Athens grew up around one rock, and most of what visitors come for lies within walking distance of it: the Acropolis and its museum, the Ancient Agora, the lanes of Plaka and the hills of Filopappou and the Pnyx, linked by the traffic-free promenade of Dionysiou Areopagitou and Apostolou Pavlou. The two Acropolis entries on Greece's country list cover the rock itself; this page covers the rest of the city.
North of the old centre, the National Archaeological Museum holds finds from the whole country, and the market streets around Athinas are working Athens. East of Syntagma, Kolonaki climbs towards Lycabettus, the highest point, past the Museum of Cycladic Art. Evenings move west to Thissio and Psyrri, north to the rebetiko clubs of Exarchia and, in summer, outdoors to the open-air cinemas.
The Acropolis Museum and the sunset at Sounion are on the country page, and day trips to Delphi, Hydra and the Saronic islands start here; the Attica page covers Aegina, the Athens Riviera and Marathon. Facts were checked on official sites in October 2026.
Trace Greek art from Mycenae's gold to the Antikythera mechanism
National Archaeological Museum, 44 Patission Street
2.5 to 3 hoursNo booking needed
Gold from Mycenae, a bronze god from Cape Artemision and the corroded gears of the Antikythera mechanism, in the largest museum in Greece.
What it is
The National Archaeological Museum, at 44 Patission Street, is the largest museum in Greece, with some 11,000 objects. Start in the Mycenaean hall with the gold funeral mask wrongly named after Agamemnon, then find the bronze god from Cape Artemision, Zeus or Poseidon, in room 15, the wall paintings from Akrotiri on Santorini and the corroded gears of the Antikythera mechanism in room 38.
How to do it
A full ticket costs €20 (€10 reduced), sold on hh.gr or at the desk with no time slot. Victoria metro is an 8-minute walk away, and the garden café needs no ticket.
Good to know
From 1 May to 31 October it opens 08:00 to 20:00; the rest of the year, 08:30 to 15:30. On Tuesdays it opens only at 13:00, all year.
Time needed
2.5 to 3 hours
Best time
Any time but Tuesday morning, when it opens only at 13:00
Walk the Ancient Agora up to the Temple of Hephaestus
Ancient Agora, 24 Adrianou Street (Monastiraki)
2 hours with the museumNo booking needed
Walk the public square of classical Athens up to the best preserved temple of the fifth century BC.
What it is
Below the north slope of the Acropolis, the Ancient Agora was the public square of classical Athens: law courts, the council house, shops and the road of the Panathenaic procession. On the low hill to the west stands the Temple of Hephaestus, the best preserved temple of the fifth century BC. Opposite, the Stoa of Attalos, rebuilt in the 1950s by the American School of Classical Studies, holds the site museum.
How to do it
Enter at 24 Adrianou Street, four minutes from Monastiraki. One ticket, €20 (€10 reduced), covers both.
Good to know
Hours follow the Acropolis: 08:00 to 20:00 from April to August, 18:00 by late October, 17:00 in winter; the museum opens at 10:00 on Tuesdays. For quieter ruins, Kerameikos, the ancient cemetery at 148 Ermou Street, is seven minutes from Thiseio metro (€10).
Watch the Evzones' Sunday 11:00 guard change at Syntagma
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Syntagma Square
10 minutes on the hour; an hour on Sunday with the waitFree
Watch the Presidential Guard in pleated kilts and nailed red clogs march to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Sunday at 11:00.
What it is
Two Evzones of the Presidential Guard stand at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the relief of a fallen soldier unveiled in 1932 in front of the Parliament on Syntagma Square. They change every hour on the hour, in slow, stylised movements, while a soldier in ordinary uniform and the police keep people back.
How to do it
The full ceremony is on Sunday at 11:00, when the whole guard and a military band march from their barracks by the Presidential Mansion to the tomb and back, in white formal dress: the fustanella kilt, said to have 400 pleats, and red tsarouchia clogs with 60 to 120 nails in each sole. Watching is free.
Good to know
Arrive early for a place at the front, and never touch the guards: they cannot speak, and will rap a rifle on the ground to warn you off.
Time needed
10 minutes on the hour; an hour on Sunday with the wait
Ride the funicular up Lycabettus for the whole city at sunset
Lycabettus funicular, Aristippou Street (Kolonaki)
1.5 hoursNo booking needed
Ride a funicular through the hill to the highest point in central Athens and watch the Acropolis rise out of the city.
What it is
At 277 metres, Lycabettus is the highest point in central Athens, a pine-covered limestone hill above Kolonaki. From the top you see the Acropolis rising out of the city, Piraeus and, on clear days, Aegina and the Peloponnese.
