Three Days in,
Athens.
Athens, Greece
antiquity, tavernas, markets, coast
Itinerary
3 chaptersThe Acropolis, then Plaka after dark
Acropolis, Athens
What today looks like
Everything sits inside one small triangle of the city, so the plan is about timing rather than distance. Go up at opening, when the light is low and the rock is still cool, and give the top two hours. The Acropolis Museum is directly below, ten minutes on foot, and it takes the middle of the day off your hands. Then a long gap on purpose. Athens in late August is not a city you sightsee at three in the afternoon. Plaka is for the evening, when the lanes fill and the tavernas set out their tables.
Before you set off
Book the Acropolis slot online before you fly. Wear shoes with proper grip. The paths and the rock itself are worn marble, polished slippery by millions of feet, and flip-flops are how people go over. There is no shade at the top at all, so take a hat, sunglasses and a refillable bottle. There are taps near the entrance. If the Agora is on tomorrow's list, the combined archaeological ticket covers both plus several other sites over a few days and works out cheaper than separate entries. Mani Mani is small, so book ahead for lunch.
Getting between the stops
Metro Line 2 (red) to Akropoli brings you out beside the museum, a few minutes from Drakou. From there the pedestrianised Dionysiou Areopagitou walkway curves round the south slope to the main west entrance, roughly fifteen minutes with a steady climb at the end. Coming down, the museum is five minutes away and Plaka starts immediately behind it. Nothing today needs a taxi. If the climb is a problem, there is a lift on the north side of the rock, reached from the Peripatos path.
Local notes
Dinner starts late here. A taverna at eight is half empty and by ten it is full, so an eight o'clock table is easy to get and you will be eating alongside other visitors rather than Athenians. Palia Taverna tou Psarra has been on Erechtheos since 1898. Order to share, ask what is good today rather than reading the printed menu, and expect house wine by the half kilo rather than the bottle. One more thing worth knowing before you go up. The Caryatids on the Erechtheion porch are copies. Five of the six originals are in the museum you saw at lunchtime, and the last one is in London.
- 0108:00 · 45m
Kaya Specialty Coffee
Opens early, which is the whole point. A flat white and a warm spanakopita on pedestrianised Drakou takes twenty minutes and still leaves time to walk over for opening. Seating inside is limited and the pavement tables go first. Fill your water bottle here, because there is nothing to buy once you are up on the rock.About this place↗ Open in MapsA small specialty coffee bar on pedestrianised Drakou in Koukaki, a couple of minutes from the Acropolis Museum.
HistoryKoukaki was a quiet residential district until the metro and the museum arrived and turned Drakou into a café street. Kaya belongs to the wave of Athenian specialty roasters and coffee bars that grew through the 2010s.Why it's famousLocals rate it for a properly pulled espresso, which is not a given in a neighbourhood where most visitors take whatever is nearest the ticket gate.Did you knowGreece runs on the freddo espresso and the freddo cappuccino, both shaken cold and whipped, both invented in Greece and both oddly rare anywhere else. - 0209:00 · 120m
Acropolis and Parthenon
Aim for the first slot of the day with a ticket already booked. Two hours is about right. Go clockwise from the Propylaia so the Parthenon comes first while the light is still low, then the Erechtheion and its caryatid porch on the north side, then the view down over the Agora from the east end. The marble underfoot is slick, so take the descent slowly.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe limestone rock above Athens and the temples built on top of it, the Parthenon chief among them, dedicated to the city's goddess Athena.
HistoryThe Parthenon went up between 447 and 432 BC under Pericles, designed by Iktinos and Kallikrates with sculpture directed by Pheidias. It later became a church, then a mosque, and in 1687 a Venetian shell hit the Ottoman gunpowder store inside and blew the middle out of it.Why it's famousIt is the high point of Doric architecture and the emblem of classical Athens, and it anchors one of the earliest UNESCO World Heritage sites.Did you knowAlmost nothing on the Parthenon is straight. The columns swell slightly in the middle and lean inwards, and the floor curves upward at the centre, all deliberate corrections for the way the eye reads a large building. - 0311:30 · 90m
Acropolis Museum
Start at the bottom and look down through the glass at the excavated streets, then work upwards. The top-floor Parthenon Gallery is the reason to come, so save forty minutes for it. The café terrace on level two faces the rock and costs less than anything in Plaka. Large bags have to go in the cloakroom.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe museum for everything excavated on and around the Acropolis, standing at the foot of the south slope.
