Day trips from Athens
Athens has islands 40 minutes away and a temple at sunset nobody books. Six trips ranked, the ferry timing that decides them, and one to skip.
Photo · K · Pexels
Athens is unusually well placed for day trips: islands forty minutes away, the most significant ancient site in Greece three hours out, and a temple on a headland that is best at sunset.
The ranking below is by how much of the day each one takes, because in Greece that is usually decided by a ferry timetable or a coach.
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1. Cape Sounion, and go for the sunset
Ninety minutes each way along the coast road, to the Temple of Poseidon on a headland 60 metres above the Aegean.
The timing is the whole thing. The site is famous for the sunset and it genuinely earns that: the marble goes gold and the sea is on three sides. Go in the last two hours of daylight and the temple is the best thing near Athens.
Go at noon and it is a small ruin in the sun, and you will wonder what the fuss was.
Getting there: the KTEL bus from central Athens along the coastal route, which is slower than the inland one and much better looking. Or a hire car, which lets you stop at Vouliagmeni on the way back.
Byron carved his name into one of the columns, and you can still find it. The site is run by the ministry of culture, which publishes the summer and winter closing times, and they differ by two hours.
2. Delphi, for the day that justifies the drive
About three hours each way by bus, and the site is worth it.
Delphi is built up the side of Mount Parnassus above a valley of olive trees running down to the sea, and the setting does half the work. The museum is excellent and holds the bronze charioteer, which is one of the finest surviving Greek bronzes.
A full day. A tour or a hire car makes it considerably easier than the public bus, which has limited departures.
3. Aegina, for the easiest island
Forty minutes by fast ferry from Piraeus, or about an hour on a conventional boat.
A working island rather than a resort: a harbour town, the Temple of Aphaia, which is one of the best-preserved in Greece and gets a fraction of the Acropolis crowd, and pistachios, which the island is genuinely known for.
This is the best value day on the list. A normal ferry fare and a whole island.
4. Hydra, for the one with no cars
About 90 minutes by fast ferry, and there are no cars on the island at all. Transport is donkeys, water taxis and walking.
A stone amphitheatre of a harbour town with sea captains' mansions on the slopes, and it is one of the prettiest places in Greece.
The catch: it is the most expensive of the day-trip islands and the harbour front is priced accordingly. Walk ten minutes up or around and it improves.
5. Nafplio, for the prettiest town
Two hours into the Peloponnese, and one of the loveliest small towns in Greece: Venetian architecture, a fortress on the rock above, and the sea.
Pair it with Mycenae or Epidaurus, both nearby, which is what makes it a full day rather than a half.
Epidaurus's theatre has acoustics so precise that a coin dropped on the stage is audible in the back row, and the guides demonstrate it.
6. Marathon and the Rhamnous coast, the wildcard
An hour north-east, and almost nobody goes.
The burial mound of the Athenian dead from 490 BC sits in a field, and the sanctuary at Rhamnous is a genuinely remote ancient site on a clifftop over the sea with no facilities and frequently no other visitors.
For anyone who has done the famous sites and wants somewhere ancient and empty, this is the day.
The ferry rule
The constraint on an island day is the return sailing, not the distance.
Book both legs, check the last boat, and know that the meltemi wind in July and August cancels sailings with little notice. Our Greek islands guide has the wider ferry picture and the Greek calendar has the seasons.
And the fast boat is worth it on a day trip, even at the higher fare, because the hour you save is an hour on the island.
What we would skip
Skip Meteora as a day trip. Four to five hours each way makes it ten hours of travel for a few hours on the ground, and the monasteries on their rock pillars are among the most extraordinary things in Greece. Give it an overnight in Kalambaka instead.
Skip the three-island cruise to Hydra, Poros and Aegina in one day, which is sold everywhere. It is about ninety minutes ashore on each with a buffet lunch in between, and you see three harbours and no islands. One island properly beats it comfortably.
Skip Sounion at midday. Covered above.
Skip Corinth on its own. The canal is a photograph from a bridge and the ancient site is modest. It is fine as a stop on the way to Nafplio and is not a day.
When to go
April, May, September and October.
July and August are hot enough that ancient sites with no shade are genuinely difficult between eleven and four, and the ferries are fuller and more likely to be wind-affected. Our September guide explains why the second half of that month is the best fortnight in the Greek year.
Winter works for Delphi and Nafplio and closes a lot of the island timetables.
Checked 21 Aug 2026.
Everything we check for Greece →Short tourist stays only. Checked 21 Aug 2026; rules change without notice and the government page is the source of truth.
Check your own passport →Before you book
Three days in Athens is the city itself, and where to stay in Athens has the areas and the port transfer, which matters for every island day above.
The Greek islands guide covers the ones worth more than a day, and the Greek calendar decides the month.
The itineraries hub collects the rest and the Greece country page has the practical layer.
Site and ferry information checked September 2026 against the Greek ministry of culture's site listings and current ferry schedules. Archaeological site hours change between summer and winter timetables and several sites close one day a week, so confirm before you travel. Here is how we research and re-check guides.
