Parnassus Delphi to Arachova Road

A high balcony road on the flank of Mount Parnassus linking the ancient oracle of Delphi with the stone village of Arachova, above the silvery olive sea of the Pleistos valley.

Carrying the national road ΕΟ48, this stretch runs along the southern slope of Mount Parnassus between two of central Greece’s landmarks. Westward it reaches Delphi, the UNESCO-listed sanctuary clinging to the cliffs above the Pleistos gorge, where the road is cut into the mountainside with the vast olive grove of Amfissa and the Gulf of Corinth shimmering far below. Eastward it climbs to Arachova, the handsome stone-and-tile village wrapped around the slope that doubles as Greece’s chicest ski town in winter. The driving is steady mountain work rather than extreme hairpins, but the setting, ancient ruins on one hand and alpine ridgeline on the other, makes it memorable. Mind tour-coach traffic and tight parking around the Delphi site, pedestrians on Arachova’s narrow main street, and ice or snow on the high sections in winter.