Greece is two holidays. Work out which one you are booking.
Whether Delphi gets you back for dinner. What the Balos boat costs out of Kissamos. Which caldera cruise stops long enough to swim. Reviews of the day trips, tickets and boat days you can book right now.
The four days a first Greek trip gets built around.
One rock, one oracle, one lagoon and one set of monasteries. What each costs, and how far ahead it needs holding.
01The first morningAcropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo PassThe combo pass covers the Agora, Kerameikos and three more sites on the same ticket. Take the opening slot; the marble is cool and the gate is empty.
02The oracle dayMythology of Delphi, Museum and Arachova Guided TourThree hours out along the Corinthian gulf to a sanctuary cut into Parnassus, with a stop in the stone streets of Arachova coming back.
03The Cretan boatFrom Kissamos Port: Boat Cruise to Balos Lagoon & GramvousaWest out of Kissamos to Gramvousa and the Balos sandbar. It is a long day and the only one everybody photographs.
04The inland dayMeteora Monasteries Day Trip with Caves and LunchMonasteries on sandstone pillars above the Thessalian plain, plus lunch. Each house keeps its own closing day, so the running order is not yours to pick.
Every Greek coast sells the same four boat days at four different prices.
The question is never which island. It is how much of the day you spend in the water, how many people share the deck, and whether lunch is grilled on board or handed over in a box.
Six bases, and the day out each one actually exists for.
Where you sleep decides what you can book. The capital and its coast road, two Cretan harbours, a caldera, a crusader town in the Dodecanese, Venetian lanes in the Ionian, and the cliff above Navagio.
In Athens the whole day is decided by the ticket you bought.
Everything in Athens →
Acropolis entry runs on timed slots with a cap on each. Take the first one, be back down in Monastiraki by eleven, and the rest of the day is still open — the museum, the market, or the coast road south to Sounion.
One rock, or five sites on one pass
The combo pass adds the Agora, Hadrian’s Library, Kerameikos and the Olympieion for a few euros over the plain ticket. Sensible on a three-day stay, wasted if you are on tomorrow’s ferry.
Delphi, and whether it beats Meteora
Three hours each way to a sanctuary terraced into Parnassus, usually with Arachova on the return leg. Meteora is further and stranger; Delphi is the one that still gets you back for dinner.
Where Athens actually eats
Souvlaki counters, the covered meat halls on Athinas, a pie shop doing one thing since the sixties, and enough small plates afterwards that booking dinner as well is a mistake.
The Greek days out more travellers take than any other.
Every review on the site →These are the ones that fill first in July, and what it costs to get on each.
1
Acropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo Pass
Book a timed Acropolis entry, then visit up to five ancient sites across Athens within three days. Choose audio tours or an English live guide, and use the app to manage extra-site tickets. Early morning visits offer cooler weather and clearer views.
From · $48
Read our review →
2
Acropolis Ticket with Optional Audio or Live Guide
3
Acropolis, Parthenon & Acropolis Museum Guided Tour
from $40
4
Cape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day Trip
from $23
5
From Kissamos Port: Boat Cruise to Balos Lagoon & Gramvousa
from $47
6
Acropolis and Parthenon Guided Walking Tour
from $38
7
Full Day Boat Cruise to 3 Islands
from $35
8
All Day Cruise -3 Islands to Agistri,Moni, Aegina with lunch and drinks included
from $180
Three mainland days that justify leaving the coast.
Ferries and beach bars are the easy part of a Greek holiday. A sanctuary on a mountainside, monasteries balanced on rock pillars and a Bronze Age citadel are the argument for spending a day inland.
Delphi
The Greeks put the centre of the world on a shelf of Mount Parnassus, and the site still climbs: treasuries, then the Temple of Apollo, then a theatre, then a stadium at the top with the seating intact. The bronze charioteer in the museum below is the reason to leave time for it. Most trips run ten to twelve hours from Athens and break the return in Arachova, which is a ski town in winter and a lunch stop the rest of the year.
- 1Mythology of Delphi, Museum and Arachova Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 4,008 reviews
- 2Delphi Full Day V.R. Audio Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 3,028 reviews
- 3Small-Group Delphi, Museum & Arachova Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,476 reviews
Meteora
Six monasteries still work on top of sandstone pillars above the plain at Kalabaka, reached now by steps cut into the rock and once by rope nets. Each house closes on a different day of the week, so no two tours visit the same combination. Coaches come up from Athens in a long day; the Thessaloniki run is shorter and quieter, and the sunset viewpoints on the road above Kastraki cost nothing at all.
- 1Meteora Sunset with Monastery & Hermit Caves Tour in Small Group★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 706 reviews
- 2Meteora Small Group Hiking tour with Transfer and Monastery Visit★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 484 reviews
- 3Morning Half Day Sightseeing and Monasteries Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 478 reviews
Mycenae, Epidaurus and Nafplio
An hour and a half from Athens the Peloponnese hands you three things in one day: the Lion Gate and the shaft graves at Mycenae, a fourth-century theatre at Epidaurus where a coin dropped on the orchestra floor carries to the back row, and Nafplio underneath its Venetian fortress for lunch. The Corinth Canal is on the way and every coach stops at the bridge over it.
- 1Mycenae, Epidaurus & Nafplio Full Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,438 reviews
- 2Mycenae, Epidaurus & Nafplio Full-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,580 reviews
- 3Ancient Corinth & Nafplio Full Day Trip with Swim★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 523 reviews
Crete is a four-day island doing an impression of a two-day one.
Chania and Heraklion are three hours apart and everything worth the drive sits off that line: a pink-sand spit at the far west, a gorge that takes a full day on foot, Europe’s oldest palace twenty minutes inland, and a Venetian harbour to come back to after dark.
Every Crete day out →
A Greek port day, with the gangway time respected.
Katakolo exists to get you to Olympia, Heraklion to Knossos, Mykonos to the windmills and Corfu to the old fort. On a port day the only specification that matters is what time you are back alongside, and these are built around it.
Greece, sorted by what you are willing to spend on one day.
Every reviewed tour dropped into three price bands, with the most-taken option in each one.
Site entry, old-town walks, the short hops out of the ferry ports, and most tastings.
The full days: Balos, Meteora, Delphi by coach, and the catamaran runs with lunch aboard.
A private guide, a chartered deck, and the once-a-trip day you are still describing at Christmas.
Greek food changes island to island, and the tour is how you find that out.
Cretan raki poured at eleven in the morning, Assyrtiko off vines coiled into baskets on volcanic ash, a Thessaloniki market that eats better than anything in the capital. Three hours as a rule, and lunch is included more often than it is not.
For most of July and August the wind picks your itinerary, not you.
The meltemi runs down the Aegean for days at a stretch and the port authority pulls small boats at short notice, usually first thing. Put the water early in the trip so there is room to move it, and keep a land day in reserve: a gorge, a monastery, a cellar, a kitchen.
By island and region
By the kind of day you want
Athens, Corinth, Nafplio, Delphi, Meteora: the week almost nobody drives.
Corinth
Delphi
MeteoraThe Greek tours reviewed most recently.
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B&E Goulandris Foundation Art Museum Entry Ticket
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The Best of Athens Tour: Top Sights and Attractions
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Agistri, Moni & Aegina Day Cruise with Swimming
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Aegina, Agistri & Metopi Swimming Cruise with lunch
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Acropolis FULLY PRIVATE Tour with Licensed Guide
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Acropolis & Plaka Neighborhood Private Walking Tour
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Acropolis Guided Walking Tour without Entry Ticket
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Acropolis Museum and Acropolis Tour in the Afternoon
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