10 Days in Athens

Old Dec 1st, 2006, 06:00 AM
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10 Days in Athens

I'm going to Greece to teach an evening course in Piraeus that lasts two weeks. I'll have a 3 day weekend in the middle and plan to add on about 5 days before the class starts to visit other parts of Greece. This leaves me with 3 questions.

1. Should I stay in Athens or Piraeus? I'm a woman and I wasn't sure about the safety of returning to Athens each night around 9pm. However, my guess is that Athens is more interesting and convenient for museums and restaurants.

2. Are there any short day trips from that area? I'm looking forward to Athens but I assume 10 days is overkill.

3. Any ideas for my time outside of Athens? I'm more of a history buff than a beach lover.

Thanks so much to anyone with suggestions.
bizprof is offline  
Old Dec 1st, 2006, 06:09 AM
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I loved Athens. I can't speak to the safety of traveling between Piraeus and Athens at night but I did take the metro to Piraeus and found it to be very easy. At 9:00, people are just starting to go out to dinner in Athens.

You might be interested in my trip report (warning, extra long):

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...2&tid=34589254

Photos:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...&x=0&y=-b9k6sz

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Old Dec 1st, 2006, 08:13 AM
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Piraeus is a short metro ride from the center of Athens, so I'd stay in Athens. Athens and the metro are very safe. There is a much greater choice of accomodation near the center.
There are plenty of daytrips which have historical significance: Sounion, the islands of Aegina, Poros and Hydra, Ancient Corinth, Mycenae, Epidaurus, Naplio and even Delphi for starters. Athens offers many other sights besides the Acropolis. Tons of museums, good shopping and lots of restaurants to choose from. Staying near the center of Athens is much easier and you will be nearer the departure points for trips out of the city. There are tours offered or you can grab a bus, train or ferry to various locations. Pireaus is the port of Athens, and convenient for ferries.
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Old Dec 1st, 2006, 08:21 AM
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One of the most popular day trips from Athens is Delphi, which if you are a history buff, should interest you.

As to it being short - it is a full day trip. You can either go on a group tour via bus, travel via public transportation (though I don't know how convenient/easy this is) or schedule a private taxi tour.

We did the private taxi tour, but there were 4 of us to split the cost. It was great to be able to decide where we wanted to go and how long we wanted to spend at different places.
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Old Dec 1st, 2006, 10:26 AM
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I found I saw everything I wanted to see in Athens in 3 days but other people might have taken 5 days or more to see the same things:

http://www.athens.world-guides.com/

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Old Dec 2nd, 2006, 11:11 AM
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Great - It sounds like staying in Athens makes more sense.

And Nikki - I loved the detailed travel notes!

Now I just have to choose my sidetrips. Any thoughts on exploring the Peloponnese and mainland Greece with a rental car versus traveling to Crete? This is my first trip to Greece (which is probably pretty obvious)!
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Old Dec 2nd, 2006, 11:33 AM
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Aegean Airlines has cheap tickets to some of the islands, including Crete, Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes and Kos, so you might want to look into spending some of your time on one of them. I personally love Santorini and strongly recommend it as the most unique and beautiful island in the Aegean Sea.

http://www.aegean-air.gr/aegeanen/home/
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Old Dec 2nd, 2006, 01:34 PM
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The Piraeus area is kind of blah--Athens is much more interesting place to stay. How safe it would be traveling back and forth at night, I don't know, but the Metro is a straight shot, and like Nikki points out, people are definitely out and about at 9 pm.

There is a nice archaeological museum in Piraeus that is worth visiting!

I second the suggestion of a daytrip to Delphi. A must-see for a history buff!!! I went by public transportation myself (bus), which wasn't too hard...although here's a tip...you have an assigned seat on the bus which nobody told me...I got fussed out by a Greek for inadvertently taking her seat!

Crete is kind of far--it's an overnight ferry ride. IMHO Crete requires a longish stay to enjoy it properly. Seeing that you're into history, the Peloponnese would probably be a great bet for that 5-day segment of your trip: Mycenae, Corinth, Epidauros...the places listed in earlier post. Naufplio makes a good base for the eastern Peloponnese. If you have time--Olympia!

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