Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1
ATHENS TOURS
A couple of companies, City Sightseeing (
T
210 922 0604,
W
citysightseeing.gr) and Athens
City Tour (
T
210 881 5207,
W
athens-citytour.com), offer very similar open-top
bus tours
of
Athens, for similar prices (€18 adults, €8 children; discounts online). The tours start from
Sýndagma square at least every half hour, last about 90 minutes (an extended version also
takes in Pireás) and you can hop off and on at numerous stops along the way. For kids
especially, the Happy Train, an hour-long trip around the centre (€6 adults, €3 children), can be
a fun alternative: it leaves from Ermoú at the corner of Sýndagma square.
More enterprising alternatives include a variety of
walking tours
with Athens Walking Tours
(
T
210 884 7269,
W
athenswalkingtours.gr). These are pricey (from around €36 for three hours)
but highly informative - the food tours are particularly recommended. A less professional, but
free, alternative is offered by Athens Free Walking Tour (
W
athensfreewalkingtour.com). If you're
feeling brave, Athens by Bike (Tziréon 16 at Dhionysíou Areopayítou, metro Akrópoli,
T
2130
423 922,
W
athensbybike.gr) offers hour-long
bike
tours from just €7.50. Wackier still, you can
cruise the pedestrian streets around the Acropolis or National Gardens on a
Segway
with
Athens Segway Tours (Eskhínou 9, metro Akrópoli,
T
210 322 2500,
W
athenssegwaytours.com;
€49 for 90 minutes).
RAFÍNA
The port of Rafína (see p.118), about 30km from central
Athens, has fast ferries and catamarans to the Cyclades as well
as to Marmári on nearby Évvia. It is connected by KTEL bus
with the Mavrommatéon terminal in Athens (every 30min;
1hr) and also has direct buses to the airport (13 daily; 40min).
There are ticket agents all round the port, and the bus terminal
is right on the seafront, facing the open sea; get your ticket on
the bus. The main destinations served (most at least twice a
day) are Ándhros, Tínos, Páros, Mýkonos, Íos, Thíra and Náxos,
plus at least five daily to Marmári: the vast majority of ferries
leave either early morning or late afternoon.
LÁVRIO
Lávrio
lies close to the southern tip of Attica, some 60km
from the centre of Athens. Its ferries mainly serve Kéa (at
least three daily) and Kýthnos (at least one a day) but there
are also services twice or more a week to the northeast
Aegean - Áyios Efstrátios, Límnos and Kavála, or Psará and
Híos - and to many of the Cycladic islands via Sýros. KTEL
buses run between Lávrio and the airport
(20 daily; 30min),
as well as the Mavrommatéon terminal in Athens (hourly;
1hr 40min).
INFORMATION AND TOURS
Greek National Tourist O
ce
Dhionysíou Areopayítou
18-20, just by the entrance to the South Slope of the
Acropolis (Mon-Fri 9am-7pm, Sat & Sun 10am-4pm;
W
gnto.gr; Metro Akrópoli). This is a useful first stop and
they have a good free map as well as information sheets on
current museum and site opening hours, bus schedules and
so on. If you are arriving by plane, you can save time by
calling in at the airport branch.
Athens City Tourism
Provides an infopoint at the airport
and an excellent website,
W
breathtakingathens.com -
check out the interactive maps.
GETTING AROUND
Athens is served by slow but ubiquitous
buses
, a fast, mostly modern
metro
system, and a
tram
service that runs from
the centre to the beach suburbs.
Taxis
are also plentiful and, for short journeys in town, exceptionally cheap.
Driving
is a
traffic-crazed nightmare, and parking far worse. If you do have a car, you're strongly advised to find somewhere to park it
for the duration of your stay and not attempt to use it to get around the city centre.
has central stops at Omónia, Sýndagma and Akrópoli at the
foot of the Acropolis; and Line 3 (blue; Egaléo to the
airport) passes through Monastiráki and Sýndagma. Some
of the new stations are attractions in their own right,
displaying artefacts discovered in their excavation
(numerous important discoveries were made) and other
items of local interest - Sýndagma and Akrópoli are
particularly interesting central ones.
BY METRO
The expanded metro
system is much the easiest way to
get around central Athens; it's fast, quiet and
user-friendly.
Metro lines and stations
There are three lines: Line 1
(green; Pireás to Kifissiá) is the original section, with useful
stops in the centre at Thissío, Monastiráki, Omónia and
Viktorías; Line 2 (red; Áyios Antónios to Áyios Dhimítrios)
