Day 1: Arrival

We make our way to Athens and settle into our centrally-located hotel. Depending on arrival times, your tour director will host an introductory talk and included welcome dinner either today or tomorrow.

Day 2: Athens Acropolis, Pnyx and Acropolis Museum

We begin with a short stroll to the most famous of all the sites of Greece – the Acropolis. This was the sacred heart of Athens, adorned with a host of glorious monuments celebrating the city’s rise to pre-eminence amongst the city-states of Greece. Pride of place goes to the Parthenon, the magnificent temple to the city’s patron goddess Athena, built between 447 and 438 BC as part of the greater Periklean building project. Additional temples and a monumental gateway complete the 5th century BC ensemble representing the peak of classical Greek architecture.

We continue our stroll by heading to the New Acropolis Museum via the Pnyx, the political heart of Athens and the earliest and most important site in the creation of democracy. The stunning New Acropolis Museum opened in 2009 and was built to house every artifact found on the Acropolis and surrounding slopes. It’s three floors provide a complete history of the rock from it’s distant past to the end of antiquity, with a wonderful collection of sculptures culminating on the third floor with the famous Parthenon marbles and a fabulous view of the Acropolis.

Day 3: Athens Greek and Roman Agoras and National Archaeological Museum

A stroll through the pedestrianised streets of the historic Plaka district of Athens brings us to the Greek and Roman Agoras, the administrative, cultural and commercial heart of the ancient city. Here, a range of  civic and public buildings provide the most informative view of ancient society spanning more than 1000 years, from the reforms of Solon in the early 6th century BC to Byzantine rule in the early 5th century AD. Famous landmarks include the Temple of Hephaestus, the best preserved of all Greek temples in Greece, the fabulously reconstructed Stoa of Attalus, now the site museum, the beautiful Tower of Winds and the huge Library of Hadrian.

In the afternoon we take a panoramic coach tour of the city, and conclude with a visit to the National Archaeological Museum to see its unrivalled collections of Greek works of art from all over Greece, the best place to remind ourselves of the profound artistic achievements of ancient Greece.

Day 4: To Nafplion via Ancient Corinth

Today we leave Athens and head for the Argolid, crossing the strikingly deep Corinth Canal which cuts through the isthmus between Attica and the Peloponnese. Commanding the isthmus, and with harbours looking both east and west, we find ancient Corinth, one of the foremost city states of ancient Greece. The city was a flourishing centre of commerce which became famous for its cosmopolitan and decadent living, as we know from the well-known epistle of Saint Paul, who spent some time here.

A little further on we come to the charming city of Nafplion, our base for the next four nights. With its picturesque waterfront setting and colourful, historic architecture, Nafplion is one of Greece’s most beautiful small cities. Founded in antiquity, it has seen Byzantine, Frankish, Venetian and Turkish influences over the centuries. With Greek independence in 1829, the city was chosen as the first capital of the newly born Greek state, before the title passed to Athens 5 years later.  Today, the marble-paved Old Town is a delightful mix of Venetian and Neoclassical buildings, Turkish fountains and Bougainvillea-clad courtyards and balconies.

Day 5: Nafplion, Tyrins and Epidavros

We start today with a visit to the Nafplion archaeological museum, which provides an excellent introduction to the archaeology of the Argolid. It exhibits the findings from many of the sites we are visiting, including the impressive Mycenaean weaponry from Dendra, and large Mycenaean figurines from Midea and Tiryns. The latter site, Tiryns, is our next visit. It lies just outside Nafplion and might be regarded as the city’s prehistoric precursor. Much less known than Mycenae, its massive ‘Cyclopean’ walls are no less impressive and raise interesting questions about the Mycenaean world.

We conclude the day at the peaceful sanctuary of Epidaurus, the most renowned Asclepeion of ancient times. This centre of ancient medicine is now an extensive archaeological site, famous for its well-preserved 4th century BC theatre but actually full of a range of facilities dedicated to holistic health and healing.

