“Don’t trust the ropes on your right,” says Kyriakos Antonopoulos. “They can be a bit loose.” This is the kind of advice it pays to listen to when you’re scrambling up steep rocks, with sheer cliffs to the side that plummet down to jagged rocks and the Ionian Sea nearly 100 feet below.
Instead of relying on the guide ropes for safety, we grip metal staples in the rock and find our own handholds and footholds to hoist ourselves up the trail, until we come out at a grassy terrace overlooking Voidakilia Beach, one of the most spectacular in Greece, and the mouth of Nestor’s Cave.
Bees around the entrance produce an ominous drone, the muddy ground inside the limestone cave slick and slippery. 60 metres deep and 35 metres high, it’s dank but cool and peaceful inside. It’s strange to think of this still, silent, tricky-to-get-to spot filled with the cast and crew of a massive Hollywood production, but it’s here that director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Dunkirk, Oppenheimer…) filmed Matt Damon and a horde of fellow actors in ancient Greek garb for their deadly encounter with a cyclops, apparently using a 6X6-metre mechanical puppet for the terrifying, one-eyed character, along with a flock of sheep, imported from Italy, who’d received months of specialist training.
Set to be one of the biggest films of 2026, The Odyssey’s based on Homer’s 8th century epic poem, with Damon playing the central character, Odysseus, alongside Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson. Homer’s story follows the King of Ithaca, who, after the Trojan War, makes a harrowing 10-year journey to get home to his wife (Penelope), his son (Telemachus), his dog Argos and his kingdom, battling not just the cyclops Polyphemus but the Sirens, sea monsters, whirlpools, storms, an enchantress who can turn soldiers into pigs and the wrath of Greek gods Zeus, Helios and Poseidon. Not your average commute, then.
As well as Morocco, Iceland and Italy, Nolan filmed key scenes in Greece, especially Messenia in the Peloponnese region, tucked away in the south-west corner of the mainland. “This place is going to be very famous because of the movie,” says my guide Antonopoulos. “The Odyssey was one of the most expensive films in Hollywood. It cost $250 million [£185 million]. It will look good. We’re proud they were filming in Greece. A lot of this area is still untouched and so beautiful.”
A world apart from the likes of Crete, Santorini or Rhodes, Messenia’s a little-known, under-appreciated part of Greece, with quiet seaside towns and villages, authentic Greek tavernas and gorgeous beaches, but far fewer tourists. Driving in from Kalamata airport, the region’s hub, the mountain road cuts through an ocean of green, the hillsides covered with olive trees.
If Odysseus’s journey was filled with hardships, my family’s adventure couldn’t be more different. We stay at Costa Navarino (costanavarino.com), a massive development - the only one in this relatively undeveloped region - that contains four luxury hotels, golf courses and restaurants. While The Odyssey’s cast and crew stayed at the adults-only W hotel, we spend a few nights at the sophisticated, romantic The Romanos and at the homelier, more family-oriented The Westin. Waking up each morning in a suite with its own private plunge pool, the greatest challenges we face are deciding which restaurants to eat at and which pools to swim in. We have memorable meals at Italian restaurant Da Luigi (goat’s cheese salad with roasted sweet potatoes and figs, shrimp linguini…), along with a bottle of the Navarino Vineyards’ impressive, punchy Cabernet Sauvignon, with fantastic fish and seafood down at the billowy Barbouni beachclub and modern Greek cuisine at Paráfrasi (from Michelin-starred chef Alexandros Tsiotinis), our afternoons spent watching our son splashing up and down waterslides in the Aqua Park (and having a few goes ourselves, too).
The hotels have cannily got in on the Odyssey action, with a new history tour that takes in the nearby ruins of Nestor’s Palace, one of the best-preserved Mycenaean palaces in Greece, and the coastal town of Pylos, including the hilltop fortress Niokastro and Pylos Archaeological Museum. The serene white marble Anazoe Spa is also now offering Odyssey-related treatments. I go for an exfoliation with sea salt and olive oil, an olive oil body wrap, and a blissfully long head massage and a rub down with body milk - exactly what you might need after a decade of fighting gods and monsters.
One morning, we set out on E-bikes, riding through country roads lined with olive trees to Gialova lagoon, a protected wetland area for migratory birds, including flamingos. Tiny frogs make their own treacherous odysseys from one side of the coastal road to another. Parking up, we walk along the semi-circular Voidakilia Beach, cliffs rising on either side of the bay’s opening. “We sometimes call this the Omega Beach because it has the shape of Omega from the Greek alphabet,” Antonopoulos tells me. “This is the most famous and most beautiful beach on mainland Greece.”
We hike up a path of deep sand, then climb the rocky trail. As well as filming at Nestor’s Cave, local reports suggest that a trireme (ancient warship), possibly Odysseus’ ship, was also spotted in the bay. “Homer and The Odyssey are very important to us,” says Antonopoulos. “We grew up with it. We learn about it from a very young age. We live with it. The Odyssey is the most important story in Greece. The message is to be patient. For 10 years, he was fighting to get home. For me, as a Greek person, this is the most important lesson.”
Beyond the cave, we climb higher still, up to the walls of Paleokastro, a 13th-century Frankish hilltop ruin, which has an even better view of Voidakilia Beach’s white sand and clear waters, right across Gialova Lagoon and the open ocean. It’s more than worth the effort.
Having hired a car, we also drive up and down the coast, exploring tucked away beaches and wandering quiet towns with seafood tavernas lining the waterfront. At Pylos, we stroll around the port and head uphill to the outer walls of Niokastro (New Castle), both of which Nolan and his crew are said to have spent time around, with speculation that the Ottoman fortifications might have been used for scenes of the Trojan War.
Another day, we drive far south to Methoni Castle. Locals have shared images of cast members walking the streets of Methoni in soldier costumes, carrying spears and shields, with more ancient galleys bobbing on the waters around the castle. We cross a stone walkway, over the now-dry moat, through the castle’s main gate. In warm sunshine, we explore the sprawling grounds, where long grass has overrun pathways, including the ramparts, a large central keep and a church Nolan’s said to have filmed inside. At the far end of the site, a causeway leads across to an octagonal tower, known as Bourtzi, on a little islet, surrounded by the blues of the Ionian Sea – a striking sight that must also have tantalised the director.
Early on our final morning, en route to the airport, we stop in again at Voidakilia, the beach virtually empty as we walk along the sand, gazing up at Nestor’s Cave and the castle on the cliffs above. Paddling and swimming in the cool, shallow water, I take a moment to reflect on our pleasant Greek Odyssey and to hope our journey home is a little less problematic and time-consuming than it was for Odysseus.
Elegant Resorts (elegantresorts.co.uk) has 7 nights at The Romanos in Costa Navarino (costanavarino.com) from £2275 per person B&B, including international flights. 7 days of car hire from Kalamata airport with Green Motion (greenmotion.com) costs from £90 per week. Jet2 (jet2.com) flies from UK airports to Kalamata, with flights from £80 one way. Ahead of morning flights, rooms at Radisson Blu London Stansted cost from £115 B&B.
