Few foreign visitors make the journey to Kalavryta, about 32 km southeast of Patra, but to the Greeks it is a place of pilgrimage  the small mountain town is likely to be filled with Greek visitors at any time of the year.

The monastery of Agia Lavra had to be built after Second World War. In a terrible act of reprisal, the occupying Nazi forces killed the entire male population of Kalavryta then burned down the town and the monastery was the rebellion had begun.

The journey to Kalavryta can be one of the most uplifting travel experiences in Greece. A rack-and-pinion railroad runs from the coastal town of Diakofto, on the Gulf of Corinth, and climbs slowly for 22.5 km along gorges, by cliff faces, through woods and fourteen tunnels, alongside rivers, and across bridges.