Athens: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
The Acropolis is a rock that was a fortress a thousand years before it was a temple. Pericles built on it from 447 BC with silver levied from Athens’ allies to fight Persia — and spending it on marble was a political scandal at the time. Go at eight in the morning or six in the evening; in between there is no shade and no mercy.
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A short history of Athens
People have lived in Athens for more than five thousand years. In 508 BC Cleisthenes introduced democracy here, and in the 5th century BC, in the time of Pericles, the Parthenon was built and the city was the centre of the Greek world. In 146 BC it came under Roman rule, and from 1458 to 1833 it was ruled by the Ottomans. When independent Greece was founded, Athens was a town of a few thousand people, and in 1834 it was declared the capital. In the 20th century it grew into a metropolis of four million, and ahead of the 2004 Olympics it gained a metro, a tram and a new airport.
The ten best sights in Athens
1AcropolisGo at eight or at six. In between it is forty degrees
2ParthenonBuilt in nine years, and there is not one straight line in it
3Acropolis MuseumA glass floor over the excavation underneath
4Ancient AgoraWhere Socrates argued, and where democracy was run
5Temple of HephaestusThe best-preserved Greek temple anywhere
6Roman AgoraAnd the Tower of the Winds, a clock from 50 BC
7Temple of Olympian ZeusSix hundred and thirty-eight years to finish
8KerameikosThe ancient cemetery, and nobody goes there
9Panathenaic StadiumAll marble, and the first modern Olympics, 1896
10PlakaThe old quarter under the rock
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Athens →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Athens:
Free walking tours in Athens
The Rock
The Acropolis is a rock that was a fortress a thousand years before it was a temple. Pericles built on it from 447 BC with silver levied from Athens’ allies to fight Persia — and spending it on marble was a political scandal at the time. Go at eight in the morning or six in the evening; in between there is no shade and no mercy.
- Parthenon · Built in nine years and containing no straight line at all — the columns bulge, the floor curves upward, and the corner columns lean inward. Every correction is there so the eye will read it as perfectly straight.
- Erechtheion · The six maidens holding the porch are copies; five of the originals are in the museum below and the sixth is in London. Each carries her weight on a different leg, so the row is never static.
- Acropolis Museum · The top floor is built at the exact angle of the Parthenon above it, and at its exact size, with the surviving frieze arranged where it stood. The gaps are where the London pieces would go, and they were left empty on purpose.
- Anafiotika · In the 1840s builders brought from the island of Anafi to work on the king’s palace built themselves houses on the slope, in island style, because an Ottoman law said anything roofed overnight could not be demolished.
- Plaka · The oldest continuously inhabited quarter in Athens, and the only one the nineteenth-century city plan did not flatten. The streets follow the ancient ones because the houses never moved.
- Filopappou Hill · The hill opposite, with the best view of the Parthenon there is — and it is free, unfenced and almost empty. The paving was laid by Dimitris Pikionis in the 1950s from stones taken off demolished Athenian houses.
The Agora
The Acropolis was the temple; the Agora was the city. Fish were sold here, laws were argued, and juries were chosen by lottery — and Socrates walked about asking people questions until they executed him for it. At its centre stands the Temple of Hephaestus, the best-preserved in the Greek world, which survived because it was turned into a church.
- Ancient Agora · Democracy was administered here with machines: a stone slot device picked juries at random, and a water clock timed every speech so nobody could talk longer than anyone else.
- Temple of Hephaestus · The most complete Greek temple anywhere, with its roof intact — because it served as a Christian church from the seventh century until 1834, and a building in use is a building maintained.
- Stoa of Attalos · A two-storey shopping arcade from 150 BC, rebuilt completely in the 1950s by American archaeologists using the original plan — so you can walk a Greek street rather than imagine one.
- Roman Agora · The Romans built a second marketplace when the first grew too small. In the corner stands the Tower of the Winds — a water clock, sundial and weather vane in one, from about 50 BC, and still standing whole.
- Monastiraki flea market · Sunday morning is the real one — records, army surplus, broken clocks and furniture from emptied flats, sold off blankets on the pavement by people who have had the same spot for decades.
