Start at the Acropolis. Keep going.
Which Acropolis ticket skips the queue. Whether Delphi or Meteora is the better day out. Where the sunset cruise actually stops. Every tour in Athens and its day-trip ring, reviewed.
Six days that make an Athens trip.
The rock and the marbles it lost, sunset at Poseidon’s temple, the monasteries of Meteora, the oracle at Delphi, a three-island cruise, and a night eating through the old city. The best way to book each.
The Acropolis: get the ticket right.
All 171 Acropolis tours →
The rock on its own, or the rock and the Museum that holds its marbles. A guided hour with the history, or a timed ticket that walks you past the queue. These three settle the choice; the full list has every version.
Skip-the-line ticket, straight up the rock
The fastest way onto the Acropolis in season: a slot booked ahead, the queue skipped, and the Parthenon, the Erechtheion and the theatres to walk at your own pace.
The hill, then the marbles up close
A guided climb paired with the Acropolis Museum below, where the frieze and the Caryatids sit at eye level and a guide fills in what the ruins leave out.
The Acropolis, the Agora and old Plaka
The slow version: up through Plaka’s lanes, across the ancient Agora where Socrates argued, and onto the Acropolis with time to look rather than tick off.
The tours travellers book most in Athens.
Every review →More people take these than anything else in the city — and what each one is actually like on the day.
1
Acropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo Pass
Timed Acropolis access plus up to 5 top archaeology sites in Athens, with audio guides, app-based planning, and 3-day flexibility.
From · $48
Read our review →2
Acropolis Ticket with Optional Audio or Live Guide
from $42
3
Acropolis, Parthenon & Acropolis Museum Guided Tour
from $40
4
Cape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day Trip
from $23
5
Acropolis and Parthenon Guided Walking Tour
from $38
6
All Day Cruise -3 Islands to Agistri,Moni, Aegina with lunch and drinks included
from $180
7
Athens, Piraeus, and Coastline: Blue Hop-On Hop-Off Bus
from $14
8
Greek Food Walking Tour in Athens
from $87
The best of Greece is a day trip from Athens.
Delphi’s oracle, Meteora’s monasteries, the theatres and citadels of the Peloponnese — none of it is more than a day away, and most start with a coach at your hotel by eight.
Three islands, one boat, home by dark.
The classic Saronic run leaves Piraeus after breakfast: Hydra’s car-free harbour, a swim off Poros, Aegina’s pistachios and a hilltop temple — usually with lunch and a little live music thrown in.
In Athens, dinner starts when the heat breaks.
Nobody sits down before nine. The city eats in the tavernas of Psyrri and Koukaki, over meze and a carafe of the house red — and the best food tours start where the day-trippers have already left: the Central Market, the spice lanes, the old bakeries.
- 1Greek Food Walking Tour in Athensfrom $87
- 2Street Food Tasting Tourfrom $67
- 3Greek Foodie Tour with Tastingsfrom $62
Three Athens afternoons you can’t have anywhere else.
Ruins and good food you will find all over the Mediterranean. Sunset at Poseidon’s temple, wine on a roof under a floodlit Parthenon, and a market-to-table Greek kitchen belong to Athens.
Sundown at the Temple of Poseidon
An hour down the coast road, on the headland where Athenians once watched for their fleet, fifteen marble columns catch the last of the light. Byron carved his name into one of them; everyone since has come for the same view. The tours time the drive so you reach the cape as the sun drops into the Saronic Gulf.
- 1Cape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 8,241 reviews
- 2Cape Sounio & Poseidon Temple Trip with Audio Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 4,521 reviews
- 3Cape Sounion and Temple of Poseidon Half-Day Small-Group Tour from Athens★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 3,205 reviews
Wine on a roof, the Parthenon lit above
Athens drinks on its rooftops, and the best tastings put a floodlit Acropolis at eye level while a sommelier pours crisp assyrtiko from Santorini and deep red agiorgitiko from Nemea. It is the hour that turns a monument you photographed into a place you actually spent an evening. Book the sunset slot.
