hazza_293

My wife and I are hiring a car for 8 days this July, and were looking for assistance in planning the best route to visit the following sites. We are leaving from Patras and returning the car in Patras 8 days later:

Corinth
Nafplio
Sparta
Olympia
Delphi
Meteora

We understand that we may not be able to do this in the 8 days, so we are relying on your help. How would you plan this trip? What route would you take? What order would you do this in? Should we pre book the hotels?

Thanks in advance for your assistance

JonJon

Well, first of all I think you need a good map that you can take with you since nobody here will be able to advise you on the road.
Sparta? does it actually exist on a map anywhere?

Trish

I did a peloponeese trip last summer and hit some of these places but I started in Patras and ended in Nafplio.

You can get driving times and directions from the michelin website and the driving times were pretty accurate. Did you have any idea about how many days you wanted to spend in each location or places you wanted to see.

Leaving from Patras going to Corinth will take about 1.5 hour I don't think you need to spend the night there to see the sights.From Corinth it should take about hour or so to get to Nafplio. From Nafplio to Sparti is a pretty easy drive because there nice roads and a good highway from Tripoli down to Sparti. That drive will take 1.5 to 2 hours. From Sparti you can see Mistras or for a longer day trip you could go to Monemvassia. Good luck on the last part of your trip from Sparti to Olympia we kind of got lost and it was a tough trip through the mountains so be sure of your route and stick to the main roads. By the way I loved Olympia it was one the highlights I liked it more than expected.

I've never been to Delphi or Meteora so I'm not sure if you have to go back towards Athens or if you should go to Rio and take the ferry over to Nafpaktos.

Good luck the Peloponesse was beautiful.

mzani

Day 1:From Patra (cross the new bridge from rio to Antirio) to Delphi With a stop at Galaxidi.
spend the night in Arahova.

Day 2:Arahova to Meteora

Day 3: Meterora- Athens

Day 4: Athens - Nafplio with a stop in Corith and Epidavros

Day 5: Nafplio- Monemvassia

Day 6:Monemvassia -Sparta

Day 7parta -Olympia

Day 8lympia-Patra

Patricia

We did part of your planned trip last June, drove from the island of Poros via Nafplio down to Tripoli and onto Sparta. Did the drive in a day, roads were very good. We found Sparta very interesting, there are still some ancient ruins there. Can highly recommend Hotel Menelaion to stay, good rooms, nice pool, it will be hot in July. Mystras is a must to visit, you will need at least half a day, some steep climbing to do. The village of Mystras has some nice cafes to lunch in and cool off. We found the drive from Sparta to Olympia via Kalamata, to be magnificent, yes it is mountainous but not too difficult and was one of the highlights of our entire trip through Europe. Can't remember how long the drive took because we kept stopping to look at the views but we certainly arrived in Olympia around lunchtime. The ancient site of Olympia is amazing but we thought the town was a bit tacky, lots of cheap gift shops. Its only about 1.5 hrs. from Olympia back to Patras. Have a wonderful trip, we loved the Peloponnese.

screen

Here's the problem I can see with trying to do it in 8 days--I would never drive in Greece in the dark. Also, Delphi isn't in the Pelops. but there is probably a ferry across the gulf of Corinth. I have driven directly from Meteora to Delphi across the mountains, and I think that next time I would take the long way around through Athens simply for safety.

Robert_Brandywine

I went to Greece LAST July and visited every spot on your list. There's no problem with driving through all these spots in 8 days -- Greece is small. The only problem with getting this all done might be with how long you want to stay at each spot.

Day1 - I would suggest you take the ferry from Patras north across the Corinthian Gulf. This takes about 10-15 minutes of actual travel time and costs 6 Euros. Stop at Delfi and have time to see the sights.

Day2 - On to Kalambaka (Meteora) the next day.

Day3 - You'll probably want to spend all of the next day in Meteora. There are 6 monasteries to visit.

Day4 - Returning, take the coast road down through Thebes (avoiding Athens, because of the traffic). Spend the night in Corinth.

Day5 - It's an easy drive from Corinth to Nafplio.

Day6 - Spend the next day in Nafplio.

Day 7 - I would drive across the peninsula in one day, with a quick stop in Sparta (nothing of great interest there) and a visit to Mistras. Continue on and spend the night in Pylos, which has some great views of the historic bay.

Day 8 - Next day you can be in Olympia by noon. It's an easy drive on to Patras from there as long as you avoid the small interior roads. We got lost on these and had a great adventure!