Feel that shiver of recognition when legend and landscape meet: lion‑guarded gateways, echoing theatres, marble starting lines worn smooth by ancient athletes. Then let it all sink in over shared tables, local wine, and slow evenings in Greek towns alongside your archaeologist guide and fellow travelers.
This itinerary is structured as a three‑part journey through palaces, sanctuaries, and cities/fortresses, showing how power in Greece changed over time.
This 8-night, 9-day archaeological tour explores major UNESCO World Heritage sites across mainland Greece with expert archaeologist guides. Starting from Athens, the journey covers Ancient Corinth, Epidaurus, Mycenae, Tiryns, Sparta, Mystras, Ancient Messene, Methoni Castle, the Palace of Nestor, the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae, Ancient Olympia, and Delphi. The tour combines visits to significant archaeological sites with stays in carefully selected boutique hotels, local dining experiences, and a visit to a Nemean winery. Private guided tours at each location provide an in-depth historical context of these ancient Greek centers of power, healing, athletics, and prophecy.
This 9‑day journey is designed for travelers who want to understand Greece’s past rather than just see it, with a maximum of 12 guests and a professional archaeologist leading you through each major site. You travel by comfortable mini‑bus, stay in carefully chosen boutique hotels in Athens, Nafplio, Kalamata, Olympia, and Delphi, and enjoy a thoughtful pace with time to absorb what you’re seeing over long meals and evening strolls.
Over the course of the week, the tour traces three interlocking “empires” of power in the Peloponnese. First come the Late Bronze Age palaces of Mycenae, Tiryns, and Nestor’s Palace above the Messenian coast, where you walk megaron halls, storerooms, and tholos tombs that once anchored Mycenaean kings and their courts. Standing on these citadels, looking out over land and sea, you start to feel how a palatial world managed harvests, trade, and ritual from within its walls.
The focus then shifts to the sacred networks of Classical Greece. You experience the healing sanctuary and theatre of Epidaurus, the athletic grounds and altars of Olympia, the remote mountain temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae, and finally the oracle of Delphi, where city‑states once brought questions and offerings to Apollo. Here, power looks different: city delegations, pilgrims, and athletes competing for prestige and divine favour, leaving behind temples, treasuries, and inscriptions instead of palace archives.
Along the way, you also encounter later centers of power that reshaped the same landscape. In Ancient Corinth and Ancient Messene, you walk planned streets, agoras, and fortifications that speak of rivalry between Greek city‑states; in Sparta and the Byzantine hill‑city of Mystras, you see a militarised society and a later imperial capital sharing the same valley; at Methoni, you explore a great Venetian sea‑fortress that once guarded Mediterranean trade routes. By the time you return to Athens, the Peloponnese reads like a layered atlas of power – from palaces to sanctuaries, city‑states, castles by the sea, and a mountain oracle that once spoke for Greece.
Throughout, the pace remains unhurried but full, with private guided visits at the key sites and museums, a winery lunch in Nemea, seafood and village dinners, and free time for your own walks or rest. Expect to be on your feet at sites for several hours a day, with comfortable transport, gorgeous hotels, and evenings that balance rich conversation with time to simply enjoy being in Greece.
We meet this evening at our boutique hotel in central Athens for a drink and dinner where we watch the monuments of the Acropolis light up as evening falls.
Meals: D
Overnight: Athens
After breakfast at our hotel, we set off for the Peloponnese, crossing the mighty Corinth Canal and coming to the archaeological site of Ancient Corinth. We take a private tour this once-mightiest of all the Greek city-states with our archaeologist guide.
We travel then to the idyllic ancient harbor of Epidaurus for a seaside lunch before continuing on to visit our first UNESCO World Heritage site – the Sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus. Here, our archaeologist guide leads us on a private tour of the Sanctuary of Asclepius, the god of medicine, and the marvelous Theater of Epidaurus.
We end our day at a traditional Peloponnese taverna in the gorgeous narrow alleys of Nafplio as the sun sets on our first full day of adventuring in the Peloponnese!
Meals: B, L, D
Overnight: Nafplio
We begin our day from the port of Nafplio. After breakfast at our hotel, we travel to Ancient Mycenae, where our archaeologist guide takes us on a private tour of this outstanding UNESCO World Heritage Mycenaean fortress of Agamemnon.
We then head to the Peloponnese wine country – the Nemean region to have lunch at a renowned winery.
We travel back to Nafplio via another UNESCO World Heritage site, the citadel of Tiryns, where our archaeologist guide gives us a private tour of this small but impressive site with its mighty Cyclopean Walls.
The evening is at your leisure in lovely Nafplio.
Meals: B, L
Overnight: Nafplio
After breakfast at our hotel, our tour leader takes us on a tour of Nafplio town, including the Palamidi fortress and the Archaeological Museum.
We set off for Ancient Sparta, where we tour the archaeological site of Ancient Sparta and the Museum of Sparta. Lunch is at your leisure in Sparta town before we travel the short distance to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Mystras.
