Itinerary

Day 1: Athens
Thursday, November 10. You arrive to one of the most continuously occupied cities in the world, Athens, the capital of modern Greece. Early evening a welcome toast with light meze (Greek appetizers) and a sip of raki to get you into the spirit of Greek life. Two hour walking tour of places in Athens tourists usually never see.

Day 2: Athens
Friday, November 11. Optional 30-45 minute morning run around the Acropolis pedestrian walkway with a Greek marathoner. Today's highlight is a walking tour of the Acropolis with a professional guide.

Day 3: Athens
Saturday, November 12. Transfer to southern Attiki peninsula to admire the magnificent Temple of Poseidon. Lunch in Rafina. Visit the memorial battlefield and return to Athens via the route you will run tomorrow. Distribute race numbers in Athens. Pre-event pasta dinner.

Day 4: Athens
Sunday, November 13. Show time! Transfer to Marathon. As you run today's route try to imagine Phidippides and his exciting, sensational news -- Greece, the underdog and vanquished Persia, the superpower of 490 BC. Evening Nike/Victory dinner with traditional Greek music and dance.

Day 5: departure
Monday November 14



Antiquities Add-On
Cost and Inclusions

Day 5: Nafplio
Monday, November 14. Modern Greece's first capital was Nafplio, an elegant little harbor city with neo-Classical mansions and a spacious plaza. Close by is Ancient Mycenae, home of King Agamemnon who launched the Trojan War. You will marvel at his unusual beehive tomb. Tour the grounds with a professional guide.

Day 6: Nafplio
Tuesday, November 15. During your professional guided tour of Epidavros, you will learn that its famous theatre was not the major attraction in the ancient world as it is today. Rather, Epidavros was the largest of some 200 Asclipion centers in ancient Greece where adherents came from all over for body, mind and spirit healing, including dream therapy and rubbing snakes on their bodies. Today the outdoor Epidavros Theatre, seating 15,000, holds summer drama festivals.

Day 7: Stemnitsa
Wednesday, November 16 You don't really know Greece until you spend a little time in a traditional mountain village. Stemnitsa, population 400, lies in the heart of the Arcadia mountains and abuts the verdant Lousios Gorge. An invigorating hike takes up to a monastery on the side of a cliff and the "secret school" which came about during Greece's war for independence against the Ottoman occupation in the 1820s.

Day 8: Kalavrita
Thursday, November 17. The earliest recorded Olympic Games were in 796 BC, 300 centuries before the Marathon. The Temple of Zeus at Ancient Olympia, part of which is still standing, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. A professional guide takes you around the grounds plus the museum where there is an exquisite statue of Hermes.

Day 9: Athens Airport Sofitel Hotel
Friday, November 18 The ancients regarded Delphi as the center of the universe. Every city-state called upon the oracle before making important decisions. She prophesized for the lives of individuals, too, if you had enough resources for the sacrifice. A tour with a professional guide enlightens you about this most sacred site. After dinner in Arahova, transfer to Athens Sofitel Airport hotel for flights home

Day10: departure
Saturday, November 19

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