- 1Best rated Acropolis Wine Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 568 reviews
- 2PREMIUM Semi-Private Athens Afternoon Food Tour & Wine Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 363 reviews
- 3Wine Tasting with a Sommelier under the Acropolis★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 311 reviews
A Greek kitchen, and the market first
It begins in the Varvakios market among the fishmongers and the olive barrels, then moves to a kitchen where family recipes get handed over: dolmades rolled by hand, moussaka layered deep, a tzatziki that ruins the supermarket kind for good. You eat what you cook, usually on a terrace, always with wine.
- 1Classic Cooking Class with Market Visit and Wine★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,101 reviews
- 2Food Market Visit and Cooking Class with Wine★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,087 reviews
- 3Greek Cooking Class in Athens Including Rooftop Dinner with Acropolis View★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 826 reviews
What an Athens day costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A great day in Athens can cost less than lunch on the Plaka.
Acropolis tickets, walking tours, a food crawl through Psyrri and an evening wine tasting — the everyday best of the city.
The days that fill a morning: Cape Sounion at sunset, a cooking class with the market, the three-island cruise with lunch.
Private guides, the long hauls to Delphi and Meteora, and the chauffeured days through the Peloponnese.
Mycenae, Epidaurus, Nafplio — the Argolid in a day.
All Peloponnese day trips →Over the Corinth Canal and into the oldest Greece: the Lion Gate at Mycenae, the theatre at Epidaurus that still carries a whisper, and Nafplio’s harbour for lunch. A long day, but the one that turns myth into masonry.
Peloponnese Highlights Day Trip and V.R. Audio Guide
Read our review →Book these before you land in Athens.
Most of Athens you can sort from your hotel the night before. These you cannot — the tickets are timed, the coaches run small, and they sell out in the season everyone comes.
- 01Acropolis & up to 5 Archaeological Sites Combo PassThe Acropolis runs on timed-entry tickets now, with a daily cap — the early slots, before the heat and the cruise crowds, go first.
- 02Meteora Monasteries Day Trip with Caves and LunchThe overnight Meteora trips run small and stay in Kalabaka; the good departures fill weeks ahead in summer.
- 03Cape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day TripSunset at Cape Sounion is a fixed hour and a limited coach — miss the booking and you miss the light.
- 04Hydra, Poros, and Aegina Day Cruise with LunchThe Saronic day cruise sails once each morning from Piraeus and books out all season.
In an Athens summer, go early or go late.
July and August pass the high 30s by noon, and the Acropolis has no shade. Locals do the ruins at opening or in the last hour and give the middle of the day to a cool museum, a long lunch or the sea. Book the first Acropolis slot; save Sounion and the food tours for the evening.
By destination — the city and the day trips
The Acropolis171 tours
Cape Sounion59 tours
Delphi85 tours
Meteora113 tours
Saronic Islands36 tours
The Peloponnese62 tours
Piraeus & the coast23 tours- All Athens tours →
Five days in Athens, in the right order.
Latest Athens tour reviews.
All recent →
3-Day Tour: Mycenae, Epidaurus, Nafplio, Delphi, Meteora With 4* Hotel Included
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Hydra Island & Mythical Full Peloponnese Private 9-Day Tour
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4-Day Classical Tour Greece: Epidaurus, Mycenae, Olympia, Delphi, Meteora
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2 or 3-Day Private Tour: Ancient Olympia, Corinth, Mycenae, Epidaurus, Nafplion
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27 Day Grand Circle Tour of Mainland & Corfu, Mykonos, Santorini
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Awe-inspiring 2-days private tour to Delphi and Olympia
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2 Day Delphi, Meteora Iconic Sites Private Tour With 4* Hotel Included
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3 Hours Driving Athens City Highlights Luxury Private Tour
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10 Day Tour in Athens, Santorini, Crete, and Balos Lagoon Cruise
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2-Day Private Tour to Delphi and Meteora from Athens
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