Epidaurus is in the Argolid, in the north east of the Peloponnese, about two hours from Athens and half an hour from Nafplio. The first photograph is what everybody comes for: a bowl of stone seating cut into a hillside among olive and pine, fifty five rows deep, holding something like fourteen thousand people, and still in use. It is the best preserved ancient theatre anywhere and the reason for that is simple, which is that it was buried and forgotten for centuries rather than quarried for its stone.
AND IT IS AN OUTBUILDING. What this place actually was is the SANCTUARY OF ASKLEPIOS, the god of healing, and in the fourth century BC it was the most important hospital in the Greek world. People travelled here ill, bathed, made offerings, and then slept in a long hall called the ABATON expecting the god to appear in a dream and prescribe a cure, which the priests then interpreted. The theatre exists because performance, athletics and music were understood as part of the treatment. A visitor who arrives for the acoustics and leaves without walking the sanctuary has seen the hospital's concert hall and not the hospital.
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What Is Here
THE ACOUSTICS ARE REAL AND THE DEMONSTRATION IS CONSTANT. The second photograph is the view from the orchestra floor. Someone will be standing on the round stone at the centre dropping a coin, tearing paper or striking a match while a friend listens from the top row, and it works: the limestone seating filters low-frequency background noise and reflects the voice. Climb to the back and let somebody else do the dropping, because hearing it from above is the part that is worth the steps.
THE SANCTUARY IS THE OTHER TWO THIRDS OF THE SITE AND IT IS NEARLY EMPTY. Beyond the theatre lie the foundations of the ABATON where patients slept, the TEMPLE OF ASKLEPIOS, the round THOLOS which is the most refined building on the site and is under long reconstruction, the GUEST HOUSE, the Roman baths, and a STADIUM dug into the ground for the games held in the god's honour. Most of it is knee-high foundations and a visitor walks it almost alone while the theatre is full. THE MUSEUM IS SMALL AND IS THE THING THAT MAKES THE SITE LEGIBLE, holding surgical instruments, inscriptions recording cures and the fragments that explain what the foundations were.
ANCIENT DRAMA IS STILL PERFORMED IN THAT THEATRE AND YOU CAN SIT IN IT. The ATHENS AND EPIDAURUS FESTIVAL stages Greek tragedy and comedy here on summer weekends, usually from late June into August, in the original venue with no amplification. Tickets go on sale months ahead and the good ones go. THE PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCE CUTS BOTH WAYS: a performance is the best thing you can do in the Peloponnese, and in festival weeks the theatre may be closed to daytime visitors for rehearsals or technical work, so check the site's own notice before building a day around it.
AND THE COAST IS WHERE YOU SLEEP, WHICH IS A DIFFERENT PLACE FROM THE RUINS. The third photograph is it. PALAIA EPIDAVROS and NEA EPIDAVROS are small working harbours about ten and fifteen kilometres from the site, with pebble beaches, tavernas on the water and a SUNKEN CITY you can snorkel over at Palaia. Most visitors stay in NAFPLIO instead, which is a half hour away and is the handsomest town in the Peloponnese. Either is a better base than the site's own village, which has very little in it.
When to Go
May, early June, late September and October. The Argolid is hot and dry in summer: expect the mid thirties through July and August with very little cloud, and a site that has essentially NO SHADE. The theatre's stone holds heat and radiates it back at you.
AND THE FESTIVAL IS IN THE WORST OF THE HEAT, which is the planning conflict. Performances start in the evening precisely because of it, around nine, and finish late, so a festival night means a dark drive back to Nafplio and a hot afternoon beforehand. The answer is to visit the sanctuary in the morning, go to the coast for the afternoon, and come back for the performance.
WINTER IS QUIET, GREEN AND GENUINELY COLD IN THE MORNINGS, with the site open on short hours and the olive harvest going on around it. December to February can be wet, and the theatre in rain is slippery and closed to climbing.
The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in Greece and no country-level warning. The named risks are seasonal and practical. Wildfires, extreme heat and flash floods, and one legal point worth knowing: starting a forest fire in Greece is a criminal offence even if unintentional, so a discarded cigarette or an unattended barbecue is not a minor matter. Earthquakes, which Greece gets regularly. Drowning, because people die every year in the sea and in swimming pools, and the beach flag system and the presence or absence of a lifeguard are the things to check rather than how calm the water looks. Quad bikes and mopeds, which the FCDO singles out because every year people suffer serious injury and death on them. And theft of passports, wallets and handbags, which is common on the metro and in crowded tourist places and is concentrated in central Athens rather than spread evenly.
