Peloponnese tour from Athens itinerary question

Posted by chosty34 on 06/19/25 06:07 PM

Hello everyone,

My Fiancé and I are doing a primarily Athens trip in October but were thinking about a quick day and a half in the Peloponnese and wanted to see if it was feasible/what to change. We'll land in Athens early Sunday morning and leave Saturday. We were thinking of renting a car Wednesday as early as possible (08:30) driving to Nafplio and staying the night and then driving back to Athens Thursday evening. We'd love to hit some sights along the way like the corinth canal, acrocorinth, do a winery at Nemea, hit ancient mycenae, and epidaurus theatre, but we'd also like some time to appreciate Nafplio. Would it be feasible to leave Athens at 08:30, hit the canal and acrocorinth in the morning, Nemea for lunch, then Nafplio, and on the return to Athens hit epidaurus and Mycenae? We'd be most willing to cut the canal and acrocorinth if time is tight. This should still leave us Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday night, and Friday in Athens which should be plenty of time I'd think. Appreciate the help!

Posted by JoLui

France Southwest

06/19/25 07:17 PM

3079 posts

It's indeed very tight even if you're rushing, but it's technically doable. However, to me, it feels more like consumerism than real sightseeing.

You should take a day off in Athens and stay two nights in Nafplio. This would allow you to calm down a bit and, as you say, have "some time to appreciate Nafplio." . And with 4 nights in Athens instead of 5 you will still have plenty of time to visit the city

Note that starting around October 15th, the archaeological sites close earlier.

Posted by tommyk5

NH (USA)

06/20/25 01:59 PM

1320 posts

I agree with JoLui:

You'll be rushing around trying to see all you posted and that's not really going to be feasible.

Stay a extra night in Nafplio and you'll find it more enjoyable and relaxing.

It's a lovely town and a great base to explore most of what you want to see and you'll still have enough days for Athens.

Posted by nashx2

06/20/25 06:00 PM

6 posts

I'm going to pile on and vote for more time in Nafplio.

First, in Athens, the main sites are clustered close together really, and you can do multiple things in a day. You could do all the main sites easily in 2 days--and honestly, as more and more people start traveling in shoulder season, you're going to want to move into less crowded sites more quickly.

If you are really into history and archeological sites, then I think you would want to do Ancient Corinth/Acrocorinth, they are very dense sites, and are close to the highway (well, one is up on the mountain, but you can literally see it from the highway). There's way more there than you might expect--and these cities/sites are always further apart, time-wise, than you might think by car.

You can do Mycenae and Epidaurus in the same day easily--but the atmosphere and pace of life in Nafplio is really nice--you will want to just hang out, there's great stuff to see. There are some very nice boutique hotels in the harbor area, so it's possible to just park in nearby free parking--with everything walkable from your hotel.