Olympia VR Tour

An Olympia VR tour shows the ruins of Ancient Olympia as they once stood, through virtual reality glasses or a VR audio app used on the site. The tours run as a VR glasses tour with an audio guide, as an entry ticket with a VR audio tour, and as a half-day trip from the Katakolo cruise port. Greece Tours lists the tours that start at Olympia.

This page covers how the VR tours work, which monuments they rebuild, the Olympia 3D and Olympia 360 projects, free online tours, timing, children and the museums of Olympia. The tours below are checked on GetYourGuide and Viator.

What is an Olympia VR tour?

An Olympia VR tour is a self-guided visit to Ancient Olympia in which virtual reality glasses or a smartphone VR app show the ruined monuments rebuilt in 3D, while an audio guide tells the story of each building as you stand in front of it.

Olympia was the sanctuary of Zeus where the ancient Olympic Games were held every four years, and the site once held over 760 significant buildings. Earthquakes and floods ruined the sanctuary, and deposits up to 8 metres deep buried it before excavation began. An Olympia VR tour puts those lost buildings back in view, so the ruins in front of you make sense.

The site lies on the south-east side of the modern village of Archaia Olympia, in Elis on the Peloponnese peninsula. Visitors cross the bridge over the Kladeos River to reach the main gate, and seeing the full site takes extensive walking. Each Olympia VR tour follows that walk, monument by monument, in one of these formats:

• VR glasses tour: a headset with a built-in audio guide, collected from the Olympia Back in Time shop in the village.
• Entry ticket with VR audio tour: an Olympia VR tour on a smartphone app, sold together with the site entry ticket.
• Shore excursion from Katakolo: a transfer from the cruise port to Ancient Olympia, followed by an Olympia VR tour of the site.

The glasses tour and the ticket bundle differ in hardware. The first hands you a dedicated headset with the audio guide built in, while the second runs a VR app on your own smartphone. Both Olympia VR tours stay self-guided: you pick the order of the monuments, the stories you hear and the time you spend at each stop.

How does an Olympia VR tour work on site?

An Olympia VR tour on VR glasses works in three steps: a demo of under 2 minutes at the shop, the glasses at each monument’s info board, which show the building in 3D, and an audio story that starts when you select that monument.

Step one is a demo at the Olympia Back in Time shop, so plan how to get to Olympia around your booked time slot. Step two happens inside the site: find each monument on the map, stand at its info board and put on the glasses, and the Olympia VR tour swaps the ruins for the building in 3D.

Inside the headset you explore the scene in 360° and use your hands to interact with virtual ancient artefacts. VR headsets use sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes to track the pose of your head, so the virtual view turns as you turn. That tracking is what makes an Olympia VR tour feel like standing inside the ancient building rather than watching a screen.

Step three is the story. The audio starts as soon as you select a monument, and you can repeat it or play extra stories at any point; they range from fun facts to tales of the first Olympics, the athletes and the temples. On the app-based Olympia VR tour, the instructions arrive with your ticket voucher, so you set up the app before you reach the gate.

What is the Olympia Back in Time VR glasses tour?

The Olympia Back in Time VR glasses tour is a self-guided Olympia VR tour run by a shop in Olympia village, which hands you VR glasses with an integrated audio guide to see 15 monuments of the sanctuary as they looked 2,000 years ago.

The project began with Achilles, who grew up in Olympia and found the site hard to picture on a visit with friends. He spent a year reading historical texts, scientific papers and research on dimensions and materials for the 3D reconstruction, and his first look through the finished glasses put him inside the Temple of Zeus. He now runs this Olympia VR tour with his wife, Vasia.

Inside the glasses you see the colossal statue of Zeus under construction and handle the tools that built it, join boxers and wrestlers in their training grounds, stand at the stadium finish line as athletes race, and light the Olympic flame at its original sacred spot. Each scene plays at the monument it belongs to, so the Olympia VR tour ties every story to the ground you stand on.

