Delphi is a 3.5 hour bus journey from Athens so possibly not for everyone if pressed for time, but it was a really lovely town with breathtaking views, super lovely and welcoming people and a chance to visit the remains of where the first real music festival was held.
We were in Delphi mid-September 2022 as part of a 3 week trip, so all my notes are based around my experiences at that time. Please do check any dates/opening times/locations etc. if you’re planning your own trip – things change! Links are to websites if I can find useful ones, or Google Maps locations if not, so you can see where they are. Please also note this post contains some affiliate links, indicated with a ‘*’ – if you click them and decide to buy something I may receive a small cut of the payment, but it won’t cost you more. Thank you!
You can read my notes on what we got up to below, but if you are short on time here are my top recommendations of what to do in Delphi, plus you can take a look at my more general notes on travelling in Greece: Athens, the Peloponnese and a few islands, too:
Travel:
KTEL N. Fokidas: bus from Athens to Delphi, leaves from KTEL Liosion (Bus Terminal B). More detail below.
Do/see/visit:
Delphi Archaeological Site and Museum: the main archaeological site and a good museum featuring artefacts and information about the site.
Tholos of Athena Pronaia: free to enter, remains of a circular temple.
Use Rick Steves’ ‘Greece: Athens & the Peloponnese*’: for planning, self-guided walks and useful information.
Drink:
Telescope Bar: good selection of drinks with actual telescopes to look at the valley.
Eat:
Taverna Vakhos: delicious food with a great view.
Epikouros: dinner with yet another great view and excellent service.
Stay:
Nidimos Hotel*: great location at the edge of the town – get a sea view if you can!
Travelling from Athens to Delphi
We set off from our hotel in Athens at around 9am, to get the 10:30 bus to Delphi from KTEL Liosion (Bus Terminal B). We got the red metro line from Syntagma to Attiki and then walked (a very hot but interesting walk past more car shops than I’ve ever seen!) but there is a bus that takes you there, Citymapper makes it all very easy! By pure luck we went to the desk to ask which stop to go to and it turned out we needed to swap our online order confirmations for actual tickets, which was worth knowing! We grabbed some koulouri from a counter round the corner then waited to board the bus.
After figuring out how to find our seat numbers (on the arm of the seat, sort of) we settled in for a comfortable journey through the mountains and it flew by! It is important to make sure you sit in the correct seats, even if someone is sitting in your seat don’t think it’s more polite to just sit elsewhere, it’s likely more people will get on later and the bus conductor will have to unpick the jumble of people in the wrong seats.
We finally went through a really picturesque ski town then arrived at Delphi, a very small and beautiful town with absolutely stunning views of the mountains and out to the sea.
We stayed at Nidimos Hotel* at the far side of the town (think we could have got off the bus right by it but we were nervous about missing it!), were given our key from a sterilisation box and told welcome drinks would be brought right up. No sooner had we peeked out at the lovely balcony with an incredible view than a young lad knocked on the door with two chilled glasses of what was possibly apple juice and ouzo, which we sipped on the balcony taking in the view. It was honestly like a painting, even now looking at photos I can’t quite believe it was real!
How we spent 1.5 days in Delphi: first afternoon
Strolling, looking at the view, drinks, dinner
We decided to take things easy on this leg of the trip as we had two nights and really only one sight to visit, so although we spread things out across an afternoon and a full day you could easily do everything we’ve done here in one day.
After our welcome drink we strolled through Delphi town, bought water and wandered along the winding road to check the opening times for the archeological site and museum (posted on the door – more reliable than online listings!), stopping for photos, the view and just to sit. It’s very peaceful here.
We went to Telescope bar for a couple of drinks accompanied by snacks (most drinks come with free snacks in Greece and I love it!) and just relaxed. They did indeed have a telescope that we struggled to look through but mostly just enjoyed overhearing other travellers’ tales and looking over the view.
