Travel in mainland and Pelopennese by public transport

In Greece, the train network is poorly developed. I think you've noticed this if the map you saw is like this one:

https://railsmaps.com/greece

Coming from Bulgaria, you can go to Thessaloniki and take the Thessaloniki-Athens train line.

Afterwards, you'll have to rely on buses. There isn't a single, uniform bus network; the various bus networks are entities called "KTEL something..." that are independent and divided by region. Therefore, you'll need to check the schedules of each KTEL network and see where they share a common bus station (it's no walk in the park!).

Just for the Peloponnese region, if I'm not mistaken, there are 7 different KTEL networks: Korinthias, Argolidas, Arkadias, Lakonias, Messinias, Ileias, and Achaias. To top it all off, there is no way to view a general map of all the KTEL entities and their routes.

Below is a website listing all the KTEL companies along with their individual websites:

https://ktelbus.com/en/category/ktel/

However, since you have two months, I think you'll be able to manage it step by step. In less touristic regions, bus schedules are pretty much identical year-round, the locals always have the same transportation needs no matter the month.

Also keep in mind that, apart from a few locations situated "in town," the vast majority of sites, museums, castles, monasteries, and other places of interest are not accessible by public bus. A map showing some of these locations in the Peloponnese:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1kFRC74X_9PHcQ_3FNY62F_tURD34mLs&usp=sharing

Just a quick spelling note: it’s Peloponnese, not Pelopennese :-)

Thank you for your detailed reply and links, very useful.

I wonder if I could get AI to read all those KTEL sites and create a unified route map, maybe I'll try that later.

haha... good luck with that .... also, be aware that bus schedules will vary greatly from Early Sept (tail-end of high season) and later on. Usually by Mid sept, they are cut back sharply., (same in Spring thru mid-May) I've found sometimes a route will have ONE bus into the main town at around 8 am, and return around 3 pm -- its for the school kids... and working people. (there may be another outbound at 5 - 6 pm. Period. Mid-day service very sparse. That said, when you have a lot of time, you can work it out.

I have no idea what AI can do for planning to use public transport.

From many trips to the Peloponnese using the bus can be challenging unless you plan well in advance and even then the schedules may not be convenient or practical or involves transferring from one location to get to another location.

Not saying it can't be done so lots of planning will be needed and deciding on where you want to go.

The buses may take you to towns or some villages but for many archeological/historic sites they will be limited at best and for those out of the way and more interesting areas, towns/villages they may be nonexistent.

Forget about relying on AI, it won't be of any use for the kind of trip you're planning. Inevitably, you'll forget to specify crucial details in your prompts, and as the saying goes: the devil is in the details.

It's not just a matter of figuring out how to get from point A to point B. You have to tell the AI the time of year (and ask about the associated weather), the opening hours of the places you want to visit (many of which close as early as 3:00 PM in the off-season), the exact day of the week you'll be traveling, ask for potential holidays, and so on.

If you don't know more than that before consulting the AI, you're going to end up stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Use the only real intelligence that matters, your own. And stick to travel guidebooks and actual maps.

Well what a hornet's nest. Note I never said anything about using AI to plan the trip, I said "to create a unified route map".

And its done a splendid job, I now have a route map of all the buses, and where they connect to and from all over the area.
I can click on a route or a hub and see the timetables and route information etc. etc.
I used another AI to review and cross reference what the first had done, along with myself picking several pieces of information to spot check and confirm.
Everything is accurate, just need to re-visit it in several weeks once all the winter schedules are out as currently much of the data is summer's.

The but route map its drawn for me is really useful.

I admit to being a doubting Thomas and more than skeptical about the actual existence of this "route map", and about which AI could have made it so interactive. I’d really like to see it. :-)

I'm also interested! Can you give us a link? I could compare it with my learn-as-I-go forays into West & South Pelops on several trips without car. Please share!

I'd also would like to see how this works.

Knowing a little about the Greek bus service it seems doubtful AI could do something like this but since I'm not a fan of AI I'd be interested in what you come up with.

I tried asking the AI (Gemini in extended mode, that's all I'm allowed to use) for the KTEL bus routes in the Peloponnese.

Since it only gave me a few main tourist routes, I pointed out that a lot were missing. It apologized, saying that KTEL routes are too complicated to handle and that there are hundreds of secondary routes.

I pushed further, and it ended up giving me a few more routes (often citing Rome2rio as its source), which isn't even 20% of what it admits actually exists.

I didn't want to bother the AI any longer; it seemed totally exhausted. :-)

That "Rome2trio" website is sketchy at best and offer routes/directions that may not be accurate or non-existent.

AI uses info gathered from the internet and condenses it for responses.

I would rely more on humans like the ones on this website for help and advice especially some of those who have long time experience in going to Greece.