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Despite demanding working hours, significantly tighter budgets, and family obligations, Athenians simply refuse to stay home, and will always find good reasons to sit out with friends at a bar until the middle of the night. Athens's heady nightlife starts late. Most bars and clubs don't get hopping until midnight and they stay open at the very least until 3 am. Drink prices can be rather steep (about €9–€13), but the pours are generous, and in recent years the cocktails have become exciting and sophisticated. Often there is a cover charge on weekends at the most popular clubs, which also have bouncers (aptly called "face-control" by Greeks because they tend to let only the "lookers" in). For a uniquely Greek evening, visit a club featuring rembetika music, a type of blues, or the popular bouzoukia (clubs with live bouzouki, a stringed instrument, music). Few clubs take credit cards for drinks.
Nightclubs in Greece migrate with the seasons. From October through May, they're in vast, throbbing venues in Central Athens and the northern suburbs; from June through September, many relocate to luxurious digs on the south coast for moonlit beach views. The same spaces are used from year to year, but owners and names tend to bounce around. Before heading out, check local listings or talk to your hotel concierge, especially during the summer. One way to avoid both lines and cover charges—since partying doesn't get going until after 1 am—is to make an earlier dinner reservation at one of the many clubs that have restaurants as well.
A popular after-hours dive with a cult following. Known for its cozy atmosphere and lively crowd, it offers quality drinks accompanied by Greek music that often inspires spontaneous sing-alongs among locals. While the drinks may be on the pricier side, the vibrant ambience and authentic experience make it a worthwhile stop for night owls seeking a genuine taste of Athens nightlife.
This is a restaurant-bar, but is more known for its late night allure when local celebs and high-end professionals flock there to let loose especially on weekends over a series of cocktails and shots. Whether you prefer the loud, buoyant, shoulder-rubbing indoor vibe or outdoors at a table on one of Kolonaki's most central streets for a less shouty conversation over good wine, this place is one of only a handful where you can stay out and party till the late hours.
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.
This elegant Parisian-style bar and café is frequented by fashion personalities, academics, and thespians alike, who come to unwind over a few cocktails. During the day you'll find a great range of teas and coffees served in porcelain cups. Bistro-style food is also served.
A cool, innovative and creative approach to Athens's new chapter in cocktail culture can be experienced at this awarded place. The bar's main principles are sustainability, seasonality, and invention, with most ingredients being made in the bar's lab next door and the menu changing daily. Outside are high tables with stools and artisanal cocktails served with optional street food–style bites, while in the indoor "jungle" the drinks are more elevated and complex.
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.
Instantly recognizable because of the backlit bottles of liqueur lining its walls, this popular, old-time place in the heart of Plaka draws tourists and locals alike. It is the oldest distillery in town (going strong since 1909) and reputedly the second-oldest bar in the whole of Europe, and serves up a variety of drinks both Greek and international, adding cocktails to its menu in recent years. 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.
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.
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.
Located in a hybrid building that includes accommodations, a ground-floor bar, and a rooftop food and wine venue, this place serves 180 varieties of Greek and international wines by the glass. If you want to combine your wine experience with swoon-inducing views, definitely head for the top, although downstairs has a buzz, too, and is great for people-watching as you sip.
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.
Combine excellent wine with cultural exploration at this new venue, set in a fascinatingly decorated, sizable, and impressive postindustrial building that serves as a multi-event 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 LGBTQIA+-friendly spots are located.
A French wine bar/bistro on an unassuming street in Psirri, that gets flooded by glass-clinking fashionista youths on hot summer nights, this place is as sophisticated as it is rebelliously unpretentious. Sit at a table draped with white table cloth and pair excellent wines with a bite, or just stand around and sip with the crowd.