How to do it
The funicular, opened in 1965, starts on Aristippou Street in upper Kolonaki, with Evangelismos (line 3) the nearest metro, and runs entirely in a tunnel to the whitewashed Chapel of St George at the top, every 10 to 30 minutes. The alternative is the paved, zigzagging footpath, about 30 minutes up; in the heat, ride up and walk down.
Good to know
On days of extreme fire risk the City of Athens closes the hill to visitors, as it did on 22 July 2026, so in summer check the civil protection daily fire risk map first.
Climb the Pikionis paths to Filopappou Hill and the Pnyx
Filopappou Hill, from the west end of Dionysiou Areopagitou
1.5 to 2 hoursFree
Climb stone paths few walkers notice are not ancient, to the classic view across to the Parthenon.
What it is
From the western end of Dionysiou Areopagitou, the pedestrian street below the Acropolis, stone paths climb the pine-covered Hill of the Muses. The architect Dimitris Pikionis laid them between 1954 and 1957, in rough-finished marble cut into shapes that look irregular but follow a strict geometry, and few walkers notice they are not ancient.
How to do it
Start at the little church of Agios Dimitrios Loumbardiaris, with Pikionis's pavilion beside it, and climb to the marble tomb of Philopappos, a prince of Commagene and Roman consul who died in AD 116, for the classic view across to the Parthenon. Then drop north to the Pnyx, where the citizens' assembly met from about 507 BC; the stone speakers' platform is still there.
Good to know
Entry is free. Paving is rough and partly stepped, so wear shoes with grip, and leave before dark.
Graze the Varvakios central market, alone or on a food tour
Varvakios Agora, Athinas Street
1.5 hours, 3 to 4 on a food tourFree
Eat where the traders do: ouzo and marinated anchovies in the fish hall, or have a fish you just bought grilled for you.
What it is
Athens' central market, the Varvakios Agora, fills the block between Athinas, Sofokleous, Evripidou and Aiolou Streets, under a glass roof added in 1886. The fish hall in the middle takes in five to 10 tonnes a day, mostly from the islands, with the meat hall beside it and fruit and vegetables across Athinas Street.
How to do it
Eat where the traders do: small tavernas in the fish hall pour ouzo with marinated anchovies, and one will grill fish you buy at a stall if you order a couple of dishes. Beside the main entrance, Mokka has roasted coffee since 1922, and Evripidou Street sells pastourma and spices. A food tour adds tastings and context; the market itself is free.
Good to know
The market opens every day except Sunday, from early morning to late afternoon, so come before midday.
Get lost in Plaka's lanes and the island houses of Anafiotika
Plaka and Anafiotika
2 hoursFree
Leave Plaka's crowded main streets for side lanes and Anafiotika, whitewashed island houses built by workmen from Anafi below the Acropolis.
What it is
Plaka wraps around the foot of the Acropolis, from Filomousson Square, where Kydathineon meets Adrianou, down to Monastiraki. Its main streets are crowded with souvenir shops and tavernas, so the reward is in the side lanes: the 11th-century church of Agios Nikolaos Rangavas on Prytaniou Street, whose bell rang out the end of Ottoman rule in 1833 and the German withdrawal in 1944, and the Monument of Lysicrates, raised by a sponsor of the drama contests, on a square of cafés. Higher up, Anafiotika is a cluster of whitewashed houses built by workmen from the Cycladic island of Anafi, between the churches of Agios Georgios tou Vrachou and Agios Simeon.
How to do it
Follow the path round to Theorias, the stone walkway that circles the Acropolis.
Good to know
People live here, so keep your voice down. Early mornings are the quietest time.
Run a lap of the marble Panathenaic Stadium of 1896
Panathenaic Stadium, Vasileos Konstantinou Avenue
1 hourNo booking needed
Run a lap of the white marble stadium that hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896, then stand on the winners' podium.
What it is
The horseshoe-shaped Panathenaic Stadium, built entirely of white marble, hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, and the Authentic Athens Marathon still finishes here. You may run on the track, stand on the winners' podium and walk through the vaulted passage to a room of Olympic torches and posters since 1896.
How to do it
Tickets are sold only at the desk on Vasileos Konstantinou Avenue, opposite the Discobolus statue: €12, or €6 reduced, with a 30-minute audio guide in 11 languages, Spanish among them. For the view across to the Acropolis and Lycabettus, climb to the top rows of section 21.
Good to know
The stadium opens 08:00 to 19:00 from March to October and 08:00 to 17:00 from November to February. Concerts and races sometimes close the track, so check the stadium's notices first.
See Hadrian's Arch and the last columns of Olympian Zeus
Olympieion, Vasilissis Olgas Avenue
45 minutesNo booking needed
Fifteen columns almost 17 metres tall still stand from a temple more than six centuries in the making, beside an arch that names two cities.
