Peloponnese tips and advice please!

[Twoshoesnewshoes]

We’re planning to go to Athens for a few nights in late June 2023, then head out to the Peloponnesus.
I have no idea about the area, can anyone suggest a place to base ourselves? We will be with 2 adult DC, we like swimming, hiking, historic and cultural stuff, exploring, eating out.
we don’t like English pubs/ food, noisy night life, crowds, lots of brits, kids clubs, very built up areas.
ideally somewhere pretty near a not too popular beach, near a few restaurants and a couple of bars.
thank you!

Stoupa, lovely beach amazing restaurants. If you hire a car you can drive south and up through Sparta in a loop which is a stunning journey

It's a very big area so good to have a base to do trips out from. Around the very pretty town of Nafplio, about 2 hours from Athens on the east of the peninsular, could be good to visit sites like Mycenae and the Theatre at Epidaurus, and en route, the Corinth canal. There are lovely beaches and little towns all around and you could even hop over to the Saronic Islands, eg Poros. This is a useful guide generally www.greeka.com/peloponnese.

Go to the Mani. It’s amazing.

Thank you all, very helpful, I will look up these places

We really enjoyed staying at Pilos, which is more of a harbour town. Nearby is Gialova, which is a little
seaside town with lots of nice restaurants and a gorgeous lagoon

I don't think the area has been ruined by mass tourism yet! We've stayed at Finikounda and Chrani.

Thank you!
it’s a bigger area than I’d envisaged, hard to know where to base ourselves!