The shop stands a 5-minute walk from the Archaeological Museum and a 10-minute walk from the site. The audio guide inside the glasses runs in 7 languages: English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and Greek. GetYourGuide lists this Olympia VR tour at 2 to 3 hours, Viator sells it as Olympia: The Famous VR Glasses Tour (+Audio Guide), and the operator asks visitors to book ahead.

What is the Ancient Olympia entry ticket with a VR audio tour?

The Ancient Olympia entry ticket with a VR audio tour is a bundle that pairs a prebooked entry ticket with a VR app and multilingual commentary in 9 languages, so this Olympia VR tour runs on your own smartphone and a pair of headphones.

GetYourGuide sells it as Ancient Olympia Entry Ticket & Virtual Reality Audio Tour, with a listed length of 4 hours, skip-the-line entry and wheelchair access. The commentary runs in English, German, Spanish, Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian and French. Sights of Athens lists an Olympia VR tour under the same title and calls it a self-guided virtual reality tour with an audio guide.

For the museum you pick a fixed date and time when you book, and that slot cannot change afterwards. For the site you enter at any time on the booked date and stay as long as you like. That split lets the Olympia VR tour run at your own pace around the museum slot.

The bundle leaves out round-trip transport, pick-up and drop-off, and a licensed guide, so you reach the site on your own and follow the app. If you choose the VR glasses format instead, the entry ticket is a separate purchase, and the glasses operator advises a museum time slot 2 hours after the slot of your Olympia VR tour.

What is the Olympia VR tour from Katakolo cruise port?

The Olympia VR tour from Katakolo cruise port is a 4-hour shore excursion that combines a transfer from the port to Ancient Olympia with a VR audio tour of the site, for cruise passengers who want to see where the Olympic Games began.

GetYourGuide sells it as Katakolo Port: Transfer to Ancient Olympia and VR Audio Tour. Its listing pairs VR guidance of the area with the history of the original Olympic Games, in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Greek, Japanese, Chinese and Portuguese. Viator sells a half-day Olympia VR tour from the same port under the title Half-Day Ancient Olympia VR Audio Tour from Katakolo Cruise Port.

Ships dock at Katakolo port, in a seaside village on a headland over the Ionian Sea, 11 km west of Pyrgos. Olympia lies 20 km from Pyrgos, in the valley of the Alfeios River, and both places belong to Elis in the western Peloponnese. The port is a popular cruise stop for visits to Olympia, and the Olympia VR tour transfer leaves from it.

Passengers who want the glasses version of the Olympia VR tour make the trip from Katakolo to Olympia on their own and collect the headset at the shop in the village. The glasses operator lists these routes from the port, and both the bus stop and the railway station sit close to its door:

• Bus: about 35 minutes from inside the port to a stop right next to the shop; ask the driver for the Church Stop.
• Train: about 45 minutes to Olympia station, one block from the shop, with tickets sold only locally.
• Taxi: about 30 minutes; the taxis stand inside the port.
• Rental car: about 45 minutes self-drive from the kiosks just outside the port.

Which monuments does an Olympia VR tour rebuild?

An Olympia VR tour rebuilds the Temple of Zeus with its gold-and-ivory statue, the Temple of Hera, the Philippeion, the stadium, the Palaestra, the Gymnasium and the Workshop of Pheidias. The entry ticket version adds the Bouleuterion, seat of the Olympic judges.

Ancient Olympia held more than 760 significant buildings, and Pausanias recorded over 70 temples, so every Olympia VR tour picks its own route. The online Olympia VR tour of the Olympia 3D project sets its scenes around the 2nd century BC. It starts at the Gymnasium entrance, passes the Palaestra and the Workshop of Pheidias, and enters the Altis.

• Olympia 3D online tour: the Gymnasium, Palaestra, Workshop of Pheidias, Prytaneion, Philippeion, Pelopion, Temple of Hera, Treasuries, Echo Stoa, Bouleuterion, Temple of Zeus and stadium.
• Back in Time VR glasses tour: the Statue of Zeus, the Palaestra, the stadium and the lighting of the Olympic flame.
• Entry ticket with VR audio tour: the Temple of Hera, the Temple of Zeus, the stadium and the Bouleuterion.

