Hi travelers,

In this article, we will try to give you the maximum of information about the city of Athens,we will also share with you our itinerary and our short passage in this historical city known by its famous Parthéon.

Do you want to visit Athens in one day? I can confirm that you can :), the majority of people who go through Athens they go just for a stopover to reach the Greek islands, it was also our case, we spent a day there before flying to Zakynthos Island (Don’t worry, we’ll give you more details about this mysterious island in a future article).

I admit that it was a little bit fast, but the important thing is that we visited the monuments and the most famous places of the city, If you have more time, I advise you to spend at least two days to better enjoy.

In this article we will discover:

TECHNICAL SHEET OF GREECE

• Capital: Athens
• Currency: Euro (€), 1 € = 11.1773 MAD / 1 € = 1.19423 USD
  
• Population: 10,768,477 (2017)
  
• Famous cities: Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Corfu
  
• Language: Greek, English (main foreign language)
  
• Climate: Greece is semi-arid, summers are hot and dry and winters are mild, the summer drought actually lasts from April to October. The months of July and August are the hottest and driest. Athens is a dry city.
  
• When to go ? :
  
  • correct period: April to October
    
  • favorable period: May to September
    
• Entry formalities: The Schengen visa is obligatory for non-Europeans.
  
• Major airports airports :
  • Athens (ATH)
    
  • Corfu (CFU, Ionian Islands)
    
  • Iraklio (HER, capital of Crete)
    
  • Kos (KGS, Dodecanese islands)
    
  • Thessalonike (SKG, second capital of Greece)
    
• Time difference: GMT + 02 in winter, GMT + 03 in summer

GET INTO ATHENS AND HOW TO MOVE ?

Reach Athens from the airport

The international airport “Eleftherios Venizelos” is located about 30 km by car from the center of Athens, to reach the city center, there are several ways, we have choosen the X95 bus because of its price, its punctuality and its availability.

• Join Athens by bus

The bus is the easiest way to reach Athens, all buses wait for travelers at the arrivals terminal between exits 4 and 5.

Basically, there are 4 buses that run 24/24, connecting the airport to the cities of Athens and Piraeus (Port of Athens), the trip takes between 40 and 60 minutes and one way costs 6 euros or 3 euros for young people <18 years old.

1. X95: Syntagma <-> Airport (the most used)
   
2. X93: Kifissos Bus Station <-> Airport
   
3. X96: Piraeus <-> Airport
   
4. X97: Dafni <-> Airport Underground Station

We took the X95 bus to Syntagma Square (terminus), one of the most famous squares in the center of Athens.

I will also put the schedules and the stops to avoid you waist of time (we struggled while looking for the stops especially with the Greek alphabet: D)

