Athens - on our own or a walking tour?

[piratesmate123]

We will be in Athens for a day. It looks fairly straightforward to get from Piraeus to Athens via train. We want to see the Acropolis, Plaka, and maybe the Natl Archeological Museum if there's time.

 

Can we understand the Acropolis on our own, or should we sign up ahead of time with a walking tour? How about the Natl Archeological Museum and Plaka. I think there's a tour group called athenswalkingtours.gr that was recommended on another thread - anyone used them or have a different recommendation? They're 29 Euros for 3 hours. I'd like to know some of the history and comprehend what we're seeing without having my head buried in a guide book the whole time. For those who've BTDT (been there done that), do you recommend a tour or on our own? Thanks

[ItaliaBella]

The Acropolis and the Plaka Market you can do on your own since they are next to each other. You may spend more time at the Plaka Market because it's a big shopping/eating area but fun to explore! The National Archaelogy museum is far up north and from what I was told ( I was in Athens last summer) that it is at least a half an hour north of the Acropolis. I guess the only way to get up there is by subway or if you can find a taxi to take you. I wanted to go there but there wasn't enough time.

 

While in Athens, I should recommend that you go by the original Olympic Stadium. If you can't make it there, you can see it from the Acropolis. The original stadium is a bit of a walking distance from the Acropolis.

[Susan-M]

We spent a very enjoyable day on our own in Athens. For guide material I used: http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/greece/athens.htm - great notes on the Acropolis, and be sure to see the section on "Highlights of the Archaeological Museum".

 

We visited the Plaka (had lunch at a restaurant recommended by Rick Steves) and took in some of the other sights - Tower of Winds, Agora, Olympic Stadium, Tower of Zeus, Syntagma Square.

 

From Syntagma, we took the subway to the museum .... it's huge, so the museum highlights were a big help!

 

This map was also very helpful in planning our day there: http://www.chem.uoa.gr/Location/AthensMap/Athensmap.htm

[HISTORY]

Is this walkable or is there transportation available? Thanks

[Susan-M]

Is this walkable or is there transportation available? Thanks

 

It is about a 25 minute walk to the subway from the ship and then a 20 minute ride to Acropolis. Some people take a taxi from port to Athens .... lots of good info on both subways and taxis on previous threads on this forum. (When we did Athens on our own by subway, we were on our feet for most of the day - 8 a.m. till 7 p.m - so you really have to enjoy walking to do it this way.)

[mountainmare]

There are several posts about this with details--the short answer is that it is walkable to the train station in Piraeus and easy to take the train into Athens.The walk to the station is about a mile(?????) but very pleasant around the harbor. In October it was 70cents to go to Athens.

Start to research to see what you want to see and where you want to get off.

We found that for our travel style exploring Athens on our own suited us better than a guide. We spent hours on the Acropolis and strolled down through the Agora--I felt as though I was walking through history--more so than anywhere I've been.

This year we're going to make a point of seeing the Olympic stadium (we only saw it from the Acropolis) and explore Syntagma sguare.

[luvnorway]

We just did this in April using info from this message board (again, many thanks) and other sources. Suggest you just punch "Athens" into the "Search this forum" tool and you'll find all you need.

 

This website was also very helpful - http://www.athensguide.com/index.html

 

I strongly agree with = previous posters who have recommended, DIY. As they have said, time to walk to Piraeus Metro is about 25min; fare on the Metro each way is only 70¢ and stops are signed in English.

 

ROUTE - We chose to get off the Metro at Thissio - it's a bit longer walk to the Acropolis from there than from Monastiraki, but the route is a beautiful park-lined pedestrian blvd.

Leaving the Acropolis, we kept right and walked down through the Anafiotika neighbourhood (less congested and touristy than the Plaka and lovely shaded squares with cafes). We continued on down to the Plaka from there, then to Syndagmata Sq. etc.

At the end of the day we caught the Metro at Monastiraki to return to Piraeus.

