Advice needed on renting car in Athens to go to Delphi and Meteora over two days

Have you ever driven in Greece?

Leaving the Piraeus cruise port around 9 a.m., it will take at least three hours to drive to Delphi (for someone accustomed to driving in the Athens area), as you'll have to pass through the entire Athens suburbs during rush hour.

Also, allow at least three hours to get from Delphi to Meteora for a driver who knows the route.

For the return trip, if you drop off the car where you picked it up, i.e., in Piraeus, you'll be outside Athens anyway.

If you feel up to it, try it, but in my opinion, you're being a bit presumptuous and you'll spend more time traveling by car, with guaranteed stress, than sightseeing.

What I find funny is that you do all this frantic rush to end up in monasteries where the opposite philosophy prevails. An interesting contrast between two worlds. :)

I have to agree that would be too much for me--are you interested in alternatives?
If you are willing to save Delphi and Meteora for a future trip, you could drive just a bit over two hours to Stemnitsa, a popular weekend getaway for Athenians. It's a beautiful area with one evocative monastery in a wooded stream-side setting rather than several dramatic rock-topping ones, but much more manageable to cap off a trip.
How early is your flight? Is anything adjustable?

It would be a lot!! But, Meteora is amazing. So, if you skip Delphi, you might be able to drive directly to Meteora, have a look around that afternoon plus the next morning and then head back to Piraeus. It is easy to rent and return a car there. It has been some years ago but we stayed at Doupiani House in Kastraki which seems to still be getting good reviews. Good luck!

Thank you all for the advice. I should have been more specific the cruise arrives early on a Saturday. We have Sat and Sunday night our flight leaves at 6pm on Monday. We have been to Athens before and have two days at the beginning of the trip prior to the cruise. We have several friends that have been to Meteora and rave about it. We thought we’d go to Delphi then plan on getting to Meteora late Saturday. Do monasteries on Sunday then after drive to someplace between there and Athens to spend Sunday evening in a small town - any suggestions?

Have you looked at the driving times and distances involved? I have been to both Delphi and Meteora, so I understand why your friends rave about them. That doesn’t mean however that you can pull this off in just 2 days.
If you take into account the time needed to disembark, find the car rental, wait in line, complete the formalities and the driving time to Delphi, you won’t arrive in Delphi before 1 PM . You then need to calculate at the very least 3 hours to have lunch and visit Delphi. That means you won’t be able to leave on your 3 hour drive to Meteora before 4 PM. That is very rushed and a lot of driving. The next day is pretty much the same. Is that what you really want?

Since you're picking up a rental car in Piraeus, you'll have to return it either in Athens or Piraeus, which will limit your chances of spending Sunday night in a "small town" outside of these locations to almost zero, especially since you'll have to leave for the airport on Monday.

And above all, I don't see the point of spending a night in a "small town."

So if you can ever get to Meteora and back, you'll return the car in Athens or Piraeus and spend Sunday night in Athens.

Or better, you can spend one more night in Meteora and return the car to the airport on Monday before taking your flight.

I think JoLui's suggestion of two nights in Meteora is the most reasonable plan if you want to see both Delphi and Meteora. We spent one night in Delphi and two in Meteora. We saw all but one monastery in a day and a half. It is a long drive back to Athens--quicker on the toll road which we used. I recall it was about five hours.

One night in Meteora will give you only part of one day to see the monasteries if you go to Delphi first. As others have said, you won't get to Meteora until evening which make for an very long day. It will be too late to see any of the monasteries.

Thank you all! We are thinking of getting car at airport and returning there as a bit cheaper. Drive to Meteora stay 2 nights and drive back to airport drop off car and get on 6pm flight. If we don’t get lost and time is good we’ll head to Delphi first if not just go to Meteora directly. We enjoy driving and hiking so excited for this part of the trip. Any other thought of hotels?

Glad you have a 6pm flight, that makes a huge difference, enjoy!

Sounds like you've made up your mind to include Delphi, no matter how long it takes.

Back in 2023, we rented a car from Sixt in Downtown Athens and drove to Meteora. My notes show it took us 5 hours, which included a lunch stop, and visiting the monument to the Battle of Thermopylae along the way.

If you add Delphi to the trip, the road to Delphi is windy and slow as it climbs up the mountain and over it and it took about 3 hours from Athens. you need at least 2-3 hours to barely see the site and museum, (unless you are a check list type person and being there just to say you were there is your goal). Then you go back the windy, hilly road to the highway to get to Meteora, which is another 3 1/2 hours. so you are now at 8-9 hours. so once you get to your Kalambaka or Kastriki hotel, you won't get any sightseeing in on that travel day as you will be exhausted and the monasteries will be closed until the next day.

So, I'm glad you decided to spend two nights in Meteora.

Even though we had a car, once we parked at our hotel, the Divani Meteora, we used the services of Visit Meteora tours

https://visitmeteora.travel

to drive us around and give us information. Their van would drop us off at the entrance of the selected monasteries, which we then usually had to hike up to the entrance, while the bus dealt with the parking issues. The roads are windy, and I was happy not to drive in Meteora, so I could enjoy the view.

we took two tours with this company. They picked us up and dropped us off at/ from the hotel. The first was the Half day morning tour (9 to 1 pm) and the second was the Sunset tour starting at 3 pm to after sunset. We recommend both tours and you can do both in one day. They do not overlap monasteries. So we got back to the hotel after 6 pm and walked to a dinner place in town.

Then we spent the night at the hotel and drove to the Athens airport the next day, which was about a 5 hour trip to the airport.

Thank you Derek. We are planning on taking tours the next day so the website is very helpful! I hope you enjoyed your trip as we hope to enjoy ours.

In Kastraki, I love this place: https https://www.roomreserve.online/gr/guesthouse-plakias-the-stone-forest-holy-spirit-kalambaka/?dominio=boutiqueplakiasguesthouse.gr . You can also book via booking.com. I have stayed twice.

As much as I love Meteora and Kastraki, I might have suggested staying Saturday night in Delphi and Sunday night in Meteora, with a return to the Athens airport on Monday morning. But 2 nights near Meteora works, as long as you are willing to skip Delphi if circumstances demand. What you DON’T want to be doing is driving those mountain roads in the dark.