Athens, the Aegean, and the ferry in between.
What the Acropolis combo pass actually covers. Which Balos boat leaves from where. Whether Delphi or Meteora is the better single day out of Athens. Every tour in Greece, reviewed and priced.
The five days that decide a first Greek trip.
A ticket, a sunset, a boat, a monastery and a dinner. What each one costs, and why the good slots go weeks out.
01The ticketAcropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo PassOne pass, the Acropolis plus five more sites, valid across several days. Take an eight o clock slot and you will have the marble to yourselves.
02The sunsetCape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day TripAn hour down the coast road to a temple built on a headland. Buses leave Athens mid afternoon and get you back for a late dinner.
03The boat dayFrom Kissamos Port: Boat Cruise to Balos Lagoon & GramvousaOut of Kissamos to a lagoon so shallow you can stand a hundred metres offshore. The one photo everybody comes home with.
04The inland dayFull-Day Bus Trip to MeteoraMonasteries balanced on sandstone pillars, four hours north. Each house keeps a different closed day, so the running order is not yours to pick.
05The dinnerGreek Food Walking Tour in AthensThrough the meat halls and spice lanes of central Athens, then small plates until you give up. Come hungry and do not book a table after.
Every Greek island runs a boat day. They are not the same boat day.
Crete sails to a pink sand lagoon. Rhodes runs a speedboat to Symi and back. Milos goes to the sea caves at Kleftiko, Santorini circles a live volcano. Same country, five very different mornings, and nothing like the same price.
Out of CreteBalos, Gramvousa and the west coast lagoons.
Out of RhodesThe speedboat to Symi, back by early evening.
Out of SantoriniCaldera water, the volcano and the hot springs.
Out of CorfuIonian coves and the crossing to Paxos.
Out of MilosKleftiko sea arches, reachable only by hull.
All 195 days on the water →
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Santorini Classic Catamaran Cruise with BBQ, Drinks and Transfers
Six places to build a Greek fortnight around.
One mainland city, two big islands with their own airports, and three you reach by ferry. Pick two, three at a push, and let the boats do the rest.
The Greek days out that everyone else is already booking.
The full Greek catalogue →Demand in Greece is lopsided. A handful of tickets and boat trips take more travellers than everything else on this site put together, and they are the ones that sell out.
1
Acropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo Pass
Visit the Acropolis at a reserved time, then explore five ancient Athens sites with audio tours, flexible entry, and optional guiding.
From · $48
Read our review →
2
Acropolis Ticket with Optional Audio or Live Guide
3
Acropolis, Parthenon & Acropolis Museum Guided Tour
from $40
4
Cape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day Trip
from $23
5
From Kissamos Port: Boat Cruise to Balos Lagoon & Gramvousa
from $47
6
Acropolis and Parthenon Guided Walking Tour
from $38
7
From the Port of Kos: Full Day Boat Cruise to 3 Islands
from $35
8
Greek Food Walking Tour in Athens
from $87
Three Greek sites that do not explain themselves.
Plenty of ruins reward a wander. These three are rubble without somebody to tell you what you are standing on, which is why the guided versions cost more and fill faster.
The Acropolis and its museum
Entry runs on timed slots with a cap on each one, and the rock is unshaded from the moment the sun clears Hymettus. Book the first slot of the day, walk the site in the cool, then cross to the museum afterwards, where the Parthenon frieze is laid out on the top floor at the height it was carved for, with the real building framed through the glass behind it.
- 1Acropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo Pass★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 12,619 reviews
- 2Acropolis Ticket with Optional Audio or Live Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 11,055 reviews
- 3Acropolis, Parthenon & Acropolis Museum Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 9,316 reviews
The monasteries at Meteora
Six working monasteries stand on sandstone pillars above the plain, reached by steps cut into the rock. Monks went up in the fourteenth century for the safety and hauled everything else up in nets. Each house closes on a different day of the week, so which four you see is decided by the calendar rather than by you.
- 1Full-Day Bus Trip to Meteora★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 3,471 reviews
- 2Meteora Monasteries Day Trip with Caves and Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,964 reviews
- 3Meteora Tour with Local Guide and Greek Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,561 reviews
Knossos and the Minoans
Without a guide Knossos reads as a field of restored concrete, because Arthur Evans rebuilt large parts of it in the 1920s from what he thought he saw. With one it becomes a four thousand year old city with drains, storerooms and a throne. Pair it with the Heraklion museum, half an hour away, where the actual frescoes live.
