Athens and the Acropolis
We participate in affiliate marketing programs, including Amazon’s. As a member of these programs, we may earn a small commission at no cost to you. Our full advertising disclosure is available here.
After an incredible experience visiting Zakynthos and Shipwreck Beach, we boarded a flight with Aegean Airlines and excitedly made our way to Athens. Athens is a central air travel hub in Europe, and certainly a central hub in Greece. Unsurpringly, the airport was bustling!
When we arrived at the Athens airport, we grabbed a taxi and headed to our hotel, Athens Status Suites. We found a great price on Expedia and chose this hotel because it was conveniently located nearish the Plaka neighborhood. We checked in, dropped off our luggage in our room, and headed directly out to explore the ancient city on foot.
The Plaka neighborhood is built on top of the residential areas of the ancient town of Athens, and is known as the "Neighborhood of the Gods" due to its proximity to the Acropolis.
The city of Athens is incredible. The amazing juxtaposition of ancient ruins and modern architecture was striking. While this might sound a lot like a description of Rome, the two cities are very different. They feel different. They flow differently. They just have very different souls. We’d dreamed of seeing Athens since we carted around history textbooks with the famous images of the Parthenon on the cover.
The Acropolis was one of the deciding factors for our choice of hotel — there’s an incredible view from the roof-top bar. None of this was in the forefront of our minds, however, when we looked up shortly into our stroll through the ancient streets of Athens, and caught a glimpse of the Acropolis for the first time.
The Colonnade of the North porch of the Erechtheion is visible from the streets of the Plaka in Athens.
The Acropolis itself is perched on a plateau that overlooks the city below. This means that many buildings have rooftop views of the Acropolis, so keep that in mind while you’re looking at restaurants or accommodations. To see the Acropolis (including the Parthenon), you have one option that we’re aware of — hoofing it to the top. The trek is somewhere between a walk and a hike, and it’s naturally uphill on your way there. While this sounds like a silly thing to point out, some of the walking surfaces can be very slippery even when dry, and slippery uphill surfaces can be a bit challenging, so we recommend bringing a comfortable pair of rubber-soled flat shoes.
One you reach the top of the hill, there’s a ticket sale office at the entrance to the Acropolis. We purchased our tickets and headed up to the Parthenon. As a Washington D.C. native, Shannon couldn’t help but notice the influence that the ancient Greek architecture had on the neoclassical structures in our nation’s capital. The ruins are remarkable. It’s humbling to stand in the presence of a structure that was already almost 400 years old when Julius Caesar was assassinated. If you’re looking for a travel book to help you with a self-guided tour, we personally love the DK Eyewitness series. We personally brought our copy of Eyewitness: Greece, Athens and the Mainland to brush up on some of the history, but they also have some great “Top 10” pocket guides (including Top 10 Athens).
We read ahead of time that the Acropolis can get fairly crowded, and that it is less busy in the morning. This is definitely accurate, as huge crowds passed us while we were on our way back down to the Plaka. The journey up an down is also fun, and filled with ancient ruins and sites where ancient ruins once stood. By the time we got back down to the Plaka neighborhood, we were hungry and in search of an authentic gyro.
On our first day in Athens, we tried the gyros at the famous O Thanasis. If you’re looking for a place to sit down, relax, and people watch, then this might be a great option for you. This time, however, we were interested in something a bit quicker, and we found little gyro takeout window on the backside of the same building called Bairaktaris Taverna. Literally keep walking past O Thanasis’ outdoor seating and hang a right at the end of the building row (at the corner of Mitropoleos and Pl. Monastirakiou) — it’s there, and it’s fantastic. These gyros were €3, and worth every penny! We sat on a curb nearby to enjoy before heading out to explore the city for the rest of the day.
A quick note on hospitality and pharmacies in Athens (and Greece in general). We found the Greek people that we encountered to very kind and hospitable. Shannon came down with a pretty nasty cold and cough while we were staying in Athens. When we asked the attendant at the front desk of our hotel where the pharmacy was located, he immediately pulled out a box filled with a variety of medications to see if he could help. It’s the best-stocked first aid kit we’ve ever seen when traveling, and he offered everything for free. When he unfortunately didn’t have what Shannon needed, he directed her to the nearest pharmacy, which was in Monastiraki, a nearby artistic neighborhood in Athens.
For those who are from the US and haven’t traveled abroad much, pharmacies in other countries can operate very differently. For example, the pharmacists (or “chemists,” as they are often referred to abroad) are able to actually diagnose and prescribe medication directly at the counter. If you come down with anything from pink eye to a sinus infection while traveling, keep this in mind. They might be your best bet for quick relief, and they’re also typically surprisingly affordable.
The pharmacist quickly prescribed a cough suppressant and another cold medication, and we were off to enjoy our final night in Athens. Since Shannon was still feeling a bit under the weather, we decided to enjoy the illuminated view of the Acropolis from the rooftop bar at our hotel. This bar is open to the public, not just hotel guests, and serves mostly cocktails. If you’re looking for a less expensive way to enjoy the view, this is a great option.
We enjoyed our cocktails and met a few fellow travelers, including a woman from Canada who was on her twelfth trip to Greece. After so many visits, she was still in awe of the country, the people, and the views. As we chatted in the glowing light of the Acropolis nearby, we could certainly understand why. It’s a sight we will never forget.
We had an early flight scheduled to Santorini the next morning, so we headed back down to our room, packed up our luggage, and got some rest. Our front desk attendant called a taxi for us early the next morning, and we headed to the airport. We were excited to visit a place we had heard so much about, but we couldn’t help but feel a sense of sadness as we caught our last glances of the Acropolis on the way out of the city. Something tells us that we will be back someday.
View our other adventures in Greece:
Part 1: Zakynthos and Shipwreck Beach
Part 2: Athens and the Acropolis