HistoryIt opened in 2009 to a design by Bernard Tschumi with Michalis Photiadis, after decades of argument about where to put it. Digging the foundations uncovered a whole ancient neighbourhood, so the building was raised on pillars over the excavation, which you now walk above on glass floors.Why it's famousThe top-floor Parthenon Gallery is a glass hall built to the dimensions and orientation of the temple itself, with the surviving frieze mounted in its original order and blanks where the London pieces belong.Did you knowFive of the six original Caryatids stand here. The figures on the Erechtheion porch are copies, and the sixth original is in the British Museum. - 0413:30 · 90m
Mani Mani
Book it. The dining room is up a staircase on Falirou and it fills at lunch. The cooking comes from the Mani in the Peloponnese, so order the hilopites with siglino rather than the safe choices. Two courses each and a carafe is plenty given the evening ahead. Ninety minutes with a slow coffee at the end.About this place↗ Open in MapsA restaurant on Falirou in Makrygianni, a few minutes from the Acropolis Museum, cooking the food of the Mani peninsula.
HistoryThe Mani is the dry middle prong of the southern Peloponnese, and its cooking is mountain and sea food from a hard place. Cured pork, egg noodles, wild greens. The kitchen brought that regional repertoire into Athens instead of the standard taverna list.Why it's famousIt is one of the restaurants that made regional Greek cooking respectable in the capital, and the hilopites with siglino is the dish people come back for.Did you knowSiglino is pork cured with orange, smoked over aromatic wood and then stored in its own fat, a preserving method from long before refrigeration reached the Mani. - 0518:00 · 90m
Plaka lanes
Go after six, once the walls stop radiating heat. Start on Adrianou and work uphill towards Mnisikleous, which climbs in steps between taverna tables. The blocks nearest Monastiraki are the souvenir end, so bear east towards Kydathinaion for the quieter streets. No route needed, the quarter is small enough to get lost in safely.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe old quarter on the north and east slopes of the Acropolis, neoclassical houses along lanes too narrow and too stepped for cars.
HistoryPlaka grew over the Ottoman town and was largely rebuilt in the 19th century after Athens became capital in 1834. By the 1970s it had filled with nightclubs, and a preservation drive in the 1980s cleared them out and pedestrianised most of the streets.Why it's famousIt is the oldest continuously inhabited part of Athens, sometimes called the neighbourhood of the gods because it sits directly under the rock.Did you knowThe ancient Eridanos river still runs under Plaka and the streets north of it. You can see it flowing through its excavated channel inside Monastiraki metro station. - 0620:00 · 120m
Palia Taverna tou Psarra
Erechtheos, up the steps, tables out under the trees. Book for eight if you want to sit outside, later than that and you will be indoors. The grilled octopus and the slow-cooked lamb are the things to have, plus a plate of horta. House wine comes by the half kilo. Cards are fine, but keep some cash for the tip.About this place↗ Open in MapsA taverna on the stepped lane of Erechtheos in upper Plaka, with tables spreading across the street under the trees.
HistoryIt has been trading on the same corner since 1898, founded by a family from the island of Psara, which is where the name comes from.Why it's famousIt is one of the oldest working tavernas in Plaka, known for charcoal-grilled meat and fish and for the long list of writers and singers who have eaten there.Did you knowPsara, the island behind the name, was destroyed in 1824 during the Greek War of Independence, and its surviving families scattered across Greece, a good many of them to Athens.
The Agora, Monastiraki and Anafiotika
Monastiraki, Athens
What today looks like
A flatter day, and mostly at ground level. The Agora was the working half of ancient Athens, the market and the law courts rather than the temples, and it is a good place to walk early because there are trees. Monastiraki comes next, all stalls and second-hand everything. Lunch is kebab on Mitropoleos, a minute from the square. The afternoon is left free for the heat, then Anafiotika at teatime, when the whitewash goes gold and the lanes are quiet again.
Before you set off
If you bought the combined ticket yesterday it covers the Agora, so walk straight in. Sunday is the full flea market. Midweek the dealers around Avissinias Square still trade, just with fewer sellers spread across less ground. Carry cash for the market, where the first price is a starting point rather than a number. The Agora has almost no shade beyond the trees near the Stoa, so do it before eleven. At Kuzina the roof tables are the ones worth having, so ask for the terrace when you book.
