos Trikoupis, opened 2004), one of the world's longest cable-stayed bridges, spans the Gulf of Corinth here.
Inland lies ancient Olympia, birthplace of the Olympic Games in 776 BC and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1989. Nafpaktos is the walled harbor town of the 1571 Battle of Lepanto; the Diakopto-Kalavryta rack railway climbs from the coast into the mountains.
Key destinations in Western Greece
Ancient OlympiaThe sanctuary of Zeus and the original Olympic stadium; the Hermes of Praxiteles in the museum.
NafpaktosThe walled Venetian harbor, one of Greece's prettiest small ports.
Rio-Antirrio BridgeThe 2.9-km cable-stayed bridge over the Gulf of Corinth.
Diakopto-Kalavryta railwayThe narrow-gauge rack railway up the Vouraikos gorge.
PatrasThe carnival city: the castle, the Apollon Theatre, the lighthouse.
Messolonghi lagoonThe shallow lagoon of Byron's last stand; birdwatching and salt flats.
Hover a region to explore it. Click a city pin to open its guide.
Top Cities & towns in Western Greece
Regional food
- Mavrodafni, the sweet red wine of Patras
- Tentoura, the Patras liqueur
Getting there
Araxos airport (GPA) has seasonal charter flights. Patras is the main ferry port for Italy (Bari, Ancona, Venice). The Olympia Odos motorway links Athens with Patras.