Day 6: Medea, Dendra, Argive Heraion and Mycenae

The acropolis of Midea is one of the three dominant Mycenaean centres of the Argolid, along with Mycenae and Tiryns, and is located halfway between the two. Built on the top of a conical hill, it is the highest acropolis of the three, with commanding views across the entire plain and the Argolic Gulf. Its importance is evident from its impressive circular fortification, its place in mythology, and its rich cemetery in neighbouring Dendra, The cemetery is one of the richest Mycenaean cemeteries in the Peloponnese, a dense concentration of tombs all differing from one another and appearing to imitate the houses of the living. Their monumental construction and rich offerings tell us much about the complexity of Mycenaean society.

Located midway between Midea and Mycenae we find the Argive Heraion, the Sanctuary of Hera. Use of this site dates back to the Mycenaean period and beyond, but it reached its peak in Archaic and Classical times as an historically venerated sanctuary to the patron goddess of the nearby city of Argos. As such it became the most sacred site of the Argolid, a shared place of worship for communities across the plain and of sociopolitical advantage to the city-state of Argos.

A thoroughly fascinating morning has set the scene for the most well-known site of the day, the Bronze Age palace of Mycenae. As the home of the legendary king Agamemnon, ruler of the Greeks in the Trojan War, Mycenae has received enormous interest ever since it was identified as such, and the name has come to epitomise the origins of Greek identity and convergence of myth and reality. The ancient citadel was surrounded by gigantic stone walls, with the famous Lion Gate entrance and the grave circle full of gold treasure. The Treasury of Atreus and the site archaeological museum round off the day.

Day 7: Tegea, Sparta & Mistras

Heading for Sparta, we drive through the spectacular mountains of Arcadia, a region synonymous with the rural charm of an ancient, pastoral way of life. We make a stop at Tegea, near Tripoli, to examine the archaeology of one of the oldest and most powerful cities of Arcadia, and probably the most celebrated of all the Arcadian towns in Mycenaean times. By Archaic times it was well known for its Temple to Athena and for curbing the expansion of Sparta, until 560 BC when it was forced to become a member of the Sparta-dominated Peloponnesian League.

Arriving in Sparta, we explore the archaeology of the great rival of Athens, surrounded in mystique and legendary as an invincible military power with a highly distinctive Spartan way of life. The city was famous in ancient times, first as the home of King Menelaus and his beautiful queen Helen, whose abduction by Paris had triggered the Trojan War, and then as the city whose army had ensured Greek victory in the Persian Wars and eventual superiority over Athens in Peloponnesian Wars. We see several monuments form the ancient city, and also visit Mystras, a breath-taking set of medieval ruins overlooking Sparta, and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Mystras was the centre of Byzantine power in southern Greece, renowned for its Byzantine culture, art and philosophy until captured by the Turks in 1460. The Old Town is surrounded by Byzantine walls with the imposing Palace of the Despots on top of the hill, and several outstanding examples of Late Byzantine church architecture with magnificent frescoes.

Day 8: Lerna, Argos and Nemea

We begin today on the shores of the Bay of Nafplion at Lerna, an unassuming prehistoric site but actually one of the most important in Greece because of its early date. Neolithic and Bronze Age houses have been discovered here, and the settlement flourished in the Early Bronze Age, some 1000 years before Mycenae’s golden age. Clay seals testify to the existence of an early urban system with a central authority, and buildings included a large, rectangular, two-storey construction with a tile roof, named the “House of Tiles”. The site passed into mythology as an entrance to the underworld guarded by the Hydra, the many-headed water snake slain by Herakles.

The nearby city of Argos has been inhabited continuously for around 7000 years. Believed to be the birthplace of Perseus, it was a major Mycenaean stronghold and featured prominently in Homer’s Iliad, but it reached its height in the 7th century BC when it dominated other cities in the Peloponnese. Today, we can see the ancient Agora and a very large Hellenistic theatre.

Our final visit is to Nemea, one of the lesser-visited sites of Greece but significant as a panhellenic sanctuary which hosted the Nemean Games, and as the place where Hercules slayed the lion. The site has a number monuments associated with the games and religious practices, including an impressive stadium and Temple of Zeus. This area is also well-known for its vineyards, so to add to the fun we include lunch and wine-tasting today in a local winery. We then head for Athens where we spend our last night.

Day 9: Departure

Time to make our way home, or why not stay longer and make the most of your time in Greece – feel free to ask us for information and ideas.