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Loutraki
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Six kilometres north of the Corinth Canal is the spa resort of
LOUTRAKI
. The epicentre of the 1981 Corinth earthquake, it has today straight lines of unmemorable concrete buildings. The resort is nonetheless immensely popular, with a larger concentration of hotels than anywhere else in the Peloponnese. The visitors are mostly Greek or Italian, coming here since 1847 for the "cure" at the hot springs, and to sample Loutraki mineral water - the country's leading bottled brand. A sign of the times is the new Pepsi-Cola bottling plant on the outskirts of Loutraki. Others come for the renovated and reopened casino - Greece's oldest - on Posidhonos on the southwest seafront. Near the train station, there is a helpful
tourist kiosk
on E. Venizelou, the main road through town, four blocks south of the bus station, and a second near the thermal baths. The local council has a choice range of well-produced brochures and a town map.
With your own transport, you'd be better off using the town simply as a staging post en route to the site of ancient Perahora and making Lake Vouliagmeni your base. Otherwise, Loutraki is connected by bus and special summer trains with Athens, and by bus (every 30min) with Korinthos.
Car hire
and
exchange
are available from 24 Hours Travel (tel 07440/67 666, fax 67 667) on Y. Lekka, near the thermal baths. If you end up staying,
Hotel Brettagne
, at Y. Lekka 28 (tel 07440/22 349; €34-42), makes a refreshing change from the many expensive spa-resort
hotels
;
Hotel Pappas
(tel 07440/23 026; €73 and upwards), to the left of the Perahora road, has better facilities and fine views across the gulf; and the friendly, family-run
Acropole
, P. Tsaldhari 11 (tel 07440/22 265, fax 61 171; €24-33), has nice, comfortable rooms. To
eat
, the
Harama psistaria
at the corner of Kanari and Ethnikis Andistasis has good grills at decent rates. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Greece,
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