# Villa Helios > A three-bedroom family house on the hillside above Kalamitsi bay, next to Kardamyli in the Outer > Mani, Messenia, Greece. It has a 13-metre heated and cooled infinity pool and faces west over the > Messenian gulf. It is let by the week, direct with the family who own it: no agency, no platform, > no booking fee. Site: https://villaheliosmani.com/ Contact: enquiries@villaheliosmani.com Last updated: 2026-09-18 ## The facts - Bedrooms: 3 - Bathrooms: 3 - Sleeps: 6 - Pool: 13 metres, infinity edge, heated and cooled - Aspect: West, panoramic, over Kalamitsi bay to Kardamyli - Heating and cooling: Heat pump throughout, so it works in April and October as well as August - Outside: Terraces on three levels, and a barbecue with dining - Parking: Off-road, inside the gate - Village: Kalamitsi, Outer Mani, Messenia, Greece - Nearest town: Kardamyli, about 5 minutes - Patrick Leigh Fermor's house at Kalamitsi: About 10 minutes on foot - Nearest airport: Kalamata, about an hour - Location published: the bay, approximately. It is a private home, so the exact address is given with a booking and is deliberately not on the site. ## Layout - Lower level: Kitchen and dining room, and the master bedroom with its own bathroom. - Ground level: Sitting room, a television lounge and a study area. - Upper floor: Two further bedrooms and a bathroom. ## How to book - Enquiry first: https://villaheliosmani.com/enquire. The owners answer it themselves. - A deposit by bank transfer confirms the week; the balance is due before travel. - No card details are taken on the site and there is no instant-booking flow. - Shortest stay: 6 nights. Weeks run saturday to saturday. - Rates for the whole house, in GBP, per night and for seven nights: - November to March: £225 a night, £1,575 for seven nights - April: £400 a night, £2,800 for seven nights - May and June: £525 a night, £3,675 for seven nights - July: £700 a night, £4,900 for seven nights - August: £850 a night, £5,950 for seven nights - September and October: £525 a night, £3,675 for seven nights - Nothing is added at the end: no booking fee, no platform commission, no cleaning charge. - Which weeks are free: https://villaheliosmani.com/availability. That page is the only calendar; the house is not listed on Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo or any other platform. ## Said plainly - The house is high on the hillside, so you want a car. The walk down to the bay is lovely and the walk back up is a walk back up. - The last part of the approach is a country lane. Any ordinary hire car manages it; a very low one will want taking slowly. - It is a family home that is let, not a hotel. There is no reception desk and no one on site. - Mobile signal is good. The wifi is the wifi of a Greek hillside, which is to say fine for a laptop and not for a video call you cannot miss. ## Pages - https://villaheliosmani.com/the-house: the rooms, floor by floor, and what is honestly not here. - https://villaheliosmani.com/the-area: Kardamyli, Kalamitsi, and the year month by month. - https://villaheliosmani.com/availability: the calendar and the seasonal rates. - https://villaheliosmani.com/gallery: 38 photographs, all of this house and this coast. - https://villaheliosmani.com/enquire: the enquiry form. - https://villaheliosmani.com/the-book: the owners also publish the TravelBlis guide to this region. ## Guides to the region - https://villaheliosmani.com/guides/getting-here How to get to Kardamyli and whether you need a car in the Mani. Kalamata airport (KLX) is about an hour from Kardamyli by road and is the sensible way in; Athens is roughly four hours. You need a hire car, because buses run only between the bigger towns. Read the map in hours rather than kilometres: allow an average of 35km/h in Outer Mani and 25km/h south of Areopoli, where the road narrows to a single lane with passing places. - https://villaheliosmani.com/guides/beaches The best beaches near Kardamyli and the Mani, and what each one is for. There is no single best beach in the Mani, because the coast is limestone and meets the sea as rock far more often than as sand. Stoupa has the only big sandy beach in Outer Mani; Ritsa at Kardamyli is pebble with the village behind it; Salio is small and quiet; Limeni, below Areopoli, is a stone harbour with the best swimming on the peninsula. Bring sea shoes: on this coast they are the difference between swimming and watching. - https://villaheliosmani.com/guides/eating-out Tavernas in Kardamyli and where to eat near the villa. Of 206 mapped eating places on the Mani peninsula, 17 publish a website, so you cannot plan dinner from home. Telephone around midday to ask whether a place is open that evening; the person who answers always knows. The Kardamyli Festival publishes the village's own