Peloponnese tours cross the Corinth Canal from Athens into the southern mainland of Greece, where Mycenae, Epidaurus, Olympia and Mystras lie within one region. Compare our tours in Greece before you choose a route.
This page covers what Peloponnese tours include, the Corinth Canal gateway, the Argolis sites of Mycenae, Epidaurus and Nafplio, Ancient Olympia and Ilia, Sparta, Mystras and Monemvasia, Messinia and Pylos, Arcadia and Achaea with Kalavrita, and where travellers stay between routes.
What do Peloponnese tours include?
Peloponnese tours are trips by road through the southern tip of mainland Greece. They last from one full day to ten days or more, and local operators run them. Listings offer day excursions, cultural tours and road trips that join ancient sites, castle towns and the coast.
Peloponnese tours cover the region by road, and each listing sets its own length. One operator lists a full-day group excursion. Another lists highlights tours of two to three days and cultural tours of four to seven days. A road-trip plan runs ten days and 830 kilometres, with drives of one to three hours.
The region is where the Greek mainland ends in the south. Wikipedia gives the peninsula’s area as 21,549.6 square kilometres. Greeka compares its outline to a plane tree leaf. Seven major regions divide it. Elis lies in the west, Achaea in the north and Messenia in the southwest. Corinthia, Argolis, Arcadia and Laconia fill the rest.
Peloponnese tours also come as bike trips, self-drive holidays and food and cookery holidays. One listing gives daily cycling distances of 30 to 80 kilometres. The same listing offers small group trips and tailor-made tours. It adds mountain biking, rafting and sea kayaking for families. Local instructors run the activities, the listing says.
One operator page lists the Corinth Canal, Nafplio, Mycenae, Epidaurus, Olympia and Monemvasia as its stops. Later sections of this page cover them. Our Peloponnese photo gallery has pictures of the region to browse before you pick a route. Another operator warns that distances look short on a map, but mountain roads call for a realistic pace.
Local operators run Peloponnese tours. One operator page says a local Greek travel agency owns and runs it. Another says its expert local tour guides explain how the sites once looked and bring the myths to life. A third lists fly-drive trips of eight to fifteen days. A camper club lists itineraries of ten days to three weeks.
How do Peloponnese tours reach the region from Athens?
Peloponnese tours enter the region by crossing the narrow Isthmus of Corinth. The Corinth Canal cuts through it, and bridges carry a road, a motorway and a railway across the water. Wikipedia gives the canal’s length as 6.4 kilometres. It links the Ionian Sea with the Aegean.
One operator page says its Peloponnese tours begin with a stop at the Corinth Canal. Wikipedia gives the channel’s depth as eight metres and its width at the surface as 24.6 metres. The near-vertical rock walls climb to 90 metres above sea level. No locks interrupt the channel, and builders finished it in the late nineteenth century.
Rulers of antiquity wanted to cut through the narrow isthmus. In the seventh century B.C. the tyrant Periander gave up on a cut. He laid the Diolkos instead, a stone track along which ships were towed. Parts of that track still lie beside the modern canal. For practical details, read our general information about the Peloponnese.
The isthmus has the Gulf of Corinth on one side, the Saronic Gulf on the other. One road-trip plan for Peloponnese tours heads out from Athens over the Corinth Canal. It puts the first stop two and a half hours out of Athens. Another listing calls the peninsula a 90-minute drive from Athens. Both figures come from listings.
Ancient Corinth was a city-state roughly midway between Athens and Sparta. Its population stood at 90,000 in 400 B.C. The city was known for its wealth, thanks to its strategic position. Messengers and traders bound for the Peloponnese on land all went through the isthmus. Today’s city of Corinth stands about five kilometres northeast of the ruins.
Above the ancient ruins rises Acrocorinth, a monolithic rock. Wikipedia says defenders fell back on this fortress again and again, because it commanded the isthmus. Three circuit walls ringed the hill. A temple to Aphrodite crowned the top. Peloponnese tours can also be private; one listing offers a private visit to Corinth, the canal and Mycenae.
What do Peloponnese tours show in Mycenae and Epidaurus?
Peloponnese tours reach Mycenae, a Bronze Age citadel on a hill 274 metres high. They also reach Epidaurus, where the ancient theatre holds up to 14,000 people. Both places lie in Argolis, in the east of the peninsula, and UNESCO lists both of them.
Peloponnese tours that stop in Argolis enter the east of the peninsula, Wikipedia says. Two seas touch the region: the Saronic Gulf borders the northeast, and the Argolic Gulf washes the south coast. Tiryns, a second Mycenaean fortress, lies 20 kilometres south of Mycenae. Myth says Heracles worked through his Twelve Labours from there.
