Bronze Age ramparts, a hillside theatre and a seaside old town share one long day on a Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens. Visitors who want to add islands or the north to the trip can look through the other tours in Greece.
This page covers what the day trip includes, the drive from Athens and the departure times, the stop at the Corinth Canal, Mycenae and the city of Agamemnon, the ancient theatre of Epidaurus and its sound, Nafplio as the first capital of modern Greece, what to wear and bring, and the questions travellers ask.
What does a Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens include?
This kind of tour carries you by coach to three places in Argolis, in the Peloponnese. They are the citadel at Mycenae, the old theatre at Epidaurus and the port town of Nafplio. The ride also holds a short halt at the Corinth Canal. This outline holds for every Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens, though details vary.
Each operator builds the day in its own way, so the extras differ. One operator uses a modern air-conditioned bus and collects guests from four central meeting points in Athens. Its audio guide works in English, Russian, Polish, Chinese and Japanese, among others.
Entry tickets are the biggest difference between tours. That operator sells its day tour without an entry ticket. Tickets for the archaeological area can be added as an option.
Another operator runs a small-group tour over the same route. Meals are not included. Entry to Mycenae and Epidaurus is not included, nor is a guided tour inside the sites. It does include an archaeologist as trip attendant, an audio guide app and basic travel insurance. Compare the lists for each Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens.
A ticket seller describes a third kind of tour. It includes entry to Mycenae, a guided tour, onboard Wi-Fi and a walking tour of Nafplio. A three-course lunch in Nafplio is an upgrade there, not part of the base tour. Read what this Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens includes before you choose.
Free time is built into the day. The first operator gives 1 hour 30 minutes in Nafplio. You can shop, eat in a traditional restaurant or, in summer, swim at Arvanitia beach. The second operator lists one hour for lunch in Nafplio and another hour of free time in the town.
How long is the drive, and when do the tours leave Athens?
By car, Mycenae is 120 km from Athens and the ride takes about 1.5 hours. Nafplio is 135 km away, and that ride takes about 2 hours. Tours meet guests in central Athens in the morning. Each Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens ends in the evening.
A day-trip blog gives these two distances. A ticket seller puts Nafplio at about 140 km. Traffic and stops decide the drive time. It gives 2 hours at the shortest and 2.5 hours at the longest. Both towns sit in the Argolid region of the Peloponnese.
The distances between the sites are short. Nafplio is 25 km south of Mycenae, and Epidaurus is 30 km east of Nafplio. One operator’s plan lists 45 minutes on the coach from the Corinth Canal to Mycenae. Then it lists 25 minutes from Mycenae to Nafplio and 25 minutes from Nafplio to Epidaurus.
Pickup times depend on the operator. One operator lists four meeting points. The first is the Melina Mercouri monument in Plaka at 7:45 in the morning. After that come the Parliament building, Omonoia Square and Karaiskaki Square.
The same listing also shows a later set of times, starting at 8:15 in the morning. Another operator meets guests at Karaiskaki Square and wants them there ten minutes ahead of the start. Check which pickup point sits closest to your hotel when you choose this Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens.
The stops fill the day. On the first operator’s plan, the canal stop lasts 20 minutes and Mycenae gets 2 hours 15 minutes. Nafplio gets 1 hour 30 minutes, and Epidaurus gets 1 hour 15 minutes. After that, the coach returns to the drop-off point.
The return time depends on the tour. A day-trip blog says group tours are back in Athens by 6 to 7 in the evening. That makes this Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens fills the day, from morning pickup to evening drop-off.
What do you see at the Corinth Canal stop?
The coach on this Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens pauses at the Corinth Canal. This 6.4-kilometre trench through solid rock ties the Ionian Sea to the Aegean, and it has no locks.
Water in the cutting stays level with the open sea at both ends of the cutting. Across the top of the water it measures 24.6 metres. The trench cuts the Peloponnese off from the Greek mainland. One travel blog gives the depth as 80 metres.
Visitors walk onto a footbridge to take photos. One schedule lists a 20-minute stop, while another lists a 15-minute break for photos and coffee. A travel blog says the stop takes just 10 minutes. That is time to lean on the rail. The pause is a small part of this Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens.