	Airport–> Syntagma	Syntagma –> Airport
Summer schedule (July to September)	00:10, 00:25, 00:40, 00:55, 01:10, 01:25, 01:40, 01:55, 02:10,   02:25, 02:40, 02:55, 03:10, 03:30, 03:50, 04:15, 04:40, 05:05,   05:25, 05:45, 06:00, 06:10, 06:22, 06:35, 06:45, 07:10, 07:20,   07:35, 07:45, 08:00, 08:10, 08:25, 08:40, 08:50, 09:00, 09:15,   09:30, 09:40, 09:55, 10:10, 10:25, 10:40, 10:55, 11:10, 11:20,   11:35, 11:45, 12:00, 12:15, 12:30, 12:45, 13:00, 13:15, 13:25, 13:40,   13:55, 14:10, 14:25, 14:35, 14:50, 15:05, 15:20, 15:35, 15:45, 16:00,   16:15, 16:30, 16:45, 17:00, 17:15, 17:30, 17:45 ,18:05, 18:20, 18:35,   18:50, 19:10, 19:25, 19:40, 19:5, 20:10, 20:25, 20:40, 20:55,   21:10,  21:25, 21:40, 21:55, 22:10, 22:30, 22:45, 23:00, 23:15,   23:30, 23:45, 23:55	00:10, 00:25, 00:40, 00:55, 01:10, 01:25, 01:40, 01:55, 02:10, 02:25, 02:40, 02:55,03:15, 03:40, 04:05, 04:25, 04:40, 04:55, 05:05, 05:20, 05:35, 05:45,06:00, 06:10, 06:25, 06:35, 06:50, 07:00, 07:15, 07:30, 07:40, 07:50, 08:05, 08:20, 08:30, 08:45,09:00, 09:15, 09:30, 09:45, 10:00, 10:10, 10:25, 10:35, 10:50, 11:05, 11:20, 11:35, 11:50,12:05, 12:15, 12:30, 12:45, 13:00, 13:15, 13:25, 13:40, 13:55, 14:10, 14:25, 14:35, 14:50,15:05, 15:20, 15:35, 15:50, 16:05, 16:20, 16:35, 16:55, 17:10, 17:25, 17:40,18:00, 18:15, 18:30, 18:45, 19:00, 19:15, 19:30, 19:45, 20:00, 20:15, 20:30, 20:45,21:00, 21:20, 21:35, 21:50, 22:05, 22:20, 22:35, 22:50, 23:05, 23:20, 23:35, 23:50
Winter schedule (October to June)	00:10, 00:25, 00:45, 01:00, 01:20, 01:40, 02:00, 02:20, 02:45,   03:10, 03:35, 04:05, 04:30, 04:55, 05:20, 05:45 ,06:00, 06:10,   06:25, 06:45, 07:00, 07:15, 07:30, 07:45, 08:00, 08:15, 08:30,   08:45, 09:05, 09:20, 09:35, 09:50, 10:10, 10:25, 10:40, 11:00,   11:20, 11:35, 11:45, 12:00, 12:30, 12:45, 13:05, 13:20, 13:40, 13:55,   14:15, 14:30, 14:50, 15:05, 15:25, 15:40, 16:00, 16:15, 16:35, 16:50,   17:10, 17:25, 17:45, 18:05, 18:25, 18:40, 18:55, 19:10, 19:25, 19:40,   19:55, 20:10, 20:25, 20:40, 20:55, 21:10, 21:30, 21:50, 22:10,   22:30, 22:50, 23:05, 23:20, 23:40, 23:55,	00:00, 00:20, 00:40, 01:00, 01:20, 01:45, 02:10, 02:35,03:05, 03:30, 03:55, 04:20, 04:40, 04:55, 05:10, 05:25, 05:40 05:55,06:05, 06:20, 06:35, 06:50, 07:05, 07:20, 07:35, 07:55, 08:10, 08:25, 08:40,09:00, 09:15, 09:30, 09:50, 10:10, 10:25, 10:45, 11:00, 11:20, 11:35, 11:55,12:10, 12:30, 12:45, 13:05, 13:20, 13:40, 13:55, 14:15, 14:30, 14:50,15:05, 15:25, 15:40, 16:00, 16:15, 16:35, 16:55, 17:15, 17:30, 17:45,18:00, 18:15, 18:30, 18:45, 19:00, 19:15, 19:30, 19:45, 20:00, 20:20, 20:40,21:00, 21:20, 21:40, 21:55, 22:15, 22:35, 22:50, 23:10, 23:25, 23:45
Bus stops :	AIRPORT – ARRIVALS LEVEL AIRPORT COMMERCIAL PARK ADMINISRATION BUILDING ATTIKES DIADROMES SEA GEFYRA PYRGOS PANAGITSA AGIA PARASKEVI NOMISMATOKOPIO 7th XOLARGU ETHNIKIS AMINAS ERRIKOS NTINAN KARANIKA AMPELOKIPON SQUARE MAVILI SQUARE ILISIA ΡΗΓΙΛΗΣ EVAGGELISMOS HOSPITAL RIGILIS SYNTAGMA SQUARE	SYNTAGMA SQUARE RIGILIS HILTON ILISIA MAVILI SQUARE GALAKSIAS ZAGORA SXOLI ASTINOMIAS ETHNIKIS AMINAS 7th XOLARGU NOMISMATOKOPIO AGIA PARASKEVI PANAGITSA PIRGOS SEA ATTIKES DIADROMES ADMINISTATION BUILDING CUSTOMS DEPARTURES LEVEL GATE 8 AIRPORT – ARRIVALS LEVEL

• Join Athens by Subway
  

Take the blue line (line 3) Airport – Douk. Plakentias – Aghia Marina, there is a subway every 30 min and one way costs 10 euros or 5 euros for <18 years.
There are also tickets for groups: 2 people 18 euros, 3 people 24 euros.
you can consult the timetables here.

• Join Athens by Taxi
  

The duration of the ride by taxi and around 30 minutes and costs between 38 and 50 euros.

Athens Public Transport

Since the 2004 Olympic Games, Athens has known a huge improvement in its public transport network, with new lines and new, air-conditioned, clean and spacious trains.
The network contains Buses, trolley buses, subway, trains and tramways.
To situate yourself here is the transport map:

Regarding the rates, a 90min ticket costs only 1.40 € and there are several cards and pass to get the most benefit from your stay.

For a tourist, here’s what you may remember:

• 1 ticket 90 min: 1,40 €
• 1 ticket 24 hours: € 4.50
• 1 ticket 5 days: 9 €
• 1 ticket 3 days tourist € 22 (airport included)

WHAT TO SEE IN ATHENS?

