Dubrovnik to Athens: Kotor, Albania, Corfu and Meteora

1. Day 1: Arrive in Dubrovnik

   Dubrovnik Airport to your hotel in Dubrovnik

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Dubrovnik
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Dubrovnik Airport (DBV), about 20 km south of the city, and a driver meets you in arrivals for the half-hour run along the coast road. Plan to land by about 4 pm so you are settled before the evening meeting; the exact time comes with your final itinerary. If you arrive early, walk down to the Old Town through the Pile Gate and get your bearings on the Stradun, the polished limestone main street, before the day-trippers leave. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing: how the borders work, what the ferry days look like, which mornings start early and why. Then we sit down to a welcome dinner of Dalmatian seafood and local wine at a restaurant in or near the walls. Dubrovnik's old town has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1979.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Dubrovnik Airport (DBV)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

2. Day 2: Dubrovnik: the walls at opening

   A day on foot in Dubrovnik's Old Town

   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Dubrovnik
   Day 2 details

   We are at the wall entrance by the Pile Gate when it opens, so the first hour on the ramparts is cool and quiet. The walk runs nearly 2 km around the Old Town, up to the Minceta Fortress for the view over the roofs and down past the old harbour, with Lokrum island just offshore. Afterwards your guide walks you through the town below: the Rector's Palace, the Sponza Palace, the cathedral treasury from outside, the Franciscan Monastery's cloister, and the Serbian Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, a reminder that this was a mixed trading city. The rest of the day is yours. Swim off the rocks below the walls, take the cable car up Mount Srd for the long view down the coast, or sit in a shaded square through the heat of the afternoon. Dinner is your choice.

   Included

   • Dubrovnik city walls at opening, with your guide
   • Guided walk of the Old Town: the Stradun, the Rector's Palace, the Sponza Palace and the Franciscan cloister

   Optional experiences

   • Mount Srd cable car
   • Sea kayaking below the walls

   Easier option: Walk the seaward half of the walls only and leave at the harbour exit.

   More active option: Walk up Mount Srd on the switchback path instead of taking the cable car (about an hour up, 400 m of climb).

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: The walls have many steps and little shade. Bring water and a hat.

   

3. Day 3: Into Montenegro: Perast and Kotor

   Dubrovnik to the Montenegrin border, then around the Bay of Kotor to Perast and Kotor

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Kotor
   Day 3 details

   After breakfast we drive south past Cavtat to the border, where we leave Croatia and the Schengen area and enter Montenegro. The road then follows the shore of the Bay of Kotor, a deep drowned river canyon walled by limestone mountains. Our first stop is Perast, a small baroque town of captains' houses and bell towers built when its sailors served Venice. A short boat ride takes us out to Our Lady of the Rocks, a church on an artificial islet that sailors built up over centuries by dropping stones on a reef; the small museum inside holds votive paintings of ships. Lunch is a sit-down meal on the Perast waterfront. Kotor is twenty minutes on, and we check in by mid-afternoon. In the evening, when the cruise passengers have gone back to their ships, your guide takes you through the quiet lanes of the old town.

   Included

   • Border crossing from Croatia into Montenegro with your guide
   • Boat from Perast to Our Lady of the Rocks and its museum
   • Sit-down lunch in Perast
   • Evening walk in Kotor's old town

   Activity: The border can add 30 minutes to an hour; the 2.5-hour figure includes a normal wait.

4. Day 4: Kotor: the fortress early, then a free afternoon

   A day in Kotor

   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Kotor
   Day 4 details

   Kotor's old town fills from mid-morning when cruise ships dock, so we start early. Those who want to climb set off with the guide at about 7:30 am up the fortress path, roughly 1,350 steps that zigzag up the mountain behind the town, past the little Church of Our Lady of Remedy to the ruins of St John's Fortress about 260 m above the bay. The view down over the roofs and the fjord-like bay is the best on the coast. Back down by mid-morning, we walk the old town together: St Tryphon's Cathedral, consecrated in 1166, the Maritime Museum in a baroque palace, and the squares and cats that the town is known for. Kotor and its bay are on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The afternoon and evening are free: swim at Dobrota, take a boat out on the bay, or sit in a square and watch the light go off the mountains.

   Included

   • Early climb to St John's Fortress with your guide
   • Guided walk of Kotor's old town, with St Tryphon's Cathedral

   Optional experiences

   • Boat trip on the Bay of Kotor
   • Kotor Maritime Museum

   Easier option: Skip the climb: meet the group at 10 am for the old town walk, or walk only as far as the Church of Our Lady of Remedy, about a third of the way up.

