3-Day Private Peloponnese & Olympia Tour

Ancient Olympia sits in the western Peloponnese, three to four hours from Athens by road. Going for a single day is technically possible but unrewarding — you spend more time on the mountain road than at the sanctuary itself. The three-day private journey is the rhythm the destination deserves.

Day one moves from Athens through the Corinth Canal into the eastern Peloponnese, with optional stops at Mycenae or Epidaurus depending on your interests. We cross to the western coast and stop for the night near Olympia — usually at a boutique property in the surrounding hills. Day two is the centrepiece: the morning at the ancient sanctuary (the Temple of Zeus, the Palaestra training ground, the original stadium where the ancient Games were held continuously from 776 BC for over a thousand years), the excellent Olympia Museum (which holds the Hermes of Praxiteles), and an afternoon at Katakolo on the Ionian coast.

Day three is for the coast and the slow return. The beaches of Zacharo and Kourouta are among the longest and least developed on the western Peloponnese — kilometres of pale sand with almost no infrastructure, ideal for a long swim and an unhurried lunch. We drive back to Athens by a different route, usually through Tripoli and Arcadia, arriving by early evening.

From €2,250 for three days, the journey includes the private vehicle and driver throughout, two nights in carefully chosen boutique accommodation with breakfast, on-board Wi-Fi and water, and a small Greek farewell gift. Site tickets, lunches and dinners are paid as we go. This is the right journey for guests who want classical history paired with coastal calm — a balance the eastern Peloponnese cannot match.