Epidaurus Tour

An Epidaurus tour takes you to the ancient theatre of Epidaurus and the Sanctuary of Asclepius in the Argolid, with a guide, an audio guide or a driver, on a day out from Athens, Nafplio or Corinth. Tours across the rest of the country are listed on Greece Tours.

The sections below cover the tour formats, private tours, licensed guides, the Corinth Canal and Ancient Corinth add-ons, pick-up points, what tours include, Palaia Epidavros and the sunken city, group sizes, guide languages, how to compare and book, and access, with links into the Epidaurus pages. The tours shown are checked on GetYourGuide and Viator.

What is an Epidaurus tour?

An Epidaurus tour is a booked excursion to ancient Epidaurus, its theatre and its Asclepius sanctuary, on the Argolid peninsula of the Peloponnese, with transport and a live or audio guide, sold on GetYourGuide and Viator from Athens, Nafplio and Corinth.

At the site, an Epidaurus tour visits two monuments, the theatre and the healer god’s sanctuary, which UNESCO listed as World Heritage in 1988. Two GetYourGuide day trips from Athens set the pattern for the rest of the day: each pairs Epidaurus with Mycenae and the coastal town of Nafplio.

Booking an Epidaurus tour removes the need to plan buses, rent a car or drive country roads across the Peloponnese. Athens is about 120 km away, a drive of around two hours, and the Athens to Epidaurus day trip guide covers that journey.

Which Epidaurus tour formats can you book?

An Epidaurus tour comes as a full-day group trip from Athens, a private day tour, a guided tour of five or six hours from Nafplio, a half-day private tour from Corinth, a ticket with an audio app, or a multi-day classical circuit.

• Group day trips from Athens: 9 to 10 hours, adding Mycenae and Nafplio.
• Private day tours from Athens: the same sites for your party alone.
• Guided tours from Nafplio: 5 hours, or 6 hours with Mycenae.
• Self-guided entry: a 2-hour ticket with a virtual reality audio app.
• Multi-day circuits: 3 or 4 days with Olympia and Delphi, plus Meteora on the longer one.

Our Mycenae and Epidaurus circuit page covers the full-day loop from Athens through Mycenae, Epidaurus and Nafplio in depth. On Viator, a full-day Epidaurus tour from Athens includes a walking tour in Nafplio, and a second listing, titled simply Trip to Epidaurus, sits in the Athens section.

Audio-guided bus days form a separate format: one Athens operator runs its 10-hour Mycenae, Epidaurus and Nafplio day as a virtual reality audio-guided tour. From Nafplio, a 4-hour combination pairs an Epidaurus tour with an olive oil tour, which fits travellers staying in the town.

Why book a private Epidaurus tour?

A private Epidaurus tour lets your party set the pace: the vehicle and the timetable serve your group alone, so you can stay longer at the theatre or stop for lunch by the sea in Nafplio, which suits families and corporate groups.

On GetYourGuide, a private Epidaurus tour from Athens fills one day with the Corinth Canal, Mycenae, the theatre and Nafplio, books as a private group and offers an optional audio guide. The small-group tour from Athens and both guided tours from Nafplio also carry a private option, so a shared route can run for one party.

Viator lists private Epidaurus tour options from Athens that add Mycenae and Nafplio in a single day, one of them sold as a full-day private tour. An Athens operator times its private trips at 8 hours for Mycenae and the theatre, or 11 hours once Nafplio is added to the route.

Which Epidaurus tour is led by a licensed guide?

On GetYourGuide, a licensed tour guide leads the 6-hour Epidaurus tour from Nafplio that also covers Mycenae, as its title states. On Viator, private tours listed under Corinth carry a licensed guide, one with tickets and another with a licensed expert guide.

That Nafplio departure is filed as a guided tour rather than a day trip, and its summary promises the myths, kings and monuments of the two sites. In Athens, one operator assigns a licensed guide to its private full-day Epidaurus tour with Mycenae, and its 3-day and 4-day classical circuits include licensed guided tours as well.

Guiding varies by format. A 5-hour shared Epidaurus tour from Nafplio comes with an English-speaking driver and names a licensed guide for the sites as an optional paid extra. Of these two Athens day trips, one offers an optional audio guide and the other names expert guides and tour leaders.

Which Epidaurus tour adds the Corinth Canal or Ancient Corinth?

A bestselling Epidaurus tour from Athens on GetYourGuide pauses at the Corinth Canal, while a 6-hour private tour adds Ancient Corinth and Nafplio. From Corinth itself, Viator sells a half-day private tour of the Epidaurus theatre and the canal.

The canal stop is brief and comes before the road enters the Argolid: the cut, finished in 1893, runs 6.4 km across the Isthmus of Corinth, splitting the Peloponnese off from the mainland. A small-group Epidaurus tour from Athens and the private day tour build the same stop in, while trips built around the canal itself appear on our Corinth Canal tours page.

