Things to do in Volos

Volos sits at the head of the Pagasetic gulf with Mount Pelion rising behind it, and it has a food custom that is worth planning a trip around. Start there, because it is the single best reason to stop here and it is not what most people expect from a working port city.

The tsipouradika, which are the reason to come. A tsipouradiko serves tsipouro, the local spirit, and every order arrives with a plate of food you did not choose. Order a second round and a different plate comes. The plates escalate: small fish, octopus, vegetables, then something more substantial. You do not order a meal here. You order drinks, repeatedly, and dinner happens to you. There are dozens of these places along the waterfront and in the streets behind it.

Why that is more than a novelty. It is a genuine local custom rather than a show for visitors, and it means an evening in Volos has a structure you cannot get elsewhere in Greece. We name no tsipouradiko: there are dozens, they change, and the custom is the thing rather than any one address. Greek food and drink covers the wider table.

The city, honestly described. A working port and university city, rebuilt after earthquakes in the 1950s, so the architecture is largely modern. The long waterfront promenade is the centre of life. Two things are worth an hour: the archaeological museum, strong on Neolithic Thessaly and painted grave stelae, and the church of Agios Konstantinos on the front.

Dimini and Sesklo, just outside. Two of the most important Neolithic settlements in Europe, with visible house foundations and, at Dimini, a Mycenaean palace complex above them. Most visitors to Greece never see a Neolithic site at all, and these two are a short drive from a city centre.

Pelion, which is why many people base here. The mountain behind carries stone villages with slate roofs among chestnut and apple orchards: Makrinitsa, Portaria, Tsagarada, Milies, Vizitsa. The east coast below them has the beaches, several of them long and pale. It is a different landscape from anything on the coast, and it is the reason Volos is a base rather than a stop.

The Moutzouris, the old narrow-gauge railway. It still runs a tourist service on part of the line between Ano Lechonia and Milies, over a Ferrari-designed bridge. That last detail is true and improbable enough to be worth the trip on its own.

The Sporades connection. Ferries and hydrofoils to Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonissos leave from the port, which makes Volos a natural start or end to a Sporades trip rather than a detour. If you are island-hopping the Sporades, a night here on the way is close to free.

Our Volos guide has the practicalities and where to stay covers the waterfront and the mountain.