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.
The Neda Waterfalls sit in a mountainous region near the central western side of the Peloponnesian Peninsula straddling the Western Greece and Peloponnese Administrative Regions of Greece.
The nearest villages of Filageia and Platania are not really tourist-oriented though that’s changing due to the waterfall’s popularity.
Thus, the nearest towns or cities that we’ve stayed at involving our visit to these waterfalls are Pylos/Gialova to the south and Ancient Olympia/Pyrgos to the north.
Therefore, I’ll describe the driving directions from both perspectives as well as from Kalamata, which is the main town in the former Messinia Prefecture within the Peloponnese Administrative Region.
Moreover, since there are two approaches to the Neda Waterfalls (one from Figaleia Village and the other from Platania Village), I’ll also address them individually.
The Driving Route from Pylos to Platania or Figaleia
From Pylos, we drove about 4km towards a roundabout where the 3rd exit took us towards Gialova and eventually to Kiparissias Pilou on the Route 9 (the other exit goes towards Kalamata).
Then, we’d follow the coastal Route 9 north towards Kalo Nero via Filiatra and Kyparissia (roughly 60km from the roundabout).
Note that during our visit in early April 2024, the E09 road just south of Filiatra was closed and we had to detour on the Road 1715 through Marathopoli to regain the Route 9 at Filiatra.
At Kalo Nero, we then took the E55 Highway east.
Although in hindsight, it might have been easier to take the E55 towards Kopanaki before heading north to the Road 1729 via Kefalovrisi, we wound up exiting onto the Road 1729 and following its winding trajectory for nearly 23km.
Eventually, we encountered a sign accompanied by a sharp turnoff to our left for the Neda Waterfalls.
This was the entrance to the road leading down to the village of Platania and ultimately to the car park for the Neda Waterfalls in a steep and narrow road (with the sign indicating it was 3km down this way).
We can’t vouch for the condition of this road nor the parking situation in Platania (if you determine that you don’t want to take this road all the way down to the Neda River) since we didn’t do it.
However, we did see a passenger-looking vehicle parked in the “car park” south of the Stone Bridge of Platania, which suggested to me that the road can’t be that bad to make it down there.
Perhaps in the past, the last 700m of the road might have been in really rough shape (possibly 4wd only; at least according to what I saw in the topo map on Gaia GPS), but that might be old news.
All I know is that road conditions can and will change due to weathering and how much maintenance it gets from local authorities.
Anyways, we opted not to go down the Platania Route so we continued on the Road 1729 for a little over 6km towards Figaleia (also spelled Figalia or Phigaleia).
This road descended steeply towards the Neda River before rising steeply out of the canyon then entering the narrow lanes of Figaleia Village.
Eventually, when we got to a junction right across from a camping site in the village, we saw another sign pointing the way to the left towards the Neda Waterfalls.
Then, we continued to follow the signs towards the waterfalls as we went down a steep, switchbacking road for the final 3.3km that was paved or graded in some spots while unpaved with some rock protrusions in other spots.
As far as the road conditions were concerned, I felt that the last stretch of unpaved road to the Kalamaris Waterfalls might have been scarier than this one, but there were certainly some ruts and tire popping rock protrusions on this road as well.
We ultimately had to park in a large clearing at one of the bottommost switchbacks as the rest of the road abruptly became unsuitable for most vehicles at the trailhead just north of the Stone Bridge of Platania.
Overall, we spent over two hours doing this drive though it might have been closer to 90 minutes had we gone down the Platania approach.
The Driving Route from Ancient Olympia to Figaleia or Platania
Coming from Ancient Olympia (we had actually driven this route in the other direction), we would head south for 13km on a combination of local roads (namely the 1408 and 1406) before reaching the E09 road due south near Kallikomo.
If we had come from Pyrgos, then we’d just take Highway E09 southeast for about 18km to get to this point.
Continuing further south on the E09, we’d drive another 22km south towards the town of Tholo (or Tholon), where we’d then leave the E09 and head east on the Road 1410 towards Nea Figaleia and eventually to the village of Perivolia (roughly 34km from Tholo).
At that point we’d leave the Road 1410 and then continue on the Road 1413 south towards Figaleia, where we’d then encounter the signed turnoff for the Neda Waterfalls to go the final 3.3km distance.
Of course, we could have also continued driving through Figaleia towards the turnoff on the right for Platania in another 6km to go the remaining 3.6km distance down the Platania Road.
Overall, the stretch between Ancient Olympia and Figaleia took us a little under 2 hours.
The Driving Route from Kalamata to Platania or Figaleia
Finally, it’s also possible to take a non-coastal route leaving from Kalamata to the Neda Waterfalls.
This involved driving north on the E55 tollway for about 31km before continuing west on the E55 Highway for another 20km to the turnoff leaving the highway going into Kopanaki.
From there, we’d drive the remaining 18km or so to the sharp signed turnoff on the left for Platania for its 3km access road to the Neda River.
Or, we could continue driving another 6km to Figaleia to access its 3.3km road down to the Neda River.
According to GoogleMaps, this drive would take under 90 minutes (though that might be aggressive considering how slow going mountain driving in Greece can be).
For context, Kalo Nero is about 8km (under 15 minutes drive) north of Kyparissia, 14km (under 15 minutes drive) south of Tholo, 51km (under an hour drive) south of Ancient Olympia, 54km (under an hour drive) south of Pyrgos, 60km (about an hour drive) north of Pylos, 64km (under an hour drive) northwest of Kalamata, 148km (under 2 hours drive) west of Nafplio, 152km (over 2 hours drive) south of Patras, and 241km (about 3 hours drive) southwest of Athens.
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Context of the lower drop of the Neda Waterfall with some downstream perspective towards the Neda River and its steep canyon
Checking out the falls as I descended to the bridge over its stream
Downstream to upstream sweep of the big Neda Falls from within the stream
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