Mycenae sits on a 274-metre hill, roughly 120 kilometres from Athens. Argos lies 11 kilometres to the south. A visit to ancient Mycenae starts at the Lion Gate. A relieving triangle above the door carries the weight of the stones. Later ages thought the one-eyed Cyclopes had built the walls, because the blocks were so massive.
Peloponnese tours also visit the royal graves. Wikipedia counts six shaft graves in Grave Circle A, holding nine women, eight men and two children. Finds there include the Mask of Agamemnon and the Cup of Nestor. The Treasury of Atreus, the biggest of Mycenae’s nine tholos tombs, lost its contents to looters long ago.
Polykleitos the Younger designed the Epidaurus theatre late in the fourth century B.C. Romans added 21 rows to the original 34. Tour guides say speech carries clearly to every one of the 14,000 seats. Measurements moderate that claim. Limestone rows filter out low rumbles, like a murmur from the crowd, and amplify the high pitches of the stage.
Peloponnese tours add the sanctuary of Asclepius, about 8 kilometres from Epidaurus town. Wikipedia says the ill travelled to the site hoping to be cured. Sick visitors slept in a big hall and believed the god advised them in their dreams. A shorter option is the Mycenae, Epidaurus and Nafplio day trip from Athens.
What do Peloponnese tours show in Nafplio, Tolo and Porto Heli?
Peloponnese tours show Nafplio, the first capital of the young Greek state, on the Argolic Gulf. The town has Palamidi, a Venetian hilltop fortress, and Bourtzi, another fortress in the harbour. Tolo and Porto Heli, two summer resorts, sit on bays of the same gulf.
Peloponnese tours reach Nafplio, the capital of Argolis. The young Greek state governed from the town until King Otto picked Athens instead. Count Kapodistrias, who led the newly freed country, first stepped onto the Greek mainland at Nafplio. He made it the official capital a year later. Members of the Mavromichalis family killed him outside Saint Spyridon church.
A peninsula carries the old town into the gulf. Its colourful buildings show Venetian influence. Bourtzi rises from the middle of the harbour, and its name means tower in Ottoman Turkish and Arabic. Marshes once cut the town off, but landfill has almost doubled its land. Wikipedia lists Nafplio as the top spot for weekend and one-day excursions.
Peloponnese tours visit Palamidi, a fortress that crowns a 216-metre hill. Venetian rule produced it in the early eighteenth century. Antonio Giancix drew the plans, and Pierre de la Salle, a military engineer from France, did the building. It has eight bastions. One itinerary counts 999 steps to the top and says Greek troops stormed it in one night.
Tolo falls inside the Asini municipal unit, in Argolis. Homer wrote about its bay, which is part of the Argolic Gulf. Venetian ships used the bay as a base in the Morean War. A small church from that time still stands. From the mid-twentieth century, tourism turned Tolo into a summer resort.
Peloponnese tours that reach Porto Heli stand in a summer resort town 40 kilometres south-east of Nafplio. Wikipedia lists ferry connections from the town to the island of Poros, Spetses and Hydra. Spetses sits 6 kilometres south of Porto Heli. The ancient city of Halieis lies near Porto Heli. Pleasure boats winter in the yacht marina inside the bay.
What do Peloponnese tours show in Ancient Olympia?
Peloponnese tours show the sanctuary of Zeus at Ancient Olympia. Athletes met here every four years. The first contests date from the eighth century B.C. They ran until the fourth century A.D. The ruins lie in the Alfeios valley of the western Peloponnese.
The town goes by the Greek name Archaia Olympia, meaning Ancient Olympia. Its sacred ground, the Altis, belonged chiefly to Zeus, though other gods had worshippers there too. Wikipedia gives its size as over 183 metres a side. Walls enclosed it on all sides but the north, where Mount Kronos rose. Wikipedia says over 760 significant buildings stood there.
Peloponnese tours reach the Temple of Zeus, which builders worked on from about 472 to 456 B.C. Wikipedia describes it as the classic example of a fully developed Doric temple. Inside stood Phidias’s statue of Zeus in gold and ivory, about 13 metres high. It earned a place among the seven wonders listed by Antipater of Sidon.
Hera’s temple at Olympia is older than all the others there, dating to about 580 B.C. It first served Hera and Zeus together, until Zeus received his own temple. Wikipedia says its altar is where the Olympic flame begins its journey. A parabolic mirror gathers the sun’s rays to light it. A torch then carries it onward.
