'Nikos Loukas','Private tours in Athens Greece','Minivan Minibus Taxi tours and transfers','private tours and transportation'

This is a day tour to the most interesting and beautiful sites around Athens. (Marathon, Vravrona, Cape Sounio)

We start the tour heading north of Athens passing some of Athens’s most beautiful and expensive suburbs (Kifisia, Ekali, Drosia).  We will make a short stop at the dam of Marathon’s Lake, the main water source for the city of Athens.  Then we’ll approach the plain of Marathon where the historical battle between the Athenians and the Persians took place in 490 B.C.  Here we’ll visit first the starting point of the Olympic Marathon race, an event which started with the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896. The race was inspired by the fabled run of an Athenian  soldier named Pheidippides who took the message of the great victory from the Battlefield of Marathon to Athens.

Then we’ll visit the “Tymvos”, the tomb which was raised in the burial ground in honour of the Athenian soldiers who fell in the battle against the Persians.
As an ultimate honor and recognition of their bravery the dead of the Marathon Battle were the only ones ever to be buried where they died instead of in the main cemetery of Athens in Kerameikos.  On the tomb of the Athenians this epigram composed by the ancient poet Simonides wrote:

“Ελλήνων προμαχούντες Αθηναίοι Μαραθώνι
χρυσοφόρων Μήδων εστόρεσαν δύναμιν”

Hellenon promahountes Athinaei Marathoni
chrisoforon Medon  estoresan dinamin,

translation
The Athenians, as defenders of the Hellenes, in Marathon
destroyed the might of the golden-dressed Medes

We’ll complete our tour in the plain of Marathon with a visit to the Museum of Marathon.  After our visit we will drive South through several towns and summer resorts and we’ll stop again at the temple of Artemis in Vravrona, sometimes called "The Parthenon of the Bear Maidens".

Skipped by most visitors - and most tour operators - solely because it is a bit out of the way this temple is rarely crowded and stands by a delightful Museum filled with images of the children who once studied at the temple of Artemis called "little bears" or arktoi.

The out-of-the-way location has protected the natural environment of this temple.  The view from its grounds is uninterrupted by anything modern, even the museum is discreetly hidden behind a small hill.

Time for lunch and there is no better place to have one than in the furthest southern peak of Attica “Cape Sounio” in front of the deep blue water of the Aegean Sea.   Here we’ll visit the temple of Poseidon the most visited site outside Athens built in 440 B.C. by Pericles.  Returning back to Athens via the scenic coastal road will be the most picturesque part of the whole tour.

Duration approximately 8 hours

All our private tours are flexible.  It is always up to you to change the itinerary according to your wishes. 

Admission fees and lunch are not included in the price of the tour

Sites’ Opening Hours
Summer                                                
From  April 1st to October 31st
08:00-19:30
 
Winter
From November 1st to March 31st 
08:30-17:00

Admission to the sites

Marathon: 6 Euros

Vravrona:  6 Euros

Sounio:     8 Euros

Reduced admission (50%) for visitors (Original passport or copy necessary)
Between 6-25 years old, from countries outside the E.U.
Senior citizens of the E.U. aged over 65
Everybody from Nov. 1st to March 31st

Free admission for visitors (Original passport or copy necessary)
Up to 25 years old from countries of the E.U
Children up to 5 years old from countries outside the E.U
Highschool & University students over 25 years old from countries of the E.U. (a certificate from the educational institution certifying tuition and its duration is necessary)

Days of free admission for all to archaeological sites & public Museums
• March 6 (In Memory of Melina Mercouri)
• April 18 (International Monuments Day)
• May 18 (International Museums Day)
• The last weekend of September (European Heritage Days)
• Oct. 28 (National Holiday)
• First Sunday of every month, from Nov. 1st to March 31st

Holidays

1 January:   closed

6 January:   08:30 - 15:00

Shrove Monday:  08:30 - 15:00

25 March:  closed

Greek Orhodox Good Friday:  12:00 - 15:00

Greek Orhodox Good Saturday:  08:30 - 15:00

Greek Orhodox Easter Sunday:  closed

Greek Orhodox Easter Monday:  08:30 - 15:00

May 1:  closed

Holy Spirit Day: 08:30 - 15:00

15 August:  08:30 - 15:00

28 October:   08:30 - 15:00

25 December:  closed

26 December:  closed