Athens city tour 8h Explore Athens partly on your own
Cost per person: 60 euro
(children up to 3 y.o. free)
(Transportation from Piraeus and back + Athens guided city bus tour with a licensed guide on board + Free time)
This is a tour designed for those that would desire to explore Athens on their own and spend as much time as possible experiencing it. Either because you have been to Athens before, or because you would like to take your own pace visiting the monuments, photographing them or simply spending as much time as you want admiring them, this tour is the best option for you. It offers transportation from Piraeus to the city center of Athens and back, as well as professional narration by a licensed tour guide which will help you find your way around once you will be on your own, but also provides a guided bus city tour of Athens.
Of course booking this tour and changing your mind the day of it, you can always upgrade to the guided tour option if there is space available, since we never have more than 18 people in each tour guide's group and pay the difference of the cost directly to your guide.
The tour with the licensed tour guide and the bus will start from the port of Piraeus. Officially Piraeus is considered to be a different city, but you can say it is one of the suburbs of Athens. Along the way you will keep seeing and hearing explanations about the different parts of Piraeus and Athens, such as the Kastela and Mikrolimano ports. Since Athens hosted the Olympic Games in 2004 and most of the Olympic settlements were located on the southern suburbs of it, you will cross an Olympic Venue and you will follow an open free way that will bring you right at the center of Athens. While being amazed by the first views of the Acropolis and its Parthenon that you will be having from the bus, you will be impressed by the view of the massive remaining marble corinthian columns of the temple of Zeus which still stand in the triangle between the Acropolis, the Panathenaic stadium and the Zappion Mansion which once used to be an Olympic Commitee building. Afterwards there will be a photo stop by the Panathenaic marble stadium of the 1896 Olympics. The sightseeing will proceed passing the Parliament house, the Sydagma square, the Athenian Trilogy consisted by the Academy, the Library and the University buildings, the semi-byzantine building of the first eye clinic building in Europe and the church of St. Dionysios which is the Metropolis of the Catholic church in Athens. The drive will proceed through the Stadiou Avenue and the other side of Sydagma square, the Arch of Hadrian and will end by the statue of Melina Merkouri and the pedestrians street between Plaka and the Acropolis where your free time will start from.
Your tour guide will also give you directions on how to get to Plaka or the Acropolis hill or the New Acropolis museum. On the Acropolis hill you can see the temple of Nike, the Propylaea, the Erechtheion and of course the Parthenon. From the top of the hill you will have a great view 360 degrees of the whole city of Athens, as well as Lycabettus hill, the Ancient Agora and the port of Piraeus. In the Acropolis museum you can see a garden of statues of "Kores" and "Kouroi", foundations of ancient houses beneath a glass floor, the Karyatides and on the top floor, all made of glass, the remaining pieces of the pediments and the frieze of the Parthenon. This is the next best view of the Parthenon if for any reasons you do not want to climb the Acropolis Hill.
After you explore either of these monuments on your own, you will be able to spend your free time to shop, dine or stroll around the Plaka or Monastiraki area. Plaka is one of the most famous districts of central Athens and one of the few parts of the city which remain untouched, full of neoclassical buildings where people still reside, as well as several gardens, terraces and squares where small traditional restaurants are serving their specialties. For those of you that don't mind long walks, you can also spend your free time walking to the Ancient Agora and the Monastiraki area(flea market) which are located on the other side of the Acropolis Hill and you can reach crossing through the beautiful alleys of Plaka. You have to make sure though that you have enough time in order to make it back and a map which will make navigating through the narrow alleys easier.
After you assemble at the designated meeting point, your guide will make sure that everyone is on the bus and then will escort you back to Piraeus. On the way you will be able to discuss your experience in Athens and ask questions you may have.
The order of the visits on this tour might change, according to your guide's judgment, depending on the weather, traffic or other reasons that might affect the timings and your enjoyment, which is our main goal.
Food, beverages, gratuities and the entrance tickets to the monuments are not included.
The ticket to the Acropolis is 20 euro and to the Acropolis museum 15 euro per person.
