- Your private driver picks you up from your Athens hotel at 08:30 on Day 1. On Day 6, the cruise company picks you up from your hotel in the morning and drops you back there in the evening
Private 6-Day Peloponnese & Saronic Islands Tour: Olympia, Delphi, Mani Coast & Hydra
Why Choose This Private Peloponnese and Saronic Islands Tour
On Day 3 of this private Peloponnese tour from Athens, you can start the morning with a swim at Stoupa and end it tasting honey at a family farm near Ancient Olympia. That is the idea behind the route: six days that take you from the Lion Gate of Mycenae to the Oracle of Delphi, with the sea, the stone villages of the Mani and the food of the Peloponnese in between.
Most of the trip is private, with your own driver and the freedom to stop where you like. The last day is a shared cruise to Hydra, Poros and Aegina, so you see three Greek islands without planning ferries or extra hotel nights.
What makes this tour different:
- A night in Kardamyli, a stone village on the Mani coast that few tours include
- Honey at a family farm near Olympia, free wine and olive oil tastings at the farmers' market and a farm lunch in the olive grove below Delphi
- Early morning visits to Ancient Olympia and Delphi, before the day-trip coaches
- A beach stop at Stoupa, where Nikos Kazantzakis met the man behind Zorba the Greek
- A Saronic Islands cruise to Hydra, Poros and Aegina on the last day
The tour suits travelers who have already seen Athens and want the mainland and the islands in one trip, couples who like slow travel and families who need beach time between the sites. The best months are May, June, September and October, when the sea is warm and the sites are quieter. Each day in the itinerary shows the driving times, and no day has more than about 4.5 hours on the road. Send us your dates and we will check hotel and cruise availability for your group.
This private 6-day Peloponnese tour from Athens combines the great sites of ancient Greece with the coast, the food and the islands. With your own driver, you visit Mycenae, Byzantine Mystras, the Diros Caves, Ancient Olympia and Delphi, and spend a night in Kardamyli, a stone village on the Mani coast with clear water below the Taygetus mountains.
Along the way, you taste what the Peloponnese produces: olive oil at the museum in Sparta, honey and olives with a local family near Olympia, and formaela cheese in Arachova. On the last day, a cruise takes you to three Saronic islands, Hydra, Poros and Aegina, before you return to your Athens hotel.
Our Athens team plans this route ourselves, so we time the drives and site visits around opening hours and the summer lines at the Diros Caves. You stay five nights in 3-star hotels, or choose 4-star and boutique hotels when you book.
Day 1: Athens - Corinth Canal - Mycenae - Nafplio - Sparta
- 08:30 Pick-up: Your private driver collects you from your Athens hotel and heads west. First stop is the Corinth Canal (approx. 1 hour), which links the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf and turned the Peloponnese into an island.
Continue to Mycenae (approx. 45 minutes), the most powerful kingdom of Bronze Age Greece and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Walk up through the Lion Gate, often called the oldest monumental sculpture in Europe, to the remains of the royal palace, then step inside the Treasury of Atreus, a tomb built of huge stone blocks without any mortar.
Drive to Nafplio (approx. 30 minutes), the first capital of modern Greece until 1834, for an optional lunch and a walk through the old town to the seafront below Palamidi Fortress.
In the afternoon, drive south through Tripoli to Sparta (approx. 2 hours). Pass the statue of King Leonidas below the ruins of the ancient acropolis, then enjoy an optional dinner in the town. Overnight in Sparta.
Day 2: Sparta Olive Oil Museum - Mystras - Diros Caves - Kardamyli
- 09:00 Sparta: Start at the Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil, where you see how olive oil was pressed in Greece from prehistoric times to the 20th century.
Drive to Mystras (approx. 15 minutes), the hillside capital of the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its churches hold some of the finest late Byzantine frescoes in Greece. Walk from the Metropolis, the town's cathedral, up the stone lanes to the restored Palace of the Despots.
Continue south to the Diros Caves (approx. 1 hour 20 minutes), where a boatman steers your small boat through the underground lake of Vlychada, so close to the stalactites that you could almost touch them.
💡 From our experience: In July and August, the caves can have a waiting line from late morning, so your driver keeps an eye on the time at Mystras.
Drive along the Mani coast past the bay of Limeni to Kardamyli (approx. 1 hour 10 minutes). Overnight in Kardamyli.
Day 3: Kardamyli - Stoupa - Honey Tasting at a Family Farm in Olympia
- 09:30 Kardamyli: Kardamyli is one of the seven cities that Agamemnon offered Achilles in Homer's Iliad. Walk up to Old Kardamyli and the 18th century stone tower of the Mourtzinos family, then see from the coast the house where the British writer Patrick Leigh Fermor lived for more than 40 years, now cared for by the Benaki Museum.
Continue to Stoupa (approx. 15 minutes) and its sandy bay. Nikos Kazantzakis lived here in 1917 while working a lignite mine with George Zorbas, the man who inspired Zorba the Greek.
💡 Insider tip: Bring your swimsuit. The water at Kalogria beach is clear and calm from late May to October.
Drive north through Kalamata to Ancient Olympia (approx. 2 hours 45 minutes). In the late afternoon, visit a local family farm near Olympia for a honey tasting and hear how they keep their bees. Optional dinner in the village. Overnight in Olympia.
Day 4: Private Ancient Olympia Tour - Wine and Olive Oil Tasting - Nafpaktos - Delphi
- 08:00 Olympia: Enter the site when it opens, while the pine trees still shade the paths. See the Temple of Zeus, which held his gold and ivory statue, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the Workshop of Pheidias where the sculptor made it. Finish in the stadium, where the first recorded Games were held in 776 BC.
Before you leave, stop at the open farmers' market in Olympia, where local producers offer free tastings of their wine and olive oil.