People dreamed of this cut for centuries. In the 7th century BC the ruler Periander of Corinth gave up on digging it. Instead, his workers laid the Diolkos, a paved stone road along which ships were dragged overland.
Emperor Nero swung a pickaxe to open the work in 67 AD, but digging halted at his death. Engineers completed the canal in the 19th century. Today it serves mainly as a tourist attraction. One operator calls it an engineering marvel.
What will you see at Mycenae, the city of Agamemnon?
Mycenae, the city of Agamemnon, begins at the Lion Gate and climbs into a Bronze Age citadel. Inside you find royal graves, the Treasury of Atreus and a museum. They form the core of this Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens.
Mycenae stands in Argolis, in the north-eastern Peloponnese, roughly 120 kilometres away, with Athens to its north-east. Its hilltop rises 274 metres over the sea. In its strongest years, about 30,000 residents shared the citadel and the lower town. One operator calls it the kingdom of Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek forces in the Trojan War.
The Lion Gate was the way into the citadel, raised in the 13th century BC. High on the lintel, two carved lionesses face one another beside a central pillar. At the threshold the opening is 3.10 metres across and 2.95 metres high.
No other monumental sculpture from the Mycenaean world still stands. One tour listing says guests on this Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens pass through the gate.
Huge boulders form the walls near the entrance, and people call them Cyclopean. The ancient Greeks believed that only the Cyclopes, mythical giants, had moved such stones. A tour listing for this Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens calls them a highlight.
Grave Circle A lies inside the walls. Royal families were buried there in the 16th century BC. Heinrich Schliemann dug its shaft graves in the 19th century.
A travel blog says the gold death masks from those graves now rest in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. That includes the so-called Mask of Agamemnon.
The Treasury of Atreus lies just outside the citadel and has a second name, the Tomb of Agamemnon. It is a beehive tomb, the largest known in the Aegean Bronze Age. For that long, no dome anywhere was bigger, until the Roman era. The passage to the door is 36 metres long. The lintel above it weighs about 120 tons.
Little is known about who lay inside the tomb. The link to Agamemnon probably dates only to the 18th century. One listing for this Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens mentions the site museum. Its finds include pottery, weapons and jewellery.
One operator lists 2 hours and 15 minutes at Mycenae, while another lists 105 minutes for the stop. Plan that time well for this Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens.
Why is the ancient theatre of Epidaurus known for its sound?
Visitors talk about the sound at Epidaurus first. One operator says a coin dropped in the centre is audible in the highest seat. For that reason the theatre is a highlight of every Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens.
Pausanias credits the architect Polykleitos the Younger and puts the building at about 340 to 300 BC. Asclepius was the ancient god of medicine, and the theatre sits at the south-eastern corner of his sanctuary. Up to 14,000 spectators fit in its seats.
The shape of the seating helps the sound. A walkway splits the auditorium into a lower part with 12 sections and an upper part with 22. The design rests on three marking centres. This gave the architects good acoustics and a clear view. Judge the sound yourself when this Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens reaches the tiers.
The full story is more careful than the coin tale. Tour guides tell visitors that all 14,000 spectators heard almost every spoken word. Measurements moderate that claim. Sounds can be noticed throughout, but a voice needs good projection.
Seat rows cut from limestone hold back deep noises like the hum of a crowd. The sharper sounds of the stage are boosted.
Sound was only part of the purpose. Epidaurus was a celebrated healing centre of the Classical world. Ill people slept in a big hall, and in their dreams the god told them what to do. Worship of Asclepius included concerts and plays in the theatre: music, singing and dramatic games.
Watching drama was thought to help mental and physical health. Mycenae lies on the same route, so each Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens joins royal tombs with healing. Restoration has brought the theatre back close to its first shape. The stage building is the one part only partly preserved.
What can you do in Nafplio, the first capital of modern Greece?
In Nafplio you can wander the old town, see the Bourtzi castle and climb or drive up to Palamidi fortress. Modern Greece first governed from here, and the stop rounds off every Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens.
