Athens
A hard, hot, modern Mediterranean capital with the birthplace of the Western idea of a city standing on a rock in the middle of it.
Athens
A dense, noisy, genuinely lived-in capital of concrete apartment blocks and orange trees, with a limestone rock in the centre carrying the buildings that most of Western architecture has been arguing with ever since. It is not a pretty city and it does not try to be one; it is an absorbing one.
Explore Athens on the map
City locations, drawn from our published destination data. Attractions, hotels and restaurants are not mapped yet.
Beyond the temples
One rock, two museums that could each hold a day, and a city that is best on foot.
The Acropolis and its slopes
- The Parthenon has been under restoration for decades and will be for decades more, so scaffolding is part of the view and always has been for modern visitors. It does not diminish it; the building is still the argument it always was.
- The Erechtheion with its porch of Caryatids is the subtler building on the rock, and the figures standing there now are replicas — five of the originals are in the Acropolis Museum and one is in London, which is a live political question in Greece rather than a historical footnote.
- The Theatre of Dionysus on the southern slope is where Greek tragedy was first performed, and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus below it is Roman, later, and still used for performances in summer.
- Go at opening or in the last hours. The rock is unshaded marble, it is crowded in the middle of the day, and in high summer the site has been closed during the hottest hours when the heat has demanded it.
The two museums
- The Acropolis Museum at the foot of the hill is built over an excavated neighbourhood you walk above on a glass floor, and its top gallery is aligned with the actual Parthenon and hung with its surviving sculpture in the correct order. Do it after the rock, not before.
- The National Archaeological Museum, north of the centre, is the greater collection and the one visitors skip. It holds the gold from the shaft graves at Mycenae, the bronze from Artemision, the frescoes lifted from Bronze Age Santorini and the Antikythera mechanism, a geared astronomical calculator hauled from a shipwreck.
- If there is only time for one, the Acropolis Museum completes the morning you have just had; the National Archaeological Museum is the better museum in its own right. Most three-night trips manage both.
The rest of the ancient city
- The Ancient Agora was the civic and commercial heart, and the Temple of Hephaestus standing in it is the most complete Doric temple left anywhere — more intact than the Parthenon, and much less visited.
- The Tower of the Winds in the Roman Agora is an octagonal marble water clock and weather vane with a carved wind god on each face, and it is the sort of object that makes the ancient city feel practical rather than monumental.
- The Temple of Olympian Zeus and Hadrian’s Arch sit together on the edge of the centre. The temple took centuries to finish and a handful of its enormous columns still stand, one of them lying where it fell in a storm.
- The Panathenaic Stadium is the marble horseshoe rebuilt for the first modern Olympics in 1896, on the site of the ancient one. It is a short walk from the temple and takes very little time.
Neighbourhoods and views
- Plaka under the Acropolis is the old quarter, and Anafiotika within it is a pocket of whitewashed island houses built by masons from Anafi — a Cycladic village halfway up an Athenian hill.
- Philopappos Hill, opposite, gives the view of the Acropolis that photographs cannot be taken from the Acropolis itself, and is at its best as the light goes. Lycabettus is higher, has a funicular, and looks down on the whole basin.
- The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre by the sea holds the national opera and library under a Renzo Piano roof, in a park that Athenians actually use. It is the modern city rather than the ancient one, and a good half-day for a second visit.
Three days in Athens
The rock and its museum
The Acropolis at opening, down through the southern slope to the Theatre of Dionysus, then the Acropolis Museum in the afternoon so that the sculpture makes sense while the buildings are still fresh. Evening in Plaka and up through Anafiotika.
The Agora and the modern city
The Ancient Agora and the Temple of Hephaestus early, the Roman Agora and the Tower of the Winds after, then Monastiraki and the market. Syntagma for the changing of the guard, and Philopappos Hill as the light goes.
The great museum, or the sea
The National Archaeological Museum for the morning and the Panathenaic Stadium on the way back — or, if the trip needs air rather than another gallery, the tram down to the coast, or the afternoon drive to Cape Sounion.
To the islands
Piraeus by metro for a Cyclades sailing, or the airport for a short domestic flight. The last Athens night is usually kept for the end of the trip, before the flight home.
Arriving & getting around
A compact walkable centre, a metro that reaches everything else, and the port that starts the island half of the trip.
Arriving
- Athens International Airport (ATH) lies east of the city and connects to the centre by metro and by road. From India the normal routing is one change at a Gulf or European hub; what is actually flying changes season by season, so your specialist confirms it for your dates rather than quoting a route.
