Ancient Olympia Excursion

[miami mama]

All of the excursions in Katakolon involve time at Ancient Olympia. Would love to know if the time in Olympia involves an escorted tour around the site or if people walk around at their leisure? Also, is there sufficient time to go through the museum and is it included as part of the excursion or would one have to purchase tickets for it? We are trying to decide between the ship's excursion or doing it on our own with a guide.  

[lackcreativity]

Our experience on the included excursion a few years ago was that we were escorted with a guide and were provided with tickets for entry into the museum. The current description of the included excursion does not mention the museum, so perhaps someone who has been more recently will have more information.

[LindaS272]

One of the Live threads last fall included Olympia and there was no mention of the museum, but it does sound like there’s a guide for the ruins. We will be there in April on Viking and the three excursions listed in MVJ do not mention the museum. That said, the included excursion leaves in the morning and is only 3.5 hours. We are signed up for 9:00 to 12:30. Since we are scheduled to be in port until 4:00, we’d be able to do the museum at the end of the tour and take the tram back to the port city. Just a thought for your purposes.

[hbtraveler]

When we visited last June, we had a guided tour of the site for about 1.5 hours.  We then had free time (around 1 hour, I think) which most people used at the museum.  I believe that we were given tickets for museum entry.  We found the guide was quite informative and the museum had a nice collection of artifacts.

[UWDawg]

When we took the  3 1/2 hour included "Ancient Olympia" excursion in March 22, 2022, after the commute to the site, walking from the parking lot, obtaining our tickets and getting through the gate, we had a little over 2 hours to tour the archeological ruins, explore the museum (museum ticket was included), and visit the shops near the parking lot, before we were to be back at the bus.  The first hour or so was guided before we had free time.  I really had to rush in order to make my way to the museum.  Most of the Viking guests did not make it to the museum.  It was a bit of a trek, but well worth it to see the sculptures and other artifacts.  My time estimates were based on time stamp metadata for the photos I took during the excursion.

 

Given the scope of the archeological site and museum, I felt the Viking included excursion was very good.  Both the Viking Star and Viking Sky were visiting Olympia on that day and so it was probably more crowded than usual.  I have the impression that all of the local guides provided similar tours of the site.  I'm guessing that a private tour would be similar in nature, but the guide may escort you to the museum.  If my recollection is correct, in many of the museums, guides are not allowed to escort you inside of the museums and provide commentary within the confines of the museum.

 

We had visited the Olympia archeological site as part of a smaller group during a land tour in November 2016 (i.e., low-season/ few tourists).  During that tour, we spent a similar two hours at the site, split fairly evenly with about an hour touring the ruins with the guide and another hour at the museum.  For the Viking excursion, I think we spent more time at the ruins because progress was paced by the larger number of guests at the site.  Even if you were with a small, private tour, your progress at the ruins would be similarly constrained by other groups making their way to the various ruins.  

 

[longterm]

12 hours ago, miami mama said:

All of the excursions in Katakolon involve time at Ancient Olympia. Would love to know if the time in Olympia involves an escorted tour around the site or if people walk around at their leisure? Also, is there sufficient time to go through the museum and is it included as part of the excursion or would one have to purchase tickets for it? We are trying to decide between the ship's excursion or doing it on our own with a guide.  

We were in the Adriatic cruise last year (Rome to Athens) and did the tour of the Olympia site.

I don't recall ever being offered tickets to the museum; we had a guided tour of the site, then had about an hour or so on our own--even though it was late March, it was very cold, so some of the guests ended up going straight back to the bus, while I continued to look at the site. It was one of my favorite excursions that we took.

 

We also went to Magna Grecia, which is a farm where olives and grapes are grown; although the time there was clearly designed for us to leave money with the farm, we enjoyed our time there and came home with some oil from the farm. There was a brief presentation on pressing olives, then a light lunch (which I enjoyed), and some Greek dancing--very touristy and not for everyone, but despite my usual disdain for touristy stops, I enjoyed it. 

Would I do that tour again? Absolutely; well worth the stop.

[Selion]

The entrance ticket to the Ancient Olympia site was a combination ticket (as of March 2022).  Our tour guide told us to keep them if we were interested to check out the museum.  We didn't, as she only gave us 30 minutes of free time after visiting Ancient Olympia.

 

Ticket purchase site for Greek archaeological sites & museum:

 

"The ticket is valid for Ancient Olympia, Museum of Olympia and Museum of the Olympic Games."

 

https://etickets.tap.gr/webengines/tap_b2c/english/tap.exe?PM=P1

[miami mama]

Thank you all. The information provided will help us make an appropriate decision. Since the tour with Viking is already guided, it sounds like that will be sufficient. I like LindaS272's thoughts about taking the time for the museum and if necessary taking alternative transportation back to the ship. We tend to take a lot of time in museums (to be honest my husband tends to take a lot of time), and if transportation is readily available, that sounds like a good solution. 

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, miami mama said:

Thank you all. The information provided will help us make an appropriate decision. Since the tour with Viking is already guided, it sounds like that will be sufficient. I like LindaS272's thoughts about taking the time for the museum and if necessary taking alternative transportation back to the ship. We tend to take a lot of time in museums (to be honest my husband tends to take a lot of time), and if transportation is readily available, that sounds like a good solution. 

Likewise! Thank you Linda.   We are paying attention as we'll be there in March 2024 on Viking Saturn.  If those who do Olympia this year can let us all know how it goes that would be most appreciated!