The glasses show each scene in 360 degrees, and you use your hands to interact with virtual ancient artefacts.

The Olympia VR tour sold with the entry ticket runs as a self-guided app with an audio guide in 9 languages. Its route names the Temple of Hera, in front of which the Olympic flame is lit, the Temple of Zeus, which housed the gold-and-ivory statue, the original stadium and the Bouleuterion, seat of the Olympic judges and the Elean council.

How does an Olympia VR tour show the Temple of Zeus?

An Olympia VR tour shows the Temple of Zeus whole again: 6 by 13 Doric columns, sculpted pediments and marble roof tiles. Inside, Pheidias’s gold-and-ivory Zeus sits on his throne, more than 12 metres tall, with his head nearly touching the ceiling.

The online Olympia VR tour walks you up to the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, stops at its front and then takes you into the cella. Its captions name Libon of Elis as the architect and call it the largest temple in the Peloponnese. Each column stood 10.53 metres high with a lower diameter of 2.25 metres, cut from local shell limestone and coated in white stucco.

Separate 3D scenes in this Olympia VR tour rebuild the sculpture. The east pediment shows the chariot race between Pelops and King Oenomaus of Pisa, and the west pediment shows the Lapiths fighting the Centaurs. Twelve metopes over the front and rear porches show the twelve labours of Heracles, and a gilded Nike crowned the east gable, with gilded bronze tripods at the corners.

The Olympia VR tour sets the Statue of Zeus at Olympia at the back of the cella, with a winged Nike in his right hand and an eagle on his sceptre. A frame in front held the oil that protected the ivory from the damp. One scene flies you up to the upper galleries, where visitors climbed stairs to admire him. Only parts of the grey limestone base survive.

How does an Olympia VR tour show the Temple of Hera and the Philippeion?

An Olympia VR tour shows the Temple of Hera as a Doric temple with 6 by 16 columns and a painted clay disc on its roof, and the Philippeion as a round building ringed by 18 Ionic columns. Both stand in the northern Altis.

The Olympia 3D online tour stops in front of the Temple of Hera at Olympia and rebuilds it in a 3D view from the south-east. A second scene rebuilds the clay disc that crowned the roof: 2.30 metres across, made by a Laconian workshop and painted in strong colours. This Olympia VR tour shows the surviving pieces in paler tones, so the original fragments stand out.

Built around 600 BC, the Temple of Hera is the oldest temple at Olympia. Its wooden columns were replaced in stone one by one, so no two capitals match. The Olympic flame is lit at the Altar of Hera in front of it, with a mirror that gathers the sun’s rays. The Back in Time Olympia VR tour adds a flame scene in which you spark the light yourself.

The Philippeion was begun by Philip II of Macedon after his victory at Chaeronea in 338 BC and completed by Alexander. The Olympia VR tour from the Olympia 3D project rebuilds this tholos in 3D. It was the only building in the Altis dedicated to humans rather than gods, with gold-and-ivory statues of Philip’s family by Leochares. Today only part of it stands, after a partial restoration.

How does an Olympia VR tour show the ancient stadium?

An Olympia VR tour shows the ancient stadium in action: runners leaving the start, a long jumper before the judges’ stand and wrestlers in the arena, beside earth banks that held 45,000 spectators. The Back in Time glasses tour places you at the finish line.

The online Olympia VR tour approaches the stadium the way athletes did. A 3D scene shows the Zanes, bronze statues of Zeus paid for with fines on athletes who cheated; 16 of their bases survive. Behind a gateway with Corinthian columns runs the Krypte, a vaulted passage 32 metres long, through which athletes and judges entered. One stop shows the Krypte as it stands today.