Getting There
You drive, or you take a bus to Nafplio and a taxi. From Athens the drive is about two hours on the toll road through the Corinth Canal and round the Argolic Gulf, and a car is what makes the Argolid work, because Mycenae, Nafplio, Tiryns and the coast are all within forty minutes of each other.
BY BUS IT IS NAFPLIO FIRST. KTEL coaches run from Athens to Nafplio in about two and a half hours, and from Nafplio there are limited local services to the site, so most people take a taxi for the last half hour or join a tour. There is no useful public transport on a festival night.
AND THERE IS A FERRY, WHICH ALMOST NOBODY USES. In summer a hydrofoil or ferry runs from Piraeus to the Argolic ports, and arriving at Palaia Epidavros by sea is both the oldest way to come and the pleasantest. Check the current season's schedule rather than relying on last year's.
The Epidaurus Packing List
An unshaded archaeological site on limestone, steep stone steps, real summer heat, and an evening in a stone theatre that gets cold.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the right top for an unshaded Roman and Greek site, which is the same reasoning the live Pont du Gard and Pompeii posts use: a light long sleeve keeps the sun off your arms and shoulders, wool moves moisture instead of holding it, and the garment does not smell after a day of climbing stone in thirty degrees. It also solves the evening, because a theatre seat at ten at night in a dry climate is fifteen degrees cooler than the afternoon.
A wide brim UPF 50 sun hat, which on this site is equipment rather than a style choice. There is no shade in the theatre, no shade in the stadium and almost none in the sanctuary, and the walk between them is in the open.
A long sun hoodie for the hottest months, which covers the forearms and the back of the neck and means less sunscreen on a day when you will sweat it off anyway.
Salomon X Ultra 4 GTX hiking shoes, or any closed shoe with a real sole. The seating is worn limestone, polished by two and a half thousand years of feet and genuinely slippery, the steps are tall and uneven, and the sanctuary paths are loose stone. People turn ankles here.
An insulated water bottle, because the site's shop is at the entrance and the stadium is a long way from it.
Not linked and worth packing: A THIN SCARF OR WRAP for the evening performance and for any church you visit on the way; SUNSCREEN, which this registry does not carry at all; AND A CUSHION OR A FOLDED TOWEL if you have festival tickets, since you will be sitting on ancient stone for three hours and the locals bring something to sit on.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Epidaurus
Emergency numbers: 112 is the European emergency number and works from any phone anywhere in Greece, including a locked one. 166 is the ambulance service, 100 the police, 199 the fire service and 108 the coastguard. 112 ALSO DELIVERS THE GOVERNMENT'S EMERGENCY ALERTS, wildfire warnings included, to every phone in an affected area, so leave those notifications switched on between June and September. Greece also runs a dedicated TOURIST POLICE line on 1571 which answers in English.
THE REAL HAZARD HERE IS THE HEAT AND THE STONE, IN THAT ORDER. An archaeological site with no shade in the mid thirties is where people get into trouble, and the pattern is always the same: arriving at midday, climbing fifty five rows for the acoustics demonstration, and running out of water. Go at opening time or after five, carry more water than you think you need, and treat the climb as exercise rather than sightseeing. The seating is polished limestone and the steps are tall, so A FALL IS THE OTHER COMMON INJURY and it happens on the way down rather than up.
The FCDO gives Greece a dedicated sexual assault section and it is written as a list of habits rather than a warning. Its advice, especially late at night and around clubs and bars, is to SAVE THE LOCATION OF YOUR ACCOMMODATION ON YOUR MAPS APP so it is easy to find at the end of the night, to keep a group chat running, to WATCH EACH OTHER'S DRINKS so they are not spiked, NOT TO LET A FRIEND WALK BACK ALONE, and not to give a drunk person more alcohol. It tells you to use PRE-ARRANGED TRANSPORT or a taxi-hailing app that supplies licensed cabs, and to report anything that does not feel right to the police or to hotel or club management. Note what that list is not: it is not about where you go or what you wear, it is about the walk home and the drink you put down.
Carry your passport. The FCDO's wording is that you should always carry it to show the police if they ask, and that POLICE MAY NOT ACCEPT A COPY. Greece also arrests for behaviour the police consider rowdy or indecent, particularly where drink is involved, SOME FANCY DRESS COSTUMES COUNT AS OFFENSIVE under decency laws, and the courts impose heavy fines or prison. Your travel insurance may not cover a flight you miss because of an alcohol-related arrest.
