Things to do in Athens
A guide written by people who live here, not a list scraped from a booking site. Distances are measured from our own front doors.
- Ancient Athens18 min from us
The Acropolis
The Parthenon, the Erechtheion and the Propylaia on the rock above the city. Go early or late: the middle of a summer day is hot, crowded and there is almost no shade up there.
- Metro
- Akropoli (M2)
- Price
- €30 summer · €15 winter
- Hours
- 08:00–20:00 summer · 08:00–17:00 winter
Book a timed slot. Turning up in summer without one can mean an hour or two in the queue.
- Ancient Athens14 min from us
Ancient Agora
Where Athenians actually met, argued and traded. Quieter than the Acropolis, with the best-preserved Doric temple in Greece — the Hephaisteion — standing almost intact.
- Metro
- Monastiraki (M1/M3)
- Price
- included in the €36 combined ticket
The €36 combined ticket covers seven sites over five days — worth it if you plan more than two.
- Ancient Athens20 min from us
Temple of Olympian Zeus
Fifteen columns left of a hundred and four, and still overwhelming. Took about seven hundred years to finish. Hadrian's Arch stands at the edge of the site.
- Metro
- Akropoli (M2)
- Price
- included in the €36 combined ticket
- Ancient Athens22 min from us
Panathenaic Stadium
The marble stadium that hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896, rebuilt on the ancient running track. You can walk the track and sit in the marble seats. It is a ten-minute walk from Syntagma through the National Garden.
- Metro
- Syntagma (M2/M3)
- Museums6 min from us
National Archaeological Museum
The single best collection of Greek antiquities anywhere — the Mask of Agamemnon, the Antikythera Mechanism, the bronze Jockey of Artemision. It is on Patission Street, the same road that runs through our neighbourhood.
- Metro
- Victoria (M1)
- Price
- €20 (4 May – 15 Nov 2026)
- Hours
- Wed–Mon 08:00–20:00 · Tue 13:00–20:00
The closest major museum to our apartments: same street, six minutes on the metro.
- Museums18 min from us
Acropolis Museum
Built to show the Parthenon sculptures in the light and orientation they were carved for, with the temple itself visible through the glass. The top floor alone justifies the visit.
- Metro
- Akropoli (M2)
Look down as well as up — the glass floor shows the excavation running under the building.
- Museums24 min from us
Benaki Museum
Greek culture from antiquity to the twentieth century in one neoclassical house. Good when you want context rather than more marble.
- Metro
- Evangelismos (M3)
- Neighbourhoods14 min from us
Plaka
The old quarter under the Acropolis — narrow lanes, neoclassical houses, and Anafiotika, a pocket of whitewashed island houses built by Cycladic masons who came to build the king's palace.
- Metro
- Monastiraki (M1/M3)
- Neighbourhoods14 min from us
Monastiraki
Flea market, street food and a square where a mosque, a church and the Acropolis are all in one view. Sunday morning is when the market is at its most chaotic.
- Metro
- Monastiraki (M1/M3)
- Neighbourhoods12 min from us
Psyrri
Workshops by day, tavernas and bars by night. This is where Athenians go out, and it stays busy long after the tourist streets have emptied.
- Metro
- Thiseio (M1)
- Neighbourhoods10 min from us
Varvakios Market
The central meat and fish market, open since 1886, with the fruit and vegetable market across the road. Loud, unpolished and entirely real. Best before eleven.
- Metro
- Omonia (M1/M2)
- Neighbourhoods26 min from us
Lycabettus Hill
The highest point in central Athens. Walk up through the pines or take the funicular; the view takes in the whole basin from the Acropolis to the sea.
- Metro
- Evangelismos (M3)
- Day trips90 min from us
Cape Sounion
The Temple of Poseidon on a cliff at the tip of Attica, about ninety minutes down the coast. Byron carved his name into a column, which you can still find.
Go for sunset. The temple faces west over the Aegean and the light is the whole point.
- Day trips150 min from us
Delphi
The oracle, on the slopes of Parnassus with the whole valley below. Two and a half hours each way, so it is a full day — but it is the one day trip nobody regrets.
- Day trips120 min from us
Hydra
Two hours by ferry from Piraeus. Stone houses around a harbour, no cars anywhere on the island, and swimming straight off the rocks.
No cars on the island at all. Donkeys and water taxis, and that is not a gimmick.
- Day trips70 min from us
Aegina
The closest island — barely an hour by ferry. Pistachios, a well-preserved temple of Aphaia, and a harbour that still works for a living.
- Day trips120 min from us
Nafplio
The first capital of modern Greece, two hours away in the Peloponnese. Venetian fortresses, marble streets and Mycenae close enough to add on.
- Practical45 min from us
Getting in from the airport
Metro line 3 runs to the centre in about forty minutes, then change for our neighbourhood. The X95 bus is cheaper and runs all night, which matters for late arrivals.
- Price
- metro €9 · X95 bus €5.50
- Practical
Free admission days
State sites and museums are free on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September and 28 October. Sundays between November and March are free too, on alternating weeks.
- Practical
Getting around
Our apartments sit on lines 1 and 2, which meet at Attiki — one change reaches almost everything in this guide. Validate your ticket before boarding; inspectors do check.
Prices and opening hours checked 2026-08-06. Greek sites change their rates by season and revise them yearly — please confirm before you travel.