Greece Itinerary Help

There is a very pleasant town beach in Nafplio with a beach bar/restaurant and chairs you can rent. There are bathrooms and changing rooms too. It is a rocky beach so best with water shoes.

I don’t think I would describe it as a big beach scene in the sense of a party place though.

We did the trip the trip spent some time in Athens than went over to Nafplio. We rented a car and glad we did. Nafplio is a very nice town with beaches and historic sites. Having the care made it easy to drive to a beach or to one of the historic sites. There are great ruins you wouldn't want to miss. I know some don't like to drive but I like the convince of having the freedom to go where I want or to just pull over to a beach I pass. Always keep swim suits in the car and find a place to change.

The intercity (KTEL) bus from Athens to Nafplio is pleasant, modern vehicles, reliable, and used by the full spectrum of society. Seats are reserved, upholstered & comfy, with footrests. A/C is good and the view is great. (Request seats on LH side outbound, for best view of Saronic Bay enroute). I've both driven & taken the bus to Nafplio & can recommend it Often people take the bus to/from Athens, but may rent a car in Nafplio for a day to visit some sights in the area; your hotelier can easily arrange it.

From the airport to the Kifissou Ave KTEL Terminal, there's an express bus X93 right outside the building, you buy ticket at a kiosk, Cost €6. It takes about 60-65 minutes. Alternatively you can taxi about 40-45 minutes, €50? The Nafplio express busses go hourly on the half-hour, takes 2.5 hours. When you enter station, Nafplio tickets are NOT sold in regular ticket room, but in a small room right beside the bus, which is stationed directly at the Terminal exit door; ask anybody.

This superb NONcommercial website http://www.visitnafplio.com has info on all the highlights of Nafplio, including beaches, walks, food, hotels... but the best part of all is just relaxing in the wonderful seafront cafes at sunset... it restoreth the soul.

I do love the town beach... you can walk at sealevel around the peninsula point to get there, great photo ops. Beach itself is stony, but a platform on one side has cafe & sunchairs & you can enter the water from there. Local busses hourly also go 15 minutes to nearby sandy TOLO beach, which will be crowded to the MAX in late july. However, here's a secret: have the Tolo Bus let you off at the ASINE crossroads, and walk about 200 yards down a small shady road to the ruin of ASINE, and a tiny cove beach (sometimes called Kastraki). You can see the Tolo crowds from there but this is pretty much a secret. There's ONE taverna overlooking it & you can change into swimwear in its WC. And afterwards, it's great for a sunset dinner on its canopied terrace. Don't tell anyone.

Naphlio is certainly one of the top two prettiest cities in Greece. It is a weekend get away for Athenians and is a good choice for your 4 days. The old town and waterfront area is great to wander around and be sure to find the main central square. Local families gather in the square in the evening to chat and visit while the kids are busy playing. Its a special place.
Naphlio also is perfect for a day trip to see some of the nearby ancient sites.
Here is what you can expect.
Nafplio and Peloponnese http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/sets/72157632094108982/

Athens deserves all your time. There is so much to do, see and experience that it is far more practical and less stressful just to stay there and enjoy the city. Depending on how long you have, you might not make it as far as Crete since the mainland is so packed with magnificent places to visit for someone with an interest in history (like everywhere else in the world Athens Taxi Transfers is the easiest way). I agree that renting a car in Greece is a bit more expensive compared to some other eu countrys, but on the other hand you dont normaly have a crazy excess amount on the CDW and cars tend to be rather new and in good condition generaly in my experience, but one should ofcourse choose the provider wiesly.

We spent 4 days in Nafplio in September after island hopping. The hotel advised us that the Nafplio beach(tiny) was having some sort of stinging thing in the water (never quite understood what) and to go to Tolo. You can take an easy bus from the station but we took a quick taxi that the hotel arranged for 10 euros. The water was warm and the beach long. We stayed on the quieter end and got nice chaises and umbrellas for 10 euros as I remember. There is some erosion on the other end where there are some hotels. It was a locals' beach. Wider than the islands' we visited but not as beautiful (tough competion though). It was a nice day. I like Janet's secret beach idea in season for you. After Nafplio we returned to Athens via the bus. We bought our tickets at the station a few days in advance. It was a fine bus, a bit long ride, and you get off at the last stop. Then a 20 euro taxi to Athens. We also went to Mykonos, Naxos, Paros and Hydra first and had a fantastic time. Nafplio has a nice ambiance and is very pretty and the day at the ruins was good but for us we had too much time there and missed the islands. This was in September though so maybe the islands would have been more packed. We flew from Milan on Easy Jet straight to Mykonos and after the islands took the ferry (nice ride) to Athens.

I took the bus from Nafplio to Athens and it was a somewhat long but comfortable trip. You can get off at the next-to-last stop (shortly before the bus station) where there's a connection to the Metro into the city center. That's what I and a lot of other people did.

If there's a late afternoon bus, I would consider returning to Athens on the fourth day so that you'll have 2 full days to explore Athens.