16 Best Bars in Attica and Delphi, Greece

This creative bar-café-restaurant comes in the style of an open-plan house, complete with playroom and pool area. It's the ultimate "all things to everyone" stop-by, and despite the pompous name and concept-pushing, it's great fun—albeit not cheap. By day, board games and pool tables are wheeled out in its cozy womb of a café, with a contemporary Greek menu on hand. A playground area takes care of the kids, while entrance to the beach has a fee (€8), with a private section (€12) for those who want more space to swim. Then, once the sun sets, the café becomes the perfect spot to slowly sip a cocktail on the beachfront as the evening gives way to live music (usually on Thursday) or local DJs. It's open year-round.

Greek music—sometimes live—sets the lively tone: drop by for a drink or tuck into a large gourmet menu of meaty offerings Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. In the small hours, you can still get finger food, and some center tables might be removed to make room for dancing and, even better, for some legendary "flower wars" among happy club goers. Smart dress is strongly recommended.

Dubbing itself a "Resto Vino Bar" doesn't mean much in this town of chameleonic bars. Like everything else on the main square, it doubles up as a café from morning until late afternoon, only slipping into party mode in the evening. The food here is mostly the standard burgers and bar snacks but it does have a bit of adventure about it, and the wine selection and cocktails are more than decent.

Locals are jazzed by this bar's unexpectedly distressed neoclassical interior, which adopts a distinctly "more is more" approach to decor. It sets a decadent tone for a café-bar that segues neatly from espressos to cocktails as the evening edges in. Regular live music (often with a '50s rock and roll vibe) and some creative bar food make this a rising star.

Little beats the huge, showy cocktails of Holy Spirit, except perhaps the decor. It's surely the only bar in the world where a full-size Mini Cooper counts as a wall ornament. The perfect complement to the see-and-be-seen shopping streets of Glyfada.

The exterior of this cozy café-bar, tucked away from the main road, is smothered in greenery, lending it a slightly fairy-tale vibe that blends with the quirky log cabin look (complete with fake animal skins and paper trophy heads) inside. The appetizing brunch menu is all cheese-slathered toasties and syrup-dripping pancakes, while in the evening it turns into a slick bar with fine cocktails and DJs.

Don't be misled by the name: a wine bar, not a gallery (although temporary exhibitions of up-and-coming Greek artists are often shown here) combines the traditional village aura of an old mansion (built in 1760) with a monklike austerity accentuated by tall candles. A selection of excellent Greek wine is on offer, or you can opt for one of the cocktails. The cheese platters are an ideal accompaniment to your drink, while the jazzy notes in the background will not obstruct your conversation. It opens nightly at 7 pm.

Claim a place at the bar of this flashy and pricey beachside restaurant to observe the fashionable exchange air kisses and to cast an eye around for any C-list celebs staggering in, then hit the club. People come in waves, either by car or yacht: some early for drinks, some late for dancing, and some flowing from the bar to the restaurant to the dance floor. Inside, the restaurant's creative Mediterranean cuisine has substance behind the dazzle, while the dance floor usually displays the opposite. The mid-September end-of-summer party is the biggest annual event in Vouliagmeni.

The Margi's beach escape carves off its own little nub of Kavouri's Thespados beach, evolving from a café-restaurant by day to a great spot for an (organic) evening meal, to a busy bar with live music as the sun ebbs away and swimming trunks give way to party attire. Good wine, excellent cocktails, and great views make it worth seeking out.

Kiprou Street is a gauntlet of all-day café-bars these days, each morphing seamlessly from post-shopping brunch and espressos to full-on restaurant, to DJs and cocktails as the light fades. Pere-Ubu is one of the oldest yet still its most electric; its industrial style manages to be hip without being obnoxious. Excellent burgers accompany a good selection of cocktails as you segue into the evening. It's one of the busier spots in town, so book a table and be patient—service is pretty slow.

A likeable bolthole when Arachova fills during winter. Expect good cocktails, live DJ nights, and a lingering sense that you're somehow cozier than everyone else in town.

Vouliagmeni is not a raging nightspot, though the cafés and restaurants that run the strip along Agios Panteleimonos mostly tend to turn into drinking spots once the aperitivo hour sets in. It's a nice area in which to dwell, screened from the main road by a line of trees but still with views of the ocean. Rumors is the pick of the bunch, with a cozy terrace to while away the evening and an accomplished selection of cocktails. It's worth reserving a table in summer, though, as the secret is long since out.

Another bar that comfortably fits into the café-restaurant-bar mold is Su Casa, on the corner of Kiprou and Plateia Nymfon. The main lure is its rather nicely shaded garden terrace, which offers a welcome break from the sun. But as the night winds on, the cocktail hour approaches and it comes into its own with an array of signature drinks to accompany a vast list of speciality rums, gins, and vodkas.

A bar that coasts along on some the better views of the Athenian coast from its rooftop. The cocktails are decent enough, and the shisha pipes brings a young crowd, but you come for the sunsets.

A rather chill little wine bar that lies tucked into one of the streets off the main drag. It's nailed the standard metropolitan wine bar look and has an unexpectedly good line in sushi. The music is rarely offensive and its drinks selection offers a good intro to Greek wines.

Catch a coffee or freshly squeezed mixed-fruit juice by day or a drink by night at at this popular hangout in tree-covered Lakka Square—and don't forget their croissants: the best in town!