- Kerameikos · The ancient cemetery and the potters’ quarter — the word ceramic comes from it. Pericles gave his funeral oration here, and almost nobody visits.
Modern Athens
In 1834 Athens was a village of four thousand people, and then it was chosen as the capital of the new Greece and rebuilt by German architects — which is why the centre looks neoclassical rather than Greek. This walk is the living city: the square, the market, the stadium made entirely of marble, and the quarter where the murals are.
- Syntagma Square · Named for the constitution the king was forced to grant in 1843 by soldiers standing in this square. The guards outside parliament change on the hour in pleated kilts and clogs with pompoms, and they do it very slowly on purpose.
- National Garden · Queen Amalia planted it in 1838 as her private garden and had fifteen thousand plants shipped in from around the world. In August it is the only shade in central Athens.
- Panathenaic Stadium · Rebuilt in 1896 entirely in Pentelic marble — the only stadium in the world made of it — on the footprint of the ancient one. The first modern Olympics were held here, and the track is a horseshoe, so the corners are impossibly tight.
- Temple of Olympian Zeus · Begun in 520 BC and finished by Hadrian in 131 AD — six hundred and thirty-eight years. Fifteen of its hundred and four columns still stand; a sixteenth fell in a storm in 1852 and is lying exactly where it landed.
- Varvakios Agora · The central meat and fish hall, open since 1886 and loud from six in the morning. The soup stalls at the back are open all night and are where Athens ends an evening.
- Exarcheia · The anarchist quarter since the 1973 student uprising against the junta, and the reason Athens has the street art it has. Bookshops, cheap tavernas and the best coffee in the city.
Getting to Athens and getting around
- Athens Airport · The blue metro line reaches Syntagma in 40 minutes
- Piraeus · The port — ferries to every island
- Syntagma Metro · An archaeological dig inside the station
- Monastiraki · Where two metro lines and the market meet
Museums in Athens
- National Archaeological Museum · Give it three hours. The gold is on the ground floor
- Acropolis Museum · A glass floor over the dig, and the frieze upstairs
- Benaki Museum · Greece from prehistory to 1821, in one family’s house
- Museum of Cycladic Art · Marble figures from 3000 BC that Picasso studied
- Stavros Niarchos Centre · Renzo Piano, a park on the roof, and entirely free
Parks and gardens in Athens
- Filopappou Hill · The best view of the Parthenon, free and unfenced
- National Garden · A queen’s garden from 1838 — the only shade in August
- Lycabettus Hill · The highest point, a funicular, and a chapel on top
- Kaisariani Monastery · An eleventh-century monastery in a pine forest
Cheap eats in Athens
Seven counters where Athens eats standing. A souvlaki shop with no seats and a queue down the street, a basement taverna with no menu and no sign that has not changed since 1887, and the soup stalls inside the meat market that open at midnight.
- Kostas · One window, one dish, €3.50, closes at four
- Diporto · No sign, no menu. Two doors in the pavement
- Varvakios soup stalls · Patsas at two in the morning. An Athenian institution
- Ta Karamanlidika · A deli counter — point at the cured meat, they slice it
- Bairaktaris · In Monastiraki since 1879, and the barrels are real
- Brettos · A wall of lit bottles, distilling ouzo here since 1909
- Loukoumades, Monastiraki · Honey doughnuts, fried to order, €4
Holy places in Athens
- Temple of Olympian Zeus · 638 years to build, and a column still lying where it fell
- Little Metropolis · Built entirely from older ruins
- Cape Sounion · A temple on a cliff at sunset, an hour out
- Delphi · The navel of the world, two and a half hours away
Nightlife in Athens
- Psyrri · Workshops by day, tavernas and bars at night
- Exarcheia · Where the students drink, and the murals are
- Technopolis Gazi · A gasworks turned concert venue, and clubs around it
Frequently asked questions about Athens
What is there to see in Athens?
The top sights in Athens are Acropolis, Parthenon and Acropolis Museum. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Athens?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Athens without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Athens?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Athens, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The Rock.
How do you get to Athens and get around?
The main ways are Athens Airport, Piraeus and Syntagma Metro. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Athens, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Athens that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Athens for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.