30 Best Bars in Athens, Greece

Down-to-earth, local, unpretentious, Kapnikarea is named after the sunken Byzantine church that it flanks. Come here to relax after some sightseeing or shopping on busy Ermou Street where live rembetika music swirls mesmerically around a little alleyway every day until midnight. Locals love it and sit for hours on end, morphing into impromptu choirs, intoning their favorite songs. This little spot has been around for ages and is not to be missed.

This is where locals come to party, sipping delicious and creative cocktails and to bop along to upbeat music. Open until the early hours, this place with the motto "the bar we call home" is a trendy haunt where smiling easily becomes contagious. Its seaside location at Zea Marina adds another refreshing reason to go.

With a menu of more than 70 cocktails and an extensive wine list, there is something for everyone at this rooftop bar in the heart of lively Monastiraki Square. The top reason to go is the magical view of the Acropolis.

Fun, cozy, small, with a bold and creative decor (including a masked circus artist holding playing cards and dangling on a swing) and excellently mixed cocktails, this is the kind of bar where you can linger over a Bloody Mary at noon or stay up until the early hours chatting over drinks into the next day. 

Beautiful people, breakneck music, and a slightly gaudy VIP vibe have made this club-restaurant a perennial city favorite all year-round. The food here is also top-line and there's a beautiful garden when you need a breather. Reservations are highly recommended for both the club and the restaurant.

Over the last few years Greece has exploded with microbreweries, with even ordinary supermarkets now selling at least a handful of exceptionally fresh, sometimes unpasteurized, and always interestingly flavored beers. The ideal place for choosing among hundreds of labels of Greek craft beers is this pub in Psirri's busy central square, where you can relax for hours watching the world go by.

"Celebratory" is an understatement when it comes to describing this bar-club, where members of the LGBTQ community are heartily welcomed with an open mind—and arms—to party, socialize, and dance to live DJ sets and enjoy live drag shows. Great quality cocktails accompany the buoyant, playful, and friendly atmosphere.

Cool architects and graphic designers, intellectual revolutionaries and experimental philosophers: they all sprawl out at the retro airport-lounge-style ground-floor bar, or dance to live alternative-electronica DJ sets in the cavernous basement of this Bauhaus building in the Kerameikos neighborhood, part of the greater Gazi district. In summer, suck on a "papoto" ice popsicle cocktail as you relish the view of the Acropolis or watch an art film screened on the wall behind the bar on the postmodern, neon-lighted roof terrace. A handful of "multispace" imitators have emerged, offering offbeat film, video, and music events in painfully hip industrial spaces—but Bios is the original.

Laptops, coffee mugs, and chess sets cover the long wooden tables in this Central Athens joint by day. By night, chatty partygoers squeeze—booze in hand—into any spot they can find at this bar, which remains as edgily cool as when it first opened in the 1990s. It often feels like a laid-back party, as DJs navigate through rock, pop, and dance tunes and the multitasking bar hosts art exhibits, dance performances, art films projected on a massive wall, and theater installations. Wood details, low-hanging sculpture-lamps, and wax artworks give a warm feel to the high-ceilinged space.

With walls adorned with brightly lit bottles in all colors of the spectrum, Brettos is popular among tourists keen to post photos on social media. Locals, however, come here to relish the memories of the oldest distillery in town (going strong since 1909) and reputedly the second-oldest bar in the whole of Europe. Huge barrels store head-spinning spirits produced on the premises even today—ouzo, cognac, tsipouro, and liqueurs in a rainbow of flavors.

In a Neoclassical building, under a giant mural of Frida Kahlo smoking a cigarette, this South America--inspired cocktail bar has a warmly decorated courtyard that is particularly breezy to hang out at on a summer night. During the day it serves a satisfying brunch and lunch and at night you can order Mexican snacks along with exotic drinks.

Located between Syntagma and Psirri, this innovative and wildly popular bar-restaurant is among the most popular in Athens. The impressively decorated, multilevel venue even has a private room, where clients can order bespoke drinks. Despite its appeal to people of all ages and styles, The Clumsies is generally unpretentious, and the unique cocktails that fall under the categories happiness, excitement, tenderness (there's a degustation menu that offers the chance of tasting four to five smaller versions) are top quality.

