Nafplio makes a useful base for a short driving break in the north-eastern Peloponnese: Mycenae, Epidaurus and the fortress of Palamidi offer three very different encounters with Greek history. In late autumn, the opening hours matter more than the distance between them. From November, two of the sites close at 3.30pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The town itself gives you somewhere to return after the gates shut. Its old quarter has stone-paved streets, Venetian and neoclassical buildings, and a waterfront looking towards the small offshore fortress of Bourtzi. You can keep one base rather than turn every archaeological visit into a change of hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mycenae reached its height between about 1350 and 1200 BC. Its Cyclopean walls and Lion Gate convey the scale of the surviving citadel. Beyond the walls, the vaulted burial monument known as the Treasury of Atreus offers a different kind of construction: a great enclosed dome. Its traditional name does not establish that Atreus was buried there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hellenic Heritage, the official cultural-sites service, puts the drive from Nafplio at around 30 minutes. Allow extra time for parking and walking in. The full-price \u20ac20 ticket covers the archaeological site, its museum and the Treasury of Atreus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From 1 November to 31 March, the site’s listed hours are 8.30am\u20133.30pm, with last admission 20 minutes before closing. Give it a morning, rather than arriving late after another excursion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The theatre belongs to the Sanctuary of Asclepius, an ancient centre devoted to healing. Its setting is only part of the visit: the sanctuary also had a temple, a stadium and the Abaton, where healing rituals took place. A separate guest house, the Katagogion, accommodated visitors and patients. Walking beyond the tiers of seats helps explain why the theatre was built here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The official estimate is again about 30 minutes by car from Nafplio. Full admission is \u20ac20 for the site and museum. From 1 November to the end of February, the listed opening window is 8am\u20135pm, with last entry 20 minutes before closure. That later closing makes Epidaurus the more flexible of these two archaeological outings in November; it need not become a rushed extra after Mycenae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Palamidi takes the story forward to Venetian rule in the early eighteenth century. Its eight connected bastions were designed to operate independently if part of the fortress came under attack. From the 216-metre hill, the view takes in Nafplio and the Argolic Gulf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can climb from town or use the road to the entrance. The Greek National Tourism Organisation gives the road journey from Syntagma Square as approximately four kilometres, or ten minutes. Driving up avoids making the staircase a compulsory part of the visit. Full admission is \u20ac20, and the listed November-to-March hours are 8.30am\u20133.30pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For 16\u201331 October, the official listings give all three sites an 8am\u20136pm opening window. The change on 1 November cuts the available afternoon much more sharply at Mycenae and Palamidi than at Epidaurus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the full adult rates, the three admissions total \u20ac60, before travel and accommodation. There is a useful late-October exception: 28 October is a public free-admission day. Free tickets are issued at the ticket offices rather than online. The first and third Sundays from November to March are also free-admission days under Hellenic Heritage’s rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a three-day stay, a workable order is Mycenae on one morning, Epidaurus on another, and Palamidi before lunch on your town day. It leaves the shorter winter openings for the visits that need them, with Nafplio’s streets and waterfront available afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nafplio makes a useful base for a short driving break in the north-eastern Peloponnese: Mycenae, Epidaurus and the fortress of Palamidi offer three very different encounters with Greek history. In late autumn, the opening hours matter more than the distance between them. From November, two of the sites close at 3.30pm. The town itself gives you somewhere to return after the gates shut. Its old quarter has stone-paved streets, Venetian and neoclassical buildings, and a waterfront looking towards the small offshore fortress of Bourtzi. You can keep one base rather than turn every archaeological visit into a change of hotel. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2617,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_strive_editorial_status":"complete","_strive_copy_of":0,"_strive_checklists":"\"\"","_strive_active_checklist":"","_strive_post_notes":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-2615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-greece","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebesttimetovisit.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebesttimetovisit.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebesttimetovisit.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebesttimetovisit.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebesttimetovisit.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebesttimetovisit.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2616,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebesttimetovisit.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615\/revisions\/2616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebesttimetovisit.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebesttimetovisit.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebesttimetovisit.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebesttimetovisit.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}