Nafplio’s old town sits on a finger of land reaching into the Argolic Gulf. One travel site says all the major sights sit inside it and are easy to cover on foot. The main square is Syntagma Square, ringed by Venetian-style buildings.
The Archaeological Museum stands on that square. Its key exhibit is a bronze suit of armour from the 13th century BC, once worn by a Mycenaean soldier.
The capital story is told in the streets too. After the Greek War of Independence, Nafplio became the first capital under Governor Kapodistrias. He was killed at the church of St Spyridon, which still shows traces of the bullet.
This Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens gains a modern chapter here. The Venetians raised Palamidi, which has eight bastions, on a hill that is 216 metres tall. The Greek Revolution’s hero Theodoros Kolokotronis was imprisoned in the Miltiades bastion.
You can drive up to Palamidi or climb the well-known 999 steps. A day-trip blog says the true count is closer to 857. Bourtzi is a small Venetian fortress on an islet in the harbour. It once protected the town from naval attacks, and the blog says boats run out to it in summer.
A coastal walkway leads from the harbour towards Arvanitia Beach. During this Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens, time in town is limited, so plan what you want. For one small-group operator, entry to Bourtzi, Acronafplia and Palamidi sits on the not-included list.
The blog suggests two to three hours in Nafplio, and more if you climb Palamidi. Ask what this Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens allows in town.
What do you wear and bring for a day at the Argolis sites?
Comfortable shoes, a hat, sunglasses and water make up the kit for a Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens. The ancient sites have uneven ground and little shade.
One tour operator asks its guests to pack four things. A travel blog explains why: Mycenae is exposed, with very little shade, uneven ground and steep paths. Decent shoes matter on that kind of ground, and so do a hat and water.
- Comfy shoes
- A bottle of water
- A hat and sunglasses
- Comfortable clothes
The sun is the next thing to plan for. The same blog says Mycenae is better in the morning, before it gets hot. In summer it calls the site punishing in the heat and advises a very early start. For Palamidi, the fortress above Nafplio, it says to avoid noon and choose a time near dawn or dusk.
Your bag for the Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens also changes with the season. Spring and autumn win the blog’s vote, because the temperatures suit walking across exposed archaeological sites. Nafplio is pleasant then, without summer crowds.
Winter is different. Mycenae can be cold and wet, so bring an extra layer and a coat that keeps rain out. Fewer tourists walk the site then, so a winter Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens is quieter.
What else do travellers ask about a Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens?
Is the Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens on World Heritage ground?
Yes. UNESCO added the archaeological site of Mycenae to its World Heritage List together with the nearby site of Tiryns. The Treasury of Atreus forms part of that listing. The sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus, with its ancient theatre, has a listing of its own. Both entries praise the outstanding architecture of the sites.
What is Tiryns, the site listed next to Mycenae?
Tiryns is a Mycenaean archaeological site in Argolis. It was a hill fort that became one of the important centres of the Mycenaean world. Its walls gave the city the Homeric epithet “mighty walled Tiryns”. Its main features were its palace and its Cyclopean tunnels. Myth says the hero Heracles lived there during his labours.
Can you watch a play in the Epidaurus theatre?
Yes, the theatre is still used for ancient drama. The Epidaurus Festival runs in the summer months and continues today. It became an annual event after the Second World War. The soprano Maria Callas sang Norma and Medea there in the festival. Anyone taking a Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens sees the stage that hosts those plays.
Where is Argolis, and what is its main town?
Argolis lies in the Peloponnese, on its north-eastern side. Mycenae, Tiryns, Epidaurus and Nafplio all sit inside it. The regional unit of Argolis has Nafplio as its capital. The city looks onto the Argolic Gulf, and its old town stands on a peninsula. It is an important tourist destination.
Is a Mycenae Epidaurus Nafplio day trip from Athens enough, or is a night in Nafplio better?
A travel wiki calls Nafplio a romantic town with cosy streets. It also calls the town a great place to stay for travelling around the Peloponnese. A travel blog adds that Nafplio is a year-round town. A night there gives you more time in Argolis than one day does. The evening stays free for the old town.