On Peloponnese tours the Philippeion stands out as a round building in the Altis. Wikipedia calls it the only structure there made for humans, not gods. The sculptor Leochares made it as a memorial after Philip II won at Chaeronea in 338 B.C. Eighteen Ionic columns formed its outer ring. Only part of it still stands.
The ancient stadium is a simple field. Curbing marks the start line and the end line. Athletes came in under an arched, vaulted corridor, and spectators sat on the sloping sides. The length of this field became the standard stadion, the ancient Greek measure of distance. The first major games here are said to date to the 720s B.C.
One listing says longer Peloponnese tours stop at Olympia for its museum, its stadium and the Temple of Zeus. Its first building was Greece’s earliest museum outside Athens. Twelve rooms hold the exhibits in the main building. The star pieces are the Nike of Paionios and a Hermes holding the infant Dionysus, a work attributed to Praxiteles.
What do Peloponnese tours show in the rest of Ilia?
Beyond Olympia, Peloponnese tours can add Pyrgos, the regional capital, the coastal town of Zacharo and the port of Katakolo. Ilia, which also goes by the name Elis, is an old region on the west side of the Peloponnese. The modern regional unit belongs to Western Greece.
Peloponnese tours that cross Ilia move through land that Wikipedia calls nearly the same as ancient Elis. Ruins of the cities of Elis, Epitalion and Olympia lie here. Wikipedia gives the region a length of 100 km and a width of around 55 km. Fertile land is about one third of it, and mountains fill the rest.
Pyrgos is the capital of Ilia. It stands on a plain, with the Ionian Sea 4 km away and Olympia 16 km to the east. The name Pyrgos means tower in the Greek language. Wikipedia says it grew strongly in the late nineteenth century, when raisin exports left through the nearby port of Katakolo.
Peloponnese tours that include Zacharo stop in a coastal town beside the Gulf of Kyparissia, 18 km south of Olympia. Kaiafas Lake lies northwest of the town, between Mount Lapithas and the sea. Wikipedia lists the long beach and the thermal springs of Kaiafas among its draws. Our page on Zaharo, Kaiafa, Vasses and Katakolo covers the area.
The village of Katakolo occupies a headland that overlooks the Ionian Sea. Pyrgos is 11 km to its east. Wikipedia calls its port a popular cruise stop, with a chance to visit Olympia. In ancient times Olympia’s natural harbour lay at Agios Andreas, northwest of the village. Wikipedia says a railway station connects it with Pyrgos and Olympia.
Peloponnese tours that go on to Bassae climb to a temple site 1,131 metres up on Cotylion Mountain. Wikipedia places it in Messenia, 6 km south of Andritsaina, a village in southeastern Elis. The Temple of Apollo Epicurius dates from 450 to 400 B.C. Wikipedia adds that Bassae was Greece’s first entry on the World Heritage List.
What do Peloponnese tours show in Sparta, Mystras and Monemvasia?
In Laconia, Peloponnese tours join three places. They are the modern town of Sparta, the ruins of Byzantine Mystras and the walled rock town of Monemvasia. Wikipedia places Laconia in the southeast of the peninsula, with Sparta as its capital. Each place has its own setting.
Peloponnese tours reach Sparta, once the leading land power of the Greek world. It rose to that rank in the seventh century B.C. Thucydides wrote that the city looked like a group of villages. The remains include a theatre, a temple of Artemis Orthia and the Menelaion shrine by the river Eurotas. The modern town dates from the eighteen-thirties.
Mystras stands above Sparta on a slope of the Taygetus mountains. Until its fall in the fifteenth century, the despot who ruled the Byzantine Morea lived here. UNESCO listed the site in the late nineteen-eighties as an unusually intact Byzantine city. The slope made wheeled vehicles impractical, so a good part of the streets are footpaths.
Peloponnese tours cross to Monemvasia, a medieval town built on a rock beside the Myrtoan Sea. A sandy isthmus, 400 metres in length, links the rock with the mainland. Its name blends the Greek words for single and approach. The upper town on the plateau stands empty today, and the lower town is entered through its west gate.
Gytheio, on the Mani peninsula, was the seaport of ancient Sparta, about 40 kilometres away. Wikipedia calls it the largest town in Mani. The peninsula is known for tower houses, built as fortified family compounds, and it ends at Cape Matapan. South of Areopoli lies the stalactite cave of Diros, a major tourist attraction.
Peloponnese tours between Laconia and Messinia meet Mount Taygetus, the highest mountain in the Peloponnese at about 2,400 metres. Byzantine writers knew it as Pentadaktylos, which is Greek for five-fingered. Wikipedia describes it as largely covered with pine trees. Two roads join the regions: one winds through a mountain pass, the other bypasses the range via the Mani.