Drive north and cross the Rio-Antirrio Bridge (approx. 1 hour 30 minutes), which links the Peloponnese with mainland Greece and is the longest fully suspended multi-span cable-stayed bridge in the world.
Stop in Nafpaktos for coffee or an optional lunch at its Venetian harbor. The Battle of Lepanto was fought off this coast in 1571, and a statue of Miguel de Cervantes, who was wounded in the battle, stands by the harbor walls.
Continue along the coast to Delphi (approx. 1 hour 45 minutes). Overnight in Delphi.
Day 5: Private Delphi Tour - Olive Oil Tasting and Farm Lunch - Arachova - Athens
- 08:00 Delphi: Arrive when the site opens and the mountain air is still cool. Climb to the Temple of Apollo at what the ancient Greeks called the navel of the world, and on to the theater, with its view down the valley to the sea. In the museum, stand before the bronze Charioteer and the Sphinx of the Naxians, which once stood on a tall column beside the temple.
Drive down to the olive grove of Amfissa (approx. 20 minutes), more than a million trees that stretch from below Delphi to the sea. At a family farm, taste their olive oil and table olives, then sit down to a home-cooked lunch under the trees.
On the way back to Athens, stop in Arachova (approx. 30 minutes), a stone mountain village on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, for a coffee and a taste of formaela, the local grilled cheese.
Return to Athens (approx. 2 hours 15 minutes), where your driver drops you at your hotel in the late afternoon. Overnight in Athens.
Day 6: Saronic Islands Cruise: Hydra, Poros and Aegina
- Around 07:15 Pick-up: The cruise company picks you up from your Athens hotel for a day cruise to three islands of the Saronic Gulf. The exact pick-up time depends on your hotel's location. This part of the tour is a shared cruise with other travelers.
First stop is Hydra, where cars are not allowed and donkeys still carry goods up from the harbor. Walk among the stone mansions of the captains who funded the Greek fleet in 1821.
💡 Our tip: Wear flat shoes on Hydra. The lanes are stepped and the stones can be slippery.
Sail on to Poros, a green island across a narrow strait from the Peloponnese, and climb to the clock tower for the view over the town and harbor.
The last stop is Aegina, known for its pistachios, which also have their own designation of origin. Try them at the harbor, or join an optional tour to the Temple of Aphaia. In the evening, the cruise company drops you back at your Athens hotel.
- Corinth Canal
- Ancient Mycenae
- Nafplio Old Town
- Sparta and the Olive Oil Museum
- Byzantine Mystras
- Diros Caves
- Kardamyli and Stoupa on the Mani Coast
- Honey Tasting at a Family Farm
- Ancient Olympia
- Wine and Olive Oil Tasting at the Olympia Farmers' Market
- Rio-Antirrio Bridge and Nafpaktos
- Delphi and Museum
- Olive Oil Tasting and Farm Lunch in Amfissa
- Arachova Village
- Cruise to Hydra, Poros and Aegina
- Duration: 6 Days / 5 Nights
- Tour Type: Culture, Food and Islands
- Group type: Private (shared cruise on Day 6)
- Availability: All year
- Languages: English
- Accessibility: Moderate walking on uneven ground
- Ideal for: Families, Couples, Solo travelers
- Group Size: 1 to 16 participants
6 Days
All Year
Private Tour
Inclusions
- Pick-up and drop-off at your Athens hotel
- Private vehicle with English-speaking driver on Days 1 to 5
- Fuel, tolls, parking and your driver's accommodation
- 5 nights' accommodation with breakfast
- Honey tasting at a local family farm near Olympia
- Wine and olive oil tasting at the Olympia farmers' market
- Olive oil tasting and lunch at a family farm in the Amfissa olive grove
- Boat ride at the Diros Caves with tickets
- Shared day cruise to Hydra, Poros and Aegina with lunch and round transfers
- Entrance tickets to archaeological sites and museums (if option selected)
- Licensed guides at the archaeological sites (if option selected)
- Welcome bag with gifts
Exclusions
- Other lunches and dinners (optional)
- Climate Resilience Fee, payable at the hotel
- Gratuities (optional)
- No. The cruise on Day 6 is a shared day cruise with other travelers, including the transfers from and to your hotel. If you prefer a private boat day instead, ask us before you book.
- The Heritage Tour includes the Meteora monasteries, an overnight stay in Monemvasia and the tower villages of the Mani. This tour skips Meteora and focuses on the Mani coast, local food tastings and a day on the Saronic islands.
- The longest day is Day 1, with about 4 hours and 15 minutes of driving broken up by Mycenae and Nafplio. The other days have between 2.5 and 3.5 hours on the road, and the itinerary shows the time for each leg.
- Taste honey at a local family farm near Olympia and try wine and olive oil at the Olympia farmers' market, where the producers offer free tastings. Olive Oil and farm lunch in a local farm near Delphi. In Arachova and Aegina, you can try formaela cheese and pistachios at your own cost
- Yes, the land part of the tour runs all year, but sites close earlier and the sea is too cold for swimming. Saronic cruises run on a reduced schedule outside the summer, so we confirm the cruise for your date before you book.
- Yes, and children have a reduced price. The beach stop and the island day make it easier for children than a tour of sites only. Tell us your children's ages when you book so we can prepare the right child seats.
- You can add entrance tickets for the archaeological sites and museums, as well as licensed guides, as options when you book. Entrance to the Diros Caves and the olive oil museum is paid on site.
- To confirm your booking, we require a 30% deposit. It is fully refundable if we receive your cancellation in writing at least 8 days before the first day of your tour.
- For cancellations or changes made 7 days or less before the first day of your tour, and for no-shows, the full tour price applies.
- All cancellations and changes must be sent in writing to Private Tours Greece.
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