   More active option: Climb to St John's Fortress at 7:30 am, about 1.5 to 2 hours up and down.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: The fortress path is steep stone steps with no shade after mid-morning.

   

5. Day 5: Down the coast to Shkoder and Tirana

   Kotor to Budva, Bar and Ulcinj, across the Albanian border to Shkoder, then Tirana

   • Drive about 5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Tirana
   Day 5 details

   This is the longest drive of the trip, about 235 km and five hours on the road, because there is no good place to stop overnight between Kotor and Tirana; we break it into three parts. We leave at about 8:30 am and follow the Montenegrin coast past Budva and the island village of Sveti Stefan, with a short stop at the viewpoint above it, then continue past Bar and Ulcinj to the Albanian border. The second part is short: Shkoder, Albania's northern city, where we climb to Rozafa Castle on its hill above Lake Shkoder and the rivers for the view, then sit down to lunch in the town. The last two hours run south across the plain to Tirana, arriving in the late afternoon. Albania's capital is loud, colourful and easy to like; your guide takes you for an evening walk to Skanderbeg Square and the cafe streets of the Blloku district.

   Included

   • Sveti Stefan viewpoint
   • Border crossing from Montenegro into Albania with your guide
   • Rozafa Castle in Shkoder
   • Sit-down lunch in Shkoder
   • Evening walk in Tirana: Skanderbeg Square and Blloku

   Activity: About five hours of driving with three breaks. Rozafa Castle is a short, steep walk up from the car park.

6. Day 6: Tirana's bunkers, then Berat by evening

   Tirana to Berat

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Berat
   Day 6 details

   A morning in Tirana with your guide. We start at Bunk'Art 2, a Cold War bunker built for the interior ministry under the city centre, now a museum of the communist secret police; it is a sober, well-made exhibition and the best short introduction to modern Albania. Then Skanderbeg Square in daylight, the small painted Et'hem Bey Mosque, and the Pyramid, the former museum to the dictator Enver Hoxha, now reopened as a youth and technology centre that you can climb. After lunch on your own in Tirana we drive about two hours south to Berat, arriving in the late afternoon light, when the white houses of the Mangalem quarter stack up the hillside with their rows of windows facing the Osum river. We walk across the old Gorica bridge for the classic view, then sit down to a home-style dinner of Berat dishes.

   Included

   • Bunk'Art 2 in Tirana
   • Guided walk: Skanderbeg Square, the Et'hem Bey Mosque and the Pyramid
   • Evening walk across the Gorica bridge in Berat
   • Dinner in Berat

   Optional experiences

   • National History Museum in Tirana

   Free time: Lunch hour free in Tirana

7. Day 7: Berat's castle, then south to Gjirokaster

   Berat to Tepelene and the Drino valley to Gjirokaster

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Gjirokaster
   Day 7 details

   We walk up to Berat's castle quarter, the Kala, at about 8 am, while the stone is cool and the lanes are empty. People still live inside the 13th-century walls, among Byzantine churches; the Onufri Museum in the Church of the Dormition holds icons by the 16th-century painter Onufri. Berat and Gjirokaster are listed together by UNESCO as Ottoman-era towns. We leave by mid-morning and drive about three hours south through the Vjosa valley past Tepelene, with a sit-down lunch on the way, and reach Gjirokaster, the 'stone city', in the early afternoon. Its tall tower houses are roofed with grey stone slabs. Late in the afternoon a local guide shows us the castle on the ridge and the Zekate House, a restored 19th-century tower house, and we finish with Turkish coffee and the view over the Drino valley. The evening is free in the old bazaar.

   Included

   • Berat castle quarter (the Kala) and the Onufri Museum
   • Sit-down lunch on the way south
   • Gjirokaster castle and the Zekate House with a local guide

   Optional experiences

   • Ethnographic Museum in Gjirokaster

   Easier option: In Gjirokaster, the van can take you up to the castle gate instead of the walk up through the bazaar.

   Free time: Evening free in the old bazaar

   Activity: Both towns are steep and paved with polished stone that is slippery when wet.

