Mid-range · 12-hour walk · Athens
Athens in a day: the Acropolis to Lycabettus
The Acropolis at opening, its museum, lunch in Plaka, the Ancient Agora and Monastiraki, the national museum, the guard at Syntagma and the funicular up Lycabettus for sunset.
In Athens the order is set by the sun. The Acropolis is a bare rock with no shade and the queue forms before the gates open, so be there at eight; by noon it is the hottest place in the city. The afternoon goes indoors to the two great museums with the Agora between them, and the evening goes up Lycabettus, the pine-covered hill that looks back across the city to the Parthenon floodlit on its rock.
The route, stop by stop
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Acropolis & Parthenon
Through the Propylaia at opening, ahead of the tour groups. Some part of the Parthenon is always under scaffolding; the Erechtheion's porch of maidens and the view from the eastern end are the rest of the reason.
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Acropolis Museum
Below the rock, built over an excavated neighbourhood you walk above on glass floors. The top floor hangs the Parthenon frieze at the temple's own orientation, with gaps for the pieces in the British Museum, and the original maidens from the Erechtheion stand a floor below.
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Plaka
Lunch in the old quarter under the Acropolis. Skip the touts on the main streets; the tavernas up the steps towards Anafiotika are quieter.
60 min here Walk here → -
Ancient Agora
The marketplace where Socrates argued, with the Temple of Hephaestus on the rise above it — the best-preserved Greek temple anywhere — and the rebuilt Stoa of Attalos as its museum.
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Monastiraki Square
The flea market streets, a mosque from 1759 and a metro station with ruins in it.
20 min here Walk here → -
National Archaeological Museum
Arrive by metro from the previous stop
The Mask of Agamemnon, the bronze god hurling from the sea off Artemision and the Antikythera mechanism: the greatest collection of ancient Greek art in the world, and never as crowded as it should be.
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Syntagma Square
The Evzones change guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the hour, in fustanellas and pom-pommed clogs; the full ceremony with the band is on Sunday at eleven.
20 min here Walk here → -
Mount Lycabettus
Arrive by funicular from the previous stop
Up through Kolonaki to the funicular, or forty minutes on foot, to the chapel on the summit. Sunset here is the city's evening ritual, with the Acropolis lit across the rooftops below.
60 min here Walk here →
More in Athens
Every walking route in Athens, or the full Athens guide for where to stay and what a day costs.