Best Things to Do in Athens

Athens has enough ruins to fill a week, but you don't need a week. Here's our list, with the essentials at the top and the ones that make the city feel lived in further down.

1. The Acropolis. The Parthenon, the Erechtheion with its porch of carved maidens, and the view over the whole basin to the sea. Go at the first slot of the day. Everything you need is in our Acropolis guide.
2. The Acropolis Museum. Built over an excavated neighbourhood you can see through the glass floor. The top floor lays out the Parthenon frieze at its true scale, with white plaster casts standing in for the pieces still in London.
3. The Ancient Agora. The marketplace and civic heart of the ancient city, where Socrates argued. The Temple of Hephaestus on its low hill is the best-preserved Greek temple in the city, roof and all. The rebuilt Stoa of Attalos holds a small museum.
4. The National Archaeological Museum. The golden mask called the "Mask of Agamemnon", the bronze god from Artemision and the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient geared calculator. The building is due to close for years of rebuilding from around the end of 2027, so go while you can.
5. Plaka and Anafiotika. The old lanes below the Acropolis, best in the early evening. Follow our Plaka walking route.
6. Philopappos Hill at sunset. A pine-covered hill opposite the Acropolis, with a path paved by the architect Dimitris Pikionis. The view straight across at the Parthenon is the one on the postcards.
7. Lycabettus Hill. The highest point in the centre, reached on foot from Kolonaki or by funicular. Wider and higher than Philopappos, with the Acropolis looking small below you.
8. The changing of the guard. The Evzones, the presidential guard in pleated kilts and pom-pom shoes, change every hour at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Syntagma Square. The full ceremony with a band is on Sunday mornings.
9. The Panathenaic Stadium. A horseshoe stadium built entirely of marble, used for the first modern Olympics in 1896. You can walk on the track.
10. The Temple of Olympian Zeus. Fifteen giant columns still standing, next to Hadrian's Arch. You can see most of it from the fence.
11. Varvakios central market. On Athinas Street: hanging carcasses, fish on ice, olives in barrels. Loud, a bit gory, and fully local.
12. An open-air cinema. From late spring to early autumn, Athenians watch films in summer cinemas under the sky. Cine Thisio has the Acropolis behind the screen.
13. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. The opera house and national library by the sea at Faliro, with a big public park and a canal. Free to wander.

For a swim, take the tram down to the beaches of the Athens Riviera. It's not island water, but on a hot afternoon nobody complains.