This youthful bar offers a different kind of local color than the usual walk-in or street-level place, as you'll have to enter an arcade selling antiques and take the elevator to the top floor of an old building to reach it. As you step out onto the roof, you'll come face to face with a stunning view of the Acropolis, the National Observatory, and the Anafiotika area—and after sunset all of them beautifully lit up. The cocktails are creative, the finger foods tasty, the music loud with regular DJ sets, and the service friendly.

One of Athens's most famous bouzoukia clubs has been a crowd favorite for more than 10 years, showcasing the most popular singers of the day. Opening its doors at 11 pm until 6 am on Friday and Saturday, from December to May, the club has outstanding lighting and sound, and it attracts a young crowd who sing along with the top artists that perform on the Fever stage.

Rockers and metal-heads look no further. With walls splattered with album cover posters from bands like AC/DC and Metallica, the Intrepid Fox will satiate any yearning you may have for this genre of thunderous compositions. Pride of place in the center of this large, grungy bar is a pool table facing the main live stage, and tucked away in a corner is a boxing machine. For a less intense but no less sanguine experience head up to the rooftop bar to take in the view of this postindustrial quarter of Central Athens.

The bar itself is very small, but the pleasure of visiting it is hanging out at the little tables or on foot on the pedestrian street outside it, sipping a well-made cocktail or cold beer. Locals enjoy gathering in buzzy crowds here and at Blue Bird bar next door throughout the summer's hot nights.

On Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday evening, an excellent rembetika or traditional laiko band plays sing-along favorites much appreciated by the largely Greek crowd, and the price of the old-style Greek entertainment at this century-old taverna is surprisingly reasonable. Meanwhile, the food at this all-day taverna is displayed on big trays, which allows you to choose the dish of your choice with help from owners Mario and Pericles (the latter is also a noted rembetika singer).

Named after co-owner Lindsay Lohan, this dance megaclub hosts live mainly hip-hop and R&B DJ sets and gets guests into the party mood with zingy cocktails, light shows, and theme nights like "Dance N Roses" on Friday and "Showtime Party" on Sunday.

Brasserie by day and buzzy hip bar at night, this place is ideal for spending hours chatting at little tables on the sidewalk over great drinks and watching the world go by. It's fun in wintertime, too, whether you're indoors or out on the street.

At this traditional, but somewhat dated as a place and concept, music taverna you can get a taste of folk dances and costumes from throughout Greece. At the end of the night the music turns more "Eastern,"and everybody is invited to show off their own dance moves (if you don't want to dance, pick your seat accordingly). The price of this slice of old-style Greek entertainment is fair; there's a reasonably priced prix-fixe menu and wine by the bottle.

Combine excellent wine with cultural exploration at this new venue, set in a fascinatingly decorated, sizable, and impressive postindustrial building that serves as a multievent space. The café-bar serves everything from cold-pressed juices and designer Greek herbal teas to sophisticated cocktails, regional wines, and finger food, while the exhibition spaces host permanent and temporary photo, art, and installation shows. The space is also designed to host events.

Dark, moody, and very atmospheric, with a long bar lined with leather stools upon which the city's hip and glamorous people sip their cocktails, this newish spot can easily become a favorite hangout. Drinks are accompanied by small cold-cut meze instead of the usual bowl of nuts, and cocktails are expertly crafted. Music is very important to both the owners and customers here, and every Wednesday and Sunday DJs play vinyl-record sessions, while on other nights you'll hear everything from German B-movie soundtracks to spiritual jazz. To experience the bar in its full stylish glory, head here between 6 and 8 pm and sprawl out. After that it gets extremely busy on most nights.

Now in its 22nd year, this gay-friendly bar-club-lounge attracts a standing-room-only crowd every weekend. The draw is the great music, the joyous vibe, and the very fact that it's in Gazi, where a number of LGBTQ-friendly spots are located.

Over-the-top is the way to describe a performance at Rex Music Theatre—it's a laser-light show, multi-costume-change extravaganza, with headlining pop and bouzouki stars. Programs and performances change every season, so do check out the local press for the most current listings.