The rock takes a morning. Athens takes longer.
Which Acropolis ticket actually skips the queue. Whether Delphi or Meteora is the better single day out. What a table in the Varvakios market lanes costs. Reviews of every tour you can book from Athens.
The rock, the sunset cape, the Saronic boat, the monasteries.
Four bookings an Athens week is built around. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The first morningAcropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo PassOne pass covers the rock plus the Agora, Hadrian’s Library and Kerameikos. Take the earliest slot, before the marble starts throwing heat back at you.
02The late afternoonCape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day TripAn hour down the coast road to Cape Sounion, timed so the Temple of Poseidon is standing in the last of the light when you arrive.
03The day at seaHydra, Poros, and Aegina Day Cruise with LunchHydra, Poros and Aegina in one run out of the Saronic Gulf. Lunch on board, a swim off the back, and Hydra with no cars on it.
04The long day outMeteora Monasteries Day Trip with Caves and LunchMonasteries on sandstone pillars, four hours north. The one trip worth giving up a whole Athens day for.
Three ways up the rock, and the one you probably want.
Entry is timed and capped, so the choice is made before you leave the hotel. A plain ticket, a guide who reads the pediments for you, or the pass that adds five more sites for a few dollars more.
What Athens actually sells out of.
Every review on the site →The tours more travellers take than anything else in the city, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Acropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo Pass
Visit the Acropolis at a reserved time, then explore five major Athens sites with audio tours, flexible entry, and 500 MB mobile data.
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 is a base as much as a city. Pick what today is for.
The rock and the museum under it, the coast road to Poseidon’s temple, the oracle at Delphi, monasteries in the air at Meteora, three islands on one boat, and the food streets nobody photographs. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
The five day trips Athens is a base for.
A coach leaves Syntagma before the traffic and puts you at an oracle, a lion gate or a monastery in the air by mid-morning. These are the ones worth the early alarm.
Three things that only happen within reach of Athens.
Ruins and coastlines exist all round the Mediterranean. An oracle’s terrace under Parnassus, a marble stadium still in use, and a temple set on a headland for the exact hour the sun drops into the Saronic do not.
The Oracle at Delphi
Greeks held that Zeus released two eagles from opposite ends of the earth and they met here, on a shelf of Mount Parnassus above the Gulf of Corinth. Kings and colonists came for a priestess’s answer before they did anything that mattered. The Sacred Way still climbs past the treasuries they built to say thank you, and the museum at the bottom holds the bronze charioteer who has been standing there since 470 BC.
- 1Mythology of Delphi, Museum and Arachova Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 4,008 reviews
- 2Delphi Full Day V.R. Audio Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 3,028 reviews
- 3Small-Group Delphi, Museum & Arachova Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,476 reviews
The Temple of Poseidon
Sounion is the last thing sailors saw leaving Attica and the first thing they saw coming home, which is why the temple sits where it does rather than anywhere sheltered. Fifteen Doric columns are still up. Byron cut his name into one of them, and everybody has been doing the modern equivalent since. Go for the last hour of daylight; the coach timetables are built around it.
- 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 Meteora Monasteries
Six monasteries stand on sandstone pillars above the Thessalian plain, reached now by steps cut into the rock and once by rope nets. Monks went up in the fourteenth century for the quiet and the safety and hauled everything else up behind them. Each house closes on a different day of the week, so the order you see them in is not really yours to choose.
- 1Meteora Monasteries Day Trip with Caves and Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,964 reviews
- 2Meteora Monasteries Day Tour with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,196 reviews
- 3Meteora Tour with Local Guide and Greek Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,561 reviews
What a day out of Athens actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A good number of the best Athenian days come in under the price of dinner in Plaka.
Site entries, Plaka and Anafiotika walks, the coast run to Sounion and the cheaper Delphi coaches.
The full-day standards: Meteora, the Argolis loop, the Saronic three-island boat and the long food walks.
Private guides with a car, chartered sailing days off the Athenian Riviera, and the overnight runs north.
Four Athens bookings that will not wait.
Most of this city can be arranged the night before over a carafe. These four run on entry caps, coach timetables and monastery calendars that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Acropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo PassEntry runs on timed slots with a cap on each one. The early morning slots, the only cool ones, go first.
- 02Meteora Monasteries Day Trip with Caves and LunchEach monastery keeps its own closed day, and it is a four-hour run each way. Turn up on the wrong day and you are looking at it from the road.
- 03Mythology of Delphi, Museum and Arachova Guided TourOne coach a morning on most operators, and it leaves central Athens before seven. There is no later option that still gets you round the site.
- 04Cape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day TripThe whole point is the sun going down behind the columns, so the departure time is the product. Sunset runs fill first in summer.
Athens eats at ten, and mostly standing up.
The meat halls of Varvakios before the heat, a bakery run through Psyri, a class that ends as lunch, and the cellars pouring Nemea reds and Attic retsina by the glass. Half of this city happens at a table with too many plates on it.
When the marble is too hot to stand on, go underground or indoors.
July and August do two things to this city. Any open archaeological site is unbearable from about eleven, and the northerly meltemi can put the Saronic boats back on the quay at short notice. Both have the same answer: climb early, then get under a roof. Cool galleries, market halls, a kitchen, a cellar and a long lunch.
By place — the city and the belt around it
By kind of day — ruin, boat, kitchen or road
How most people spend a first week with Athens as the base.
Psyri & the market
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