What do Peloponnese tours show in Messinia?
Across Messinia, Peloponnese tours combine castles, a Mycenaean palace and an ancient city. Wikipedia places the region in the southwest of the peninsula, with Kalamata as its capital and largest city. It ties the region’s tourism to the Palace of Nestor, Ancient Messene and four castles.
Peloponnese tours stop at Kalamata, which governs Messinia as its capital. Only Patras is bigger on the peninsula. Wikipedia counts 72,906 residents in the wider municipality, beside the Nedon River. It is also the chief port of the region. The city is known for Kalamata olives and olive oil. Wikipedia lists the Villehardouin castle among its sights.
Pylos is the chief harbour of the Bay of Navarino, on the southwest tip of the peninsula. The narrow island of Sphacteria shelters the bay. On the twentieth of October in the eighteen-twenties, ships of Britain, France and Russia wiped out the Ottoman-Egyptian fleet. An obelisk on the central square of Pylos honours the three admirals.
Peloponnese tours also visit the Palace of Nestor, 17 kilometres north of Pylos. Wikipedia describes a two-storey building with store rooms, workshops, baths and a sewage system. A fire destroyed it in the thirteenth century B.C. Diggers found around 1,000 clay tablets in Linear B, which showed that the palace ran the Mycenaean state of Messinia.
Methoni is a village eleven kilometres south of Pylos, with islands that shelter its harbour. Wikipedia says tourism drives its economy, drawn by beaches and a historic castle. A Venetian fleet captured Methoni and Koroni soon after the Fourth Crusade. Koroni still sits on a hill below a Venetian castle. Cervantes spent time at Methoni as a prisoner.
Peloponnese tours inland reach Ancient Messene. Wikipedia says Epaminondas founded a new Messene over the ruins of Ithome in the fourth century B.C. A wall 9 kilometres long, 7 to 9 metres high, ringed the city. Wikipedia names a theatre, a stadium and a council chamber among the buildings. The site won a European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage.
What do Peloponnese tours show in Arcadia and Kalavrita?
Peloponnese tours in Arcadia and Kalavrita show mountain villages, a Frankish castle, a gorge railway and cliff monasteries. Arcadia is a rural, mountainous region in the central and eastern Peloponnese. Kalavrita lies on the Vouraikos river in Achaea, the region that borders Arcadia on the north.
Wikipedia calls Arcadia a rural, mountainous region that covers about 18% of the peninsula. Its capital, Tripoli, stands in a basin about 650 metres above sea level. Mainalo mountains rise on its western side. Peloponnese tours into the highlands can use Tripoli as a base. VisitGreece calls it the headquarters for excursions to the plateau.
Dimitsana is a stone-built village on a mountain slope at 950 metres. Wikipedia says the village library keeps around 35,000 books, manuscripts and papers. An open-air museum near the village is built on water power. The museum includes a tannery, a flour mill and a gunpowder mill. The Philosophou and Prodromou monasteries stand in the Lousios gorge nearby.
Stemnitsa stands higher, at about 1,050 metres. Wikipedia says the village earned a name for its goldsmiths and silversmiths. A public school for the craft has run there since the nineteen-seventies. On Peloponnese tours the main sight at Karytaina is the thirteenth-century Frankish castle on the hilltop. Wikipedia adds a bridge of five arches, 50 metres long.
Achaea is a regional unit in the peninsula’s north-west, and its capital is Patras. Wikipedia calls Patras the third largest Greek city, 215 kilometres west of Athens. Its port is a trade hub for Italy and Western Europe. Every February the city holds a carnival that ranks among Europe’s largest. A bridge at Rio joins it to the mainland.
Peloponnese tours then climb to Kalavrita, 40 kilometres south-east of Patras on the Vouraikos river. The town is the southern end of the rack railway from Diakopto. Italian engineers built it in the late nineteenth century. It runs through the Vouraikos gorge, which is about 20 kilometres long. The river passes steep cliffs, waterfalls and caves in the gorge.
Wikipedia places the Cave of the Lakes near the village of Kastria, 17 kilometres from the town. The Mega Spileo monastery stands 8 kilometres north-east, in a big cave in a steep cliff. Wikipedia says it was reputedly founded in the fourth century. German troops killed 696 boys and men of Kalavrita in December nineteen forty-three, Wikipedia records.
Where do travellers stay between Peloponnese tours?
Between Peloponnese tours, travellers stay in towns such as Nafplio, Olympia, Kalamata, Sparta, Monemvasia and Kalavrita. One road-trip itinerary says a loop with main bases avoids too much packing and unpacking. Nearby highlights then become day trips from each base, it adds.
