Greetings,
Visited the Greek Isles previously returning to tour Mainland: Athens, Metoria, Delphi, Nafplio possibly more of Peloponnese in May 2022. This will be second leg of our trip arriving from Istanbul. We will have 9 days.
We will rent a car from Athens to set out to explore. I am searching for some traveling advice of how long to stay if at all(just passing through) in each destination and even if city are worth the effort to visit like Olympia. While it is the AMAZING history of Greece that makes us come back. It is VERY HARD for me to use imagination when looking at ruins for many sites in Europe or Italy for that matter. I question the time spent driving though winding mountain switchback roads to get there and back or the expense to stay overnight, worth 2 hours overlooking ruins, I can not figure out. I have a very poor imagination when it comes to looking at ruins and what it once was (even with a tour guide). I am looking for advice for those that traveled this road before me. While we will hire independent tour guides on historical sites. We do not do 'guided bus tours' , we like to explore at our own leisure by driving ourselves.
Plan:
Arrive in Athens from Istanbul 4PM (no jetlag)
3 Nights Athens Rent a car on 3rd night (to leave 7AM on 4th day)
1 Night) Drive Meteora (arrive 12PM Do a scheduled monastery tour that day and watch evening sunset Overnight ( Kalampaka )
1 Night) Finish Monestaries or go on hike or leave early to Drive to Delphi Overnight Delphi area??
1 Night) See Delphi sites/museum, Drive to Olympia overnight Olympia ??? IS worth all the mountain driving ? Not Olympic fans??
2 Night) Do Olympic track Drive to Nafplio Sites possibly day trip to Monemvsia
1 Night) Drive Athens Next day AM Flight out
I personally am not a fan of switchback mountain road driving. While it is a necessity to see some of must do sites i want to be sure it is worth the time and effort in our limited time in Greece..
Questions:
1) Is Olympia worth the 4 hour 1 way visit? besides the 10 min run on the track is there anything else there? I am not a Olympic fan.
2) I want to go to Delphi but can i do this by just passing thought for a 3-5hours? and not staying overnight? (going straight to Nafplio from Meteora)
3) 2 nights in Nafplio enough? could easily add 2 more nights if I skip Olympia and do not overnight in Delphi
4) Would love to see Monemvasia Island in southern Peloponnese Is that a day trip form Nafpilo? Winding switchback roads?
Insight to my driving itinerary would be most helpful.
Thanks So Much!