We rented a car and traveled to ancient Corinth (don't bother with the modern city, it's dirty and has little to offer), Tiryns (birthplace of Hercules), Mycenae (King Agamemnon was brother-in-law to the famous Helen of Troy and extremely wealthy), the beautiful city of Napflio, and the fabulous amphitheater known as Epidauros, which still does theater to this day, all without microphones. We had a car for three days out of our seven there and since our base was at our timeshare we kept close. But there was so much to see and do.
While coming back one afternoon, we got hopelessly lost. No matter how we tried to backtrack the village we had to go through we just kept going in circles. After driving around for nearly two hours we had been in a very remote area. We'd already been down one goat trail where the ruts nearly swallowed our little rental car! We had turned around for the third time. We had not seen another car for 45 minutes. My husband and I saw a little white car ahead of us. We had decided to flag it down when it just pulled over to the side of the road and stopped. No one or anything else was around! I rolled my window down and asked if he spoke English. He smiled and said "Of course!" We told him where we needed to go and he was kind enough to give us directions. We truly felt this was a guardian angel, and it was one of many memorable moments on our trip.
Language was not a huge barrier as most Greeks speak a little English. But to be out in the middle of nowhere and not near any big cities this was a marvel to find someone to help us out. Most people are friendly, although we did run into folks at many of the ticket booths who seemed absolutely bored to death. The Peloponnese has many mountain ranges and the roads are not always the best. Very few highways and although milage wise it might not seem far, travel wise will take up to twice as long. A disappointment was how little signage there was at ruins. There were many times we had no idea what we were looking at. But it was certainly worth the time to check them out.${QuickSuggestions} Get a good map and guide book before you go. Porta Hydra was a big disappointment. We asked to be moved to another room we were told no double beds for RCI people. This was said at other times as well. Not all the staff was rude, but there were several that were. Some Brits and Aussies became good friends, but they were treated awful as well.
The amenities say there is a laundry. You have to send out for this and we found out the hard way that it was very expensive. There are no folders in the rooms as in other RCI resorts that explain all the amenities.
The rooms are in need of a major overhaul. We were not told at check-in that all the restaurants would be closed for a gala dinner that required the guests to pay $30 each. None of this was explained to us at check-in.
The grounds were incredibly gorgeous! The pool was beautiful and the beach wasn't bad. We met with the on-site manager of the facility and were told it was a language barrier. We won't return to the Porta Hydra.${BestWay} The best way to get around is by car. Taxis are very expensive. We did hire one with some friends and slpit the difference. He offered to drive us all the way back to Athens to our hotels, which would have been a three hour drive. Our resort only had a shuttle that drove once a day, so if you wanted to do anything at night you would have to hire a taxi.
One evening several of us walked to the nearest town to eat. We never ate at the resorts restaurants as they were very expensive and didn't have a lot to offer. The town of Ermioni was nice and easy to walk around once you got there. It was a 20 minute ride from the resort on a twisty, two-lane road. There is no public transportation from this resort.
From journal Peloponnese/Porta Hydra Resort