Best itinerary for a round-trip by car between Delphi and Athens

Elgar

If you want a round trip I would come back via Nafpaktos and then across the Rio - Antirio bridge onto the top of the Peloponnese. Nafpaktos itself is a nice little town. You then come back across the Corinth Canal. If you have time I would recommend the two sites at Corinth: the Roman site at old Corinth and Acro Corinth, the ancient fortress which looms over the Roman site.

Before you get to Nafpaktos on the coast route you also pass Galaxidi. I'm not a great fan, to be honest, but a lot of people like it so you might like to stop and have a look.

If you want a more scenic route then you can go Delphi via Lidoriki and then down to Nafpaktos. This adds about an hour to what would be 90 minutes or so along the coast.

Alan

Hi Elgar, before the site was re-done I had a post on what I thought was a must see and "undiscovered" monastery on the way to Delphi. It is only 1.5 hours outside Athens on the way to Delphi. Its a Byzantine monastery called Hosio Loukas and if you google Hosio Loukas Greece there is a link with pictures of it. Our family actually enjoyed this place more than Delphi and the town a couple miles down the hill is a quaint place to stop for lunch. Just be aware you will probably need a GPS to find it because there were not signs pointing to it.

I found Delphi itself (the town) to be very touristy and not very interesting, The ancient site of course is very good, but if were to stay overnight, I would consider Arachova (well, we did stay there) which is a few miles before the ancient site on the way from Athens. We just found the town a little more laid back, good restaurants, cheaper hotels, and quieter. On the way back, I agree, head west and cross over at Rio, heading back to Athens, considering a stop at Corinth, maybe just a little while to see the canal, or maybe the ancient site.

Thanks so much, Alan, Jon and Paul, great advice. Most likely, we do not have enough time to travel over to the Peloponnes, but it would be great to be able to make stopovers at Galaxidi or Housios Loukas. Both places do sound great. We will let you know how it goes, Elgar