Getting between the stops
Metro Lines 1 (green) and 3 (blue) both stop at Monastiraki, thirty seconds from the flea market and five minutes from the Agora's Adrianou gate. Thiseio, one stop along Line 1, puts you on Iraklidon for breakfast, and Apostolou Pavlou runs pedestrianised from there to the Agora with no road to cross. Anafiotika is on foot only, up through the stepped lanes off Stratonos, steep but short. Kuzina is back down on Adrianou, about ten minutes from the top.
Local notes
Kebab and souvlaki are two different things in Greece. Kebab is minced and spiced, souvlaki is chunks on a skewer, and asking for a pita gets you either one wrapped up with tomato, onion, yoghurt and chips inside. Anafiotika is a residential quarter rather than a site. People live behind those blue doors, the lanes are effectively their front gardens, and the evening is a good time to keep your voice down and stay off the doorsteps. Monastiraki takes its name from the small church still standing in the square, all that is left of a far bigger convent.
- 0108:30 · 45m
The Underdog
Courtyard tables on pedestrianised Iraklidon, quiet before ten and busy after. Espresso is what they do best, but the brunch plates are substantial enough that you can skip a proper lunch. Weekends bring a wait. From the door it is about fifteen minutes to the Agora gate, all of it pedestrianised.About this place↗ Open in MapsA coffee bar and all-day kitchen on pedestrianised Iraklidon in Thiseio, with a courtyard set back from the street.
HistoryIt opened as Athens' specialty coffee scene took hold in the 2010s, roasting on a small scale on site and putting competition-level baristas behind the bar.Why it's famousIts baristas have placed in Greek and international coffee competitions, and the brunch menu pulls a weekend queue that has nothing to do with the ruins next door.Did you knowIraklidon feeds straight onto Apostolou Pavlou, part of the archaeological promenade unified for the 2004 Olympics, so you can walk from your table to the Ancient Agora without crossing a single road. - 0209:30 · 90m
Ancient Agora
Enter from Adrianou and climb to the Temple of Hephaestus first, while the west path still has shade. The rebuilt Stoa of Attalos holds the site museum and stays cool inside, worth twenty minutes once the sun gets going. Ninety minutes covers the whole site comfortably. Included in the combined archaeological ticket.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe public square of ancient Athens, market, law court and meeting ground at once, below the north-west slope of the Acropolis.
HistoryIn use from around the 6th century BC, flattened by the Persians in 480 BC and rebuilt, then buried under houses for centuries. The American School of Classical Studies cleared the site from the 1930s and rebuilt the Stoa of Attalos in the 1950s to hold the finds.Why it's famousThis is where Athenian democracy did its daily business and where Socrates argued with anyone who would stop. The Temple of Hephaestus above it is the most complete Doric temple anywhere.Did you knowThe Hephaisteion still has its roof because it spent more than a thousand years as the church of Saint George, in use until the 1830s. - 0311:30 · 75m
Monastiraki flea market
Sunday is the real market, spilling across Avissinias Square from early morning. Any other day the antique dealers and junk shops around the square still open, roughly ten until seven. Ifestou is the souvenir run, Avissinias the interesting end. Carry cash and haggle gently, because the first price is not the price.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe street market that spreads from Monastiraki Square down Ifestou and around Avissinias Square, selling antiques, second-hand goods and souvenirs.
HistoryTraders have worked this ground since Ottoman times, when it was the bazaar quarter of the town. Avissinias Square settled into the antiques trade, and Ifestou kept the ironmongers, which is what its name means.Why it's famousSunday morning is the proper flea market, when the sellers lay out across the square and into the surrounding streets and the whole quarter turns over.Did you knowMonastiraki means little monastery. It is named after the church of Pantanassa still standing in the square, the only surviving fragment of a much larger convent. - 0413:00 · 75m
O Thanasis
Kebab, not souvlaki. Order it on the plate rather than in a pita for the full version with yoghurt and grilled tomato. The outside tables on Mitropoleos face the square and turn over fast. Peak is one until three, so aim for half twelve or after half two. Cash is easiest.About this place↗ Open in MapsA kebab house on Mitropoleos at the edge of Monastiraki Square, with pavement tables facing the traffic and the church.
HistoryRun by the same family for decades, serving kebab in the style brought to Athens by refugees from Asia Minor after 1922, which is when much of the city's grill cooking arrived.Why it's famousThe kebab itself, minced meat grilled on the skewer and served on warm pita with yoghurt, tomato and raw onion. Athenians queue for it at lunchtime.Did you knowSouvlaki and kebab are not the same thing in Greece. Souvlaki is chunks of meat on a skewer, kebab is minced and spiced, and what most visitors call a souvlaki is properly a pita gyro. - 0516:00 · 60m
Anafiotika
Late afternoon, once the whitewash softens and the day trippers have gone. It is genuinely tiny, twenty minutes of lanes, so treat it as a walk rather than a destination. Come up from Stratonos and let it lead you round the rock. People live here, so stay off the doorsteps and out of the courtyards.About this place↗ Open in MapsA pocket of white cube houses and stepped lanes on the north face of the Acropolis rock, sitting just above Plaka.
