marazul

@dickinson- OK. Here are a few thoughts on your plans. On day 1 you would like to walk through the Ancient Agora, etc and also go to Sounion. Your concern is that you will be too tired to do both. You can do it. Just do not try to get an early start and get some rest. You can go first to the Ancient Agora and the temple of Haephaestus, walk back alongside te Roman Agora, and go into Anafiotika and Plaka. This will take you about 3 hours and you can do it on your own. You can also look for a walking tour that does this. Break for a late lunch and a little rest. Take the Sounion excursion. As I said before, the most that can happen is that you will fall asleep on the bus on the way back to Athens. On Day 2 you are taking the Acropolis and Acropolis Museum tour. That only takes a half day. You have the entire afternoon for other things. For example, go to the National Archaeological Museum. Or, else take the tour of the Ancient Agora to Plaka that afternoon instead of doing that on Day 1. In that case, on Day 1 you could sleep late, go to the National Archaeological Museum, go back to Plaka for lunch and then go to Sounion. Whatever you do, plan on dinner in Plaka. The Athens Gate is not directly across from the Acropolis; it is directly across from the Temple of Zeus. The hotel is about four blocks away from the Acropolis, and it does have a great view of the Acropolis from the rooftop terrace and from some of the rooms on the top floor. You wonder why most people do not talk about tours to the Acropolis. That is because the vast majority of people do it on their own getting tickets for both. A good tour adds value to the experience, so it is worthwhile doing it.

I found the description of the Getaways tour. It takes two extra hours because it spends a lot of time picking up and returning passengers to different locations. That is the problem with many shared tours. You could check the price with other companies that do a small group tour, like PK. However, any tour that includes time for dinner will take 4-5 hours and nearly half of that time is the drive. It will be closer to 4 hours if it is a private tour which picks up in only one place and lets you control better how much time you spend at dinner. Consider staying in Athens and going for a late dinner in one of the many restaurants in Plaka that have a view of the Acropolis. That is also a wonderful experience. Save Sounion for another trip.

Go for it, but listen to CruiserBruce and get a local tour - PK Travel or George's Taxi.

It will be fine. The ride to Sounion is a little over one hour. The most that can happen is that you will take a nap during the ride. You get to Sounion a little after 5. You may or may not see the sunset depending on the date.

If the tours are only drive-by tours, you may be better off doing tours on your own.

It is easy enough to find out. Look through the Hotels in Rome thread on this board and look at the price of transfers with romecabs.com or look up a shared shuttle transfer.

Check on a private airport transfer that includes a tour. You only need to be at the airport three hours before your flight. Spain Day Tours is a good company.

Look into taking the train to Paris. You can get there earlier and be in the center of the city. Get a hotel near the station and you will be ready to start sightseeing.

Actually, they are the same. The Clarisses or Poor Clares is the order of nuns founded by Saint Clare of Assisi (Santa Chiara) and St Francis of Assisi in the early 13th century.

Book the tour directly with the Vatican Museum. They have the best guides. https://tickets.museivaticani.va/home "Prime experience" tours start at 7:30 am and are followed by breakfast. "Breakfast at the Museum" tours have breakfast first followed by tour at 8-8:30 am. "Extra Time" tours start before closing hours and arrive at the Sistine Chapel just after closing hours. They are followed by a "happy hour." These tours put you in a group of up to 20 persons. The VIP version of these tours would be private just for you and your group.

I would go for option 1 and you can decide on the spot whether to turn it into option 4 (or even option 3). The only difference between them is whether to walk around in central Rome in between St Peter's and the Colosseum. There is no need to decide this ahead of time. You will find that the lines in October are likely to be faster than in July and you might get in within your time limits. In any case, the group will get to see St Peter's square.

Lake Bracciano and the Odescalchi castle along with lunch at Ceri. romecabs.com offers it. We really enjoyed it.

You do need to be at the airport three hours before flight time. @heckofagator - You can have an easy private transfer leaving the ship at 9 a.m. You leave too much to chance with connections with your current plan. @gatorchinsky - your plan would work just fine. @doccide - you don't have plenty of time unless you can leave at 6 a.m.. You probably won't make it leaving at 7 a.m. if the first leg of your flight is to the US. It would be ok if the first leg is within Europe.

Green guides are my favorites.

Try the Insight or DK guides.

That would be quite a trick! The Breakfast at the Vatican is a Vatican Museum tour that is booked in their website. Third party sites resell them. The breakfast is served after the tour and the OP can be out of the VM by 11 am. This will save them time since the will not need to get lunch or a snack before leaving for the port. But, to your point, the OP needs to figure out if they want to visit the VM or St Peter's. 😁

Longer than 90 minutes. The OP will not have their bags with them. They need to get back to the hotel to pick them up from the desk. Then it would be 90 minutes from the hotel to the port. It is still doable, especially getting early admission to the VM. They need to be out of the Vatican by 11 or so. Then at the hotel by noon the latest. It is a 15-20 minute taxi ride back to the hotel. Grab a quick bite for lunch and be on the road by 1. Then they will be at the port by 2:30 at the latest.

That is the only line that can be skipped by buying ahead of time from any source, and it is best to buy from the official sites. All other lines, like the one going up the Propylaea are impossible to skip regardless of what anyone claims.

The government is installing ticket vending machines to shorten the lines. This article summarizes the best ways to buy tickets and warns, again, about the "skip the lines" claims. https://greekreporter.com/2023/08/12/vending-machines-acropolis/

You can look it up. Click on "transfers." https://www.romecabs.com/

And thanks for letting us know how it went. Not everyone does.

Your hotel will call you a taxi to get to the port. You can book the private transfer again to go from the port to the airport.

Stay in Athens, not in Piraeus. There is no advantage to it. Central Athens is 20 minutes from the port. Search this board for the many reasons why. Hotels do not offer shuttles. There are a number of private transfer companies like georgestaxi.com to take you to the hotel. You can use the private transfer or a taxi to get to the port.

An excursion to Corinth and Mycenae would de ideal. You can easily add Nafplion and/or Epidaurus to the tour or take the boat ride over the sinking bridges of the canal. Another option would be the Saronic islands. Aegina is a short ride away. Any of the private tour companies will customize their tours to fit your time. georgestaxi.com or PK Travel are both excellent. https://www.georgestaxi.com/#private_tours

Yes, you should see it inside. The façade is wonderful, but the inside is just as important. I would pick the blue or silver option. A rooftop concert would be great at the end of September.