When Rick Steves adds a destination to his lineup, people pay attention. America’s best-known travel writer and TV host, with millions of readers and viewers, just launched a new 8-day tour called “Best of Athens & Nafplio” \u2014 and its route runs right through our backyard.<\/p>\n
The itinerary opens with the classics \u2014 the Acropolis, the Parthenon, and the Ancient Agora in Athens \u2014 but the real story is what comes next: travelers head into the Peloponnese to see Mycenae, Nemea, and the theater at Epidavros, where, according to the tour description, participants “take the stage” to experience the ancient theater’s famous acoustics firsthand. The program rounds out with a cooking class at a traditional taverna, a farm visit, and lessons in traditional Greek dancing, alongside free time to explore neighborhoods like Plaka and Psyrri independently.<\/p>\n
For years, international attention on Greece has concentrated almost entirely on the islands. A tour of this scale, from such a recognizable travel brand, shifts the spotlight elsewhere: to mainland Peloponnese, to the history of the Argolid, and to towns like Nafplio that have stayed relatively under the radar for the average international visitor. This isn’t just good news for the Argolid \u2014 it’s a signal that the Peloponnese interior, as a whole, is starting to register with international travelers in a different way than the islands ever have.<\/p>\n
Rick Steves’ tour stops at the Argolid. But the Peloponnese has plenty more to show further south, in Messinia: Ancient Messene, Mystras, Sparta, the castle in Kalamata. Travelers impressed by Mycenae and Epidavros often find the same density of history continues south \u2014 it’s just that fewer people have found it yet.<\/p>\n
At Penguin Travels & Tours<\/strong>, we put together private itineraries that extend exactly this kind of trip further south into Messinia \u2014 Ancient Messene, Mystras and Sparta, Kalamata \u2014 for travelers who want to see more than a standard tour package covers.<\/p>\n Planning a trip through the Peloponnese?<\/strong> Stop by our office in Kalamata (Vasilissis Olgas 4) or call us at +30 27210 80701<\/strong> \u2014 we’ll build a route that fits your time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rick Steves just launched a new Athens\u2013Nafplio tour. What it means for tourism in the Peloponnese, and how you can build a similar route yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12716,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_title":"Rick Steves Launches Athens\u2013Nafplio Tour: Why It Matters","rank_math_description":"Rick Steves just launched a new 8-day Athens\u2013Nafplio tour. What this international attention means for the Peloponnese, and how to build your own route.","rank_math_focus_keyword":"Rick Steves Greece, Nafplio tour, Peloponnese tourism","footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-updates-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12738,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676\/revisions\/12738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguintravels.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n