The Acropolis is the easy part.
One hill, one morning, done. It is everything after it — which Delphi coach, whether Meteora fits in a day, how to reach a beach without a car — where a first Athens trip goes wrong. Every tour, rated and priced.
The Acropolis question: ticket, guide, or the whole hill?
All Acropolis tours →The rock is one climb and three completely different mornings. A gate ticket gets you up there; a guide tells you which columns went back up in the last thirty years; the combo pass keeps working all week at the Agora, Kerameikos and the Olympieion. Prices, timings and what each actually includes.
Walk up on your own, early
Gates open at eight and the marble is still cool. Take the south slope past the Theatre of Dionysus, come down through the Areopagus, be off the hill before the coaches unload.
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The hill, explained in two hours
The Parthenon reads as rubble without someone to point out the Erechtheion’s Caryatids, the bite the Venetians blew out of it in 1687, and how much of what you are looking at was re-erected in living memory.
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Marbles first, or context first
The Acropolis Museum sits at the foot of the rock with its top floor turned to face the Parthenon and a glass floor over the excavated neighbourhood. Doing both in one go is the only way the frieze makes sense.
See all 68 →The tours that fill up before the Acropolis opens.
Every review →More travellers take these than anything else in the city — the combo passes, the coast at sunset, the food walks through Psyrri.
1
Acropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo Pass
Fixed-slot Acropolis entry plus up to five more ruins, with audio guides and Smartvisit tickets for a smooth Athens visit.
From · $42
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Acropolis, Parthenon & Acropolis Museum Guided Tour
from $40
3
The Acropolis, Parthenon & Acropolis Museum Guided Tour
from $40
4
Cape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day Trip
from $23
5
Acropolis: Premium Acropolis and Parthenon Guided Tour
from $40
6
Mythology of Delphi, Museum and Arachova Guided Tour
from $30
7
All Day Cruise -3 Islands to Agistri,Moni, Aegina with lunch and drinks included
from $180.19
Attica, in the six days people actually book.
The rock, the coast road to Poseidon’s temple, the oracle at Delphi, the monasteries on their pillars, the plates of Psyrri and the ferry out to Hydra. Six ways to fill six days, and the best booking for each.
Half of ancient Greece is a day trip from Athens.
Every day trip out of Athens →Distance is the whole story here. Sounion is an easy afternoon; Meteora is nine hours in a seat for four hours on the rocks. Pick by how long you are willing to sit.
Cape Sounion
Ancient Corinth
Nafplio
Ancient Olympia
MeteoraAthens saves its best hour for Cape Sounion.
An hour and a half down the coast road, fifteen Doric columns stand on a headland with the Aegean on three sides. Byron cut his name into one of them. Trips are timed so the sun drops behind the temple; nobody talks much on the way back.
In Athens the souvlaki queue is the restaurant review.
Breakfast is a koulouri from a street cart. Lunch is whatever the mezedopoleio cooked that morning. Dinner starts at ten. The good food walks work the Varvakios market halls and the tavernas of Psyrri, and they feed you far too much.
From a street koulouri to a private car to Delphi.
Every tour on the site, sorted by what it costs. Athens is one of the cheapest capitals in Europe to have a very good day in.
Entry tickets, audio walks, street-food crawls and the hop-on bus — a full Athens day for the price of a taverna lunch.
The working middle: guided Acropolis mornings, Sounion sunsets, cooking classes, the Saronic island cruise with lunch aboard.
Private guides, a car and driver to Delphi or Meteora, catamaran days off the Riviera, the two-day classical circuits.
Three things you can only do from Athens.
Ruins are everywhere in the Mediterranean. An oracle you can walk into, a sunset temple on a cliff edge, and three islands before dinner belong to this city.
The Rock Before the Coaches
The Acropolis opens at eight and for about ninety minutes it belongs to whoever got up. Come through the Propylaea with the sun still low and the Pentelic marble goes the colour of honey. By eleven in summer the rock is a griddle and the queue at the booth is forty minutes long, which is the whole argument for a timed entry.
- 1Acropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo Pass★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 13,904 reviews
- 2Acropolis, Parthenon & Acropolis Museum Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 9,316 reviews
- 3The Acropolis, Parthenon & Acropolis Museum Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 8,493 reviews
Byron’s Temple at Sunset
Cape Sounion is the last piece of Attica before open sea, and the Temple of Poseidon has stood on the cliff since the 440s BC. Sailors used it as a landmark; Byron carved his name into the stone in 1810 and started a habit the guards now spend their days preventing. Everything here runs to the sunset clock.
- 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
Out of Piraeus by Nine
The Saronic Gulf puts Hydra, Poros and Aegina inside a single day of the city. Hydra has no cars at all — mules carry the luggage up from the harbour. Aegina grows the pistachios and keeps the Temple of Aphaia on its pine ridge. The boats leave in the morning and have you back for dinner.
- 1All Day Cruise -3 Islands to Agistri,Moni, Aegina with lunch and drinks included★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,958 reviews
- 2Hydra, Poros, and Aegina Day Cruise with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 4,305 reviews
- 3Athens cruise: Agistri, Moni/Metopi, Aegina with lunch & drinks★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,783 reviews
When Athens hits 40°C, go marble-cool and go late.
July and August routinely push past 38°C, and the Acropolis has shut its gates through the worst afternoon hours in recent heatwaves. The city has an answer for every one of those hours: air-conditioned galleries full of what was dug out of the ground outside, a kitchen with a glass of wine in it, and a boat that has you in the water by noon.
Book these before you land in Athens.
Most of the city can be arranged from your hotel the night before. These cannot: they run on timed entry slots, on how many seats a coach has, and on a sailing timetable that does not care when you arrive.
- 01Acropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo PassOne ticket covers the Acropolis and the ancient sites around it, and it runs on timed entry — the cool early slots go first.
- 02Meteora Monasteries Day Trip with Caves and LunchNine hours of travel for four on the rocks. It goes as one departure a day, and the seats are gone well ahead in summer.
- 03Cape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day TripThe sunset run is the only one that matters and there is exactly one of it per day, re-timed as the season moves.
- 04Hydra, Poros, and Aegina Day Cruise with LunchOne boat, one morning departure from the port. Miss it and the next one is tomorrow.
By place — the hill, the coast, the road out
The Acropolis277 tours
The Acropolis Museum68 tours
The Ancient Agora19 tours
The Athens Riviera56 tours
Cape Sounion138 tours
The Saronic Islands53 tours
Delphi144 tours
Meteora108 tours
Nafplio & the Argolid82 tours- Every Athens list →
By day — what kind of day is it?
Latest Athens tour reviews.
All recent →
Delphi: Private Day Tour from Athens with Luxurious Vehicle
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Athens center-Athens airport (Athens airport -Athens center)
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Cruise-Friendly Athens Tour including Acropolis Museum
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Full day cruise Aigina|Moni|Agkistri with traditional Greek feast
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Visit Acropolis Parthenon & Private Luxury Sunset PoseidonTemple
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Athens airport private transfer to Athens city and Vice Versa 06:30am-10:30pm)
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Delphi from Athens Round Trip Private Transfer
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Carve your Name/logo Stamp Workshop in special stone
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Private Catamaran Cruise w/ BBQ, Open Bar & Transfer
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Acropolis with Museum, Guided Tour & Greek Lunch
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