What it is
The Temple of Olympian Zeus was begun around 515 BC under the sons of the tyrant Peisistratos and finished more than six centuries later by Hadrian, in AD 131 or 132: 104 Corinthian columns of Pentelic marble, their shafts almost 17 metres tall. Fifteen still stand, and a sixteenth lies where a storm threw it down in 1852.
How to do it
Enter from Vasilissis Olgas Avenue: €20 (€10 reduced), 08:00 to 20:00 from April to August, closing at 18:00 in late October and 15:00 from November to March. Hadrian's Arch, on Amalias Avenue, is free to see. Read its two inscriptions: the side facing the Acropolis calls this Athens, the ancient city of Theseus; the side facing the temple, the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus.
Good to know
Short of time, the arch and the view through the fence give you most of it.
Meet the marble Cycladic figurines that inspired Modigliani
Museum of Cycladic Art, Kolonaki
1.5 hoursNo booking needed
Marble figurines from the third millennium BC, the folded-arm island figures that caught the eye of Brancusi, Modigliani and Henry Moore.
What it is
The Museum of Cycladic Art in Kolonaki holds the island figurines of the third millennium BC that, thousands of years later, caught the eye of Brancusi, Modigliani and Henry Moore. The first-floor gallery sets out more than 350 objects in six sections, from violin-shaped idols carved from pebbles to the canonical figures with arms folded, a female sculpture 1.40 metres tall and the seated 'cup bearer' raising a toast.
How to do it
While the main building's door on Neofytou Douka Street is under works, you enter through the Stathatos Mansion, on the corner of Vasilissis Sofias Avenue and Irodotou Street. Tickets cost €12 (€9 reduced). Evangelismos metro is 500 metres away, so pair it with the Lycabettus funicular.
Good to know
The museum opens 10:00 to 17:00, Sundays from 11:00, stays open until 20:00 on Thursdays and closes on Tuesdays.
Time needed
1.5 hours
Best time
Thursday evening, open until 20:00; closed Tuesdays
Watch a film under the Acropolis at an open-air cinema
Cine Thission (Apostolou Pavlou) and Cine Paris (Plaka)
An evening, about 2.5 hoursNo booking needed
Watch a film under the floodlit Acropolis from an open-air cinema or a rooftop, with an iced sour-cherry drink in hand.
What it is
Athens has about 65 open-air cinemas, and two of them look onto the floodlit Acropolis.
How to do it
Cine Thission, on the pedestrian Apostolou Pavlou street since 1935, sells tickets only at its box office (€10, €8 reduced); its 2026 season ended on 11 October and it reopens in spring. Cine Paris, a rooftop on Kydathineon Street in Plaka, reopened for 2026 on 23 April: the box office opens at 17:30, screenings start from 19:00, and seats are first come, first served, so arrive early for one with a view and the sunset. Most of its films are in English or carry English subtitles, and Greek cinemas subtitle rather than dub.
Good to know
At Thission, order a vyssinada, the iced sour-cherry drink, and before any screening check which language the film is in.
Time needed
An evening, about 2.5 hours
Best time
Late April to early October, first screening at sunset
Songs of loss and hard living brought by refugees from Asia Minor, played by a bouzouki band from around 22:00, sometimes until 04:00.
What it is
Rebetiko, the songs of loss and hard living that refugees from Asia Minor brought to Athens after 1922, is played all over town, but the tavernas with musicians in Plaka and Psyrri are, says the official city guide, just tavernas with live music. For the real thing, go to a rebetadiko, where people come for the band: one or two bouzoukia, a guitar, a violin, a double bass and an accordion, and no electric instruments.
How to do it
The city guide's picks are Aggelos, in a neoclassical house at 19 Zoodochou Pigis in Exarchia, with a band every night, and Pipis and Triporto in Keramikos. Line-ups change, so check who is playing before you go, and have dinner there rather than before.
Good to know
Music starts around 22:00 and can run until 04:00, with wine and meze on the tables.
Climb the Acropolis at the 8:00 opening, before the heat
Athens
2 to 3 hours with the slopesTimed entry
Take the first entry at 8:00 and you see the Parthenon in the morning cool, before the heat closes in.
What it is
One ticket covers the rock and its slopes. You enter by the Main Entrance on the west side, or by the South Slope entrance near the Acropolis Museum, which climbs past the Theatre of Dionysus; the lift for visitors with reduced mobility is on the north side.
How to do it
Tickets cost €30 (€15 reduced) and are sold for an entry time on the ministry's site, tickets.hh.gr: book the first slot. The site opens at 8:00 all year and closes at 20:00 in summer and 17:00 in winter, earlier step by step through September and October. Wear shoes with grip.