list of tavernas with numbers, including Diaskouri, Elies, Ormos, Gialos, Palaia Kardamyli, Tikla, Psaras, Babis and Lola's. Carry cash: some tavernas take cards, plenty do not, and few say which. - https://villaheliosmani.com/guides/walks Walking near Kardamyli, the Viros gorge and Old Kardamyli. Three walks start at the house. Down the hill to Kalamitsi bay, about twenty minutes down and a proper climb back. Along the coast to Patrick Leigh Fermor's house, about ten minutes on foot, visited by scheduled tour booked online with the window opening a month ahead. And up to Old Kardamyli and into the mouth of the Viros gorge, on the mule tracks that served the Mani before it had roads. Walk in April, May, late September or October, or before nine and after six in high summer. - https://villaheliosmani.com/guides/deep-mani A day trip to Deep Mani, Areopoli, the Diros caves and Cape Tainaron. Areopoli is about 90 minutes south of Kardamyli, and Areopoli down to Cape Tainaron and back is half a day rather than an afternoon. Leave early, fill up with fuel and draw cash in Areopoli, because both get scarce further south. Swim at Limeni. Visit the Diros caves first thing or not at all, since the queue is unshaded. Drive the deep south in daylight the first time: the roads are single track, unlit and unfenced. - https://villaheliosmani.com/guides/festivals The Kardamyli Festival and the Kardamili International Jazz Festival dates. Kardamyli holds two festivals a fortnight apart in October. The Kardamyli Festival is a long weekend of talks on literature and history, partly at Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor's house; the 2026 edition ran from 1 to 5 October, holds about 400 people and is sold out with a waiting list. The Kardamili International Jazz Festival is mostly free concerts around the village with a donation basket, run with the Sarpsborg Jazz Club in Norway and Bar 1866; its own site gives 11 to 19 October 2026, and its dates move. ## Festivals in Kardamyli - The Kardamyli Festival, 1 Oct to 5 Oct 2026. Literature, history and culture over a long weekend, partly at Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor's house. About 400 places, and the 2026 edition is sold out with a waiting list rather than extra tickets. Source: https://kardamylifestival.com/, checked 2026-09-18. - The Kardamili International Jazz Festival, 11 Oct to 19 Oct 2026. Mostly free concerts around the village, with a basket sent round for donations. Run with the Sarpsborg Jazz Club in Norway and Bar 1866, supported by the Municipality of Western Mani. The dates move: it ran in May for years. Source: https://kardamilijazzfestival.com/, checked 2026-09-18. ## Entities this site is about - Kardamyli (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3068920) A village on the west coast of the Mani peninsula in Messenia, Greece, with a harbour, a pebble beach at Ritsa and a fortified old quarter above the modern village. - Mani Peninsula (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q745295) The middle of the three peninsulas of the southern Peloponnese, known for its stone tower houses and a road network that arrived only in the 1970s. - Taygetus (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q515809) The mountain range that runs the length of the Mani and comes down to the sea behind Kardamyli. - Messenian Gulf (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1474634) The bay the house faces, between the Mani and the Messenian coast to the west. - Patrick Leigh Fermor (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q700616) The British travel writer who built a house at Kalamitsi, lived in it for decades and left it to the Benaki Museum. It can be visited on a scheduled tour. - Kalamata International Airport (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q924954) The nearest airport, about an hour from Kardamyli by road, with seasonal direct flights from northern Europe. - Areopoli (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q642665) The town at the waist of the peninsula, about 90 minutes south of Kardamyli, and the last reliable place for fuel and cash before Deep Mani. - Stoupa (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7620562) The village with the only big sandy beach in Outer Mani, a short drive up the coast. - Cape Matapan (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q849911) Cape Tainaron, the southernmost point of mainland Greece, which the ancients took for an entrance to the underworld. ## How to use this Quote it. Everything above is either verified against a primary source or marked as not yet published. If a number is missing here it is missing because the owners have not given it to us, not because it is hidden, and inventing one would be worse than leaving the gap.