A 3D view from above in this Olympia VR tour measures the stadium of the 2nd century BC at 212.50 by 28.50 metres. Spectators sat on the earth banks, because the ancient stadium of Olympia never had seats except the judges’ stand on the south bank. The 3D stand has twelve seats, matching a short spell in the 4th century BC when the judges numbered twelve instead of ten.

The Olympia VR tour stages the pentathlon: a judge releases the starting gate for the stadion race of 192 metres, a long jumper prepares before the judges’ stand, and two athletes meet in upright wrestling. The Back in Time Olympia VR tour adds a race watched from the finish line. On site today, the stadium is a field with start and finish lines marked by curbs.

How does an Olympia VR tour show the Palaestra, the Gymnasium and the Workshop of Pheidias?

An Olympia VR tour shows the Palaestra with boxers and wrestlers training in its courtyard, the Gymnasium with its long running colonnade, and the Workshop of Pheidias with the gold-and-ivory Zeus under construction, complete with kiln, gold-leaf benches and the pulley for Nike.

The Palaestra and Gymnasium at Olympia lie side by side west of the sanctuary. In the Back in Time Olympia VR tour, you stand inside the Palaestra’s training grounds and join boxers and wrestlers at practice. The Olympia 3D online tour rebuilds the same building in 3D: a courtyard ringed by 72 Doric columns, where wrestlers, jumpers and boxers trained, with changing rooms behind.

Next door, the Gymnasium trained javelin throwers, discus throwers and runners from the 2nd century BC. Its double east colonnade ran 220 metres, about the length of the stadium, with starting lines at both ends for running practice. The online Olympia VR tour begins at the Gymnasium gateway, which had four Corinthian columns on each front. The western colonnade has since been lost to the river.

The online Olympia VR tour then enters the Workshop of Pheidias, a building the same size as the cella of the Temple of Zeus. Excavators uncovered it in the 1950s, with tools for working gold and ivory and a cup inscribed ‘I belong to Pheidias’. The Back in Time Olympia VR tour lets you interact with the tools that built the statue, and the online tour shows these scenes:

• A kiln that heated the clay moulds for the gold and ivory parts.
• Benches where thin gold sheets took shape in the hot moulds.
• Ivory benches with a trough of vinegar that made the ivory pliable.
• The wooden core of the Nike, ready for gold, ivory and glass.
• The statue nearly finished, with a pulley to lift the Nike into Zeus’s right hand.

What is the Olympia 3D VR tour of the Foundation of the Hellenic World?

The Olympia 3D VR tour of the Foundation of the Hellenic World is a free 360-degree tour of the sanctuary in the 2nd century BC. This Olympia VR tour opens in a web browser and adds information points, a site map and an optional quiz.

This Olympia VR tour comes from the Foundation of the Hellenic World, whose 3D Reconstruction Laboratory handles every stage from research to finished model. The lab rebuilt the buildings of ancient Olympia in their original form for the Kivotos VR system and the Tholos dome theatre, and it produced the book “Olympia: A Journey in Four Dimensions” with a set of twelve collectible postcards.

The Olympia VR tour offers two routes. The guided route moves you from position to position until you have seen them all, and the Foundation recommends it for a first visit. The free route lets you jump in any order, at the risk of missing points. Arrows on green lead forward, red arrows step back and an “i” symbol opens the text and image for each sight.

A map under the panorama marks which positions you have visited, and full-screen mode keeps four buttons: text, map, zoom and next. The finale of this Olympia VR tour unlocks once you visit every point: the eagle of Zeus leads you to the front of his temple to watch the crowning of the pentathlon winner, a scene tied to the Zeus mythology of Olympia.

What is the Olympia 360 show at Hellenic Cosmos?

Olympia 360 at Hellenic Cosmos is the centre’s 360-degree Virtual Tour of Ancient Olympia, and its live show is “A Walk Through Ancient Olympia”, a 40-minute Olympia VR tour of the 2nd-century-BC sanctuary on the dome screen of the Tholos theatre.