Ancient Corinth adds a further site to an Epidaurus tour. The 6-hour private luxury route on GetYourGuide brings a personal guide plus an optional audio guide and skips the ticket queue, while a tour from Nafplio spends 8 to 9 hours on Ancient Corinth, the canal, Mycenae and Epidaurus. Our Ancient Corinth tour page covers that site.

Viator also lists longer routes for travellers with more time: a full-day luxury Epidaurus tour listed under Athens covers Mycenae, Nafplio and the Isthmus canal, while a Peloponnese tour of 2 days joins Corinth, Mycenae, Nafplio and Epidaurus to Ancient Olympia.

Which hotels and towns does an Epidaurus tour collect you from?

An Epidaurus tour collects guests at central Athens hotels and at Nafplio hotels or the port, while Viator adds a private half-day tour that starts in Corinth and a luxury day trip listed under Kalamata. One Athens coach line boards at 4 central meeting points.

In Athens, two GetYourGuide options flag pickup: the 9-hour small-group trip and the coach day that uses a virtual reality audio guide. One full-day Epidaurus tour collects guests free of charge from central hotels and drops them back, while three other Athens day trips leave pickup off their listings.

Nafplio, capital of the Argolis regional unit, lies 30 minutes from the site by car. One small-group Epidaurus tour based there collects guests at their hotel, at the port or at an agreed spot, and our guide to day trips from Nafplio covers the other outings that start in the town.

What is included in an Epidaurus tour, and what is extra?

An Epidaurus tour includes the road transfers and a driver or guide, plus hotel pickup where the listing flags it. Entrance fees, lunch and personal spending are extras on the tours that publish exclusions, and four GetYourGuide listings mark their audio guide as optional.

The Nafplio small-group Epidaurus tour spells out both lists. It covers an English-speaking driver, hotel or port transfers in Nafplio, every road leg, liability insurance and taxes, while entry at Mycenae and Epidaurus, personal spending, pickup outside Nafplio and a licensed guide inside the sites, available for a fee, stay extra.

From Athens, the full-day Epidaurus tour with free hotel pickup states that lunch is not included, and its traditional Greek lunch at a restaurant near Mycenae is optional. Another Athens coach operator puts an audio guide in the fare and sells a version of the day without the entry ticket.

A kayak tour that starts in Palaia Epidavros includes a certified instructor, the kayak, paddle and life vest, a dry bag, a snorkel and mask, GoPro photos and video, and water, plus a meal on its 6-hour version. What the site ticket covers is explained on our Epidaurus tickets page.

Which Epidaurus tour reaches Palaia Epidavros and the sunken city?

The Epidaurus tour that drives to Palaia Epidavros is the 5-hour guided outing from Nafplio on GetYourGuide, which joins the sanctuary theatre to the coastal village. For the sunken city, switch to the water: Viator sells a sea kayak tour built around it.

Its listing, titled Epidaurus Tour from Nafplio: Ancient Theater & Old Epidaurus, flags skip-the-line entry and a private option. Palaia Epidavros, also known as Archaia Epidavros, sits 34 km east of Nafplio and about 10 km from the sanctuary theatre, so one Epidaurus tour links both stops on a single drive.

The Palaia Epidavros kayak tour runs for 4 or 6 hours. After a safety briefing, guests paddle first to the village’s Small Theatre, then on to the sunken city to snorkel over the ruins, and the 6-hour version adds a secluded beach under pine trees and a swim.

Below the surface, the main sight is a Roman villa that belonged to the ancient city, with the outlines of its rooms and a line of amphorae thought to have held oil and wine. A full-day paddle collects guests from Nafplio hotels and serves traditional Greek dishes for lunch on a quieter beach.

How large is the group on an Epidaurus tour?

A group Epidaurus tour runs either as a small-group day or as a coach day, and the Nafplio small-group run needs at least 2 participants before it departs. Both formats are shared, so travellers who want no strangers book a private option instead.

From Athens, two GetYourGuide trips carry the small-group label: a 9-hour Epidaurus tour with free time in Nafplio and a 10-hour day with an optional audio guide. The 11-hour virtual reality day rides a coach, and Athens operators run group departures in modern, air-conditioned buses and vehicles.

On the water the unit is the kayak: the Palaia Epidavros tour hands out single or double kayaks, and the full-day paddle from Nafplio runs as a small group or with a private guide. The Nafplio small-group operator presents its size as the route to personal service.

In which languages can you take an Epidaurus tour?

An Epidaurus tour runs in English on every GetYourGuide listing that names a language, and the widest choice reaches 10 languages on the Athens virtual reality coach day. Greek joins English on the licensed-guide day from Nafplio and on the Palaia Epidavros kayak tour.

