Athens for three days
 

My wife and I have a brief stay over in Athens between flights. I wish we had more time and would like some feedback on the best use of what we have. I was wondering about tours of Athens and transportation between the airport and hotel downtown. Thanks.....

Have you looked up Athens under "Destinations"?

((I))

Three days should give you sufficient time to visit Athens. Concentrate on the center in the area around the Acropolis. That area is roughly called the Plaka but there are other good areas as well. Do you have your hotel booked already.
Depending on where your hotel is the easiest way to get to Plaka is on the metro. 14 euro for two people. There are several stops in the Plaka area and many hotels are only a few hundred meters walk fromt eh Metro stops.
You can also take a taxi. Set fare shoudl be 35 euros. There is also a bus that drops you off at Syntagma square and that of course is the most inexpensive way to go. If you take the metro be aware there are pickpockets there. Make sure you have your valuables safely secured. No physical threat but tired tourists make easy targets.
Once you are in the Plaka area Athens is easy to explore on foot. It is compact and if you keep the Acropolis in site you will never be too lost.
A good plan for exploring Athens is to get to the Acropolis before opening so you beat the bus tours. You will get an hour or so of pretty small crowds. Once it starts to fill up leave. We always climb Philopappus hill next for outstanding vies of the acropolis. Of course if you arrive later in the day and can't get tot eh acropolis early you can do the Philopappus hill walk first it won't be crowded.
Anyway the concept of getting out of the acropolis when the crowds arrive is move on to other major sites in the Plaka. This will keep you ahead of the crowds and you will have time too look around in relative peace. There is a ticket that gets you in to all the sites which is far less expensive than paying for entrance at each individual site.
If yo have an early morning flight out of athens the metro doesn't start running until 6 so you can't get back tot ehairport that way so you wil need a bus or a taxi.
Hope that helps.
Here are images of the Plaka area. Just wandering around with a map will get you to most of these places.
Athens http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr5...7632121475515/

When are you arriving and when are you leaving?
"Three days" can be interpreted in different ways with vastly different available time.

"three days" arriving after or later, one full day, then early departure the next day means "one full day." This is probably what you meant.

"three days" arriving and departure days removed is "three full days". This gives you more options.

If "three days" means "one full day", you can only do Athens the way stanbr described. If possible, visit the Acropolis Museum before going up the Acropolis if you can still beat the bus crowd. The museum houses the sculptures from Parthenon and other structures and gives you an overview of what you are going to see up there. The key sculptures you see at Acropolis are replicas of the ones housed in the Acropolis Museum and museums elsewhere.

Go to the Rick Steves website and download the walking tours for Athens. http://www.ricksteves.com/news/audio-tours.htm

We did the ones for City Walk, Acropolis and Ancient Agora and they were both informative and entertaining. (Plus they are FREE!)

Athens has a modern subway, built for the Olympics, that runs from the airport. So that is the best way. However, if you opt for a taxi, find out ahead of time (from your hotel?) how much the fare should be. We were overcharged by taxi drivers we picked up on the street. Ah, let me rephrase that. When we hailed a taxi on the street, we were overcharged.

You need to do a little research on Athens and decide what you're interested in. The Acropolis and the new Acropolis museum are tops on my list, and wandering the Plaka. My husband liked the public market. One thing I regret missing is a folk-dancing performance at the Dora Stratou Theater.

Rick Steves, cited by longhorn, also has an audio tour of the excellent National Archeological Museum.

So read guidebooks and search on the web to find what you would like.