About Neda Waterfalls (Καταρράκτες Νέδα)
The Neda Waterfalls (or Καταρράκτες Νέδα in Greek; also called the Stomio Waterfalls) consist of a pair of gushing waterfalls on a tributary flowing into the Neda River below.
The lower tier is said to have a drop of perhaps 10m or less, but the upper drop is said to have a height of 20-25m, and that’s the main one of the bunch (some sources say the main falls is 50m in height though there must be hidden parts if that’s true).
There’s also a steep cascade beneath the lower tier, which is hard to see as it tumbles and directly feeds the Neda River in its steep canyon.
This is one of the more popular waterfalls in Greece, and we even knew about it on our first trip in 2010.
That said, we didn’t get a chance to visit this place despite us staying in Ancient Olympia (roughly 2 hours drive north of the falls) for a night back on that first trip.
Indeed, it twasn’t until 14 years later, when we finally got a chance to visit the Neda Waterfalls, which is why this write-up exists.
Anyways, despite its popularity, the waterfalls are situated in the rather remote Neda Gorge in the mountainous Western Peloponnese.
Thus, its access is not as trivial as you’d think, and we’ll try to contextualize everything so the situation becomes clearer.
Our visit happened to occur prior to the busier period in the late Spring and in the Summer so it wasn’t as busy as we had expected.
Moreover, the waterfall’s vigorous flow during our early April 2024 visit seemed to defy our expectations that it might struggle to flow due to a multi-year drought that affected much of Southern Europe, including Southern Greece.
By the way, Neda (Νέδα pronounced like “nethuh”; also Νέδαν or Nethan) was a kind of goddess of water or a nymph in Greek mythology, who nursed the child Zeus.
Given the role that she played to the almighty Zeus, it seemed fitting that the Neda River (a major river cutting through the Western Peloponnese) is apparently the only river in Greece with a female name.
This river originates from near the village of Neda on Mt Lykaion as it drains an area of 278 square kilometers before flowing west towards the Ionian Sea at the Gulf of Kyparissia near the village of Elis.
How to Access the Neda Waterfalls?
There are two ways to access the trailhead for the Neda Waterfalls:
- from the village of Figaleia (on the border of Messinia and Ilia or Elis)
- from the village of Platania (within the Messinia Prefecture)
Historically, there seemed to be varying accounts in the literature of rather poorly-conditioned roads to even reach the trailhead (something that concerned us going into our hike).
Some even resorted to just making this excursion more of a longer trek from either of these villages (which adds at least 3.3km each way from Figaleia Village or 3.6km each way from Platania Village).
However, as of our visit in early April 2024, it appeared that both ways were valid for driving to their respective “car parks” near the Neda Waterfalls Trailhead.
We go into more detail about the driving route and road conditions for both of these approaches in the directions section.
For the record, as of our early April 2024 visit, we’ve been able to drive to the trailhead from the Figaleia side though we did briefly investigate both ends of the access road from the Platania side.
The actual trailhead itself was just to the north of the Neda River above that end of the Stone Bridge of Platania.
From there, it was roughly a 1.6km round-trip hike according to my GPS logs.
Since we did this hike from the Figaleia side, we’ll describe the trail from its nearest trailhead parking, which added an additional 600m round-trip of walking on an unpaved road.
The hiking difficulty rating and distance/time commitment summaries are reflective of our experience doing this excursion in this manner.
However, if you’re coming from the Platania side, you’re pretty much just right across the Bridge of Platania from the trailhead, which saves you from hiking that additional 300m distance (or 600m round-trip).
Trail Description – The First Neda Waterfall
From the trailhead, we pretty much just followed the signs as the trail ascended from a bench area (with some trash bins and lots of litter) onto a ledged path.
Coming from the Platania side, once you cross the Stone Bridge of Platania, you have a choice of going left up a couple of small switchbacks to join up with the ledged path, or you can go up the road to the right towards the aforementioned trailhead.
Once on the ledged trail, we pretty much just followed its path as it ascended then undulated above the path of the Neda River (walking in a downstream direction) for the next 600m.
Along the way, we could hear the Neda River rushing below us while its sounds reverberated against the tall mountains and cliffs surrounding us within the Neda Gorge.
We noticed that there were ropes set up to help mentally with staying on the ledge trail and not falling into the dropoffs.
However, it appeared that there used to be sturdier wooden railings before they eventually fell into the dropoffs (which you might notice their remnants as we did).
Anyways, after rounding a bend towards the end of this initial 600m stretch, we finally got to see the lower drop of the Neda Waterfalls fronted by a footbridge.
From up at this bend, we could also see parts of the lower cascades spilling into the Neda River, but without a drone, it’s probably best to not try to scramble off-trail to improve the position to take a better photo of them.
Personally I was glad that the waterfalls came from a side tributary and not on the Neda River itself because I could clearly see how rugged the Neda Gorge was as well as how sketchy it would be to descend a waterfall here to get to its bottom.
Anyways, descending from this bend, the trail goes over a potentially slippery slab of rock (marble?) that has been worn smooth through weathering and trail use.
It goes without saying that you’ll want good footwear and good decision making on where to place your steps to minimize the chances of an injury here.
I definitely wouldn’t recommend doing this hike in wet weather because if it’s already this slippery in dry weather, just imagine how much more dangerous this place would be when the rock slabs are wet!
From the footbridge, you have another chance at admiring the gushing lower tier of the Neda Waterfalls and the downstream cascades looking in the other direction.
However, there’s still more to go in order to get the full experience…
Trail Description – The Second Neda Waterfall
Beyond the footbridge, the trail ascends towards a signed junction where the path on the left goes towards a church and a cave tunnel, while the path on the right continues to the big waterfall.
Unfortunately, during our April 2024 visit, authorities had set up a police-tape barricade closing off the church and cave-tunnel branch so we can’t say anything more about what was there.
Thus, we continued to the right as the trail continued its steep stepped ascent before we found ourselves clinging onto more sloping and slippery rock slabs skirting by the brink of the Lower Neda Falls.
There were more ropes set up to help us from slipping and sliding on the smooth rock slabs, but there was one bench that seemed to be more in the way of the tight trail than it was a help.
In any case, after getting past the slippery rock slab obstacles, we then arrived at the Big Neda Falls and its attractively clear plunge pool.
While the plunge pool looked inviting during our early April 2024 visit, the water was actually quite cold.
And even though we were the only people at this waterfall during our visit, I’m aware that this place does get quite busy come May and beyond in the Summer.
There really isn’t that much real-estate around the Big Neda Waterfall, so I can easily imagine how crowded this place can get in busier times.
Anyways, once we had our fill of this place, we carefully made our way back to the trailhead to conclude our pleasant outing.
Overall, we spent a little over 90 minutes away from the car to cover the roughly 2.2km distance according to my GPS logs.
Authorities
The Neda Waterfalls reside near the villages of Figaleia and Platania near the border of the Ilia and Messinia Prefectures of the Western Greece and Peloponnese Administrative Regions of Greece, respectively. Although the Neda Gorge has been declared a protected landscape by Greece’s Environment Ministry, it’s still not clear if there’s an official governing body locally that presides over these waterfalls. Nevertheless, it seems like local landowners and town officials from both Figaleia and Platania have been responsible for signs and road/trail infrastructure. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Greece National Tourism Organization website.
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