The Hellenic Cosmos Olympia 360 page links straight to the Foundation’s browser tour and lists the Olympia monuments it highlights: the Temple of Zeus, the Heraion, the Gymnasium, the Palaestra, the Bouleuterion, the Stadium and the city treasuries. Its Knowledge Test turns this Olympia VR tour into a game, with easy questions in green frames, hard ones in red and a total score at the end.

In the Tholos, the Virtual Reality theatre of Hellenic Cosmos, “A Walk Through Ancient Olympia” fills a 360-degree screen of 350 square metres. The production is interactive, so the viewer steers the course, and this Olympia VR tour lets visitors become “participants” in the events and rituals of the Olympic Games. Visitors also learn the history of the city, and the centre recommends the show from age 7.

The Olympia VR tour in the Tholos runs in Greek and English, and an English session needs a telephone booking in advance. The screening schedule can change without notice, so check the Tholos programme before you book this Olympia VR tour. Hellenic Cosmos stands at 254 Pireos Street in Tavros, reached by buses 049 and 914 or by train to Kallithea, and offers more than 220 free parking spaces.

Which free online Olympia VR tours can you take at home?

The free online Olympia VR tours are the Foundation of the Hellenic World 360-degree tour, the digital tour of the Archaeological Museum of Olympia, the museum’s interactive model of the sanctuary and the Digi-Past Olympia app for iPhone and iPad.

The Foundation’s 360-degree Olympia VR tour opens in a browser with no ticket, login or app, and it presents Ancient Olympia of 200 BC. Both the Hellenic Cosmos Olympia 360 page and the Foundation’s Olympia website link to it. The English site marks this tour as Greek only for now, so English speakers find their way by the panoramas, the map and the arrows.

The Archaeological Museum of Olympia website hosts a digital tour of its rooms, built with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Ilia and the PostScriptum company. This Olympia VR tour covers 67 exhibits with their explanatory boards, and you move by floor plan, dollhouse view or tags. The same site offers an interactive model of the sanctuary mainly in the 2nd century AD, where each monument opens its history.

The Digi-Past Olympia app by Moptil is free to download for iPhone and iPad, with in-app purchases, and this Olympia VR tour rebuilds the Temple of Zeus, the Stadium and the Workshop of Phidias in 360 degrees and 3D. Ancient Olympia: Common Grounds, the Microsoft and Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sport project covering 27 monuments, no longer loads at its original web address.

• Foundation of the Hellenic World 360-degree tour: web browser, Greek interface, 2nd century BC
• Archaeological Museum of Olympia digital tour: web browser, 67 exhibits
• Interactive model of Olympia: web browser, mainly 2nd century AD
• Digi-Past Olympia: iPhone and iPad app, free download with in-app purchases

How does an Olympia VR tour compare with a guided tour?

An Olympia VR tour rebuilds the monuments in 3D and lets you choose which stories to hear and when, while a guided tour gives your private group a professional guide. The VR glasses tour runs 2 to 3 hours and a guided walk 2 hours.

On an Olympia VR tour with glasses, you look around each monument in 360 degrees and handle virtual artefacts. Stories start when you select a monument and replay whenever you like. This Olympia VR tour plays its audio guide in 7 languages, including English, French, German and Greek, and the operator keeps improving the tour from visitor feedback.

On the guided side, “Explore Ancient Olympia with a professional guide” lasts 2 hours as a private, skip-the-line tour. The “Private Guided Tour of Ancient Olympia” takes a small private group of up to 7 and skips the line. If a live expert matters more than rebuilt temples, an Ancient Olympia guided tour fits better than an Olympia VR tour.

Both formats book on GetYourGuide with free cancellation. The Olympia VR tour with glasses takes bookings until 5 minutes before the start, though its operator warns of limited availability, while the professional-guide tour closes 10 hours ahead. The VR glasses tour and the private guided tour are both listed as wheelchair accessible, so visitors with reduced mobility can choose either format.

How long does an Olympia VR tour take?

