Volos is the gateway to the Pelion peninsula, and no visit to the city is complete without at least a day in the hills. The peninsula extends south into the Aegean, a long green ridge draped in chestnut, plane, and olive trees. It looks nothing like the parched Greek landscape most visitors expect: the forests are dense, the villages well-watered, the air cool even in summer. The myth says the Centaurs lived here, and the terrain — steep, wooded, crossed by old stone paths — is the kind of place that invites that sort of story.
Makrynitsa, clinging to the hillside above Volos, is the obvious first stop. Known as the balcony of Pelion for its sweeping views over the Pagasitic Gulf, the village is built around a central square with a huge plane tree and a fountain, backed by archontika — the fortified mansions of wealthy Pelion merchants, with overhanging upper floors and carved wooden interiors. One mansion operates as a small museum open to visitors. Portaria, slightly lower on the same slope, is quieter and less visited.
On the Aegean side of the peninsula, Milopotamos is worth the winding drive for its beach: a small cove backed by dramatic sea arches carved through the limestone headlands. It is beautiful and increasingly popular; go early or midweek. Tsagarada, a village of four scattered hamlets spread through the chestnut forests near the eastern tip of the peninsula, is good for a meal and a walk.
The old stone-paved paths — the kalderimia — that once connected the Pelion villages are still walkable in many places, and offer a different perspective on the peninsula than the road. Maps are available in Volos and at some of the larger villages. The Pelion has its own page in the guide with more detail on individual villages and beaches.