Splurge
Hotel Grande Bretagne.
Best for the grand arrivalThe landmark of Syntagma Square, receiving since 1874 in a palace fronting Parliament: a rooftop restaurant whose terrace is the classic Acropolis-view table.
In this guide
Airport to your accommodation
Getting around
Getting connected and paying
Settle in
Getting around
In the city
Where to stay
Where to stay your first nights
Where to eat first
Where to eat first
See and do
Day trips and more
Costs and best time
When to go and what it costs
Packing
What to pack
Related destinations
Related destinations
The short version
You just landed in Athens. The airport sits about 33 km east of the centre: Metro Line 3 reaches Syntagma in about 40 minutes for €9, and the X95 bus runs around the clock for €5.50. Sort your Airalo eSIM before you land, and book the Acropolis slot early — the rock runs on timed entry, and the first hours are the cool, quiet ones.
Quick facts
Airport
Athens International (ATH), about 33 km east of the centre One main terminal plus a satellite — check your gate letter before coffee.
Getting in
Metro Line 3 €9, about 40 minutes to Syntagma — Half-hourly, 06:30 to 23:30. The X95 runs all night for €5.50; taxis to the central ring are a flat €40 by day, €55 midnight to 05:00, tolls and luggage included. The Proastiakos reaches Larissa and Piraeus for €9.
Currency
The euro (€) cards nearly everywhere, cash for the small stuff — Cards at tavernas, taxis and kiosks; cash for stalls and tips.
Languages
Greek with English spoken right across the visitor economy — Staff across the visitor economy speak workable English.
Time zone
EET (UTC+2), switching to EEST (UTC+3) from late March to late October Forward the last Sunday of March, back the last in October.
Emergency
112 for everything and the tourist police answer on 171 — Free from any phone, English-speaking operators; 171 handles lost documents and bill disputes.
Plugs
Type C and F round two-pin sockets, 230 volts British, Irish and North American travellers need an adapter; dual-voltage chargers are fine.
Tap water
Safe to drink in Athens refill and carry — Mountain-reservoir water under EYDAP.
Tourist tax
The Climate Crisis Resilience Fee €2 to €15 per room per night in season, by hotel rating — April to October: €2 (1–2 star), €5 (3-star), €10 (4-star), €15 (5-star); November to March: €0.50, €1.50, €3, €4. Rentals: €8 in season, €2 in winter.
Best months
April and May, then September and October Wildflowers, low-to-mid-20s temperatures; autumn matches it, with a warm sea.
Map
Find your arrival stop, hotel, and first meal. Stays, sights, and landmarks in Athens — live hotel prices plus the key places from this guide.
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Settle in
Carry a first float of euros
Use a Greek bank's ATM in arrivals, declining conversion into your home currency; coins speed up metro machines and counters.
Choose the airport ride by the clock
The metro is the default in its hours — no traffic, straight to Syntagma. Later: the 24-hour X95, the flat-fare rank taxi, or a transfer booked ahead. Never accept a terminal tout's ride.
Tap in like a local:
a contactless card or phone at gates and on buses caps the day at the 24-hour fare — the airport fare never joins the cap.
Base yourself inside the historic ring
The three bases are set out in Where to stay, below.
Book the Acropolis slot before your first morning
Entry is timed and the best slots go days ahead in season — book the official e-ticket.
Eat the first proper meal at lunch
Lunch is the main meal: kitchens peak between 13:00 and 15:00, dinner rarely before 21:00.
Athens arranges itself around one rock: the Acropolis over a historic centre crossed on foot in twenty minutes — Plaka, Monastiraki and the Agora, Syntagma, Koukaki. Stay inside that ring and nearly everything is a walk.
Getting around
Journey times are approximate and refer to the listed stop — not necessarily your hotel. Allow extra time for waiting, walking, and connections.