Peloponnese tours of the Argolic Gulf can use Nafplio as a base. The town sits on that gulf, which Wikipedia puts in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Wikipedia adds that visitors come to the town in every season. Olympia lies in the west, in Elis. Its small village serves the archaeological site beside it.
Kalamata serves as Messenia’s capital and its main port. Wikipedia puts the city on the Nedon river and on the Messenian Gulf. It comes second to Patras in population on the peninsula, with 58,816 residents in the city itself. Sparta is now a provincial town, and Laconia’s regional administration sits there, Wikipedia says.
- For the whole region at once, open Peloponnese hotels and compare the areas side by side.
- Travellers who base themselves on the Argolic Gulf can start with Argolis hotels.
- Olympia hotels cover the small town beside the ancient site in the west.
- A stay in the capital of Messenia begins on the Kalamata hotels page.
- For stops elsewhere in Messenia, turn next to Messinia hotels.
- The town off the east coast has its own page, Monemvasia hotels.
- Across the southern region, the Lakonia hotels page leads to places around Sparta.
- Anyone planning around the town of Sparta can read Sparta hotels.
- In the northern mountains, the Kalavrita hotels page covers the rack railway town.
Monemvasia is a coastal town on the east side of the peninsula. Wikipedia says the seat of its municipality is the town of Molaoi. Peloponnese tours in the north can use Kalavrita as a base. Wikipedia gives the distance to Tripoli as 62 kilometres. It also lists a ski centre that lies on the Chelmos slopes to the east.
Peloponnese tours can mix one-night stops with longer stays, says that itinerary. It names Nafplio, Monemvasia, Mani and Pylos for longer stays. It lists drives of one to three hours between stops. It says mountain roads, archaeological sites and coastal stops need a realistic pace.
What else do travellers ask about Peloponnese tours?
What does the name Peloponnese mean?
Peloponnese tours cover a peninsula named after a hero. Wikipedia traces the name to the hero Pelops, whom legend credits with conquering the entire region. The Greek name Peloponnesos translates as Pelops’ island or peninsula.
Wikipedia lists three names for the same region: the Peloponnese, Peloponnesus and the Morea. Until the nineteenth century, people called the peninsula the Morea, a name that began in the late Middle Ages. That name is still used in everyday speech.
What is the summer weather like, and what is the meltemi?
Peloponnese tours in summer meet a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, Wikipedia says. The Gulf of Corinth has a hot semi-arid climate. More rain falls along the western shore, while the eastern side stays much drier. Sparta, in the Evrotas Valley, sees summer highs above 36 degrees Celsius. Monemvasia logged the warmest night on record for mainland Greece, at 35.9 degrees.
The summer wind is called the meltemi, or the etesians. Its season stretches from late spring into October, Wikipedia says. Recorded frequency is highest in July and August. At Kardamyli, Wikipedia says, mountains largely block it, which leaves the sea unusually calm.
Which local foods and farm products turn up on Peloponnese tours?
Wikipedia lists local specialities such as giosa, a lamb or goat dish, and gogges, a type of pasta. It also names kolokythopita, a pumpkin pie, and diples, a dessert. From the Mani come regali, a lamb soup, and syglino, a pork dish. Tentura is a drink from the Patras area.
Peloponnese tours by car pass local producers who sell honey, wine and freshly pressed olive oil, one self-drive listing says. A road-trip plan says Monemvasia shops sell amygdalota, almond sweets, and samousades filled with almonds, walnuts and thyme honey.
What is Nemea, and what does it offer?
Nemea was an ancient sanctuary of Zeus in the northeast of the peninsula. The Nemean Games took place there every two years, and Wikipedia documents them from the sixth century B.C. Myth says the crown of victory was made of parsley or wild celery. A 36-metre tunnel led athletes into the later stadium.
Wine fans on Peloponnese tours can look to Nemea. Wikipedia says its wine region makes renowned red wines from the Agiorgitiko grape. VisitGreece also lists a tasting of that wine there. Wikipedia adds protected wines from Mantineia, a white, and Patras, a fortified red.
What is Lerna?
Lerna is a region of springs and a vanished lake, south of Argos near the east coast. Strabo wrote that its waters were thought to heal. Myth makes it the lair of the Lernaean Hydra, a multi-headed water snake that Heracles killed as his second labour. In the Early Bronze Age the lake measured an estimated 4.7 kilometres across.
Archaeologists found the House of the Tiles here, a two-storey building from the third millennium B.C. Terracotta tiles sheathed its roof, and fire destroyed it. To plan Peloponnese tours with a stop at Lerna, ask us about a trip to the Peloponnese.