We have a private tour of this fortified town, where the Palace of the Despots is the last surviving Byzantine palace. Mystras is a UNESCO World Heritage site because of the importance of its Late Byzantine and Post-Byzantine art. It is a sad and fascinating site which we come to appreciate on our tour with our archaeologist guide.
Continuing our journey west, we arrive at our hotel for two nights in Kalamata.
Meals: B, D
Overnight: Kalamata
After breakfast at our hotel, we head out for a private tour of the large classical city-state of Ancient Messene with our archaeologist guide. We eat a fresh and authentic lunch at a local taverna in this fertile area of the Peloponnese.
The afternoon and evening are free for you to explore Kalamata.
Meals: B, L
Overnight: Kalamata
After breakfast, we drive to the far southwest of the Peloponnese, to the Castle of Methoni. The Castle is a medieval fortification of the port of Messenia. It was built by the Venetians in the 13th century.
We travel to the charming seaside town of Pilos (Ancient Navarino / Nea Kastro), an important historical site for naval and land battles between city-states and later, empires. After a seaside lunch in the nearby village of Giavolos, we tour the archaeological site of the Palace of Nestor.
In the evening, you are free to choose a seaside taverna for dinner in our Kalamata base.
Meals: B, L
Overnight: Kalamata
After breakfast, we journey to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, beginning with the Temple of Apollo Epicuris and Bassae. We then travel to Olympia, where we settle into our boutique hotel.
After lunch, we walk to the birthplace of the Olympic Games, Ancient Olympia. Our archaeologist guide takes us on a tour of this lovely sanctuary with its impressive athletic facilities.
Dinner tonight is at your leisure among the many tavernas and restaurants of Olympia.
Meals: B, L
Overnight: Olympia
After breakfast, we drive across the Gulf of Corinth at Patras and into the mountains to Delphi.
After lunch, we take a private tour with our archaeologist guide of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Ancient Delphi and its very impressive museum collections.
For our last evening together, we feast on local cuisine and wine at a restaurant with a spectacular view over the mountains of Delphi.
Meals: B, L, D
Overnight: Delphi
After breakfast, it’s time to return to Athens, where our tour ends. It’s farewell for now until we see you back on tour with us again.
Meals: B
Dr Elena Soulioti is a specialist in Aegean Bronze Age and Minoan archaeology with a PhD from Durham University on the social role of Minoan symbols. For more than 25 years she has combined cutting-edge research with inspiring on-site storytelling as a licensed Greek tour guide throughout mainland Greece and the islands.
Elena’s research focuses on the intersection of material culture, symbolism, and religious practice in Bronze Age Aegean societies, especially the Minoans. She has presented at international conferences in Greece and the UK on topics such as Minoan religious symbols, the “sacred knot,” and semiotic approaches to ancient imagery.
Her fieldwork includes major Minoan sites across Crete, with three seasons at the Palace of Zakros, studies at the Makrygialos Minoan Villa, and extensive work on unpublished pottery in the museums of Heraklion and Aghios Nikolaos. Beyond Crete she has participated in projects from the Neolithic site of Dispilio in northern Greece to the Epidaurus Limera surface survey in Laconia, a direct link to the landscapes explored on Peloponnese itineraries.
Elena graduated from the National School of Tourist Guides in Athens and has worked as a licensed professional guide across Greece since the late 1990s, guiding in Greek, English, Spanish, and German. Over nearly three decades, she has designed and led highly specialized tours for universities, alumni groups, schools, cultural associations, agrotourism and economic-life programs, ANZAC and modern history tours, as well as bespoke family and small-group journeys.
She has served as Vice President and Secretary of the Association of Tourist Guides in Athens, organising multi-day training seminars and educational excursions that help other guides stay current with new archaeological discoveries and interpretive approaches. Elena also collaborates with the Municipality of Athens and leading museums to offer free public guided tours of sites and collections such as the Archaeological Site of Aristotle’s Lyceum and the Museum of Cycladic Art, where her narratives make the city’s layered past accessible to a wide local and international audience.
Elena’s tours are characterised by clear, engaging narratives that connect archaeological evidence with myth, philosophy, and everyday life, always tailored for an intelligent general audience. Guests frequently comment on how she weaves complex historical and philosophical themes into vivid stories that make sites feel alive without overwhelming them with jargon.
Her passion for education extends beyond the road: she has organised interdisciplinary workshops on symbolism, contributed to conferences on cultural tourism, and even created radio-style “guided tour” broadcasts for Greek audiences. These activities reflect her belief that a guide is an “invisible ambassador” of Greece, responsible not only for accurate information but also for creating meaningful, human experiences of place.
It was an unforgettable experience to travel and get to know these places accompanied by a great guide like Elena Soulioti, who with her great wisdom and knowledge turned each visit we made into a memorable experience.
The best human team that I can remember on a trip: starting with the excellent guide (Elena Soulioti) who accompanied us throughout the trip… In short, an unforgettable experience and highly recommended.
The guide Elena Soulioti has accompanied us throughout the trip, sharing her knowledge with great love and professionalism.
