Athens-Delphi and the Oracle excursion?

[dcl999]

We have only taken a few long shore excursions with long bus rides. Any feedback on this one would be appreciated. It will be November 3rd.  
It doesn’t seem to be an easy place to get to without a tour.  We’re staying a few days in Athens on our own after the cruise. 
Thanks. 

[OnTheJourney]

I'll be interested to see what responses you get being that I have Viking's Athens post-cruise extension booked. The one day they go to Delphi. 

[Mpc524]

19 hours ago, dcl999 said:

We have only taken a few long shore excursions with long bus rides. Any feedback on this one would be appreciated. It will be November 3rd.  
It doesn’t seem to be an easy place to get to without a tour.  We’re staying a few days in Athens on our own after the cruise. 
Thanks. 

We did Delphi excursion because we were staying in Athens for a few days and saw Athens on our own. To this day, one of our favorite excursions in 9 cruises!

[Geri c]

My husband and I went on our first Viking cruise in April this spring from Barcelona to Athens.  We added on the 4 night extension in Athens.  It was so worth it!  With Covid we decided to let Viking take care of all the arrangements and we had a fabulous time.  The rep in Athens was excellent.  We enjoyed all the tours and while Delphi was a long day, we would not have missed it!  Breathtaking experience!  We look back on Greece as one of our best vacations ever.  

We are booked on Vikings cruise from Tokyo to Bangkok in October this fall.  Hopefully it will be as safe and enjoyable as our Mediterranean cruise was.  

[LunaSeaRetreat]

Thanks to everyone for their insights.  I will try to book this excursion when my bookings open tomorrow.  I have a total of five days in Athens and was looking for the best tour to get us out of the city for a day.  I don't usually book nine hour tours, but this one seems doable.

 

Cynthia

[QRB4539]

Last October we flew to Athens 3 days early and used George's Taxi Co. for Athens arrival , departure, transfer to Piraeus for the cruise AND a day trip to Delphi. The day trip took approx. 9 hours and we were picked up and dropped off at our hotel. The driver is not a licensed tour guide (did not go into the Delphi site) but was very informative during the drive. After we finished touring the site and the museum he took us to a wonderful restaurant with a great view. The meal was not included in the transport.

This was a great way to spend a day outside of Athens. We had used this tour company previously for a tour of the Acropolis with 2 other couples on a prior cruise. I see that the website might be taxigreece.com from my correspondence with them.

[longterm]

On 7/23/2022 at 12:53 PM, dcl999 said:

We have only taken a few long shore excursions with long bus rides. Any feedback on this one would be appreciated. It will be November 3rd.  
It doesn’t seem to be an easy place to get to without a tour.  We’re staying a few days in Athens on our own after the cruise. 
Thanks. 

My wife and I were in Athens on a Viking post extension in late March. On the 3rd day we went on an excursion to Delphi.

 

When we got on the bus, we were told that the drive was something like 90 minutes to 2 hours; I wasn't happy about that at all, and recall that at the time I said I would have passed on the excursion had I known the drive time.

Having said that, I'll say now that it was an incredible excursion. It was really cold that day (March 23rd I think); snow started falling on the drive up, and by the time we got there, it was coming down pretty hard.

Even with the snow, the visit was amazing, one of our favorites on the entire trip. The drive is worth it to see the area; the small museum is excellent and I enjoyed it immensely. 

My advice would be not to let the drive time deter you; Delphi is an excellent site.

 

We also had excursions to the Acropolis and the Parthenon, which was great to see in person; I lived in Nashville for 34 years; there's a perfect replica of the Parthenon there, built for a World's Fair in the early 20th century, complete with a statue of the goddess Athena in its center (which the original Parthenon had long ago); seeing the original was a great experience, despite the strong cold winds in late March.

On the 3rd excursion we visited Mycennae, which was another great ancient site and well worth the drive; in the afternoon the same day we visited a 2nd site whose name escapes me now; it was interesting as well, but not on a level with Delphi, Mycennae or the Acropolis.

My wife and I both felt the cost of the post extension was well-justified with the hotel and 3 excursion days, and I'd recommend it highly.

Edited July 26, 2022 by longterm

[PRH]

We took this tour this past April. Yes, the ride is long but it was an outstanding tour.  Luckily our cloudy day turned sunny once we were there.  The views are spectacular and we loved both the site and the museum.  Lunch was also quite tasty.

[JJSunshine]

On 7/24/2022 at 8:54 AM, Mpc524 said:

We did Delphi excursion because we were staying in Athens for a few days and saw Athens on our own. To this day, one of our favorite excursions in 9 cruises!

Which company/provider did you use, if you please?

[Murt22]

I'm listening to this conversation - planning for next fall.

[PRH]

On 7/21/2023 at 6:26 PM, JJSunshine said:

Which company/provider did you use, if you please?

We took the optional Viking tour as getting there and back was too complicated.  Was an excellent tour and our guide was very good and funny.

[JJSunshine]

Thank you for responding.  We will definitely book this with Viking this November .

[Murt22]

We are embarking at Athens, so the tour would not be available for us. We plan on arriving a few days early on our own, so looking for an alternative to this. We had intended to do the pre-tour stay, but there are no excursions - just a hotel and transport. We decided we could plan our own pre-tour.

[JJSunshine]

We are arriving early as well, but we also have 2 days/1 night at port on our itinerary.  Lots of chances to explore!

[PRH]

We used Alternative Athens while we were in Athens as our tour company.  We did three different tours.  They were great to deal with and our guides were terrific.

[JJSunshine]

Thanks, I'll check them out.

[Hazel52]

Also check out George’s Taxi. We used Kostas for a half day tour of Athens area. In his taxi we were able to go so many more places than on the Viking bus so I called it “the behind the scenes tour”. Great guy, colorful. He was going to take us to Corinth but decided - because of snow - it wasn’t safe. Hard to fathom with the heat and humidity there now.

[JJSunshine]

What month did it snow?  We'll be there mid November. 

[OneSixtyToOne]

1 hour ago, JJSunshine said:

What month did it snow?  We'll be there mid November. 

We were there in January and the mountains were snow covered.

[longterm]

7 hours ago, JJSunshine said:

What month did it snow?  We'll be there mid November. 

Delphi was my favorite excursion in Greece, by far; we were there in late March, and it snowed on us the whole time we were there--but it didn't diminish the wonderful excursion. 

[Canberra601]

We planned to go to Delphi in February this year on a Viking excursion, but it was cancelled due to heavy snow in the area, limiting access to the site. It has been on our bucket list for some time, and after seeing these photos even more so now!

[longterm]

Some photos from Delphi; you can see the snow in one of them.

[wine-wine-wine]

DW and I rented a car at the airport, drove there and stayed for four days. Absolutely wonderful and a lovey village, too. It is an easy drive. Not that much worse than my commute some days in the Bay Area. 
 

We purchased a wonderful book on the archaeology of Delphi and self guided.

 

Happy to share hotel etc if there is anyone interested in a longer stay. 

[LindaS272]

It wasn’t such an easy drive when we did it in 1989. I studied up on the Greek alphabet so I could read the road signs—most of which were in Greek at the time!

 

 

Edited July 26, 2023 by LindaS272

[FetaCheese]

2 hours ago, LindaS272 said:

It wasn’t such an easy drive when we did it in 1989. I studied up on the Greek alphabet so I could read the road signs—most of which were in Greek at the time!

 

 

Many capital letters in Greek are different than lower case.  Most advertising and store signage are in capital letters.  Takes awhile to become accustomed! 

 

Admire you for learning Greek.  A difficult language.