Athens and Cape Sounion full-day private tour (8 hours)

How do the eight hours go?

The cape first, the city after lunch. From the cruise terminals at Piraeus the coast road runs 33 min and 25 km without traffic, routed on OpenStreetMap, along the Saronic Gulf to Vouliagmeni and then 60 min and 43.5 km on to Cape Sounion, where we plan an hour at the Temple of Poseidon; lunch follows in a taverna on the way back, an hour at your own expense; then 83 min and 68.8 km to the Acropolis for an hour and a half, 8 min and 2.1 km to the Temple of Olympian Zeus for 20 minutes, 3 min and 1.2 km to Syntagma for the changing of the guard, and 17 min and 13.6 km back to the ship. That is 204 min on the road and just over four hours at the stops, with half an hour in hand. From a hotel in the centre of Athens the first leg to the temple is 1 h 14 min and 67 km and the day ends at the hotel.

Three tickets, and which slots to book

Each site sells its own timed ticket for a chosen date and a one-hour slot, paid at the gate or bought in the official shop, and none is in the tour price: the Temple of Poseidon at 20 EUR (checked 8 Oct 2026, hh.gr), open from 09:30 until sunset; the Acropolis at 30 EUR (checked 8 Oct 2026, hh.gr), where the afternoon slot is the one to book, about four and a half hours after a morning pickup; and the Olympieion at 20 EUR (checked 8 Oct 2026, hh.gr), with the slot after the Acropolis. Tell us your pickup time and we name the three slots in the confirmation; a slot can be changed up to two hours before the visit, at most twice. Children up to 18 from outside the EU and young people up to 25 from EU countries enter free with an ID.

Driver or licensed guide?

The driver takes you to each gate, waits with the vehicle for as long as you take and keeps the day to its hours; explaining the temple or the Acropolis from the inside is reserved to state-licensed guides under Law 5121/2024, and a licensed guide for one site or the whole day is booked in advance on request and quoted separately. The driver-or-guide guide has the rule.

Steps, shade, toilets and lunch

The Acropolis is a climb on foot in walking shoes, with a lift for visitors with mobility difficulties by arrangement with the guards’ office, and the toilets to use are beside its main entrance; the Olympieion is level for the most part with accessible toilets inside; at Sounion the official amenities list names a WC, parking and a shop with no detail on the steps up to the temple, and the tour as a whole is listed as not suitable for wheelchair users. Shade is not stated by any official page, so ask your driver and carry the bottled water from the vehicle. Lunch is an hour in a taverna between the cape and the city, at your own expense, with the driver waiting.

What does it cost, and where do we meet?

700 EUR per group for up to three guests in a sedan, 800 EUR for four to seven in a minivan and 100 EUR per person from eight in a minibus, as the ticket above prints the table from the office’s rate card; the form shows your total and the office confirms it by email before anything is paid. The three tickets, lunch and a licensed guide are extra. Cruise guests are met outside their terminal at the Piraeus cruise terminals with a sign with your name, on a call of eight hours plus the margin we keep before all-aboard, which the Piraeus page prints; hotel guests in the lobby at the agreed time. For the cape alone, timed for the sunset, take the 5-hour Sounion tour; for the city alone, the full day in Athens.