Six thousand islands, one good week.
Which Acropolis ticket actually includes a guide. Which caldera sail reaches Oia before the light goes. Whether the track to Balos is worth a hire car. Every tour in Greece, reviewed.
The Acropolis is the easy part. The ticket is not.
All 109 Acropolis tours →
Plain entry, a guided walk up the west slope, or the combined pass that opens the Agora, Hadrian’s Library and four more sites on the same stub. The three below carry the most people; what separates them is who is talking and how long you stand in the sun.
Delphi, Meteora or the Argolid: pick one, not all three.
Three coaches leave Syntagma before breakfast and come back after dark, and every Athens itinerary has room for exactly one of them. They are not interchangeable.
Delphi, the theatre and Arachova on the way back
Two and a half hours north-west, up onto Parnassus. The sanctuary steps climb to a stadium at the treeline, the museum keeps the bronze charioteer, and the stone village of Arachova fills the last hour before the coach turns for home.
Meteora, and the monasteries on their pillars
Four hours each way makes this the day that eats the day. Worth it: six working monasteries on sandstone towers, reached by steps cut into the rock. Thessaloniki and the Kalambaka train both make it shorter than the Athens coach.
Mycenae, Epidaurus and lunch in Nafplio
The Argolid is ninety minutes away and holds three things at once: the Lion Gate and the shaft graves at Mycenae, the theatre at Epidaurus where a whisper carries to the back row, and Nafplio’s waterfront for the middle of the day.
Athens marble, a Santorini caldera, a Cretan gorge.
The Parthenon, the volcano rim, the monasteries on their pillars, the lagoon at the end of the Balos track, the wreck in its white cove and the palace at Knossos. Six days most Greek trips are built around, and the best way to book each.
On Santorini the boat leaves long before the sunset does.
Catamarans push out of Vlychada and Ammoudi in the early afternoon so the hot springs, the red cliffs and the swim stops are behind you by the time the light drops behind Thirassia. Book the sailing, not the sunset.
From a Cretan aquarium ticket to a chartered catamaran.
Every tour on the site by price. A great Greek day frequently costs less than dinner did.
Site tickets, city walks, audio guides and the small boats that leave from the town beach.
The standard Greek day out: the Acropolis with a guide, a caldera sail with lunch, a gorge trek with the bus home.
Private guides, all-inclusive catamarans and the long trips that cross half the mainland and back.
What Greece books once the Acropolis is out of the way.
Every review →Acropolis entries sit at the top of every list in Athens and would fill this one on their own. They have the section above to themselves; this is what travellers book next, the length of the country.
1
Volcanic Islands Cruise with Hot Springs Visit
Sail Santorini’s caldera from $29, hike the volcano, swim in natural hot springs, and optionally catch the sunset in Oia.
From · $29
Read our review →
2
Cape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day Trip
from $23
3
From Kissamos Port: Boat Cruise to Balos Lagoon & Gramvousa
from $47
4
Catamaran Tour with BBQ Dinner, Drinks, and Music
from $93
5
Full Day Boat Cruise to 3 Islands
from $35
6
Mythology of Delphi, Museum and Arachova Guided Tour
from $30
7
All Day Cruise -3 Islands to Agistri,Moni, Aegina with lunch and drinks included
from $180
8
Athens, Piraeus, and Coastline: Blue Hop-On Hop-Off Bus
from $14
Crete is a country that happens to be an island.
Four hours of road from Chania to Sitia and two mountain ranges in the middle. The White Mountains drop into the Samaria gorge, the Minoans left a palace at Knossos, and the track running west finishes at a lagoon the colour of a swimming pool.
Greece keeps three days you cannot book anywhere else.
Beaches and ruins are everywhere. A canal sliced through solid rock, a photoshoot invented for one cliff, and a bay run for the benefit of turtles belong to this country alone.