Athens offers to its visitors many places to discover, historical monuments, museums and atypical neighborhoods, you will be lost before you make your program, but like every city, there are must-sees, the famous one is the symbol of Athens or outright the symbol of ancient Greece, acropolis , which is one of the most visited sites in the world.

• The great acropolis

Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it consists of several temples and sites:

The Parthenon

The Erechtheion

The temple of Athena Nike

The Propylaea

The theater of Dionysus

The odeon of Herodes Atticus

To get into the acropolis, take the M2 subway line (red) and get off at the AKROPOLI stop, or take the M3 subway line (blue) and get off at the SYNTAGMA stop and walk about 10 min.
For the price, we found that is a bit pricey, but because the greatness of the monument, it’s worth to pay the price 🙂
It should be noted that there are two types of tickets:

• Ticket for 20 euros, valid for the archaeological site and its surroundings (Acropolis + the northern and southern part of the site)
  
• Ticket for 30 euros, special package valid for 5 days and allows to see: The Acropolis, The Agora, Kerameikos Archaeological Museum, Agora Museum, Olympeion, etc.
  

We took the one of 20 euros, since we had a day on Athens and we wanted to spend our time discovering the Acropolis.

There are also other places to visit:

• The Agora
• Temple of Zeus or Olympeion
• Acropolis Museum
• Syntagma Square and the changing of the train station to the parliament
• Lycabettus Hill
• The plaka district

For more photos, visit our Instagram account 😉 : azmtravel07

VISIT ATHENS IN 1 DAY

With all the possible places and monuments to see, if you are passing through Athens for one day, the choice is fast done on the acropolis.

Arrived at 9am at the airport, we took the bus to Athens to put our bags at the rented apartment.

We started with the acropolis, the visit lasted about 4 hours, we visited the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, the Propylaea and the two theaters of Dionysus and Herod Atticus

The visit was very difficult because of the temprature, we took several breaks to regain our strength, the thermometer showed 39 ° C, but that did not stop us from enjoying the moment and taking several pictures to keep memories of a childhood dream that has become true.

From the acropolis you can also see the temple of Zeus and Lycabettus Hill, and a large part of the modern city.

Mount Lycabettus offers a splendid view of the city, it can be climbed by funicular or on foot to admire the sunset.

In the evening, there is nothing better than to go out in the Athens neighborhoods, we visited the Plaka district which is a nice place to walk in the shops that offer a lot of local products.

This area known by its restaurant and its nightlife offers a wide choice for all types of budget (we took time to decide because we liked all the restaurants 😀 )

WHERE TO EAT ?

There is no better than the Plaka neighborhood to find a nice restaurant, let you lose in its narrow streets and we are sure you will find your happiness.

After your visit to the acropolis, no doubt, you will take the subway in AKROPOLI to leave, if you have a hollow, I advise you to take a look at the street Dionysiou Areopagitou, certainly, it is a tourist street which buzzes with passengers, but there are quite a few choices of restaurants at reasonable prices.

Sorry for the quality of the images 🙂

WHERE TO STAY?

Since our passage over Athens was short, and we had to take our flight to the island of Zakynthos around 4am, we booked an apartment next to an X95 bus stop to facilitate travel for airport.

We booked one night at Athens Quality Apartments, it is a small apartment equipped with balcony that we considered reasonable for budgets that do not exceed 50 euros per night (the price depends on the period).

We were welcomed by Manos, he gave us a warm welcome and he answered all our questions, he also provided us with several information for a good stay.

Athens Quality Apartments is rated 9.3 on booking.com, if you want to book at Manos, I recommend you to go through this direct link.

Alternatively, you can consult the list of hotels and apartments in Athens on the Booking.com website

Book your accommodation in Athens here !!

PRACTICAL INFORMATION OF ATHENS

How to get there ?

• From Morocco:
  • the only direct flight operates from Menara Marrakech Airport with Ryanair (First flight 29 October 2018)
    
  • Several flights with stops from Casablanca, Marrakech with Lufthansa, Alitalia
    
• From France :
  • Several direct flights from Paris CDG airport and Lyon Saint exupery with Transavia and Aegean.
    

How to move ?

Public transport developed, not to ruin you:

• 24 hours: € 4.50
  
• 5 days: 9 €

Must do ?

• The Acropolis
  
• Plaka area
  
• Lycabettus Hill
  

where to sleep ?

I recommend Athens Quality Apartments.

Where to eat ?

Plaka neghborhood for its charm and its various restaurants.

What should I do before leaving?

• Book your hotel on Booking.com
  
• Buy the Lonely Planet on Amazon.com
  
• Buy the Michelin Guide on Amazon.com
  

Book your accommodation in Athens here !!