 

TIME - make sure you go early in the day - it was warm up on the Acropolis in April - in the summer, when the temp in Athens often reaches 40ºC, midday would be unbearable

 

GUIDES - several English speaking guides approached us near the ticket office offering their services - don't know what they were charging because we declined - felt that the verbosity of their commentary would likely exceed our level of interest and the time we wanted to spend there - however, I suspect you could always find one there to hire if you decided you wanted one.

The Acropolis gets so crowded (and I do mean congested) with tour groups that you will hear the guides' commentary whether you want to or not.

[piratesmate123]

I love what happens on cruise critic boards - you ask a question and gets lots of great answers, leads, other websites, etc. Thanks for all your help.

[Eileen G]

Just got back from our Med cruise last night and we took the metro into Athens. We walked from the port. Just stay along the water side until you come to an elevated crosswalk where you can cross the street safely and will take you directly to the metro station. We got off at Thisso station and walked to the Acropilis. There is a clean WC at the entrance and several water fountians up on top along with another WC by the museum. We didn't use a guide but I did print Rick Steves Acropolis guide to take with us. This came in very handy. We liked having as much time as we wanted to take pictures. Don't count on listening in on other group's guide because we never found one in English! After the Acropolis we wandered throu the Plaka had lunch then went to the Agora. We had a little trouble finding the Agora entrence but I looked on RC's guide and it told which street it was on. You get a great view of the Acropolis from the temple of Hephaestus in the Agora and the price off admission is included in your Acropolis ticket. If you exit on Adrianou St and take a left you will come right back to the Thisso metro station.

[Almagetty]

We will be in Athens for a day. It looks fairly straightforward to get from Piraeus to Athens via train. We want to see the Acropolis, Plaka, and maybe the Natl Archeological Museum if there's time.

 

Can we understand the Acropolis on our own, or should we sign up ahead of time with a walking tour? How about the Natl Archeological Museum and Plaka. I think there's a tour group called athenswalkingtours.gr that was recommended on another thread - anyone used them or have a different recommendation? They're 29 Euros for 3 hours. I'd like to know some of the history and comprehend what we're seeing without having my head buried in a guide book the whole time. For those who've BTDT (been there done that), do you recommend a tour or on our own? Thanks

 

Hi Pirate's Mate:

 

When is your cruise? We have contracted with Despina at athenswalkingtours for our day in Athens at the begining of July. We'll be back in the States after July 20 and would be happy to post a review. By the way, Despina has been wonderful and informative with e-mail communications thus far.

[piratesmate123]

Great minds think alike! We've signed up with athenswalkingtours.gr also for June 5. Despina has gotten many good reviews from this board, as well as Rick Steves. We're doing tour #1 (Acropolis and other stuff) in the morning, then we'll go to the Natl Archeol Mus in the afternoon on our own. I think we'll get more out of our brief visit to Athens by having a local tell us about it.

 

Hi Pirate's Mate:

 

When is your cruise? We have contracted with Despina at athenswalkingtours for our day in Athens at the begining of July. We'll be back in the States after July 20 and would be happy to post a review. By the way, Despina has been wonderful and informative with e-mail communications thus far.

[Almagetty]

Great minds think alike! We've signed up with athenswalkingtours.gr also for June 5. Despina has gotten many good reviews from this board, as well as Rick Steves. We're doing tour #1 (Acropolis and other stuff) in the morning, then we'll go to the Natl Archeol Mus in the afternoon on our own. I think we'll get more out of our brief visit to Athens by having a local tell us about it.

 

My thoughts exactly. Our time in port is so short as it is that I wanted to make sure to have someone knowledgeable tell us all about it. We're doing her #1 and then a modification of another tour at my request so that we would have plenty of time to get back to the ship. Despina will be with us for about 5 hours. Since you will be there and back before us, I hope that you will post a review!??! :rolleyes:

 

Have a great time!