The Corinth Canal
Nero started it with a golden pickaxe in AD 67 and everyone else gave up until the French and Greeks finished the job in 1893: 6.4 kilometres straight through limestone, walls standing eighty metres over the water, and a channel narrow enough that anything sizeable has to be towed. Athens day trips stop on the road bridge to look down; the boat trips go through it, with metres to spare on either beam.
- 1Ancient Corinth Day Trip with Canal & VR Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,073 reviews
- 2Private Biblical Tour Ancient Corinth & Isthmus Canal from Athens★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 762 reviews
- 3Ancient Corinth & Nafplio Full Day Trip with Swim★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 531 reviews
The Flying Dress
Ten metres of silk, a photographer walking backwards along the caldera path, and an assistant out of frame throwing the train into the wind. The shoot exists because Santorini supplied the drop and the sunset to fall into. Slots run at first light and last light, the two hours the path is not solid with people, and the dress comes with the booking.
- 1Santorini 2h Private Flying Dress Photoshoot with Transportation★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 357 reviews
- 2Exclusive Santorini Flying Dress Photoshoot with Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 336 reviews
- 3Flying Dress Photoshoot with Edited Photos★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 160 reviews
The Zakynthos Loggerheads
Laganas Bay is a national marine park and the loggerheads outrank the visitors: boat speeds capped, engines off in the core zone, nesting beaches closed from dusk while the eggs are in the sand. Trips leave from Agios Sostis and Keri for the feeding grounds around Marathonisi, and an honest operator calls a sighting likely rather than promised.
- 1Turtle Spotting Cruise with Glass-Bottom Boat★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,053 reviews
- 2Turtles, Marathonisi & Keri Caves Speedboat Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,443 reviews
- 3Turtle Island & Keri Caves Glass-Bottom Boat Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 896 reviews
By base — where are you sleeping?
By kind of day — what are you actually doing?
Half of Greece is only reachable from a jetty.
Navagio, the Blue Caves, Kleftiko on Milos and the far side of Symi have no road at all; Balos has one, and it is a dirt track. What changes between them is the boat — a rib for twelve, a catamaran with a galley, or a wooden caique you take out yourself.
- 1Volcanic Islands Cruise with Hot Springs Visitfrom $29
- 2From Kissamos Port: Boat Cruise to Balos Lagoon & Gramvousafrom $47
- 3Catamaran Tour with BBQ Dinner, Drinks, and Musicfrom $93
Four Greek days that run on somebody else’s calendar.
Most of Greece can be arranged over breakfast the day before. These cannot: a national-park trail with a season, a hill with a daily cap, monasteries that each close on a different day, and a lagoon boat that answers to the wind.
- 01Full-Day Samaria Gorge Trek Excursion & GuideThe gorge is a national park with a season: the through-walk runs roughly May to October and shuts for winter and on high-fire days.
- 02Acropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo PassTimed-entry slots with a daily ceiling on visitors, plus midday closures whenever a summer heatwave sets in.
- 03Meteora Monasteries Day Trip with Caves and LunchSix working monasteries, each shut on a different day of the week, all with a covered-knees rule at the door.
- 04From Kissamos Port: Boat Cruise to Balos Lagoon & GramvousaThe Kissamos boat is the only comfortable way in, and the meltemi cancels it at short notice through July and August.
The north wind cancels boats in Greece. Go inland instead.
The meltemi runs down the Aegean through July and August, and when it does the port authority stops the small craft before anyone tells you. That is the day for the palace at Knossos, an olive press, a cellar of Assyrtiko or a kitchen in Plaka — none of which care what the sea is doing.
In Greece the last hour of light is a booking, not a coincidence.
All sunset cruises →
Premium Small-Group Catamaran Cruise with BBQ, Open Bar, Transfer
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Sunset Caldera Cruise with BBQ Meal and Drinks
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Sunset Sailing Catamaran Cruise in Santorini with BBQ and Drinks
Read our review →Two weeks: Athens, the monasteries, then the boat south.
Athens
Delphi
Meteora
Santorini
Naxos
CreteLatest Greece tour reviews.
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