5-Day Classical Tour Greece with Olive Oil, Honey & Wine Tastings

This private, 5-day classical Greece tour from Athens covers the four great UNESCO sites of the mainland, Mycenae, Olympia, Delphi and Meteora, and threads a food and wine experience through each day rather than treating them as an afterthought. Same driver and vehicle throughout. We have run this route since 2010, and the version below reflects what actually works on the ground: enough driving to reach the real sites, enough time to taste the country they sit in.

Day 1: Athens to Nafplio, Corinth and an Olive Oil Tasting

• Morning pickup from your Athens hotel. First the Corinth Canal, then Ancient Corinth, with its Temple of Apollo and the Roman forum where Saint Paul preached to the Corinthians. Before leaving the area we stop at a local producer for an olive oil tasting, Corinthia has been pressing oil since antiquity, and the difference between a supermarket bottle and oil straight from the mill is the point of the stop. We reach Nafplio, the first capital of modern Greece, in the late afternoon, with time to walk the old town below the Palamidi fortress. Overnight in Nafplio.

Day 2: Mycenae, Epidaurus, and West to Olympia

• An early start at Mycenae for the Lion Gate, the royal shaft graves where Schliemann believed he had found Agamemnon, and the Treasury of Atreus. Then Epidaurus, whose theater is so well built that a voice from the center still carries to the top row. From the Argolid we drive west across the Peloponnese to Olympia, through olive country and mountain villages. Overnight in Olympia.

Day 3: Olympia, a Honey Tasting, and North to Delphi

• Morning at the sanctuary of Olympia, birthplace of the Olympic Games, including the Temple of Zeus, the workshop of Pheidias, and the original stadium, then the museum with the Hermes of Praxiteles and the pediments of the Temple of Zeus. Afterward, a honey tasting at a local farm and time at a producers' market where the oil, cheese and preserves come straight from the growers of the area. We then head north across the Rio-Antirrio bridge, one of the longest cable-stayed bridges in the world, with the Gulf of Corinth on either side. Arrival in Delphi in the late afternoon. Overnight in Delphi.

Day 4: Delphi, an Olive Grove Lunch, and Meteora at Sunset

• We reach the Delphi site early, before the coaches from Athens arrive. The Sacred Way climbs past the treasuries to the Temple of Apollo, where the oracle spoke, and on to the theater and the stadium above it. The museum holds the bronze Charioteer, cast in 470 BC and still standing with his reins in his hands. Afterward, an olive oil tasting and lunch at a working farm on the Amfissa plain below, one of the oldest olive groves in Greece, with well over a million trees. In the afternoon we drive to Meteora, timing arrival for sunset, when the light turns the sandstone pillars orange and the monasteries stand out against them. Check in near Kalambaka. Overnight in Meteora.

Day 5: Meteora Monasteries, Thermopylae and Return to Athens

• Morning among the Meteora monasteries, built on their rock towers from the fourteenth century onward and reached originally only by rope and net. Six of the original twenty four are still active, each closed on a different day of the week, so we visit whichever are open on your date, usually two. Shoulders and knees must be covered for entry, and wraps are available at the gates. On the drive back we stop at Thermopylae, where Leonidas and the three hundred Spartans held the pass in 480 BC, marked today by the monument and the modern memorial. Arrival in Athens in the early evening, at your hotel or the airport.