Up the Acropolis by eight. The rest of Athens can wait.
Which Acropolis ticket actually walks you past the queue. What the Sounion sunset run costs. Whether Delphi or Meteora is the better single day out of the city. Reviews of every tour you can book in Athens.
Four bookings that build a first week in Athens.
The rock, the coast road, the market and the long day across the Peloponnese. What each costs and how the day runs.
01Day one, first lightAcropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo PassOne timed pass covers the rock and five more ancient sites. Take the earliest slot, before the cruise coaches reach the gate.
02The evening driveCape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day TripNinety minutes down the coast road to a temple built to face the sunset, back in the city for a late dinner.
03The hungry hourGreek Food Walking Tour in AthensThrough the meat halls at Varvakios and the spice lanes behind them, then small plates until you lose count.
04The long day outMycenae, Epidaurus & Nafplio Full Day TripMycenae before the heat, the theatre at Epidaurus, lunch on the harbour at Nafplio. One drive, three thousand years.
Which Acropolis ticket you actually need.
Entry runs on timed slots with a cap on each one, and the queue at the main gate is the part nobody plans for. Three ways up, what each costs, and when to be at the turnstile.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · Acropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo Pass
The ticket on its ownTimed entry, or the pass that adds five more ancient sites.
Ticket and a voice in your earClimb at your own pace, stop where you like, no umbrella to follow.
A guide and the storiesThe contest for the city, told standing on the ground it happened on.
All 139 ways up the Acropolis →
The days worth giving up an Athens morning for.
Delphi sits on the slope of Parnassus three hours north. Meteora is a longer haul and earns it. Corinth, Mycenae and Nafplio fold into one loop across the Peloponnese, and Sounion is close enough to be an evening.
The tours Athens books more than any others.
Every Athens review →The longest queues, the fullest minibuses, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Acropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo Pass
Book a timed Acropolis visit, then use the app to explore up to five more sites within three days. Expect QR tickets, optional English guiding, audio tours, and stops including the Ancient Agora, Roman Agora, Temple of Zeus, Aristotle’s School, and Panathenaic Stadium.
From · $48
Read our review →
2
Acropolis Ticket with Optional Audio or Live Guide
3
Acropolis, Parthenon & Acropolis Museum Guided Tour
from $40
4
Cape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day Trip
from $23
5
Acropolis and Parthenon Guided Walking Tour
from $38
6
All Day Cruise -3 Islands to Agistri,Moni, Aegina with lunch and drinks included
from $180
7
Athens, Piraeus, and Coastline: Blue Hop-On Hop-Off Bus
from $14
8
Greek Food Walking Tour in Athens
from $87
Athens eats late, and the market is the best hour of the day.
Varvakios opens before the heat and the meat halls are the show. Then the small plates of Psyri, an oil mill out past the ring road, and Assyrtiko poured on a roof with the Parthenon lit behind it.
Every Athens food walk →
What a day in Athens costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The rock, the market and the bus down the coast all sit at the cheap end.
Acropolis tickets, audio walks, the hop-on bus and the run down to Sounion.
Full days out: Delphi and Meteora by coach, cooking classes, the Peloponnese loop.
Private guides for the day, catamarans off the Riviera, the multi-day runs to Olympia.
Three things that happen in Athens and nowhere else.
Ancient stone is everywhere in the Mediterranean. A frieze rebuilt at eye level, a temple aimed at the sunset, and the myths told on the ground they were set on are not.
The Acropolis Museum
The top floor is built on the same bearing as the Parthenon and to the same dimensions, so the frieze runs round the gallery in the order it was carved, at the height it was meant to be read. Through the glass behind it the building itself sits on the hill. Go after the climb, when you know what you are looking at.
- 1Acropolis, Parthenon & Acropolis Museum Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 9,316 reviews
- 2Acropolis, Parthenon & Acropolis Museum Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 3,579 reviews
- 3Acropolis monuments & Parthenon Walking Tour with Optional Acropolis Museum★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,678 reviews
The Temple of Poseidon
Sixteen columns on a headland seventy metres above the water, ninety minutes down the Apollo Coast. It was built to be seen from the sea by sailors coming home, which is why the sunset trips exist. Byron cut his name into a column and people have been photographing it ever since.
- 1Cape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 8,241 reviews
- 2Cape Sounio & Poseidon Temple Trip with Audio Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 4,521 reviews
- 3Cape Sounion and Temple of Poseidon Half-Day Small-Group Tour from Athens★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 3,205 reviews
The mythology walks
Athena and Poseidon competed for this city on the rock you are standing on, and the olive tree by the Erechtheion marks where she won. Guides who do this well walk you between the Agora, the Areopagus and the hill, telling each story where it happened rather than in front of a display case.
- 1Mythology of Delphi, Museum and Arachova Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 4,008 reviews
- 2Athens & Acropolis Highlights: Greek Mythology Small-Group Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,370 reviews
- 3Acropolis and Mythology Highlights Small Group Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,275 reviews
The four Athens bookings you cannot leave until you land.
Most of this city can be arranged over breakfast on the day. These four run on timed entry, coach departures, monastery opening days and a sunset that does not move.
- 01Acropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo PassTimed entry with a cap on each slot. The early ones, the only cool ones, go weeks ahead in summer.
- 02Cape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day TripThe temple faces the sunset, so the trip runs on one departure a day and it is the first thing to sell out in August.
- 03Meteora Monasteries Day Trip with Caves and LunchEach monastery keeps its own closed day, and the coach out of Athens leaves before seven.
- 04Mythology of Delphi, Museum and Arachova Guided TourOne mountain road up, a site that shuts mid-afternoon out of season, and weekend day trips that go early.
From noon the marble is too hot to stand on.
There is no shade on the Acropolis at all, and from late June the hours between noon and five are unusable. The city answers with roofs: a museum built for the heat, a kitchen, a cellar, a bar in Psyri that only starts at ten.
Athens in the hours you do not really have.
Every port and airport run →Piraeus is forty minutes from the Acropolis and the airport is an hour the other way. These runs are built round a sailing time or a boarding gate: fixed pickup, luggage in the car, a driver watching the clock.
By place — the city and its belt
By kind of day — stone, table, water or wheels
The order most people give their first four Athens days.
The Museum
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