Steve255

Thinking of doing this in September… 2 possibly 3 couples , mid 50ies

Day 1: Fly to Athens from US, check into hotel for 2 nights

Day 2: Tour the Acropolis, easy day; adjust to time change

Day 3-7 : Sailboat charter out of Athens

Day 7-9: Return Athens pick up rental car and drive to Nafplion , Stop and tour ancient Corinth ,the ruins of Akrocornith, then ancient Mycenae on the way:

Stay in Nafplion 2 nights

Day 8: Visit Epidaurus ,then tour Palamidi Castel relax in Nafplion the rest of the day

Day 9: Drive to the site of the ancient Olympics ,then on to Delphi, over- night in Delphi

Day 10: AM tour of Delphi (before the crowds) ,then drive back to Athens via Thermopylae & Marathon; dinner and overnight in Athens

Day 11-15 Fly to Santorini 3 or 4 nights ??

Day 15-17 Fly Athens , two days to tour Athens , museums, etc.

Day 18 Fly Home

We have been to Europe a few times, like to make my own arrangements. Could take a tour bus of "Classical Greece" , or rent a car… Thoughts? Thanks

DebitNM

Don't split your days in Athens into a couple at beginning and a couple at end. You lose time in transit so to make the most of time IN Athens, do all days at either the beginning or end.

If you have an morning flight out of Athens, it is pretty easy to get to airport by train or taxi in time for flight. Or you could spend last night at Sofitel right at airport if you are concerned about making flight.

DebitNM

Oh, I am sure others will disagree, but we thought 3 night on Santorini was perfect. We took a 5:15 am flight to Santorini and that gave us a full first day.

mariha2912

Different people travel differently, but an advice that works for many is that fighting jet lag in an island is easier than trying to fight it while sightseen in a metropolitan city. Saving backtracking/splitting visit into a place many times in a trip might be considered waste of time by many too. So you could consider taking a flight straight away to Santorini upon arrival to Athens airport. This way you can recover from long flight relaxing and enjoying Santorini, then be ready for your mainland adventure. You avoid backtracking into Athens all the time and you may enjoy it for days in a row latter in your trip. As far as your flight homme weill depart from Athens airport, you may as well save Athens for the tale end of the trip. What about this sailboard charter? Specifics please. : )

Driving plan on mainland seems about fine at first but
I find days 9&10 far too ambitious.

Day 9 - Nafplio>Olympia ~4 hours driving, visit to Olympia I guess at least a couple of hours, driving Olympia>Delphi ~4.5 to 5 hours driving . Very long day.

Day 10 Delphi sites+museums I guess need about 3 hours for a decent visit (Do note it is a demanding site this one, ruins spread all over a hill side-lots of hiking required). Then Delphi>Thermopylae ~ 2hours, important spot on Greek history but not much to see there, a plaque commemorating the tomb of Spartians, a modern-made Statue of Leonidas and that's it, Thermopylae>Marathon ~2.5-3 hours driving . Nice spread out resort area, some ancient sites to be seen in the vinicity . Depending on traffic from Marathon it's ~1.5+ hours driving to Athens city center or 30 minutes driving to Athens airport.

In case you do not like driving in the dark note that on start of September sun will rise ~6.45 AM and will set ~8PM, towards the end of the month sur rise is ~7.30AM and sun set ~7PM.

neckervd

Day 9: don't skip Mistras (close to Sparta) and may be Bassae on your way to Olympia, but plan 1 day more for this trip.
Visit Ossios Loukas monastery on your way back from Delphi.

chris45ny

I think your day 7 where you are returning from your sailboat charter to Athens is a bit busy. You will spend time at the car rental place doing paperwork, etc. Then it's around a 3 hr. drive to Nafplio from there. We had 3 nights and spent our arrival day just wandering around the town the first day. You could stop on the way there to view the Corinth Canal. If you're lucky boats will be coming down the canal. I enjoyed seeing that.

Our first full day in Nafplio we did Epidauros. It is not far from Nafplio. Then we spent time at Tolo Beach. There are sun beds for rent, pedal boats. Then we took a boat to Bourtzi and also visited Palamidi.
The next full day we drove to Mycenae, ancient Corinth, and the Corinth Canal where we got lucky and watched several boats coming through. There's also Agios Spiridon Church in Nafplio where the first governor of independent Greece was assassinated in 1831.

Your day 9. Pretty ambitious. We drove there, visited the site but stayed overnight. The next day we drove to Delphi. The Rio Bridge is spectacular. We lost time in that we could see the bridge but couldn't seem to find the access road to get on it. Finally some Greek motorcycle cops gave us directions. We had no GPS and this was our 1st time in Greece so some drives took longer. We had 2 nights in Delphi and toured the site the next day-our only full day there. Archova is a small town close by. I don't know if you can do all you have planned on day 9.

We also stopped at Thermopyle on our return to Athens from Meteora.

We had 3 nights in Santorini with a rental car and that was enough for us. IMO to do justice to this place you should have a minimum of 3 nights.'

Would love to know more about your sailboat charter. What is the planned route? Just sailing or stops anywhere? Sounds very nice.

Can you do the charter at the end of your trip and then have all your days left for Athens?