8. Day 8: The Blue Eye, Butrint and the ferry to Corfu

   Gjirokaster to the Blue Eye, Butrint and Saranda, then the ferry to Corfu Town

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Corfu
   Day 8 details

   An early start gets us over the Muzine pass to the Blue Eye at about 9 am, before the coaches. The spring wells up from more than 50 m down into a pool of startling blue; swimming is not allowed, and the water is cold all year. From there we drive to Butrint, at the tip of the coast facing Corfu, a national park and UNESCO site where Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Venetian ruins lie in the woods by a lagoon: the theatre, the baptistery with its mosaic floor and the lion gate. Lunch is a sit-down meal at Ksamil or by the lagoon. In the afternoon we say goodbye to our Albanian driver at the port of Saranda, clear passport control, and take the ferry across the strait to Corfu Town, back into the Schengen area. Clocks go forward an hour. A Greek driver meets us at the port for the short ride to the hotel.

   Included

   • The Blue Eye spring
   • Butrint National Park with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch near Butrint
   • Ferry from Saranda to Corfu Town
   • Transfer from Corfu port to your hotel

   Free time: Evening free in Corfu Town

   Activity: The ferry takes about 30 minutes to over an hour depending on the boat and season; the sailing time is confirmed with your final itinerary.

   

9. Day 9: Corfu Town and a free afternoon

   A day in Corfu Town

   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Corfu
   Day 9 details

   Corfu Town was ruled by Venice for four centuries, then by France and Britain, and it shows: Venetian forts, French arcades and a British cricket ground on the main square. Its old town has been on the UNESCO list since 2007. We walk it in the morning, before the heat. First the Old Fortress on its rocky headland, with the view back over the town from the clock tower, then the Spianada square and the arcaded Liston, the narrow lanes of the old town with washing strung between the houses, and the Church of St Spyridon, whose red-domed bell tower marks the skyline and whose saint is carried through the streets on feast days. Lunch is up to you. The afternoon is free: take a bus or taxi to a beach, visit the Achilleion palace built for Empress Elisabeth of Austria, or walk out to Kanoni for the view of Mouse Island.

   Included

   • Guided walk of Corfu Town: the Old Fortress, the Spianada, the Liston and the Church of St Spyridon
   • Entry to the Old Fortress

   Optional experiences

   • Achilleion palace
   • Boat trip from Paleokastritsa

   More active option: Walk south along the seafront to Mon Repos and Kanoni, about 4 km each way.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

10. Day 10: Ferry to the mainland and Ioannina

    Corfu Town by ferry to Igoumenitsa, then to Ioannina

    • Drive about 1.5 h
    • Breakfast and lunch
    • Stay in Ioannina
    Day 10 details

    A morning car ferry carries us and our Greek vehicle across to Igoumenitsa on the mainland, about an hour and a half on the water. From the port the Egnatia motorway climbs inland through the mountains of Epirus, and in just over an hour we reach Ioannina, a lively university town on Lake Pamvotida. Lunch is a sit-down meal on the lakefront. In the afternoon a small boat takes us out to the island in the lake, a car-free village of stone lanes and monasteries where Ali Pasha, the Ottoman ruler of Epirus, was killed in 1822 in the Monastery of St Panteleimon; the rooms are now a small museum. Back on shore we walk up into the walled castle, the Its Kale, with the Fethiye Mosque and the Byzantine Museum. The evening is free along the lake.

    Included

    • Car ferry from Corfu to Igoumenitsa
    • Sit-down lunch in Ioannina
    • Boat to the island in Lake Pamvotida and the Ali Pasha museum
    • Ioannina castle, the Its Kale

    Free time: Evening free by the lake

11. Day 11: Over the Pindus to Meteora

    Ioannina past Metsovo to Kalambaka and the monasteries of Meteora

    • Drive about 2 h
    • Breakfast and lunch
    • Stay in Kalambaka
    Day 11 details

    We leave Ioannina at about 8:30 am on the Egnatia motorway, which tunnels under the Pindus mountains past Metsovo, and reach Kalambaka by mid-morning. Meteora, a UNESCO site, is a cluster of sandstone pillars rising straight out of the Thessaly plain, with six working monasteries on top; monks first settled here in the 14th century, and the steps cut into the rock replaced rope ladders and nets only last century. With your guide we visit two monasteries, chosen by the day of the week because each closes one day: usually the Great Meteoron, the largest, and Varlaam, with its frescoes and the old winch tower. Lunch is a sit-down meal in the village of Kastraki under the rocks. The afternoon is free to rest, and we drive back up for sunset at a viewpoint over the pillars and the plain.

