Delphi private day trip from Athens (9 hours)

How long is the drive from Athens to Delphi?

2 h 49 min and 177 km from Syntagma Square to the sanctuary without traffic, routed on OpenStreetMap, through Boeotia past Thebes and Livadia and up the slopes of Parnassus; the way back from Arachova is 2 h 31 min and 170 km. From the cruise terminals at Piraeus the first leg is 2 h 58 min and 186 km and from the airport 3 h and 197 km, routed the same way; from a hotel elsewhere in Athens the office sets the pickup time from your address when it confirms. In all the day holds 5 h 39 min of driving and 3 h 10 min at the stops, which is why it is sold as nine hours and not eight.

What fits in nine hours?

An hour and a half in the sanctuary of Apollo, with the temple, the theatre and the stadium; 45 minutes in the museum, five minutes down the road; ten minutes at the Castalian spring and the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia below it; then lunch in Arachova, 12 min and 9.8 km further on, before the road home. The monastery of Hosios Loukas does not fit: with it the day needs about 370 minutes of driving and leaves under three hours for the site, the museum and lunch, so we offer it as a longer day, quoted by the office on request. Meteora is a 14-hour day of its own; Delphi and Meteora together are two days, and the custom tour form takes that plan.

What do the tickets cost, and when is the site open?

One ticket covers the archaeological site and the museum: 20 EUR (checked 8 Oct 2026, hh.gr) full, half for the reduced categories, paid at the gate and not included in the tour price; the entrance-fees guide compares it with the Acropolis and the other sites. The site and the museum keep the same hours, closing at 20:00 in high summer and at 15:30 in winter, and both close on 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Easter Sunday and on 25 and 26 December; admission is free on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September, 28 October and the first and third Sunday of each month from November to March. The hours as the official ticket site lists them:

• 1 Apr to 31 Aug: 08:00 to 20:00, last entry 19:40
• 1 Sep to 15 Sep: 08:00 to 19:30, last entry 19:10
• 16 Sep to 30 Sep: 08:00 to 19:00, last entry 18:40
• 1 Oct to 15 Oct: 08:00 to 18:30, last entry 18:10
• 16 Oct to 31 Oct: 08:00 to 18:00, last entry 17:40
• 1 Nov to 31 Mar: 08:30 to 15:30, last entry 15:10

Checked 8 Oct 2026, hh.gr.

Driver or licensed guide?

The driver brings you to the gate, waits outside the site and then outside the museum for as long as you take, and knows the road and the order of the day. Guiding inside the sanctuary and the museum is reserved to state-licensed guides under Law 5121/2024. If you want the sanctuary explained rather than seen, say so in the request and the office quotes a licensed guide with the day.

Steps, shade, toilets and lunch

The one access fact we hold on record is that the sanctuary is not suitable for wheelchair users; no official page we read states the steps, the shade or the toilets inside the site or the museum, so we print nothing about them, and your driver tells you on the spot where the nearest toilets and the shade are. The vehicle is air-conditioned with bottled water in it, and the driver waits at every stop. Lunch is in Arachova, 45 minutes at your own expense, before the drive back.

Where do we meet, and can cruise guests do it?

At your Athens hotel, at the spot and time the confirmation names. From a cruise ship the day needs a call of nine hours plus the margin we keep before all-aboard; the driver waits outside your terminal at the Piraeus cruise terminals with a sign with your name, and the booking form refuses a call that is too short. The day-trips page compares Delphi with Sounion, Corinth, the Argolis and Meteora by the hours on the road.