Greece is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident. That is not the same as free and it does not cover repatriation or a private clinic, so travel insurance sits on top of it rather than instead of it. The practical issue on the islands is not quality but DISTANCE: most islands have a health centre rather than a hospital, serious cases are transferred to Athens, Rhodes or Crete by ferry or air ambulance, and on a small island that transfer can depend on the weather. A farmakeio handles minor problems without an appointment. Tap water is drinkable on the mainland and on most larger islands, and on smaller ones it is often desalinated or cistern-fed and worth asking about.
US State Department travel advisory: the Greece advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/greece, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital or clinic: there is a HEALTH CENTRE at Lygourio, the village a few kilometres from the site, for ordinary and urgent problems, and the NAFPLIO GENERAL HOSPITAL about half an hour away is the nearest hospital with an emergency department. Anything complex goes to ATHENS, two hours by road. A FARMAKEIO in Lygourio or Nafplio handles minor problems without an appointment, and in Greece the pharmacist is the first stop rather than a doctor. Bring a UK GHIC or an EU EHIC for state care on resident terms, with insurance on top for repatriation and private clinics.
Official health authority: the Greek National Public Health Organisation. is the national public health organisation
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Athens.
Official tourism authority: Visit Greece. covers the country, and the site itself is run by the Greek Ministry of Culture, whose Odysseus pages publish the opening hours, the ticket prices and the closure notices that matter in festival weeks
Do not photograph anything military, and that includes more of Greece than you would expect. It is illegal to approach or photograph military installations, vehicles or buildings, people have been arrested and prosecuted for it, and BORDER AREAS ARE MILITARILY SENSITIVE as well. On the eastern Aegean islands in particular, where the border is a few kilometres of water, a radar mast or a naval pier can sit in the middle of an otherwise ordinary view.
Takeaways
This was the ancient world's great hospital. The theatre was part of the treatment.
There is no shade. Go at opening time, and carry more water than you expect to drink.
Ancient drama is still staged here in summer. Tickets sell months ahead and rehearsals can close the theatre by day.
Sleep in Nafplio or on the coast at Palaia Epidavros. The site's own village has almost nothing.
Solo women safety assessment: Epidaurus is an easy and very safe place to visit alone. It is a fenced archaeological site with staff, a car park and a steady stream of visitors, in a quiet agricultural corner of the Argolid, and THE FCDO PUBLISHES NO ADVISED-AGAINST AREAS ANYWHERE IN GREECE and no country-level warning. Eating alone in Nafplio or at a harbour taverna is completely unremarkable. THE RISKS HERE ARE ENVIRONMENTAL RATHER THAN HUMAN. Heat is the first: an unshaded site in the mid thirties, fifty five rows of stone to climb and a stadium a long walk from the entrance, so the morning and the late afternoon are the only sensible times in July and August. The polished limestone seating is slippery and the steps are tall, and falls happen on the descent. Wildfire is the third, and the practical answer is to leave the 112 emergency alerts switched on, because that is how Greece warns phones in an affected area. WHERE THE ADVISORY IS SPECIFIC IS ABOUT THE EVENING RATHER THAN THE SITE: its dedicated sexual assault section is a list of habits for nights around clubs and bars, which in practice means the walk back in Nafplio after a late performance, so save your accommodation in your maps app before you set out, use a pre-arranged taxi for the drive back from a festival night, and do not let anyone in your group walk home alone. Carry your passport, because the police may not accept a copy. And note the camera rule: it is illegal to photograph military installations anywhere in Greece, which matters on the drive rather than at the ruins. 112 for everything, 166 ambulance, 100 police, 1571 tourist police.
Reading On
Epidaurus is one stop in the Argolid and this library covers the rest of it. Half an hour away, the Nafplio packing list covers the handsomest town in the Peloponnese and the base most visitors use, and for the region as a whole the Peloponnese packing list carries the whole peninsula, including the Mycenae and Olympia sites this one sits beside. For the other great ancient theatre and sanctuary, the Delphi packing list covers the oracle on its mountainside, and the Athens packing list covers the capital most people arrive through. Across the water, the Hydra packing list and the Aegina packing list cover the Saronic islands a ferry away. For the country as a whole, the Greece packing list and the Greece travel guide for women carry the regions, the seasons and the etiquette in full. For why a light wool long sleeve beats cotton at an unshaded ancient site, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