Good to know
In heatwaves the ministry has shut the site from 12:00 to 17:00, as in July 2025. Closed 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Easter Sunday and 25 and 26 December. Free on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, 28 October, the last weekend of September and the first and third Sundays from November to March.
Read the Parthenon, then see its sculptures in the museum
Athens
1.5 hours on the rock, 2 hours in the museumTimed entry
Know what to look for on the Parthenon, then see its surviving sculptures lined up in the museum just below the rock.
What it is
The Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion and the small temple of Athena Nike were all built in the second half of the fifth century BC, in the building programme of Perikles. You cannot go inside the Parthenon; you walk around it, and part of it is usually under scaffolding because restoration has gone on for decades.
How to do it
Look for the slight swelling of the columns and the upward curve of the base, then cross to the Erechtheion porch, where the six maidens holding up the roof are casts. Five of the original maidens, and the Parthenon sculptures that stayed in Athens, are in the Acropolis Museum at the foot of the south slope; its top-floor gallery lines them up in the same orientation as the temple.
Good to know
See the rock first, while it is cool, and the museum afterwards.
Time needed
1.5 hours on the rock, 2 hours in the museum
Best time
Late afternoon light on the west front, outside heatwaves
Athens International Airport is 33 km south-east of the centre. Metro line 3 runs from the terminal to Syntagma in about 40 minutes; the X95 express bus to Syntagma runs around the clock and takes about an hour, and taxis charge a flat fare to the centre, higher between midnight and 05:00. The suburban railway reaches Larissis, the main station, in about 45 minutes. Island ferries leave from Piraeus, Rafina and Lavrio.
Getting around
The historic centre is walkable, and the pedestrian streets of Dionysiou Areopagitou and Apostolou Pavlou link the Acropolis, the Agora, Thissio and Kerameikos away from traffic. The metro covers the rest: Acropolis (line 2) for the south slope, Monastiraki (lines 1 and 3) for Plaka, the Agora and Psyrri, Syntagma (lines 2 and 3) for the Parliament, Victoria (line 1) for the National Archaeological Museum and Evangelismos (line 3) for Kolonaki and Lycabettus. A car is a burden in the centre; keep it for Sounion or Delphi.
How many days
Two full days cover the Acropolis and its museum, the Agora, Plaka and the National Archaeological Museum. A third adds Lycabettus, the Panathenaic Stadium and an evening at an open-air cinema or a rebetiko club; a fourth leaves room for a day trip to Delphi, Sounion, Hydra or Aegina.
When to go
April to June and September to October are the comfortable months. In July and August heatwaves have closed the Acropolis at midday, so see the open-air sites at 08:00 and keep museums for the afternoon. The open-air cinemas run from late April to about mid-October. From 1 November state sites switch to winter hours, closing between 15:00 and 17:00, but they are free on the first and third Sundays of each month until the end of March.
Where to base yourself
Plaka puts the Acropolis on your doorstep and is the most touristy choice. Thissio is quieter, with cafés facing the Acropolis. Monastiraki and Psyrri are central and lively, and Psyrri's bars make it noisy late at night. Kolonaki is the smart residential district below Lycabettus, and Syntagma is where the airport metro and the X95 bus arrive.
Questions travellers ask
How many days do you need in Athens?
Two full days are enough for the Acropolis, its museum, the Ancient Agora, Plaka and the National Archaeological Museum. With three or four days you can add Lycabettus, the Panathenaic Stadium and a day trip to Delphi, Sounion or an island such as Hydra or Aegina.
Is there still a combined ticket for the Athens archaeological sites?
No. The combined ticket was withdrawn in April 2025, and each state site now sells its own on hh.gr: €30 for the Acropolis, €20 for the Ancient Agora, the Olympieion and the National Archaeological Museum, €10 for Kerameikos and the Roman Agora. All of them are free on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, 28 October, the last weekend of September and the first and third Sundays from November to March.
When is the changing of the guard in Athens?
Every hour, on the hour, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of the Parliament on Syntagma Square. The full ceremony, with the whole Presidential Guard and a military band, is on Sundays at 11:00. It is free.
Is Athens worth visiting in winter?
Yes, for sites and museums without heat or long queues. From November to March state sites close between 15:00 and 17:00 and are free on the first and third Sundays; the National Archaeological Museum opens 08:30 to 15:30, and 13:00 to 20:00 on Tuesdays. The open-air cinemas are closed until spring.
Do I need a car in Athens?
No. The centre is walkable and the metro reaches the airport, Piraeus and the main sites. A car only makes sense for day trips such as Sounion or Delphi, and KTEL coaches run to both.
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