Metro Line 3
Station across the arrivals plaza to Syntagma and Monastiraki, every 30 minutes, 06:30 to 23:30; covers 90 minutes onward, and continues to Piraeus
Price€9Journeyabout 40 min
X95 express bus
The 24-hour option: kerb outside arrivals non-stop to Syntagma — the default after the last metro
Price€5.50Journeyabout 45-70 min
Taxi
Legal flat fare inside the central ring, from the official rank; night rate midnight to 05:00. A rise to €50/€65 is announced: the rank board rules
Price€40 by day, €55 at nightJourneyabout 35-50 min
Pre-booked transfer
Driver waiting in arrivals, price settled before you fly
Pricefrom about €40, fixedJourneyabout 35-50 min
The centre is a walking city with a metro underneath: three lines crossing at Syntagma and Monastiraki, a tram to the Riviera, buses in the gaps. The airport rides:
One fare covers the city: €1.20 buys 90 minutes on metro, bus, trolleybus and tram; 24 hours is €4.10, five days €8.20, and the three-day tourist ticket at €20 includes an airport return. Contactless taps cap the day at €4.10. The metro runs 05:30 to just after midnight, later Friday and Saturday nights; then night buses. Validate every ride — the fine is sixty times the fare.
Yellow taxis are metered in town; FREE NOW and Uber dispatch licensed taxis at regulated fares. For the airport, a Kiwitaxi transfer fixes the price at booking, while Welcome Pickups adds a driver waiting in arrivals.
Since the combined ticket was withdrawn in 2025, Acropolis entry runs on a timed slot via the official e-ticket platform, or resold: compare Acropolis timed-entry tickets with the official window, and stack the Agora, the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the museums — skip-the-line site tickets bundle an audio tour for a euro or two more.
In the city
- The Acropolis — €30, timed slot. The Parthenon, the Erechtheion with its Caryatid porch, the Propylaea, the Temple of Athena Nike; the Theatre of Dionysus and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. Take the 08:00 slot from the south slope, by Akropoli station. Summer 08:00–20:00, winter to 17:00. Closed 1 Jan, 25 Mar, 1 May, Orthodox Easter Sunday, 25–26 Dec; free 6 Mar, 18 Apr, 18 May, the last weekend of Sep, 28 Oct, first Sundays Nov–Mar. EU citizens under 25 free.
- The Acropolis Museum — €20. The Caryatids, the Parthenon sculptures at the temple's own scale, facing the real thing, an excavated neighbourhood under the glass floors. Same closures as the site; Fridays to 22:00.
- The Ancient Agora and the Temple of Hephaestus — €20, from Monastiraki or Thissio. Classical Athens' marketplace and civic heart; the temple above it is Greece's best-preserved temple, and the rebuilt Stoa of Attalos holds its museum. Closes 19:30 in summer, 17:00 in winter.
- The National Archaeological Museum — €20, metro to Viktoria. The gold mask of Agamemnon, the Antikythera mechanism, the bronze Zeus-or-Poseidon. Tuesdays open at 13:00, not 08:30.
- The Temple of Olympian Zeus and Hadrian's Arch — €20. The largest temple of ancient Greece, finished by Hadrian after six centuries. Pair it with the arch and the National Garden. Winter closing 15:00.
- Plaka, Anafiotika and the Monastiraki flea market — Free. Lanes under the rock, Anafiotika's Cycladic alleys, the Monastiraki flea market, daily and whole streets on Sundays. The Roman Agora and Tower of the Winds are in the same wander for €10.
- Syntagma Square and the changing of the guard — Free. Parliament, the tomb of the unknown soldier, the Evzones changing guard hourly — the ceremonial version on Sundays at 11:00. The National Garden's 15 hectares wait behind.
- Mount Lycabettus — The cone above the Acropolis, for the sunset view: the basin and the floodlit rock. Funicular from Kolonaki, €10 one way, €13 return, or a half-hour path; St George's chapel crowns it.