    Included

    • Two Meteora monasteries with your guide
    • Sit-down lunch in Kastraki
    • Sunset viewpoint over Meteora

    Easier option: The van waits at each monastery car park; skip a monastery and stay at the viewpoint if the steps are too much.

    More active option: Walk down from the Great Meteoron to Kastraki on the old monks' footpath, about an hour through oak woods.

    Free time: Afternoon free

    Activity: Each monastery has 100 to 300 steps. Women need a skirt below the knee and men long trousers, with shoulders covered; wraps are usually lent at the door.

12. Day 12: A monastery at opening, then Delphi

    Kalambaka to Lamia and over the mountains to Delphi

    • Drive about 3.5 h
    • Breakfast and lunch
    • Stay in Delphi
    Day 12 details

    We are at a third monastery when it opens, usually St Stephen's, a nunnery reached by a bridge rather than steps, so it suits everyone. Then we drive south across the Thessaly plain and over the hills past Lamia, about 235 km and three and a quarter hours with a coffee stop, and sit down to lunch in Delphi in the early afternoon. Delphi hangs on the slopes of Mount Parnassus above a sea of olive trees running down to the Gulf of Corinth. In the late afternoon, once the day-trip coaches from Athens have left, your guide takes you through the Delphi Archaeological Museum, home to the bronze Charioteer, made around 470 BC, and the sculptures from the treasuries. The site itself waits for tomorrow's opening. The evening is free; the terraces of the town face west for the sunset over the gulf.

    Included

    • A third Meteora monastery at opening
    • Sit-down lunch in Delphi
    • Delphi Archaeological Museum with your guide

    Free time: Evening free

13. Day 13: Delphi at opening, then Athens

    Delphi to Athens

    • Drive about 2.5 h
    • Breakfast and dinner
    • Stay in Athens
    Day 13 details

    We walk into the sanctuary of Apollo at opening, while the mountain is still in shade and before the first coaches arrive from Athens. The Sacred Way climbs past the rebuilt Treasury of the Athenians to the Temple of Apollo, where the oracle spoke, then up to the theatre and the stadium at the top of the site. Delphi has been on the UNESCO list since 1987. On the way out we stop at the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia and its round tholos, the picture most people know. Then it is about two and a half hours to Athens, arriving in the early afternoon. The afternoon is free near your central hotel: walk the lanes of Plaka and Anafiotika, or sit in a cafe below the Acropolis. In the evening we meet for a farewell dinner of Greek dishes, with a toast to the four countries behind us.

    Included

    • Delphi archaeological site at opening, with your guide
    • The Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia
    • Farewell dinner in Athens

    Easier option: Walk only the lower part of the site to the Temple of Apollo, and skip the climb to the stadium.

    Free time: Afternoon free in Athens

    Activity: The site climbs steeply on marble and gravel paths with little shade.

14. Day 14: The Acropolis on the first slot and home

    The Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum, then Athens International Airport

    • Drive about 45 min
    • Breakfast
    Day 14 details

    We go up to the Acropolis on the first timed entry of the day, booked in advance, when the marble is cool and the line at the Propylaea is at its shortest. Your guide explains the Parthenon, the Erechtheion with its porch of maidens and the little Temple of Athena Nike, and points out the Theatre of Dionysus and the Agora below. Then we walk down to the Acropolis Museum, where the original maidens and the Parthenon frieze are shown in daylight on the top floor, aligned with the temple outside the windows. Lunch is your choice in Makrygianni or Plaka. Your guide arranges the transfer to Athens International Airport (ATH), about 45 minutes away, and says goodbye. Book a flight leaving after about 4 pm, or stay on in Athens and we drop you at your own hotel instead.

    Included

    • The Acropolis on the first timed entry, with your guide
    • The Acropolis Museum
    • Transfer to Athens International Airport (ATH)

    Optional experiences

    • National Archaeological Museum

    Easier option: The Acropolis has a lift for visitors with limited mobility; ask us in advance and we check it is running.

    Activity: Book a flight after about 4 pm.

Wildlife and weather: May, June, September and October are warm and good for swimming on the coast, with cooler evenings at Meteora and Delphi. July and August can pass 35 C inland in Albania and Greece and bring the heaviest crowds and border queues, so we do not run then.

• Dubrovnik2 nights
• Kotor2 nights
• Tirana1 night
• Berat1 night
• Gjirokaster1 night
• Corfu2 nights
• Ioannina1 night
• Kalambaka1 night
• Delphi1 night
• Athens1 night