- Indian passport holders need a Schengen visa. Greece is inside the Schengen area, so one visa covers the mainland, the islands and any European stopover on the same trip.
Around the city
- The historic centre is walkable end to end, and the pedestrianised promenade around the southern and western foot of the Acropolis links most of the ancient sites without touching traffic. Wear real shoes: the marble underfoot is polished and slippery.
- The metro is clean, cheap and quick, and reaches the airport and Piraeus directly. Syntagma and Acropolis stations display antiquities uncovered while they were being dug, which makes the commute an exhibit.
- Taxis and ride apps are plentiful and inexpensive by European standards. A car in central Athens is a liability — traffic is heavy, parking is scarce, and nothing in the centre needs one.
Onward
- Piraeus, on the metro, is where the Cyclades legs begin. It is the largest passenger port in the Mediterranean and it is genuinely large, so the terminal a sailing leaves from is checked the day before rather than assumed.
- Domestic flights from ATH reach Santorini, Mykonos, Crete and Rhodes and are the alternative to a long crossing when the itinerary is short. Ferry and flight are priced and timed very differently, and which is right depends on the trip rather than on a rule.
Athens in practice
The handful of things that decide whether the days work.
Entry to the Acropolis is by timed slot and the early slots go first, which are exactly the ones worth having. A combined ticket covering several of the city’s archaeological sites has long existed, but its scope and validity have changed more than once, so it is confirmed at the time of booking rather than assumed.
Athens in July and August is severe, and the Acropolis offers no shade whatsoever. Greek sites have closed during the hottest hours of the day when heat has demanded it. A summer trip works if the mornings are early and the afternoons are indoors, and fails if it is planned like a spring one.
Athens tap water is safe to drink and is what the city drinks, which saves both money and plastic in a place where you will get through several litres a day. On the islands the answer is often different, so it is worth asking again rather than assuming.
Cards are accepted almost everywhere in Athens. Small tavernas, kiosks, island bakeries and the odd taxi still prefer cash, so a modest amount in euros is worth carrying. Greece is in the eurozone.
Public transport and, less often, ferries and archaeological sites are subject to occasional strike action, usually announced in advance. It is rarely more than an inconvenience for a visitor, but it is a real reason not to build an itinerary with no slack in it.
How to be a good guest
A capital that is Balkan, Ottoman and Mediterranean as much as it is classical.
Manners
- Greet on entering a shop or a taverna — kalimera in the morning, kalispera in the evening. Greeks are direct and warm in roughly that order, and volume is not anger.
- Dress modestly for monasteries and churches: shoulders and knees covered. It matters less in Athens than at a working monastery, but the rule is the same and is enforced where it counts.
- The Evzones at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier are ceremonial guards on a war memorial, not a photo opportunity — stand back, do not touch, and let the changing happen.
Eating
- Athens eats late — lunch well after noon and dinner later than most Indian visitors expect — and a taverna filling at ten at night is normal rather than a sign you have arrived at the wrong time.
- Order in the Greek way, several small plates for the table rather than a course each: mezedes is the format and it is how the food is designed to be eaten. The Varvakios central market is worth an hour even if you buy nothing.
- Vegetarian travellers do unusually well in Greece. Fasting traditions in the Orthodox calendar have produced a deep repertoire of dishes with no meat or dairy at all — gigantes, fava, horta, dolmades, briam, spanakopita. Ask whether a dish is nistisimo, and tell your specialist so it is built into the bookings.
- Greek coffee is served small, strong and with the grounds still in it, and is drunk slowly. The iced freddo espresso is what the city actually runs on in summer.
Insider tips
What regular visitors do differently.
Timing
- Take the Acropolis at opening and the Ancient Agora afterwards, not the other way round. The rock fills within the first hour and the Agora stays quiet most of the day.
- Keep Philopappos Hill for the evening. It costs nothing, it is a ten-minute climb, and it gives the view of the Acropolis with the light behind you that every photograph of the city is taken from.
Choosing well
- If museums are not your thing, go to the National Archaeological Museum anyway and give it ninety minutes rather than three hours. The Mycenaean gold and the Antikythera mechanism alone reframe everything else you will see in Greece.
- Stay in Koukaki or Makrigianni rather than in Plaka. They are a few minutes further from the sights, considerably cheaper, and actual neighbourhoods rather than a shopping street with a view.
- Give the city one evening with nothing scheduled. Athens rewards sitting in a square with a plate of small dishes far more than it rewards a fourth ancient site.
Out of the city
What is genuinely close, and what is sold as close but is not.
Related to Athens
Journeys that include Athens — each one visits the city as part of its itinerary.
Common questions
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