16 of the best things to do in Athens

07.12.2023 - 20:23 / lonelyplanet.com

As the birthplace of modern Western civilization, sprawling Athens has enough neoclassical buildings to keep you busy for a week.

Go beyond the Parthenon, though, and you'll discover a more youthful side to the city with new art galleries, languid cafe culture and outdoor cinemas. The Athens of today offers way more than relics of antiquity and quick routes to the Greek Islands — though we wouldn’t cross those off the to-do list just yet.

Here are Athens' best experiences.

The greatest symbol of the glory of Ancient Greece, the Acropolis rises spectacularly in the center of Athens. In the reign of Pericles, in the 5th century BCE, the hilltop was deemed a religious sanctuary. 

Just as pilgrims of millennia past made their way to worship here, you can ascend the marble steps on the west side to find yourself dwarfed by the towering columns of the magnificent Parthenon.

Detour: Complete your experience by seeing a concert or play at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.

The mythical battleground of Theseus and the Amazons is one of Athens' best parks, studded with small ruins connected by beautiful stone paths that are themselves a minor architectural marvel. Make time in your schedule to come here around sundown one evening to watch the lights on the Acropolis switch on and glow gold against the blue sky.

Detour: To the north, the Hill of the Pnyx offers equally compelling views and is almost always empty.

On Saturdays, central Athens throngs with shoppers looking for a bargain at the huge Monastiraki Flea Market, which takes place between the Monastiraki and Thisseio neighborhoods. 

Here, traders open up their secondhand stores to flog a jumble of flea-market finds, vintage clothing and oddities ranging from vintage magazines punctuated with bold Greek lettering to mid-century furniture and strange bric-a-brac. Look hard enough, and you’ll find some buried treasure (and if not, some insight into how modern Greeks have furnished their homes for the past 60 years).

Follow in the footsteps of Socrates and his various political and philosophical cohorts at the Agora, the heart of ancient Athens' civic life and the birthplace of democracy. In the stately Stoa of Attalos (an architectural paradigm for shopping arcades that you'll recognize across modern Athens), the Agora Museum displays unusual finds from ancient daily life. 

The Temple of Hephaistos is exquisite and very well preserved; see how many of the Labors of Hercules you can identify on the frieze.

Athens' preeminent museum houses the world’s largest and finest collection of Greek antiquities. Priceless items date from the Neolithic Era (6800 BCE) to the Cycladic, Mycenaean and Classical periods. 

It's gratifying to discover iconic sculptures of Western art history