On your first visit to Athens you will quite rightly want to prioritise the Acropolis and its temples. But once you have ticked off the big one, what else should you see? The happy answer is… Rather a lot, and most of it sits within a short walk of the centre. Here are the places we would not miss.
In short, the sights beyond the Acropolis cluster tightly around the middle of the city, most within a 10 to 15 minute walk of Syntagma Square, so you can pack a lot into a day or two on foot.
Syntagma Square is a shady, tree-lined square with a fountain at its heart, and it quickly became our anchor point for exploring in every direction. It has a metro station for easy connections and sits within an easy stroll of almost everything else on this list.
On the upper side of the square stands the Greek Parliament building, once a royal palace and now the seat of Greek democracy. Set into its front wall is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, guarded day and night by the Evzones, the presidential guard. You cannot miss them in their striking uniform of kilt, white stockings and clogs topped with big pompoms, all rather warm-looking in 33-degree heat.
There is a changing of the guard ceremony every hour on the hour, with a larger, more elaborate version at 11am on Sundays. The way the guards move is unforgettable, lifting their legs to 90 degrees and stamping down hard, which is said to let the dead know that the Greek nation is still alive and free.
Just behind Parliament are the National Gardens, a cool, green oasis and the perfect place to escape the sun. You can even walk through them from Syntagma to the Panathenaic Stadium, which brings us neatly to how everything joins up.
One of the loveliest surprises about Athens is how walkable the centre is. The sights most people want to see are strung close together, so you rarely need transport once you are in the middle of the city. Here are the approximate walking times between the main spots (times are much the same in either direction).
| From | To | Approx. walking time |
|---|---|---|
| Syntagma Square | Monastiraki Square | 10 minutes (along Ermou Street, about 700m) |
| Syntagma Square | Panathenaic Stadium | 13 minutes (through the National Gardens) |
| Syntagma Square | Acropolis entrance | 15 to 20 minutes (via Plaka) |
| Monastiraki Square | Acropolis entrance | 10 minutes |
| Acropolis Museum | Arch of Hadrian | 5 minutes |
| Arch of Hadrian | Panathenaic Stadium | 10 minutes |
A good tip is to string these together into one loop. We wandered from Syntagma down Ermou Street to Monastiraki, looped round to the Arch of Hadrian and the Temple of Olympian Zeus, then on to the Panathenaic Stadium, using the National Gardens as a shortcut and a shady breather along the way.
It takes only about 10 minutes to walk from Syntagma to Monastiraki Square along Ermou Street, the most famous shopping street in Athens. Halfway down you will pass the little Byzantine church of Panagia Kapnikarea, built around 1050. It is so cherished that when the road was laid, they simply built around it, so the church now sits marooned in the middle of the street.
Monastiraki Square itself packs a lot of Greek history into one spot: a 10th-century church and sunken monastery that gives the area its name, an Ottoman-era mosque now used as a museum, the remains of Hadrian’s Library, and always, looming above, a view up to the Acropolis. There is a lively flea market here every Sunday, and the Ancient Roman Agora is right next door.
By night, the district comes alive, and this is where we had one of the highlights of our whole trip. We booked a Greek street food tasting tour through Get Your Guide, which wound through the buzzing streets of Psyrri and Monastiraki, stopping to sample:
Spanakopita: Filo pastry pies filled with spinach, cheese and egg, or feta.
Peinirli: Little boat-shaped pizzas, a recipe brought over by Greeks who fled Turkey in 1922..
Souvlaki: Chicken skewers served with salad and chips in warm flatbread.
Loukoumades: Greek doughnut balls, traditionally drizzled with honey and cinnamon, though the pistachio ones we tried were the star..
The tour also led us down an alley called Little Kook to the Snow White Cafe, which has to be seen to be believed, the whole street decked out in neon and staff in costume. One word of caution from our guide, who kept reminding us to watch our bags and pockets in the busy stretches around Monastiraki. Good to know.
*Note: If you or anyone in your party suffers with a nut or sesame allergy, we have free downloadable allergy cards in Greek available.
Just five minutes’ walk from the Acropolis Museum stands the Arch of Hadrian, built in 131 to 132 AD to mark the boundary between the old city and the new Athens of the Roman emperor Hadrian. It is free to visit, photogenic in its own right, and frames a lovely view through to the Acropolis.
Right beside it are the remains of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, once the largest temple in Greece, even bigger than the Parthenon. Each Corinthian column stood 17 metres high, though only 15 of the original 104 survive today. It took over 600 years to complete and far less time to fall into ruin, but even a handful of columns gives you a sense of its colossal scale. Half an hour and a few euros is all you need here.
Ten minutes further along the road brings you to the Panathenaic Stadium, the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble. It sits on the site of an ancient stadium and was rebuilt for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. It is vast, 204 metres long, and once held 60,000 spectators.
We would recommend picking up the audio guide at the entrance, as it brings the history to life as you explore. There is a small museum tucked up a tunnel at the back, and good photo opportunities at the Olympic rings and on the winners’ podiums. Do check the website before you go, as the track is sometimes closed for events.
For the best views in the city, head up Lycabettus Hill, the highest point in central Athens at 227 metres. You can either take the funicular, which whisks you up through the inside of the hill in a couple of minutes, or tackle the 45-minute walk up the winding footpaths if you are feeling energetic (we were not).
At the top you will find the pretty little Church of Agios Georgios (St George) and a terrace where locals and visitors gather to watch the sun set over the whole sprawl of Athens, all the way to the sea.
If you want a meal with that view, Restaurant Orizontes is the place. Weather permitting, ask for the terrace, where white-clothed tables look out over the city below. It is popular, so book as early as you can. We ate there serenaded by cicadas as the sun went down, and it was one of those evenings you remember.
Just down the hill is the Lycabettus Theatre, an open-air amphitheatre that hosts a summer concert series. We were lucky enough to catch James, one of our favourite UK bands, playing under the stars, a real treat on our wedding anniversary.
You will of course want to see the Acropolis itself, and it deserves proper planning of its own, from which entrance to use to whether the museum is worth doing first. Rather than repeat it all here, we have written a full guide to the best way to visit the Acropolis, so head there for the how, when and in what order.
In closing
The real joy of Athens is how much of this you can see on foot in a short time. With everything clustered so close together, a well-planned day or two lets you take in Syntagma, Monastiraki, the Roman sights, the stadium and a Lycabettus sunset without ever feeling rushed. If you are pulling together the practical side of your trip, our first timer's guide to Athens covers when to visit, where to stay and how to get around.
We barely scratched the surface and are already itching to go back. And honestly, those pistachio loukoumades alone are worth the return trip.
Yamas!
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