Delphi day trip from Athens: the KTEL Fokidas bus at 08:30 and 10:30, one €20 ticket for the site and museum, and tours from €25.50

💡 The Short Version: Delphi is about 2½ hours from Athens. The KTEL Fokidas bus leaves the Liosion terminal at 08:30 and 10:30 every day and comes back at 16:00 and 18:30. One €20 ticket covers the site and the museum. The site closes at 20:00 in summer and 15:30 from 1 November, and the museum opens at 10:00 on Tuesdays from April to October. The Tholos is closed. Or book a tour: Delphi Full Day V.R. Audio Guided Tourad is from €25.50 for 10 hours and Delphi Oracle & Museum Tour with a Licensed Guidead from €35.40 for 11 hours; the listings sell the entry as an option (GetYourGuide).

Getting there

KTEL Fokidas is the Delphi operator, and its Delphi to Athens timetable is on its own site, in Greek, with online ticket sales. Later buses leave Athens in the afternoon; the day trip uses the two morning departures. Check the day’s timetable before you go, as it changes by season. No buses run at Christmas, New Year or Easter.

The Liosion terminal is KTEL Liosion, at Liosion 260. Buses from Delphi stop at Kato Patisia, on Athens metro line 1, before the terminal, so you can change to the metro there. The 08:30 out and 16:00 back leave roughly five hours in Delphi if the ride takes 2½ hours; in winter the site closes at 15:30, so take the 08:30.

Tours from Athens

Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices for one adult. The entry is an option on these listings; where a listing offers a “without tickets” option, buy the ticket yourself on the Hellenic Heritage shop, which sells the site and museum on one ticket.

The bus gives you the hours you choose at the site. A tour gives you a guide and the Arachova stop. For both, the site and the museum are one ticket.

Tickets and hours

Under-18s are free. Free entry for under-25s is for EU citizens only, so visitors from the UK, US, Canada and Australia aged 18 to 25 pay in full. The ticket is for a date and time (the shop marks it “timed entry required”): changes are allowed up to 2 hours before the visit, twice at most, and tickets are non-refundable. Large luggage, food and professional filming are not allowed.

What to see

The museum is 10 minutes on foot from Delphi village and the site 15 minutes.

The Temple of Apollo at Delphi, with the valley below it. Photo: Berthold Werner, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

The sanctuary of Apollo

The Sacred Way up the hill · the Treasury of the Athenians · the Temple of Apollo · the theatre · the stadium

Delphi was the seat of the oracle of Apollo, where the priestess Pythia gave the answers that the priests interpreted. The path, the Sacred Way, climbs past the Treasury of the Athenians to the ruined Doric Temple of Apollo, then the theatre, and ends at the stadium at the top. The Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, with the round Tholos, is closed: the Ministry of Culture’s hours table gives a restriction imposed by the Region of Central Greece.

The theatre at Delphi, with the Temple of Apollo below it. Photo: Zde, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Archaeological Museum

Same ticket · Tuesdays 10:00 to 17:00 from April to October

The museum holds the finds from the sanctuary: the bronze Charioteer of Delphi from the 5th century BC, the Sphinx of the Naxians, the statues of Kleobis and Biton, the metope reliefs from the Treasuries of the Siphnians and the Athenians, and the chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statues, which Hellenic Heritage calls the only surviving examples. This is Athens, the city’s official guide, advises going in the morning in summer and visiting the museum first.

The bronze Charioteer of Delphi in the Archaeological Museum. Photo: Zde, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Arachova

Tours stop here

Many tours stop in Arachova, the village on the road to Delphi. The KTEL bus is a straight run to Delphi.

Planning the day

1. Take the 08:30. It is the bus that fits the winter closing at 15:30 and the 16:00 return.
2. Buy the €20 ticket once. It covers the site and the museum.
3. Follow the city guide: go in the morning in summer, and see the museum first.
4. Tuesday in summer. The museum opens at 10:00, not 08:00.
5. Check the return. The last bus back is 18:30; plan the rest of the day around it.
6. Free days. On 28 October and the first and third Sundays from 1 November to 31 March, entry is free for everyone.

Delphi is one of the day trips from Athens. Meteora pairs with it on a two-day tour, Cape Sounion is the shorter coastal trip, and Mycenae, Epidaurus and Nafplio is the other ancient-sites day. What to book before you go to Athens lists the city tickets, Athens public transport covers the metro to the bus terminals, and where to stay in Athens compares the areas.