This is just me but I would do:
Arrive Athens. Immediately fly to Santorini for 3 nights. Fly back to Athens, get rental car and drive to Nafplio for 2 or 3 nights. Olympia overnight. Delphi overnight. Drive back with brief stops you have mentioned. Return rental car. Then I'd do the sailboat charter and the Athens sightseeing.

However you need to do what you feel is best for you and the others. This is just what I would do and I'm sure you will get lots of advice from folks here.

Your trip sounds like fun. Have a great time!

Sojourntraveller

Seems very 'busy' to me. I certainly would not split the time in Athens, do it all together.

I would do the sailing first, then the island, then the mainland and end in Athens. That's more logical I'd say.

Note that day 1 flying from the USA means you arrive on day 2 in Athens. It's an overnight flight. So make sure you have counted correctly. Did you mean depart Day 0 and arrive Athens Day 1? ;-)

stanbr

On our trip this May we had a transatlantic flight that arrived in Athens at 11 am which gave us a few hours of adrenalin and coffee before jet lag struck. We decided to rent a car and head directly to Nafplio. Because it is on the water it is equivalent to an island for ambiance and a great place to get over jet lag.
As your energy returns you can do day trips from Nafplio including Ancient Corinth the canal Acrocorinth and Ancient Nemia. I added Ancient Nemia for a purpose. Driving in Greece takes much longer than one can anticipate, roads can be winding, there are ancient sites everywhere that you will just have to stop at even for a few minutes. One day we planned to travel 200 kilometers but ended up averaging 23 kilometers per hour. So I am going to suggest you skip Olympia and add Nemia. Both had Games and Nemia still has its stadium a partially restored temple and a good museum and no tour buses and their hoards of people. I believe dropping the long drive to Olympia will make your journey more enjoyable.
Of course while in Nafplio you can also visit Ancient Tyirns, Ephadarus and on a long day trip Mystras at Sparti is a wonderful site to visit.
Here are images of the Nafplio area.
Nafplio and Peloponnese http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr5...7632094108982/
And images of the incredible sinking bridge at the Corinth Canal
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr...7645760986005/

Having said all that I also agree with the posters who advise to fly straight to Santorini for the three nights. If your flight gets in in the afternoon or early evening the Nafplio thought won't work but there are always later flights to Santorini in the evening.

When you get back to Athens then you can do the Nafplio plan.

In my opinion Delphi is one of the best archaeological sites we have visited. Combine that with Meteora and you will have an unforgettable trip.

Olympia Delfi Meteora https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr...7645469717811/

One last thought. A rental car is not likely to be able to hold 4 people and their luggage let alone 6 people. I think you will need to rent at least two cars or a mini van.
Have fun planning

HappyTrvlr

I would give Napflio another night. And another vote for a visit to Byzantine Mystras near Sparta.

travelerjan

I almost never disagree with Stanbr, he is my Idol, but you CAN get 4 people & their luggage into a rental car the size of Honda Accord or Hyundai Accent, with several caveats. IF -- you are not all huge people AND if you are sensible about luggage. This means sensible-size checked bags (20" vs 22" preferably) plus also sensible size carry-on "daybags" (shoulder totes/knapsacks). Put the 2 smaller passengers (wives?) in back seat. If one of the checked bags is soft-sided, you can wedge all 4 in the trunk, OR & put 1 bag between the backseat passengers, plus distribute the daybags around the car, 3 in backseat, 1 by feet of front seat passenger. It is only a drive of 2+ hours from airport on modern road to reach Nafplio and - if as both Stanbr & I advocate --you do daytrips from there, there will be no luggage in car.

joannyc

I would spend a full day in Meteora.

stanbr

Hey Jan I do know you can get 4 people and luggage in a small car. However as I read your post I had this crazy image of the the old TV program the beverlyhillbillys with Granny sitting in a rocking chair on the roof of the car packed with suitcases.

travelerjan

Well, if you think THAT was funny, just picture the FIVE of us driving from Milos airport in 2010 ... the agency showed up with a hatchback for us (not what we'd ordered), and we only had to get to Pollonia & dump the bags ... but the fifth suitcase took the entire footwell on the RH front seat... so I rode all the way with my feet up on the dashboard. Getting out, we looked like the circus Clown Car.

stanbr

So I rest my case.

Steve255

Thank you all for the great insight. I am rethinking my itinerary … and i plan on re-posting in a day or two
Thank you all so much!!

Dukey1

I've done the so-called "classical tour" out of Athens and it lasted about four days. Interestingly enough, nobody complained about it's being "too busy" and we were fortunate enough to have a group of only 14 people. All depends on how you want to travel. I think three days on Santorini is MORE than enough unless you adore jewelry shopping.

catalina91

People have already said a lot so I'll only comment one aspect. I lived in Athens for a summer and spent a week in Santorini and a week in Thessaloniki. Santorini we sailed to out of Athens which is what I'd recommend. Also you will NOT need a car in Santorini the island is tiny, you do however need to rent an ATV its the only really good way to get around the island and if you make friends with someone like we did, we only paid like 25 euro for 3-4 days of ATV rental which is a REALLY good price. We stayed in Pirisa which is hella cheap. If you stay in Oia which everyone wants to you're gonna pay big bucks. Other parts of the island are really expensive because they're huge tourist traps. We spent a week there just for fun and really just ATV'd around the island and had fun. BUT, you probably actually only want to spend like 2-3 days there, 4 max if you just want to relax for a few days.