One Summer Week in Athens with Tweens

We went to Athens to check out the cool sights and catch up with family. We managed to squeeze in visits to the Acropolis, Plaka and Yia-Yia. We were lucky our Emirates flight was one of the best flights we’ve had. We flew out during the Crowdstrike/Microsoft outage, but luckily our transfers and departure to Athens went without a hitch. We were super lucky to score some reasonable Business seats, so we had a pretty comfy midnight flight with a decent few hours of shut-eye. They even gave us fancy amenity kits and silky pajamas, which some people actually changed into on the flight. I wasn’t about to try changing in a tiny airplane bathroom, so I just stuck to my comfy clothes for the 9 and a half hour journey. We arrived on time and I had prearranged a transfer from the airport to our place in Athens. We stayed at the Acropolis View Deluxe Penthouse and Luxury Apartments in a 2 bed/2 bath with a full kitchen, perfect for using the kitchen for water and leftovers needed for our stay. We did return after our week long Greek Island boat tour, see my blog, and stayed at NYX Esperia Palace Hotel Athens, which was great with connecting rooms for our family of four, but was better suited to a younger clientele, ie. loud music at night and a clear shower area. Though it did offer free breakfast so that helped before our flight home, on Emirates, of course.

Our Viator tours:

• Greek Small Group Athens Food Cooking Class & Dinner (4:30 pm class)
• Greek Food Walking Tour Athens (9am start)
• Athens: Acropolis, Parthenon and Acropolis Museum Guided Tour (7:45 am Start)
• Private tour: Olympic Games Workout in Athens (8am start)
• In case you have more time for day trips, take a look at our Greece Viator Store
• BigBus Tours drove by often and very useful for those hot days : Big Bus Tour Athens
• Use Daytrip for your transfers to add stops between places or just transfer to and from the hotel/airport
• Tip: Download FREENOW App before you head to Athens to request taxis/ebikes/escooters in Athens, does work in other European countries as well. Very similar to Uber with tracking and driver info. Uber works as well but more drivers for FREENOW available.
• Tip: Stay connected while traveling with Airalo eSim Card. Worked great for us, take a look.

During the cooking class we made lamb and potato, dolmades, zucchini fritters, Greek salad, and spinach pie. We then took some pictures because the restaurant had a nice view of the Acropolis and ate our home cooked meal.

The Street Food tour did offer a few Greek surprises and we enjoyed eating our way through Athens. I highly recommend it! Great to see Greek grocery shopping and their meat/fish market to appreciate a different way of shopping. See slideshow below.

The Acropolis and Museum tour was awesome but tough because of the heat and the huge crowds. I totally get why everyone wants to be there, it’s such an important historical site, but the crowds kind of kill the vibe and make it hard to really soak it all in. The government has instituted mandatory timed tickets, but there was still a line to get in even at 730am. But it was totally worth it, you can’t visit Athens without checking it out at least once, and I’m glad the kids got to experience the history and mythology tied to the place. The museum was fantastic too, they did a great job replicating the building inside it, and the restaurant had a killer view of the Acropolis. Tip: We brought personal neck fans and water bottles (filling station at the top) to this tour to stay cool, I would recommend it for any summer touring. See slideshow below.

The Olympic Workout was a blast! It was a nice change from the usual routine. We gathered at Zappeion Hall, which was the first building to be erected specifically for the revival of the Olympic Games in the modern world. Fun fact: you can spot non-native green parrots around the building and in the park in front. We got training in shot put, discus, long jump, javelin, and a quick run. The best part? We did the run at the same Stadium where the Olympics took place, the Panathenaic Stadium. It was so much fun, and the kids had a great time with this “workout” mixed with a bit of history and sightseeing. See slideshow below.

TIP: We tried not to do much between noon and 5 pm because it was crazy hot at that time. We just chilled at the apartment or grabbed lunch in the cool. Lots of tourists try to cram everything in, but with temperatures hitting 99 degrees F, it’s better to take a breather during the hottest hours and get going early in the morning or later in the day. I scheduled all my tours for 7-8 am or 5 pm and later.

In between all of our tours and lunches, we enjoyed time with family and finding new places to walk around in Athens. Some great places we found to eat were:

• Mailo’s Pasta Place (right by the apartment)
• Django Gelato
• Lukumades store in the Plaka area (best Greek dessert: loukoumades)
• Pistachioland (all things Pistachio)
• Cafe Patisserie Alchemist (desserts/coffee)
• Ducklin (rubber duck store)
• Little Kook (cute themed restaurants in the center of Athens, desserts and drinks)
• Goody’s Burger House (Greek fast food chain, multiple locations- get the chicken nuggets, real chicken, LOL!)
• Da Panda (Chinese-when you get sick of souvlaki)
• Temple of Olympian Zeus and Arch of Hadrian– walking distance to the apartment and the Plaka area
• See slideshow below for above places/sites

This week was short and sweet, but we did get the full feel for Athens and enjoyed every minute. I would recommend, especially in summer to take it easy and not overpack the week. This schedule worked great for us with the least amount of complaining…. from adults and kids.