Spending a week in Athens

As school holidays were coming, we decided to go to Athens, Greece with my family. I describe below the schedule we planned.

Basic Logistics

Plane

In evaluating plane companies, the criteria were:

  • wanted to pay a reasonable price, luggage included
  • had good departure and return times: I did not want to wake up at 4 AM to be at the airport at 5:30 AM for a plane at 7 AM
  • did not want to depart from Beauvais, so only Charles de Gaulle or Orly airport

I opted for Aegean Airlines, which is the Greek national company. Selected times were:

  • outbound: 11:55 AM from Charles de Gaulle to Athens, arrival at 4 PM. Duration of about 3 hours
  • inbound: 5 PM from Athens, arrival at 7:35 PM. Duration of about 3.5 hours

Overall very happy with the times and the company experience.

Price was around 850 €.

Hotel

A bit like for planes, basic criteria for hotels were:

  • location
  • reasonable price for a family of 3 (single room)

I focused on hotels in Plaka or Psyri, and finally opted for one in Psyri due to the choice of restaurants while still being quite near everything by foot.

Price was around 550 €.

Tickets

I wanted to be a bit free on the schedule, so I did not book anything prior as it was low season. Except for the Acropolis using their official website, which is quite hidden among other touristic tour websites.

I wanted to buy tickets for the Acropolis Museum, but as my daughter is less than 18, it was impossible to get her a ticket online… So we decided we would queue anyway.

Planning

We left on a Thursday to return the next Thursday. We did not plan a lot except that we wanted to also go to places outside of Athens:

We do not like the sea too much, so we preferred inland trips and decided to skip the islands.

Thursday

  • fly from Paris to Athens
  • get lost in the subway to the hotel
  • walk a bit around the hotel neighborhood

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

It turns out that museums and historical sites are free the first Sunday of each month between November and March, so we used that to our advantage

Monday

Day trip to Delphi.
I made a mistake by using an organized tour with a guide and I do not like guides… My daughter counted as an adult and I had to pay for tickets for her, but it is free under 25 for Europeans. Also I should have looked better at the leading agency Key Tours to have better rates and no guides…
I paid 300 € where I could have paid half the price. Well, lesson learned…

  • Delphi ruins: great weather and view of the mountains. Impressive temple complex, a stadium and lots of historical notes
  • Delphi Museum
  • Arachova small town, we had lunch at a restaurant called Skala, where I had one of the best tomato salads I ever ate, along with some great homemade bread

Tuesday

Wednesday

Day trip using the dedicated Greek agency Key Tours with just the transportation, no tickets, no lunch.
It was much more affordable than the day-trip for Delphi. I paid 85 € (excluding tickets) for 3 people for the transportation.

  • Mycenae: I was impressed by the size of the wall and the overall city
  • Nafplio: very nice and small coastal city
  • Epidaurus: great theater, the archaeological site is large

Thursday

  • guard switch at Syntagma Square at 12 PM
  • National Gardens
  • we ate at a small restaurant called Mezze 21, very affordable, delicious!
  • plane back to Paris

Random notes on the trip

The hotel I booked was in the Psyri district. There were lots of restaurants and stuff to eat at night, which was super convenient. It was also near the small Chinese district. It reminded me a lot of some random Chinese city in the countryside, with small restaurants and shops selling random stuff.
The state of the roads was pretty chaotic compared to the ones in Plaka.

Cats kingdom

In Athens, there are cats everywhere. They are the rulers of the city.
People feed them, pat them, take pictures with them. And they are free to go.

Supermarkets

In Athens center, there are very few grocery stores / supermarkets. We found a lot outside the touristic center, but otherwise I wonder how Athenians living in the city center buy daily stuff…

But there are some Marks & Spencer stores!

Restaurants

Although I was only in touristic areas, I found restaurants to be quite expensive, in the sense that I expected (wrongly) prices to be less expensive. Coffees are much more affordable than in Paris… and I did not like the Greek coffee. Most plate prices were in the range of 15 € to 20 €.

The best restaurants I ate in were in less touristic areas (see Skala and Mezze 21 above).

Tourists

There were a lot of French, which can be normal considering it was French holiday season, and I am part of it, but there were French groups everywhere. Then came Italians.
More Japanese than Chinese, as opposed to what I would have expected.

Meal times

I am used to eating late. I usually do not eat breakfast, have lunch at around 2 PM and dinner at around 9 or 10 PM.
Greece’s meal schedule suited me much more than in Paris, as I could eat at my “normal” schedule, especially during the evening when I have more time, a bit like in Spain.

Honey

Greek honey is famous, and I love honey and am quite picky about it.
I bought some delicious heather honey from Melira and Folia tou Meliou.
I could also taste quite a lot of different kinds.

Overall feelings

I spent a really nice week with my family in Athens. It was supposed to be quite stress-free, but we still walked quite a lot within the city. But that is okay, as I love that. We spent about 2500 € for 3 people, all included (plane, hotel, food, tickets, …).
I may try to visit the islands, focusing on Crete in the future.

Definitely a destination to visit!