- Philopappos Hill and the Pnyx — Free: a pine hill south-west of the Acropolis, framing the Parthenon at eye level, past the Pnyx, the citizens' voting terrace.
- The Panathenaic Stadium — The horseshoe by the National Garden, rebuilt for the 1896 Olympics, finish line of the Athens marathon. At the gate: run a lap of the track.
The tram reaches the Riviera beaches within the hour, and the Faliro-to-Glyfada cycle path suits a rented bike — BikesBooking lists rentals.
Stacking the sights? Compare Tiqets bundles with gate prices — they pay on the high-season Acropolis slot.
After you land in Athens: Bookable experiences
Where to stay your first nights
Mid-range
Electra Metropolis Athens.
Best for the rooftop Acropolis viewOn Mitropoleos Street, a minute from Syntagma Square at the edge of Plaka: a small rooftop pool staring at the Acropolis, the metro interchange on the doorstep.
Budget
City Circus Athens.
Best for hostel character in PsyrriA boutique hostel in a neoclassical mansion on Sarri Street in Psyrri, ten minutes from Monastiraki: dorms with privacy curtains, frescoed private rooms, a shaded courtyard.
Three bases cover a first stay: Syntagma and Plaka, the Acropolis in view and both metro interchanges; Koukaki, below the museum, at local volume; Monastiraki and Psyrri, trading quiet for energy.
Where to eat first
Athens feeds you the local way: grill house, souvlaki counter, taverna — lunch the main event. Three kitchens below cook a short menu inside the central ring.
O Thanasis — the Monastiraki kebab institution.
Map → Mitropoleos 69, Monastiraki Square. The city's benchmark kebab since 1964: beef and lamb kebabs in warm pita with tomato, onion and paprika. The plate if you sit, the wrap if you don't.
Kostas — the souvlaki at Agia Irini.
Map → Plateia Agias Irinis 2, Monastiraki. Definitive souvlaki since 1950: pork or chicken off the skewer into pita with tomato, onion, parsley and their own sauce. Daytime hours only, closing when the meat is gone.
Ta Karamanlidika tou Fani — the deli-taverna by the market.
Map → Sokratous 1, beside the Varvakios central market. A cured-meat delicatessen: pastourma and soutzouki, eggs with kavourmas, cheeses from across Greece. Shop the market first, then sit down.
Food walks and cooking classes gather on GetYourGuide — the morning market tours are the ones to pick.
Day trips and more
Delphi is the full day inland, Sounion the sunset half day, Hydra the island day. All three work as tours or independently.
Delphi
The sanctuary the ancient world treated as its centre, on Mount Parnassus: the Sacred Way to the Temple of Apollo, the theatre and the stadium, the Tholos of Athena Pronaia below, and the museum holds the bronze Charioteer, cast around 470 BC. Winter hours 08:30–15:30. KTEL Fokidas from Liosion, Terminal B, not Kifissos: about three hours, €15.10 each way.
Check availability →
Cape Sounion
The coast road runs south past Glyfada and Vouliagmeni to Attica's tip, where the Temple of Poseidon stands on a cliff 60 metres over the Aegean; Byron carved his name on a column. The site opens at 09:30 and closes at sunset, so arrive two hours before the sun drops. The KTEL Attikis bus runs from Pedion Areos by Victoria station in about two hours — check the return timetable first.
Check availability →
Hydra
The Saronic island that banned the wheel: freight by donkey and handcart, the town climbing from its amphitheatre harbour. Swim at Spilia and Hydronetta. Fast ferries from Piraeus — Hellenic Seaways' Flying Dolphins and Alpha Lines catamarans — cross in an hour and five minutes at best, most in an hour and a half, fares from the mid-€30s. The three-island cruise is the lazy alternative.
Check availability →When to go and what it costs
April and MayDays in the low to mid-20s, wildflowers, the sea warming by late May. Orthodox Easter moves inside this windowsites close on Easter Sunday.
