Travel Greece: Athens

If you’re considering travel to Athens, Greece this summer, here are some tips and information to help you plan and make your trip easier.

We traveled to Greece for our 25th wedding anniversary in May 2015, and we took our 20-something children.  Four-member families, especially with older teenagers, is not considered ‘normal’ by European hotel standards. In general, hotel rooms are not made for families, but there are ways around this.

We booked the Crown Plaza for about 120 Euros per night for three nights. Our room was on the Concierge floor and included evening snacks and drinks. We had a large double room with a spacious bathroom, and the location was good, too.

Crown Plaza. Double Room. Athens, Greece.

Concierge floor at the Crown Plaza in Athens, Greece.

First, I’ll start with our flights. We traveled to NY from San Diego for a couple of days and to pick up our daughter from college at NYU so we could all be together for the trans-Atlantic flight. The SD-NY leg of our trip was covered by our miles except for one ticket. So we saved quite a bit doing this.

Our European jaunt started in Ireland, but I will detail this in a separate post. We booked our flights online with Olympic Airways. Remember to switch to English on the Home page of the site, otherwise it’s all Greek to you! Also, pay attention to baggage fees and check-in options — you may have to pay extra if you don’t check in online or pre-pay for your bag online, too.

There was only one direct from Dublin to Athens a day, and the flight left at 4pm. The 3-hour flight plus the time change put us in Athens at 10pm — quite late. The airport is about 45 minutes from the city, and it was the most harrowing cab drive we’ve ever had! The driver blasted the radio and drove over 85 miles at some points. It was scary, actually.

Once at the hotel, we had dinner there and rested up so we’d be ready for the next day. Since my husband and I had been to Athens before, we opted for an unstructured itinerary and did what we always do when we first arrive in a new city: Take a Hop-on-Hop-off double decker bus tour! I highly recommend doing this in each city you visit — especially with kids. You get a headset and the tour is narrated in several languages as you go around the city. So easy.

DAY 1 – Athens, Acropolis, Parthenon, and Museum.

Syntagma Square. Athens, Greece.

We went to Syntagma Square, the main square in Athens, and caught a two-day Hop-on-Hop-off double decker bus tour from here. I can’t recommend doing this enough! It’s the easiest and cheapest way to get around the whole city (and avoid those cabs!).

Athens, Greece Guard at Palace. Syntagma Square. Photo S. Valle

We hopped off at Hadrian’s Library, Monasteraki flee market, and the Agora Market. We also bought a booklet with discounted tickets to the major sights around the city. Make sure you buy it BEFORE entering the first site — they usually sell the booklets right outside the sites.

Monasteraki Flee Market, Athens, Greece

Hadrian’s Library. Athens, Greece.

Hadrian’s Library

Agora Market

Walking through the ancient ruins really took our breath away!

Our circuit included the Acropolis and the Parthenon, which is a long walk uphill from the Agora, but we did it! Make sure to have plenty of water if you go in the summer. It is hot!

Walking around the Acropolis and seeing the Parthenon was amazing. But witnessing how this world treasure has continued to deteriorate over the years was surprising. For our kids, however, being here made all their history lessons come alive!

Acropolis and Parthenon. Athens, Greece.

Acropolis and Parthenon. Athens, Greece.

At the base of the Acropolis you’ll find refuge in the new and modern Acropolis Museum. The original Caryatid and friezes from the Parthenon are now housed here to conserve them.

Caryatid, Acropolis Museum

Parthenon Frieze, Acropolis Museum

Students get a discount to the museum so make sure they have their IDs. We had a long (and cool) lunch there, followed by a delicious Greek Yogurt Cheesecake and coffee.

Coffee and Greek Yogurt Cheesecake break at the Acropolis Museum

DAY 2 – Piraeus Port, Athens National Archeological Museum, and Shopping

After the first full day of walking and visiting museums, we decided to go a little lighter the next day.

We took the tour bus to Piraeus port, and had a long and relaxing lunch in a very nice area of Pireaus.

Lunch at Pireaus Port. Athens, Greece

Did you know that an authentic Greek salad doesn’t have any lettuce? Now you know!

Authentic Greek salad

One of the stops on tour was Athens’ National Archeological Museum. The incredible collection of ancient artifacts dating practically to the beginning of civilization is worth seeing.

Athens National Archeological Museum

We took the bus back to Syntagma Square to do some shopping on the very fashionable side streets. Shoes are the thing to get here. So many shoe stores! Everyone speaks English, and if they don’t try another language. We all speak Spanish so we found many people to communicate with in either language.

Know Before You Go

• You can use your ATM card at machines all over Europe. Check with your bank about Foreign Transaction fees. These are usually lower than getting Euros from Exchange Kiosks (we never do this!) and you get a better rate. TIP: You must have a four digit PIN for your USA ATM card to work in European ATMs.
• Get some Euros at your bank before leaving the USA, about 150, just enough to get you to your hotel and the nearest ATM — the fee for this could be high and the rate a little punishing.
• Wi-Fi is widely available so you don’t need a special plan or any type of expensive service. However, you can buy a pre-paid SIM card, and swap it out on your phone while you’re abroad. Careful not to loose your American SIM card or you won’t have any service when you get back to the States!
• Take an extra phone battery charger, a transformer, and adapters for different electrical currents and plugs. the variation in currents can damage laptops, phones, tablets, and hair dryers.
• Let your credit card companies know you’ll be traveling so you avoid having a transaction rejected.
• Pay for as many things as you can with your credit card. You’ll get a better rate and safeguard against lose or theft. Check with your credit card company about this before you go. We take three cards: Amex, Visa, and a MasterCard. We LOVE Amex, it’s by far the best rate and global service you can get, but it’s not accepted everywhere because merchants don’t like the higher fee they have to pay for transactions.
• Make copies of all of your passports, credit cards, and travel and put them in a separate place while traveling. This will really help you in case they get lost or stolen.
• Pack your own OTC and prescriptions medications.

The Euro rate when we were there was 1.07, so things didn’t seem crazy expensive. We were also in Athens only a few months before total political chaos broke loose. We didn’t encounter much pick pocketing or unsafe conditions — except for those pesky cab drivers. Uber wasn’t available when we were there in 2015, either.

You really don’t need more than a couple of days to see the most important sites in Athens. We managed to see a lot more than we thought we could because those big red buses make it so easy and convenient!

Our next stop is Santorini! Check back for this post coming soon.