We went to Epikouros for dinner and had a lovely time and a seat with a view (well, I did, Tim’s was a bit obscured). It was quite busy with groups but that all added to the atmosphere and we enjoyed lovely (very reasonably priced) house wine by the carafe and a starter of roasted Formaela cheese to share. I had stuffed tomatoes which were delicious and Tim’s souvlaki was great too. They even gave us chocolate cake as a free dessert which was so tasty (we think might have been extra from the tour groups), a very welcome and appreciated extra!
How we spent 1.5 days in Delphi: full day
Wandering, relaxing, archaeological museum and site
We took the opportunity for a leisurely start to the next day. When we visited in mid September 2022 COVID precautions were still in effect here – I mentioned that our key was sanitised but the other thing was that rather than a buffet, breakfast was delivered to us at a time of our choosing and it was amazing! It was basically our own personal buffet, a tray filled with delights including omelette (complete with smiley face), ham and cheese toasted sandwiches, boiled eggs, Greek salad, yogurt with honey, cornflakes and almonds, mini pastries, orange slices and a syrupy orange cake with a sort of sweet cream, plus orange juice and coffee-absolutely incredible!! Both days had different treats, too.
As we were travelling with only cabin bags we made the most of the balcony and washed some clothes, then read, doodled, messed with photos etc. while they dried. There are hiking trails around the area but it was nice just to have a bit of a rest and look at that view!
Having seen how it looked at around 16:00 yesterday, we headed to the archaeological site for around that time today and it was definitely a good decision. There were very few tour groups and little groups of people and it was a good temperature too. If you’re there for photo ops you just have to consider the long shadows at that time but I enjoyed seeing the light change. There is a bit of a steep walk up through the site so another bonus of going later is that it’s a bit cooler then too.
We went to the museum first, which again was really nicely laid out with plenty of interesting artefacts to look at as well as large pieces with diagrams showing where they would have been in the site.
I’m glad we did it that way round as we then headed to the site itself and could spot where things we’d seen earlier would have been positioned. You can choose to do it either way but just check the closing times for both so you don’t have to rush.
It was incredible to see the remaining parts of this huge site with the incredibly dramatic landscape behind. As the sun dipped below the mountains we walked briskly round to see the spring, gymnasium (just from the road) and catch the last of the golden light on the Tholos of Athena Pronaia.
We strolled back to town as the light faded, then looked for somewhere to eat, opting for Taverna Vakhos where we had bread with olive tapenade, red wine and Tim had lemon lamb and I had pork with a tomato and cheese sauce, both of us choosing an accompaniment of hilopites (a type of pasta). It was delicious! We were both very full but enjoyed the grapes from the garden they gave us – the red ones were huge! Their menu was really clearly laid out, too, with translations and a key for allergens (also viewable on their website).
Leaving Delphi
The next day we headed off to Hydra (via Athens) and as well as having time to eat most of our amazing breakfast on the balcony we packaged up some of the more portable items to have as lunch later.
To get the bus back to Athens we went back to where we got off, though I think they do make a stop right by our hotel too. The bus ‘station’ in Delphi is in the In Delphi restaurant so it’s not possible to swap the printed confirmation for tickets (and that was fine) and everyone sort of mills around looking confused about where to stand. The roads through the town are one way, so it comes along the lower road from the west and as long as you know that you can work out where it’s likely to stop. We stood in front of the big shell of a Hotel Vouzas, about here, and that was correct.
This was one of the occasions where people didn’t sit in their allocated seats and lots of confusion ensued so it’s worth remembering!
All in all we had a lovely time in Delphi. It was wonderful to see the mountains, everyone was so lovely, welcoming and generous and I know I keep repeating it but that view was truly amazing!
Next stop: Hydra
Notes on Travel is a blog by photographer Jayne Lloyd, noting the things I found useful to know when I was visiting Delphi in September 2022 as part of a 3 week trip around Athens, the Peloponnese and a few islands. I’ve tried to be accurate but please do check for up-to-date information before going as things are always changing! I apologise for any mistakes, please do let me know if you have more recent info.
* This post contains some affiliate links, indicated with a ‘*’ – if you click them and decide to buy something I may receive a small cut of the payment, but it won’t cost you more. Thank you!