Athens in less than 2 days
 

I know, I know. It's not enough -- but before you all start yelling at me, I had planned 3 nights--until I added Delphi to the itinerary, encouraged by my Fodor friends. And I'm excited to be going there--- but it's too late to adjust the itinerary.

So I have 1 & 1/2 days in Athens. I have a general idea of how the days should be but I wonder if you have any suggestions for organizing them.

We have 2 nights there, and we will be getting to Athens on Friday 9/30, I'm imagining we'll be arriving around 12-1pm. We'll be staying at the Athens Gate.

I'm figuring we'll go to th Acropolis Museum first, probably have lunch there. After that, we can explore the Acropolis maybe climbing Filopappos Hill on the way. Is Including the ancient Agora on the same day doable or too much? I plan on ending the day/eve in the Plaka.

The next day (& last in Greece) I'm thinking we see the Ancient & Roman agoras, Syntagma Square, the Monistiraki flea market, and if we aren't completely fried, stop bt the Nat'l Arch. Museum, ending the day again in the Plaka.

How do I best organize the limited time I have? What else should I include or leave out? It will be our last day in Greece.

Any suggestions?

Maybe that should read "Athens FOR less than 2 days". I'm not leaving for Greece till mid-September.

Paule

Since you will be staying at the Athens Gate, you may want to visit the National Garden,the Temple of Olympian Zeus plus the Panathenaic Stadium, everything located just across the Vassilissis Amalias Avenue, and 100 meters away from your hotel.You can combine this with Kolonaki, a fashionable area just a few meters away from the parliament, where you can have lunch in one of the ,many restaurants and cafes.
Then you can walk down to Syntagma square, and reach Monastiraki via Ermou Street. Since you will have seen the Plaka already, a suggestion would be to take the Tram ( there is a station just a few meters away from your hotel), and go to the a very nice seaside suburb of Athens, Glyfada, an upscale area full of great restaurants, cafes and shops.
This would be a nice opportunity to see a very nice part of Athens, away from the tourist routes.

Thanks, Clausar. This sounds like a nice option for our last day. Would you suggest that instead of the Nat'l Arch museum? I suspect by the last day, we will be done with museums, no matter how great it is!
Paulette

The National Archeological Museum is huge, and it would take a whole day to see everything, or at least 2 hours to see the highlights....
If you are not that much of a museum type... i think you could skip it and dedicate your time to explore the city.
While being in Athens please be careful, as there are lots of pickpockets in the centre, especially in crowded places such as Monastiraki on a Sunday, or in the metro...

Clausar is absolutely correct about the pickpockets. I had my wallet stolen out of a buttoned down pocket within minutes of reaching Athens on the metro. I know better and left my money belt at home thinking I was smarter than your average pickpocket. Apparently I lost that bet along with 150 euro my health care card, drivers license, bank debit card and credit card. Fortunately my wife was a bit smarter and we still had hers so we could get money. It took a month to replace all of those cards!

Thanks for the reminder about pickpockets. I'll pack our money belts for the trip.

Clausar, we do like museums, but In the short time we have, I'd rather walk around and get the flavor of a neighborhood or area-- your suggestion sounds intriguing.

Paule