June to AugustMid-30s heat, spiking in heatwaves, when the Acropolis has closed at midday in recent years. August inverts the city: locals leave, rates soften.
September and OctoberMatching spring with a warmer sea: the heat breaks, sites keep summer hours into October; the Athens Marathon lands in early November.
November to March10°C to 17°C, rain between bright spells, winter site hoursseveral close at 15:00 or 17:00. Free entry on the first Sundays.
Any month, two standing datesFree days and closures: the Acropolis entry, above.
The six big paid sights total about €120. Transport is the rounding error: €1.20 a ride, €4.10 a day, €20 for three days with the airport return.
Price the Go City Athens pass against your €120 sum — it earns its keep when the Acropolis, the museum and a day trip land inside its validity.
What to pack
Tap items to check them off — your list is saved on this device.
Pack for a marble city on hills: exposed, shadeless stone sites and polished pavements, uphill both ways.
- Comfortable walking shoes Shop walking shoes on Amazon →
- Sunscreen Shop sunscreen on Amazon →
- Reusable water bottle Shop water bottle on Amazon →
- Phone charger and power bank Shop power bank on Amazon →
- Daypack Shop daypack on Amazon →
- Sunglasses Shop sunglasses on Amazon →
- Light rain jacket Shop rain jacket on Amazon →
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Language, visa and entry
! Check visa requirements before you fly
Greek uses its own alphabet — twenty-four letters — transliterated on the signs that matter. An afternoon learning the script pays off on menus, buses and shop signs; English runs everywhere a visitor needs it.
Four phrases cover most of a first trip: the greeting, the thanks, the price question, and parakalo — please and you're welcome in one. Attempts land well.
YasashelloEfharistothank youPoso kanihow muchParakaloplease / you're welcome
Greece is in Schengen: visa-exempt nationalities — the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and most of Latin America — get 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole zone, the clock on the zone, not Greece. Others apply for a Schengen visa. Your passport must be under ten years from issue, valid at least three months beyond your Schengen exit.
The EU's Entry/Exit System — fingerprint and facial-image registration replacing passport stamps for non-EU short-stay travellers — is fully operational: expect registration on your first Schengen crossing. ETIAS is not in operation: as of October 2026 the EU has named no new launch date, and no application can or needs to be made. When it launches — 2027 is the working expectation — it will cost €20, last three years, and live only at travel-europe.europa.eu. Any site selling an ETIAS approval today is a fraud; Frontex has counted more than a hundred.
Safety and health
Pickpockets work the metro and the X95
The airport metro, the X95 and the crowded interchanges at Syntagma, Monastiraki and Omonia are the hunting ground: a crush at the doors. Wallet in a front or zipped pocket, bag held in front.
Taxi money: fixed fare or the meter runs
From the airport, the central-ring fare is a legal flat rate — €40 by day, €55 in the small hours; everything else is metered, the night tariff after midnight. The games are the broken meter, the scenic route, the invented flat price: answer: the official rank, the meter, or FREE NOW and Uber.
The sun is a site hazard, not a backdrop
An exposed, shadeless rock; in heatwaves the site has shut at midday. Take the 08:00 slot, a full bottle of tap water and a hat; hold the museum for 12:00 to 16:00. Heat exhaustion is the queue's common medical story.
Demonstrations gather at Syntagma — and are announced
They centre on Parliament and the university streets: regular, announced in advance, mostly peaceful. The metro may close Syntagma and Panepistimio stations — a closed station is information, not danger.
Hospitals, pharmacies and insurance
Public hospitals handle emergencies around the clock; 112 operators direct you. Pharmacies — the green cross — keep late hours on a rota, minor problems over the counter. Bring travel insurance; prescriptions in original packaging.
Related destinations
If you liked Athens, try these next:
Frequently asked questions
The facts that matter after you land in Athens.
