5 days in Greece
 

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to spend 5 days in Greece in late September.
Here's my plan:
Day 1 - Athens
Day 2 - Athens
Day 3 - Day trip to Hydra
Day 4 - Day trip to Nafplio
Day 5 - Day trip to Meteora

Thoughts? Doable?

Definitely doable and September sounds like a great time to go. We didn't make it to Nafplio or Hydra, but did go from Metoera to Delphi both of which were amazing. You might want to consider staying overnight at Meteora or Nafphlio and adding Delphi instead of going all the way back to Athens. Enjoy

Doable . . . but you'll be spending almost as much time traveling as being at your destination.

If you are based in Athens then I would eliminate one destination, probably Meteora which is a good distance away and will make an exceedingly long and exhausting day.

About going to Nafplio overnight for day 3 & 4 then return to Athens for day 5.

Much more relaxing than making long day trips eating up valuable holiday time traveling.

Meteora as a day trip from Athens is not doable, it is simply too far away.
There is no 1 day organized tour to Meteora from Athens and i wouldn't even try it with a rental car.

Thanks for your replies.

If I extend my trip by an extra day and allocate two days for Meteora, would it work?

And are the day trips easy to do on your own without a guide?

Or am I better off visiting just two places this time, maybe Athens and Hydra.

My recommendation as a local, is not doing too much.
Greece is more about enjoying the atmosphere of the place, not so much sight-seeing. That's my opinion.

1) Spend your first 2 days in Athens, then on your 3rd day rent a car to go to Nafplio.
2) On your way to Nafplio make a stop to visit the UNESCO site of Ancient Mycenae, the leader-city of the Greeks in the Trojan War.
3) Arrive at Nafplio, spend the night there.
4) 4th day explore Nafplio.
5) 5th day your are heading to Hydra island. On your way you will make a stop to the UNESCO site of Epidaurus Theatre, the best-preserved ancient Greek theatre in the World. Drive to Metoxi port where you will leave your car and take the water-taxi for Hydra. Spend the night in the island.
6) Explore Hydra on your 6th day.
7) Leave the island, get back to your car in Metoxi and drive to Athens.

That would be an ideal itinerary, hope it helped a bit.

You could skip Meteora and do
Athens 3 days plus day trips to Nafplio and Hydra.
You can easily reach Nafplio with a KTEL public bus and return to Athens with the last bus.
Here's the time table : http://www.ktelargolida.gr/?module=d..._id=11&lang=en

Hydra can be reached with a catamaran or hydrofoil from Piraeus.
Have a look at http://www.hydraislandgreece.com/por...ydra-by-plane/

You don't need a guide for these trips.....

Meteora would be doable if you would spend the night in nearby Kastraki or Kalambaka, you would not need a guide there either.

You can take a KTEL bus to Trikala /Kalambaka and taxi to Meteora.
Here's the timetable from Athens : http://www.ktel-trikala.gr/?module=d..._id=16&lang=en

That looks like a good plan, Petros.
Thing is I'm not really interested in ruins, unless they're well-preserved like the Parthenon, which is why I omitted Delphi and Mycenae. But I like the itinerary you suggested.

Clausar, that's very helpful, thank you.

I could be wrong, but I think you can easily get to Hydra from Nafplio. We thought about doing it while we were there, but decided we didn't have enough time.

I believe you can take a bus to Tolo, then a boat to Hydra. This would help you avoid backtracking to Athens to take the boat from Piraeus, IF I'm correct.You can then return on a boat from Hydra to Piraeus, which is very close to Athens.

Hoping some of the Greek experts will weigh in here!