Where to stay in Nafplio

Nafplio makes this easy, because the old town is genuinely the answer for most visitors and the reasons are structural rather than a matter of taste. It is flat until you choose to climb, marble-paved and car-free throughout, which is exactly why it is a pleasure on foot and why sleeping inside it is different from sleeping near it.

The old town, which is the default. Start at Syntagma Square and everything radiates from it: the Psaromachalas quarter climbing the slope behind, the stepped alleys locals call the Dromoskales cutting up toward Acronauplia, the harbour front running out toward the lighthouse. Basing here means dinner, the evening promenade and the fortresses are all on foot, and it means you see the town at both ends of the day rather than in the middle.

The trade, which is smaller here than in most old towns. It is car-free, so you park at the edge and walk in. But it is also flat, which is not true of Monemvasia or a Cycladic chora, so the walk in with a bag is a walk rather than a climb. That makes Nafplio one of the easier historic centres in Greece to stay inside.

Tolo, if you would rather trade the historic town for a beach base. A small seaside resort a short drive south, all sand and waterfront tavernas. It is the right call if the trip is built around swimming rather than around the town, and the wrong one if you want the evening in Nafplio, because that becomes a drive.

What the base is actually for. Nafplio is the comfortable base for the archaeological sites of the Argolid plain, with Epidaurus and its theatre the closest. That is the real argument for sleeping here rather than at a site: a lived-in town in the evening and the antiquity in the morning. If your days are going out to the plain, the old town still wins, because the drive out is short from anywhere in Nafplio.

The thing to do on your first evening, wherever you sleep. The Arvanitia promenade is a flat paved coastal path hugging the base of the Acronauplia rock, running roughly three kilometres from the edge of the old town round to Karathona. It is open to the sea the whole way and busy at sunset with locals walking it end to end. Do it in the cool of the day.

The weekend, which is worth knowing about. Nafplio is a well-established weekend destination, so plan around that rather than being surprised by it. What to book ahead covers the general problem.

We name no hotel on this page. Properties in a town this size change hands, and the site’s venue standard needs two independent platforms and a review floor this listing does not verify. What lasts is the choice above. Our Nafplio guide has the practicalities, things to do covers the three fortresses, Athens to Nafplio covers getting here and the Peloponnese road trip is the route it sits on.