THE BEST WAY TO SEE ATHENS, GREECE
Welcome to Athens, Greece! This city is packed with historical sites and fun neighborhoods to explore. My friend and I visited in April and needed to come up with a plan so we could maximize our time. We had picked out a few sites that we really wanted to see, went to the map, and realized that we would need some help getting around. Athens is 1,131 mi². Now, my friend and I like to walk but some of the sites we wanted to see were a bit spread out from one another. We decided to go with a hop-on hop-off bus which allowed us to visit all the sites we wanted to see in a timely manner. Plus, riding on the top deck of a touring bus makes transportation fun, relaxing, and gives you a good perspective on the city.
GRAY LINE BUS TOURS
After some research, we decided Gray Line was the best company for us to choose.
What went into our decision:
Cost
The site drop-off locations
Frequency of pick-ups
Pickup/dropoff location close to our hotel
Another huge benefit to the bus was that we could take it all the way to the port where we were scheduled to get a boat to Milos the next day. If you are traveling from Athens to a Greek island, consider this as an easy transportation method. Plus, we had already paid for it!
The main sites we wanted to see were:
The Acropolis
Odeon of Herodes Atticus
Parthenon
Erechtheion
Areopagus Hill
Plaka Neighborhood
Panathenaic Stadium
There are many other historical sites in Athens that the bus visits, but we had limited time and didn’t want to feel rushed. We picked out what we really wanted to see and planned a route based on the bus schedule.
HOW IT WORKS + OUR ITINERARY
Gray Line organizes their tickets by the number of days you want to have the service. We went for the 48-hour ticket, which allowed us to spend a day visiting The Acropolis area and Plaka, and the next day visiting the Stadium and getting to the port.
Click here to visit their website.
VIEWS FROM DAY 1
The Acropolis
Odeon of Herodes Atticus
Parthenon
Erechtheion
Areopagus Hill
Plaka Neighborhood
I hope this post was helpful to anyone looking to visit Athens! The bus made traveling around the city easy and fun. Make sure to visit their website to see where else they drop off as there are many other things to explore during your stay in Athens.
Happy travels!
-Katherine