Verified against Athens International Airport, OASA, Hellenic Heritage and the Greek finance ministry fee schedule, October 2026.
Metro Line 3 runs from the airport to Syntagma in about 40 minutes for €9, every half hour or so from about 06:30 to 23:30. The X95 bus to Syntagma costs €5.50 and runs 24 hours a day, taking 45 to 70 minutes by traffic.
A taxi from the rank is a flat fare to the centre ring: €40 by day and €55 between midnight and 05:00, with tolls and luggage included. A rise has been announced but was not in force at the last check — the rank board governs.
Entry is €30 year-round and runs on timed slots with a daily visitor cap — book the slot ahead, especially April to October, and take an early one for the cool and the quiet. The ticket no longer bundles the other sites.
The Acropolis Museum is a separate €20 and keeps Friday evenings until 22:00; the Ancient Agora and the Temple of Olympian Zeus are €20 each. Free-entry days include 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, 28 October and the first Sundays from November to March.
The Climate Crisis Resilience Fee, charged per room per night and usually paid at the hotel. From April to October it runs €2 for 1–2 star hotels, €5 for 3-star, €10 for 4-star and €15 for 5-star, with short-term rentals at €8.
From November to March it drops to €0.50, €1.50, €3 and €4 by the same ladder, and €2 for rentals. It replaced the old accommodation tax, so you should never see both.
Not yet. ETIAS is not in operation — its launch window was removed in 2026 and no new date is set — so there is nothing to apply for, and any site selling an application today is a fake to avoid.
What IS live is the EU Entry/Exit System: on a first entry your photo and fingerprints are registered at the border, which makes the first crossing slower. The Schengen 90-days-in-180 rule for visa-free visitors is unchanged.
A 90-minute integrated ticket costs €1.20 and a 24-hour pass €4.10 across metro, bus, tram and trolleybus. Tap2Ride contactless charges per ride and caps itself at €4.10 a day automatically.
The 3-day tourist ticket at €20 adds one airport round trip by metro or bus. Children under 6 ride free, and the airport metro fare is separate from city tickets at €9.
Yes — it is the classic Athens day trip. KTEL buses leave the Liosion terminal (Terminal B) for Delphi in about 3 hours at €15.10 each way, and the combined site and museum ticket is €20, dropping to €10 from November to March.
Take the earliest bus you can: the site climbs the slope in full sun, the museum deserves an hour of what is left, and the last buses back bunch up in the afternoon. Guided day tours run the same trip with pickups if you would rather not work the terminal.
Tap water in Athens is safe to drink; plugs are Type C and F at 230V; emergency 112, tourist police 171, police 100, ambulance 166, fire 199.
Athens, Saved for After You Land
Landing soon? Get the printable PDF — the essentials from this guide, formatted for your phone:
- The airport transport cheat sheet, with ticket links
- Our 3 restaurant picks, with maps
- The packing checklist
One email with your Athens PDF (guide version: Oct 2026). Fare changes and new guides after that. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Sources and last verified
Fares checked against Athens International Airport's transport pages; metro, bus and ticket prices against OASA and the ATH.ENA fare list; site prices, hours and closing days against the Hellenic Heritage e-ticket platform and the sites' official pages, and museum details against the Acropolis Museum; the Climate Crisis Resilience Fee schedule against the finance ministry rates for 2025 and 2026; Delphi and Sounion logistics against KTEL Fokidas and KTEL Attikis; ferries against Hellenic Seaways and Alpha Lines; entry systems against the EU's official travel portal, travel-europe.europa.eu; and hotels against the properties' own pages. Photo credit: the Temple of Poseidon image at Cape Sounion is by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; all other photos are from Pexels. Last verified October 2026.
Affiliate disclosure: hotel names, transfers, experiences, and products linked in this guide may earn After You Land a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices and times were checked in Oct 2026 and change often — confirm before you book.