Rio, Greece in the context of "Rion Strait"

The Gulf of Patras (Greek: Πατραϊκός Κόλπος, Patraikós Kólpos) is a branch of the Ionian Sea in Western Greece. On the east, it is closed by the Strait of Rion between capes Rio and Antirrio, near the Rio-Antirrio bridge, that is the entrance of the Gulf of Corinth. On the west, it is bounded by a line from Oxeia island to Cape Araxos. To the north it is bounded by the shore of Aetolia-Acarnania in continental Greece, and to the south by Achaea in the Peloponnese peninsula. It is 40–50 km (25–31 mi) long, 10–20 km (6–12 mi) wide, and has an area of 350–400 km.

The port city of Patras lies to the southeast and is the only major port on the gulf. It serves ferries to Ancona and Brindisi in Italy and to Cephalonia. On the northern shore Missolonghi, also has a port. The old ports of Rio and Antirrio lie at the east end of the Gulf; there is a ferry service between them which complements the traffic over the Rio-Antirio bridge. The gulf is rich in fish and molluscs, including sea snails and clams.

Antirrio (Greek: Αντίρριο, pronounced [aˈndirio], Latin: Antirrhium) is a town and a former municipality in Aetolia-Acarnania, West Greece, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Nafpaktia, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 50.794 km.

It is situated on the north side of the narrow (2.4 km) Strait of Rio, which separates the Gulf of Patras in the west from the Gulf of Corinth in the east. Since August 2004 the Rio–Antirrio bridge connects northwestern Greece with the Peloponnese. The name Antirrio means "opposite Rio".

The Rio–Antirrio Bridge (Greek: Γέφυρα Ρίου–Αντιρρίου), officially the Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge, is one of the world's longest multi-span cable-stayed bridges and longest of the fully suspended type. It crosses the Rion Strait between the Gulf of Corinth and Gulf of Patras, linking the town of Rio on the Peloponnese peninsula to Antirrio on mainland Greece by road. It opened one day before the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, on 12 August 2004, and was used to transport the Olympic flame.

Kastellokampos (Greek: Καστελλόκαμπος, meaning "plain with a castle") is a neighbourhood of the city of Patras, Achaea, Greece. It has been part of the municipality of Patras since 1879. It is situated on the Gulf of Patras coast, 6 km north of the city centre of Patras and 1.5 km southwest of Rio. The population is between 2,000 and 3,000. The river Charadros flows into the sea in Kastellokampos. The A5 motorway passes east of the neighbourhood. Kastellokampos has a station on the Piraeus–Patras railway, served by Proastiakos suburban rail.

Greek National Road 8a (Greek: Εθνική Οδός 8a, abbreviated as EO8a) was a toll road in the Attica, Peloponnese and West Greece regions. It connected Athens with the cities of Corinth and Patras. It was built in the 1960s as a replacement for the old National Road 8 as the major route to the Peloponnese, and bypasses most towns. The National Road 8a has gradually been upgraded to a motorway, the A8. Since April 2017, the complete length of the A8 motorway has been operational.

The EO8a started east of Eleusis, where it branched off the old EO8 as a limited-access dual carriageway. Between Megara and Kineta the motorway passed through several tunnels. Its western end was the interchange with the A5 Ionia Odos, near Rio, northeast of Patras.

The A5 motorway, also known as the Ionia Odos (Greek: Ιόνια Οδός), is a controlled-access highway in western Greece, which starts at Ioannina and it follows the western coastline of mainland Greece down to the Gulf of Corinth. At Rio, it crosses the gulf via the Rio–Antirrio bridge and is connected with the A8 at an interchange near Patras. The Patras - Pyrgos section of the motorway is now considered part of the A8 motorway and will eventually extend to Tsakona near Kalamata. Another extension north to Kakavia at the border with Albania, is in the planning stage.

In August 2017, the last section under construction (Perdika-Ioannina) was completed and delivered to traffic by the Greek Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Network, making Ionia Odos a fully operational motorway. It is the second major north–south road connection after the A1 motorway and is also part of the trans-balkanic Adriatic–Ionian motorway and the European routes E55 and E951.