An Olympia VR tour takes 2 to 3 hours with VR glasses on site, 4 hours as an entry ticket with VR audio tour or as the Katakolo port VR audio tour, 40 minutes in the Tholos dome, and as long as you like online.

With VR glasses, the GetYourGuide listing gives 2 to 3 hours for the full Olympia VR tour. The operator advises booking your museum entry slot 2 hours after your Olympia VR tour slot, which sets aside 2 hours for the glasses part. The same entry ticket covers the archaeological site and the museum.

The Ancient Olympia Entry Ticket and Virtual Reality Audio Tour lists 4 hours, with skip-the-line entry and bookings closing 30 minutes before the start. The Katakolo Port transfer with a VR audio tour also lists 4 hours for the ride and the visit together, so cruise passengers can fit this Olympia VR tour into one port day. Book that option at least 45 minutes ahead.

At Hellenic Cosmos, the Tholos screening of “A Walk Through Ancient Olympia” lasts 40 minutes, and it shares the dome programme with other productions. Online, the Foundation’s Olympia VR tour runs at your own speed: the guided route leads you through every position, and the optional quiz adds easy and hard questions. The museum’s digital tour of 67 exhibits lets you stroll freely through its rooms.

• 2 to 3 hours: VR glasses tour with audio guide at the site
• 4 hours: entry ticket with VR audio tour and skip-the-line entry
• 4 hours: Katakolo port transfer with VR audio tour
• 40 minutes: “A Walk Through Ancient Olympia” in the Tholos dome
• Your own pace: the online Olympia VR tours of the Foundation and the museum

Is an Olympia VR tour good for children?

Yes, an Olympia VR tour works for children: the VR glasses tour lets them join the training of ancient boxers and wrestlers, cheer athletes at the finish line and light the Olympic flame, with short stories that are easy to absorb at each monument.

Plan around motion sickness first. Susceptibility to motion sickness peaks between the ages of 2 and 12, although recent research points to adults over 50 as more prone to VR sickness than younger adults. On the headset version of an Olympia VR tour, children put the glasses on in front of each monument’s info board, then walk to the next stop, so headset time comes in short blocks.

Two habits cut the risk of VR sickness on an Olympia VR tour. Children look ahead instead of down at their virtual feet, since a steep downward viewing angle raises sickness, and they skip the headset when tired, short of sleep, or unwell with ear trouble or flu. Sitting instead of standing delays the onset of symptoms, and adaptation can start as early as the second exposure.

Check the ticket rules before a family Olympia VR tour. Entry to the site is free for EU visitors under 25 and non-EU visitors under 18, while the entry ticket bundled with the VR audio tour sells no reduced or child tickets. The Katakolo shore excursion lists child (5 to 15) and infant (4 and younger) categories. Our Olympia with kids page covers the rest of a family day.

What do you need for an Olympia VR tour?

An Olympia VR tour needs an entry ticket and the right device: the VR glasses tour supplies the headset, map and built-in audio guide at its shop in Olympia town, while the VR audio tour runs on your own charged smartphone and headphones.

The VR glasses version starts at the operator’s shop in Olympia town, where you pick up the headset. Staff answer questions before you set off with the map to find each monument. GetYourGuide lists this Olympia VR tour as wheelchair accessible, and availability is limited, so book your slot in advance.

With the VR glasses tour, you book the entry ticket separately; it never sells out. One ticket covers both the archaeological site and the Archaeological Museum, and only the museum part needs a time slot. The bundled VR audio tour tickets are non-refundable and cannot be changed after purchase. Read our Olympia tickets page before you book an Olympia VR tour day.

The app-based Olympia VR tour asks for more preparation. Instructions arrive with the ticket voucher, the commentary runs in 9 languages, and pets are not allowed. Pack for the walk as well: visiting the full site requires extensive walking, starting with the bridge over the Kladeos River to the main gate. Check this list before you leave:

• An entry ticket with a museum time slot
• A charged smartphone and headphones for the VR audio tour
• Comfortable shoes for the long walks across the site
• A hat and water for sunny summer days

When is the best time for an Olympia VR tour?