The Athens day titled Journey into Greek Legends offers 8 languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. A second Epidaurus tour from Athens offers 6, without Dutch and Portuguese, while both small-group trips from Athens and the Old Epidaurus outing from Nafplio run in English alone.

French joins Greek and English on the licensed-guide Epidaurus tour from Nafplio. The virtual reality coach day lists Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, and one Athens coach operator offers its included audio guide in the same 10 languages.

How do you compare one Epidaurus tour with another?

Compare one Epidaurus tour with another by the details each listing shows: its GetYourGuide category, its price basis per person or per group, the skip-the-line label, its badges, such as bestseller or new activity, and the number of reviews behind its score.

GetYourGuide files its listings under categories, which make a quick first filter. Four Epidaurus tour listings from Athens count as day trips, two Nafplio departures count as guided tours, the luxury route through Ancient Corinth counts as a private tour, and the ticket with a virtual reality app counts as an entry ticket.

• Price basis: eight listings charge per person, while the private tour from Athens charges per group of up to four.
• Skip the line: five listings carry this label, the 5-hour Nafplio tour and the luxury private tour among them.

Length adds a further signal. The small-group tour from Athens fills 9 hours with Mycenae, Epidaurus and Nafplio, while the Nafplio tour to the theatre and Palaia Epidavros stays inside the Argolid and returns to its start the same day. Our Peloponnese tours page places each Epidaurus tour next to routes elsewhere in the region.

What are the booking and cancellation terms for an Epidaurus tour?

Every Epidaurus tour among the nine GetYourGuide listings we checked offers free cancellation, and each sets its own booking cut-off, from just 10 minutes before departure on the 6-hour luxury private tour to 10 hours on the licensed-guide tour from Nafplio.

The Journey into Greek Legends day trip closes bookings 1 hour before the start, the 10-hour Athens small-group trip 30 minutes before, and the Nafplion day tour 15 minutes before. Other listings need more notice for an Epidaurus tour: 8 hours on the 9-hour Athens small-group tour, 4 hours on the Nafplio tour with Palaia Epidavros, and 2 hours on the private Athens tour.

Viator shows the same free cancellation flag on eight Epidaurus tour listings we checked, from the sea kayak trip to the 4-day classical circuit from Athens. Booking direct brings its own terms: the operator of the 5-hour shared tour from Nafplio refunds in full up to 72 hours ahead, half between 71 and 49 hours, and nothing inside 48 hours.

Can children and wheelchair users join an Epidaurus tour?

Children can join an Epidaurus tour on all nine GetYourGuide listings we checked, with age bands that differ by operator, but wheelchair users have one labelled option: the self-guided entry ticket with its virtual reality app is the only listing marked wheelchair accessible.

The 9-hour small-group tour and the 10-hour small-group trip from Athens count children from 3 to 12 and infants up to 2. The Journey into Greek Legends day counts children from 4 to 12 and infants up to 3, while the Epidaurus tour from Nafplio to the theatre and Palaia Epidavros counts children from 6 to 16 and adults from 17.

Four Epidaurus tour listings, the licensed-guide tour from Nafplio and the luxury private tour among them, sell one traveller type for every age up to 99, so children book on the same ticket as adults. On the private Athens tour, travellers of any age fill the group places, and the 5-hour shared tour from Nafplio, sold direct, calls itself family friendly.

None of the other eight Epidaurus tour listings on GetYourGuide carries the wheelchair-accessible label. At the site, the main path to the theatre is relatively flat compared with other ancient sites, yet the theatre’s stone tiers are steep and the outer sanctuary has patches of rough ground, so ask the operator about step-free routes before you book.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does an Epidaurus tour run on winter dates?

Yes. On GetYourGuide, the private Athens tour, the luxury private tour and the licensed-guide tour from Nafplio show every winter day open, and the Athens group day trips list winter departures too, with breaks only around Christmas and New Year. Summer brings the widest choice of Epidaurus tour departures.

Can you use the Athens Pass for an Epidaurus tour?

Yes. Holders of the 3-day Athens Pass, an iVenture card, choose one full premium day tour out of three, the Epidaurus and Mycenae day tour among them. Holders redeem the tour at the Key Tours office on Athanasiou Diakou Street, and only the 3-day pass qualifies, so other passes do not cover this Epidaurus tour.

What happens if bad weather hits an Epidaurus tour?

The Nafplio operator that sells the 5-hour shared tour direct states that weather does not stop its departures; if it does cancel for unfavourable conditions, you choose between a new date and a full refund. On GetYourGuide and Viator, the free cancellation flag lets you cancel an Epidaurus tour yourself before the deadline on each listing.

Can you reach Athens airport after an Epidaurus tour?

Yes. Viator lists a private transfer that collects you in Epidaurus town or at its port and drives you to Athens, the port of Piraeus or Athens airport, and the listing carries free cancellation. Book it after an Epidaurus tour or the sea kayak trip when you leave the Argolid the same day.