My fiance and I will be arriving Athens on Aug 18th evening for our honeymoon in Santorini. We will be in Greece for 10 days.
How many days should we stay in Athens? One full day or two full days?

There are 2 options:

Arrive Aug18 evening, spend two nights in Athens and leave for Santorini on the 20th noon. This option will give us one full day in Athens and one evening to stroll along the city. With this option we will spend 7 nights in Santorini .

Another option is to spend 3 nights and leave for Santorini on the 21st noon. That way we have 2 full days to see the city. Leave us 6 nights in Santorini.

For both options, we will arrive back in Athens at 2pm on Aug27. Spend the night in Athens and catch our flight back to Vancouver on the 28th noon.
We just want to see the major sites in Athens city and visit Plaka. Nothing to rush..
Which option sounds better?

Thanks

Most people find the best option is to go straight to their island destination and spend a few days in Athens at the end of their trip. That way you needn't worry about a connecting flight or ferry making you miss your flight home.

Me, I'm a big fan of Athens, and would spend 3 days on the way back...

Rob

I'm with Rob here, get straight out to Santorini & relax! Do all your Athens part in one go at the end, cuts out one lot of packing/unpacking & travel into the city. After a long flight you won't be at your best to see or enjoy as much as possible, & there is a lot to see! Go & unwind then enjoy at least 3 days in Athens knowing you have an easy connection to the airport.

Another "agree" vote. We loved Athens and found it to be very underrated/overlooked. Minimum of 3 days - just too much to do and enjoy in 1 or 2.

Agreed 3 days...we did a lot in three days and still didn't do everything that we wanted to do. One of those things was Deplhi and Oracle. Other than that the three days were jam packed one the go. Please, please find time to see the sunset at Poseidon Temple....well worth the two hour bus ride!!

It will probably be hot in Athens in August so you will have to decide how hot it is versus how great Athens is.
I have some pictures of Athens Plaka area which were taken over three trips so you can see there is lots to do.
http://travel.webshots.com/album/570719132pdjjHG