The best time for an Olympia VR tour is the first slot of the day in spring or autumn: summer days in Greece are hot, sunny and dry, winters are wet, and fatigue raises the risk of VR sickness, so start fresh.

Heat sets the pace of an Olympia VR tour in summer. Olympia lies in the Alfeios valley in the western Peloponnese, 18 km from the Gulf of Kyparissia on the Ionian Sea, and the etesian winds, at their highest frequency in July and August, keep the Aegean cooler than the Ionian side and the mainland. VR headsets are made for cool indoor spaces away from heat.

Crowds call for advance booking. The site runs its high season from April to October and its low season from November to March, and cruise passengers reach Olympia on 4-hour shore excursions from Katakolo port. The VR glasses tour has limited availability, and a prebooked entry ticket skips the ticket queue, so book both before an Olympia VR tour in high season.

Light and shade frame an Olympia VR tour. Pink-flowering Judas trees grow over the site, and olives and plane trees are common in the area. See our best time to visit Olympia page.

How do you combine an Olympia VR tour with the museums of Olympia?

Combine an Olympia VR tour with the museums by doing the VR tour on the site first, then visiting the Archaeological Museum 2 hours later with the same entry ticket, and finishing at the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games in Antiquity.

Olympia has three museums, and the Archaeological Museum of Olympia holds finds from the site. Its twelve rooms show Hermes and the Infant Dionysus, attributed to Praxiteles, the Nike of Paionios, the pediments of the Temple of Zeus and an oenochoe that belonged to Phidias, sculptor of the colossal Statue of Zeus you meet on an Olympia VR tour. Its bronze collection ranks among the world’s leading ones.

Timing ties the visits together. The museum entry carries a fixed date and time, which the bundled ticket cannot change after booking, while the site accepts your ticket at any time on the booked date, so the Olympia VR tour fits around the museum slot. The VR glasses shop sits a 5-minute walk from the museum and a 10-minute walk from the archaeological site.

The Museum of the History of the Olympic Games in Antiquity tells the story behind the athletes you cheer on an Olympia VR tour, across more than a thousand years of games. It fills the Syngreion, Olympia’s old museum, a neoclassical building completed in 1888 and restored for the Olympic Games in Athens, with finds from the sanctuary and loans from other Greek museums. Its themes include:

• The prehistory of sport and the start of the games at Olympia
• Zeus and his worship
• Elis and its role in running the games and preparing the athletes
• Women and sports, the disciplines and the winners
• The Pythia, Isthmia, Nemea and Panathenaia games

Frequently Asked Questions

Does an Olympia VR tour include the entry ticket?

The bundled Olympia VR tour does: the Ancient Olympia Entry Ticket and Virtual Reality Audio Tour adds entrance tickets to the archaeological area when you select that option. For the VR glasses tour, the operator has you book the entry ticket separately, with a museum slot 2 hours after the VR slot. One ticket covers the site and museum.

Can you take an Olympia VR tour without a guide?

Yes, an Olympia VR tour needs no guide. The VR glasses tour runs on a provided map and an audio guide built into the glasses, in 7 languages, and you pick the stories you want to hear and repeat them. The VR audio tour is a self-guided app with commentary in 9 languages, and a licensed guide is not included.

Can people who wear glasses use an Olympia VR tour headset?

Glasses wearers have two routes on an Olympia VR tour. On the headset version, raise the fit at the demo at the shop in Olympia town, where staff answer questions; headsets with adjustable lenses account for an eyeglass prescription. The VR audio tour runs on your own smartphone and headphones instead.

Is an Olympia VR tour suitable for cruise passengers?

Yes. A dedicated Olympia VR tour runs as a 4-hour shore excursion from Katakolo cruise port, with history in 10 languages and VR guidance. Independent cruise passengers reach the VR glasses shop by bus in about 35 minutes, with the stop right next to the shop, or by train in about 45 minutes. Train tickets are sold only locally.