HistoryStonemasons from the Cycladic island of Anafi built it from the 1840s onwards, having been brought to Athens to work on King Otto's palace and the other buildings of the new capital. They built in the style of home, so the quarter looks like Anafi rather than Athens.Why it's famousIt is the most island-looking street in the capital, bougainvillea against whitewash with the Acropolis wall rising directly overhead.Did you knowOnly a few dozen of the original houses are left. Part of the quarter was cleared during the 20th century so the slope beneath the rock could be excavated. - 0620:00 · 120m
Kuzina
Ask for the roof when you book, because that is the entire point, with the lit Acropolis above the Agora. The food is modern Greek rather than taverna, so expect smaller plates and higher prices. Book a few days ahead for a terrace table at eight. The stairs up are steep and there is no lift.About this place↗ Open in MapsA modern Greek restaurant on pedestrianised Adrianou opposite the Ancient Agora, with a roof terrace above the street.
HistoryAdrianou runs along the Agora fence and turned into a restaurant row once the street was pedestrianised and the archaeological promenade joined up in the run-up to the 2004 Olympics.Why it's famousThe rooftop, mostly, which puts the floodlit Acropolis and the Temple of Hephaestus in a single view over dinner.Did you knowThe railway you can see running in the open beside Adrianou was cut through the edge of the ancient Agora in the 1890s, before archaeologists had any idea what was under it.
The Riviera and sunset at Sounion
Cape Sounion, Greece
What today looks like
Today is the coast. The Riviera runs south from the city along an almost unbroken line of beaches and ends at the cliff at Sounion, about 70 km from Syntagma. Morning is breakfast on the sand at Glyfada, then the lake at Vouliagmeni, which is warm, salty and slightly strange, and much better before midday. Lunch is fish on a terrace near the cape. There is a swim in the cove below the temple, and then the temple itself, timed for the sun going down over the Aegean.
Before you set off
Hire a car for this one. The coast road is straightforward and the car park at Sounion sits right below the site. The alternative is the KTEL Attikis bus, which does run the whole way but ties the rest of the day to a timetable. Lake Vouliagmeni charges entry, sunbeds cost extra and cost more at weekends, and it fills from midday. Take a towel you can leave in the car and something with sleeves for the cape, where the wind comes straight off the sea and the evening cools quickly. Check the Sounion closing time for your date and arrive at least an hour before sunset. In late August the sun goes down around eight.
Getting between the stops
Glyfada to Vouliagmeni is fifteen minutes down the coast road. Vouliagmeni to Sounion is about an hour once you allow for Lagonisi and Anavyssos, and the road hugs the water nearly all the way. Taverna Syrtaki, Sounio Beach and the temple are within a few minutes of each other at the far end. Coming back, Varkiza is roughly forty minutes from the cape and central Athens another half hour beyond that. Without a car, the Sounion bus follows the coast route and stops at the temple, but check the last departure before you settle in for the sunset.
Local notes
Sounion was the last thing sailors saw on the way out of Attica and the first on the way home, which is why there is a temple to Poseidon on a windy headland rather than somewhere more convenient. Byron's carving is real, cut into one of the columns, although he was far from the only one to do it and the practice has long since been banned. Dinner on the Riviera runs late all summer. A nine o'clock table at Varkiza is ordinary rather than heroic, and most of the seafront places keep going well past midnight.
- 0109:00 · 75m
Balux House Project
Breakfast with sand under the table. At nine it is calm, by noon it turns into a beach club with a DJ. Brunch runs late, so a plate here saves stopping again before the lake. Parking on the Glyfada seafront is easier before ten. Sunbeds cost extra and you do not need one for an hour.About this place↗ Open in MapsA beach club and all-day café on the sand at Glyfada, at the first stretch of the Athens Riviera.
