Athens pre cruise opinions

[EliseL]

Hi.  Looking for opinions.  We have three days in Athens before our cruise.  First day will be mainly sleeping from the overnight flight.

 

Second day we would like to do a tour outside of Athens and I've narrowed it down to three:

Full day to Delphi

Full day to Argolis(Mycenae-Epidaurus-Nafplion Tour)

Half day to Cornth.

 

For Athens itself we were thinking of either doing the hop on hop off bus or doing a walking tour.

 

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.  Just too much to do and so little time to do it.

Thanks!

[marazul]

1 hour ago, EliseL said:

Hi.  Looking for opinions.  We have three days in Athens before our cruise.  First day will be mainly sleeping from the overnight flight.

 

Second day we would like to do a tour outside of Athens and I've narrowed it down to three:

Full day to Delphi

Full day to Argolis(Mycenae-Epidaurus-Nafplion Tour)

Half day to Cornth.

 

For Athens itself we were thinking of either doing the hop on hop off bus or doing a walking tour.

 

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.  Just too much to do and so little time to do it.

Thanks!

The ho-ho bus is a bit of a waste in Athens.  You are really packing it in the rest of the time, so here is how to add more to it. On the day you arrive, take a walking tour of Plaka in the afternoon to keep you awake and get over jetlag. On the third day, get tickets to the Acropolis and visit it on your own first thing in the morning.  Then go to Corinth in the afternoon and make sure you add a short boat ride on the Canal to see the sinking bridges in action. 

[marazul]

16 hours ago, EliseL said:

Full day to Argolis(Mycenae-Epidaurus-Nafplion Tour)

Half day to Cornth.

You do realize that to get to Mycenae you have to drive through Corinth.  Consider going to Corinth, Mycenae and Epidaurus and skipping Nafplio.

 

Are you in Athens three full days (4 nights) or two full days (3 nights)? If it is two full days, you can save the early visit to the Acropolis for the morning you embark on your cruise.  You have plenty of time to go there and then return to the hotel to check out. Get your tickets as soon as you can to guarantee an early admission.  

[cruisemom42]

26 minutes ago, marazul said:

ou do realize that to get to Mycenae you have to drive through Corinth.  Consider going to Corinth, Mycenae and Epidaurus and skipping Nafplio.

 

Exactly what I was going to suggest!

 

I'm not sure I'd go to Delphi as your 'out of Athens' option. It's very worthwhile but it's an extremely long daytrip.

[EliseL]

1 hour ago, marazul said:

You do realize that to get to Mycenae you have to drive through Corinth.  Consider going to Corinth, Mycenae and Epidaurus and skipping Nafplio.

 

Are you in Athens three full days (4 nights) or two full days (3 nights)? If it is two full days, you can save the early visit to the Acropolis for the morning you embark on your cruise.  You have plenty of time to go there and then return to the hotel to check out. Get your tickets as soon as you can to guarantee an early admission.  

So these are three shared tours with set itineraries so we can’t alter the destinations and we won’t be driving ourselves. This day 2 is the only full day we’ll have in Athens.  I am leaning towards the half day Corinth as you’ve said the others would be a long day. And yes we were planning on doing the Acropolis the morning of the cruise since that leaves at 5pm. 
 

Thanks for the replies 

[JerryInIL]

We also have 3 days pre cruise in May.  We will probably stay in Athens since there is so much to see in the city.  Thinking about a food tour but otherwise mostly explore on our own.  We will have lots of tours on our cruise.

[marazul]

12 minutes ago, EliseL said:

So these are three shared tours with set itineraries so we can’t alter the destinations and we won’t be driving ourselves. This day 2 is the only full day we’ll have in Athens.  I am leaning towards the half day Corinth as you’ve said the others would be a long day. And yes we were planning on doing the Acropolis the morning of the cruise since that leaves at 5pm. 

That works. There is a lot more to see in Athens, such as the Acropolis Museum and the National Archaeological Museum. However, the Corinth-Mycenae-Epidaurus combo is very popular and you might find other tour companies that offer it.

 

Enjoy your trip.

[hawgcruiser]

We have a similar situation where we fly in on Sunday and the cruise begins on Wednesday.  We chose to use Toursbylocals for a full day tour of Athens and another full day tour of Corinth/Epidaurus. 

[JerryInIL]

A full day tour to Delphi would involve about how many hours on the bus?

[marazul]

9 minutes ago, JerryInIL said:

A full day tour to Delphi would involve about how many hours on the bus?

It's over 2.5 hours each way.

[GCrafter]

We will arrive in Athens 6 days before our cruise ship departs. We have decided to rent a car, and travel to Nafplio for 2 day/overnights in Nafplio, on day 3 we travel to Delphi to meet a local guide to show us around the ruins and museum with one overnight. On Day 4 we drive to Meteora for an overnight, meet our guide to visit the monasteries, and after touring for 5 hours we leave for Athens. We will droop off the rental car at this time. 

 

We then have 2 nights in Athens, our hotel is in the Plaka district. Our guide in Athens has suggested that we spend Friday in Athens to visit the museums and archaeological sites, and on Saturday (our last day), we will take a private day tour of Epidaurus/Corinth/Mycenae from a car before being dropped off at GalataPort. 

 

Our Athens guide said the last Saturday of each month is free admission to the Acropolis and museums for locals, and many of the sites in Athens are terribly crowded.  

Edited April 12 by GCrafter

[marazul]

@GCrafter

You should visit Corinth, Mycenae and Epidaurus on your way to Nafplio. You drive past them to get there.

 

If possible, on day 4 leave Delphi early for Meteora. It's about 3 hours.  You really don't need a guide there since you have a car. Just visit on your own (or with the guide) on the afternoon of day 4 and if you haven't seen them all, visit one or two the morning of day 5.

 

On your way to Athens make a quick stop in Thermopylae to see the waterfall. This will give you a lot more time in Athens the afternoon/evening of day 5.

 

Use your two days in Athens to visit the sights there. If you want a tour on the way to the port, go to Sounion.  There is no point in backtracking to Corinth when you already drove through it twice on your trip to Nafplio.

[GCrafter]

Thank you, @Marazul, for the suggestion. Looks like a great plan. Meteora looks to be an amazing place. We arrive in Athens on Day 1 at 8:30, so we have plenty of time to make stops along the way. I think we will allow 2 days in Athens to look around before we board the ship, it's a 9:00PM sail away so we would like to be off the tour and onboard by 6PM. Much better than boarding after driving in from a 10 hour tour...