I know, just one day is definitely not enough for this amazing city which birthed democracy and Western Civilization, but here is my idea for what to do if you only have one day to spend there. To be honest, we didn’t even have a full day to spend in Athens. Landed at about 3 pm, explored the city afterwards and had our flight for Santorini next day at 7 am.

How to get from the airport to the city center?

The cheapest option is to take the bus, for Syntagma Square you should take the Bus X95. A one-way trip is 6 Euros per person, and if you are a student in the EU, you can get it for only 3 Euros.

Accommodation

I recommend Tempi Hotel, fantastic location in Syntagma Square, close to the main attractions and in a place with many restaurants around, very cheap (cheapest I could find for this location), plus very friendly staff. And it is located at 10 minutes walk from the bus station.

What to do?

After we checked in at the hotel, we walked to the Acropolis Hill. Acropolis of Athens closes at 8 pm and we arrived at around 6 pm, just in time to have a pleasant visit. It was not very crowded at that time. The basic entrance ticket costs 20 Euros per adult, and students in the EU have free entrance, yay for student benefits 🙂 (if you are in this category, don’t forget to bring your student id in order to prove it).

After visiting the Acropolis, we stayed around in order to catch the beautiful sunset from above, with a beautiful view over Athens. Watching the sunset from the Acropolis is definitely a thing I recommend doing when you visit Athens. If you want to have a great view of the Acropolis for sunset, then I heard Philopappos Hill is a great place!

Then have dinner in Syntagma Square! The atmosphere there is so lively and energetic even after 10 pm. There are many tavernas to choose from, we tried a place called Thanasis, the food was so good and the service so prompt.

That’s it, one day (or actually a few hours) was actually not enough, but we managed to enjoy our first time in Athens with these activities. Have you ever been to Athens?

Efharisto (Thank you in Greek) for reading!