HistoryGlyfada grew into the seaside suburb of Athens alongside the old airport at Ellinikon next door, and its beachfront filled with places built to run from breakfast through to the small hours.Why it's famousThe house-party layout, with sofas, hammocks and a pool set out on the sand, and brunch that carries on well into the afternoon.Did you knowEllinikon, the old Athens airport a few minutes inland, closed in 2001 and is now being rebuilt as one of the largest coastal parks in Europe. - 0211:00 · 90m
Lake Vouliagmeni
Entry is charged and sunbeds cost more at weekends. Go before midday for space. The water stays in the twenties all year, salty enough to float in without effort, and the small fish that nibble at your feet are harmless. Showers and lockers on site. Ninety minutes is enough, this is a swim rather than a beach day.About this place↗ Open in MapsA warm brackish lake at the foot of a cliff near Vouliagmeni, open for swimming with sunbeds around the edge.
HistoryIt was a cave until the roof collapsed and left the water open to the sky. Underground channels still connect it to the sea, and thermal springs feed it from below, which is why it never gets properly cold.Why it's famousThe water stays warm through the winter and carries a heavy mineral load, and Athenians have used it for aching joints and skin complaints for generations.Did you knowDivers have mapped kilometres of flooded passages running back under the cliff from the lake, and the cave system has still not been fully explored. - 0314:00 · 90m
Taverna Syrtaki
Fish is sold by weight, so ask what the whole one will come to before you agree. If you would rather not, the octopus in wine sauce is the thing to order. Terrace tables over the water are worth asking for when you arrive. Ninety minutes here still leaves the afternoon free for the cove.About this place↗ Open in MapsA fish taverna on the coast road a few minutes short of Cape Sounion, with a terrace built out over the water.
HistoryThe Sounio road filled with fish tavernas as Athenians started driving out to the cape for the day, and the ones on the water at the far end catch both the lunch traffic and the sunset crowd.Why it's famousFresh fish chosen from the ice and priced by the kilo, and octopus stewed in red wine, which is the standard against which a Greek coastal taverna gets judged.Did you knowOctopus is usually beaten and then hung in the sun before it goes anywhere near the grill. The drying is what makes it tender rather than rubbery. - 0416:00 · 90m
Sounio Beach
A small cove of clear water below the cape, with very little shade. There is not much in the way of facilities, so bring water and a towel. It is five minutes by car from the temple car park. An hour and a half here makes the walk up to the columns afterwards a great deal more bearable.About this place↗ Open in MapsA quiet cove of clear water in the bay below Cape Sounion, a short way round from the temple headland.
HistoryThe bay under the cape sheltered ships waiting to round the tip of Attica, and the Athenians fortified the headland above it during the Peloponnesian War to protect the grain route into the city.Why it's famousIt is the swim people take before the sunset, with the temple columns standing on the ridge directly above the water.Did you knowThe fortress above the bay had its own naval harbour with covered ship sheds, so the temple you visit at sunset stood inside a working military base. - 0518:30 · 120m
Cape Sounion, Temple of Poseidon
Arrive at least an hour before sunset. The site shuts near dusk, so check the closing time for your date rather than assuming. Walk the perimeter path first for the view down into the bay, then take a spot on the west side for the sun. Byron's name is cut into one of the columns. The wind on the point is strong, so bring a layer.About this place↗ Open in MapsA Doric temple to Poseidon standing on the cliff at the southern tip of Attica, roughly 60 metres above the sea.
HistoryIt was built around 440 BC from marble quarried a couple of kilometres inland in the Agrileza valley, on the site of an earlier temple that the Persians destroyed in 480 BC.Why it's famousThe sunset over the Aegean through the standing columns, and the name Lord Byron carved into the stone in 1810, which turned the cape into a fixture of the Grand Tour.Did you knowHomer names the cape in the Odyssey, where Menelaus stops to bury his helmsman Phrontis, so sailors were using this headland as a landmark centuries before anyone built a temple on it. - 0621:15 · 120m
Island Athens Riviera
A late table by the water, about forty minutes back along the coast from the cape. Book, particularly at weekends in August, and ask for the sea side rather than the road side. The kitchen serves well past eleven and the music picks up afterwards. Smart casual, no beachwear. Parking is at the door.About this place↗ Open in MapsA whitewashed seaside restaurant and club on the coast road at Varkiza, with terraces looking straight out at the water.
HistoryIt belongs to the Athenian habit of moving nightlife to the coast for the summer, when the city venues close in June and reopen on the seafront until September.Why it's famousIt is one of the standing summer addresses on the Riviera, Mediterranean cooking early in the evening and a DJ once the tables clear.Did you knowMost of the big Athens clubs shut their city premises entirely for the summer and run a coastal version instead, then move back inland in the autumn.
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