- 1Knossos Palace Entry Ticket with Optional Audio Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 3.9 · 2,251 reviews
- 2Palace of Knossos E-Ticket and Audio Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 3.8 · 1,540 reviews
- 3Knossos: Knossos Palace Skip-the-Line Guided Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,380 reviews
Greek days out, grouped by what you will pay.
The spread here is wider than most countries. A site ticket and a village walk cost less than lunch. A private sailing day costs more than the flight.
Entry tickets, old town walks, olive mill visits and the short hops out of the ferry ports.
The standard full day: the Balos boat, Delphi and Meteora by coach, a caldera catamaran with lunch.
Private guides, chartered sailing, and the once a trip things you will still be talking about.
In Greece the meal is the booking, not the restaurant.
The good stuff happens where you cannot walk in off the street. A mill press in the Cretan hills at harvest. A cellar cut into Santorini pumice. A kitchen where somebody stands over you until the filo is thin enough. Book the market walk before the heat, the class that finishes as lunch, the tasting that finally explains Assyrtiko.
- 1Greek Food Walking Tour in Athensfrom $87
- 2Street Food Tasting Tourfrom $67
- 3Small Group Greek Traditional Food Tour in Athens 20+ Tastingsfrom $84
Santorini can take four cruise ships before nine in the morning.
Mykonos, Santorini, Corfu, Rhodes and Katakolo all work as cruise ports, and on a heavy day the old town takes several thousand people between ten and four. The fix is not to leave the island. It is to be somewhere the tenders do not go: on the water, up in the hills, or underground in a cellar until the ships pull out.
Athens is organised by the clock, not by the map.
All of Athens →Almost everything worth doing sits inside two square kilometres, so the question is never how far. It is what time. The rock in the cool, the lanes once the shade returns, the tables when the city comes back outside.
Up the rock while the marble is cold
Slots are capped and the queue at the main gate is worst between eleven and two. The combo pass covers the Agora, Hadrian’s Library and four more sites, which only pays off if you are staying three days.
Plaka, Anafiotika and the shaded lanes
The stepped village under the north slope was built by Cycladic masons who came to work on the royal palace and put up island houses instead. It stays cool when the rest of the centre does not.
The market halls, then small plates
Varvakios meat and fish halls first, then the spice lanes on Evripidou, then a run of mezedopoleia around Psyri where the wine arrives in a jug and nobody hurries you.
One free day in Athens. Four ways to use it.
Every Greek itinerary ends up with a day nobody planned, usually before a morning ferry or after a late arrival. These four all leave the city and get you back the same evening. They are ordered by how far you go.
- 01Cape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day TripAn hour down the coast for a fifth century temple on a cliff, timed so the sun goes down behind the columns.from $23
- 02Mythology of Delphi, Museum and Arachova Guided TourTwo and a half hours north to the oracle site on the flank of Parnassus, with the stadium and the museum bronzes at the top of the climb.from $31
- 03Hydra, Poros, and Aegina Day Cruise with LunchThree islands in a day by cruise boat out of Piraeus, with no cars at all on the middle one.from $154
- 04Full-Day Bus Trip to MeteoraThe longest of the four and the only one that really wants an overnight, but people do it as a day and think it was worth it.from $58
By island and city
By the kind of day you want
Athens down through the Cyclades, and off the bottom into Crete.
Straight off the review pile.
Keep going →
Delphi Day Tour with Museum & Arachova Village Visit
Read our review →
Saranda: Corfu Town and Palaiokastritsa Day Trip with Cruise
Read our review →
Athens, Acropolis & Museum Tour without Tickets
Read our review →
Fishing Trip, Snorkelling, BBQ, & Professional Guide
Read our review →
Santorini Iconic Villages Tour: Oia, Imerovigli, Firostefani
Read our review →
Zakynthos All Day Tour Shipwreck beach, view point-Blue Caves
Read our review →
Palace of Grand Master Ticket & Rhodes SG audio tour
Read our review →
Aegina, Agistri and Metopi Day Cruise w/ Lunch
Read our review →