Athens DIY. What we did. (w/photos)

I’d like to share with you all what we did during our time in Athens for the Grand Mediterranean cruise in May. Our ship docked in Piraeus and we took the Metro to visit the Acropolis and Ancient Agora. Then we walked along Ermou Street and then take the Metro back to the port city.

Our ship (Ruby Princess) docked in Terminal A and we took their free shuttle to Terminal B. According to my research, if we were to walk along the water with it to our left for 20 minutes, we would see the Metro station. We got impatient and thought we got lost, so went inside a CitiBank to ask for directions. Unluckily, we got some really bad directions, which was not consistent with what CC folks had advised. The next thing we knew, we were in a very sketchy area. It just didn’t seem right. We could see the Metro train tracks but where was the station? I asked an older man who walked by and he was extremely nice but didn’t speak a word of English. With hand gestures and simple words like “Athina” and “Ominia”, he helped us find our way. There was another man walked by, offering to show us the Metro station and the older man gave us a facial expression implying that we should not follow him. We appreciated it very much. So, the lesson learnt was: follow CC folks’ recommendations and invest in a good walking map with street names and hopefully landmarks in cartoons. I found Google maps not good enough.

So, if you follow the water on your left, you would see the big Metro station. There is an overpass/bridge with escalators and elevators if you are on the other side of the street.

We bought the 4 Euro all day ticket in the window, and went on the train. Don’t forget to validate your ticket on the platform prior to getting on! The labeling of the train was not good at all. Many tourists were just taking a leap of faith. However, it is a Metro terminal and looks like only one train goes there. We did not worry too much. It was a first for my husband to use public transportation in a country neither of us had been to, so I reassured him we were on the right train by pointing out each station as we got there.

To go to Acropolis from Piraeus, we took Metro Green Line 1, from Piraeus to Ominia, and looked for the platform for Red Line 2 to transfer to Akropoli, toward the direction of Aghios Dimitrios. At the station of Akropoli, there were a lot of stairs involved to go up. I joked, “Do I have to climb all these stairs already before going up the Acropolis? Is this like a preview?” At the station, there were historic artifacts of Greece displayed. Out of the station, we walked up to the main road and turned left to walk up the hill to look for the entrance to the Acropolis.

We first passed by a ticket booth to our right, but since we are going to use the Rick Steve’s audio walking tour and it starts at a different location, we continued on to find the other entrance. It’d have been a good idea to buy your ticket there as the ticket line was much shorter than the one at the other entrance uphill.

As you walk uphill, you could see the Acropolis on your right. Turn right and walk up, then you’d see some more stairs. You would pass by a public restroom to your right, and in the front to your left would be the other ticket booth (in yellow) and the tiny gift shop.

At the entrance gate, there were huge crowds of tour groups standing, waiting around. We walked around them and entered the site. Just a little bit uphill, the next thing you know, you’re already up here:

And walking up a bit more, you’re at the Parthenon.

Because we lost some time in Piraeus, we ended up visiting the Acropolis with the ship tour groups. It was nice to see some out of the way steps and stones to sit on to catch our breath.

Tip: the other side of the Parthenon way less crowded and a better location to take your photo with it.

Tip: looking down to the city from up here give you a good sense of direction which way to go next on your DIY journey.

Our next stop was the Ancient Agora. We followed the exit sign and walked downhill, then we turned right. Not knowing exactly where it would lead us, I followed my gut feeling as it was the general direction to the Agora. There were more roads to go downhill. And the bottom of the hill, there was a gate, which happened to be the other entrance of the Agora.

Up the mountain was the Acropolis, the gate you see is the entrance. There was a ticket booth asking to see your combo ticket for entry.

We looked up the photos from Rick Steve’s app, and realized we were at the sight close to the end of the audio tour. Instead of walking all the way to the front and coming back, we decided to just jump to the tracks as we got to it. (It was not easy.)

The museum inside the Ancient Agora. It houses free restrooms, in which I had trouble using the sink to wash my hands. I guess because it was my first visit to a European restroom, I did not know you use a foot pedal to get water to come out.

We exited the Agora and wanted to get to the famous kebab street for lunch. To get there, we made a right, passing the touristy “fine dining” restaurants and souvenir stores, then we saw Monastiraki Square and the Metro station.

Monastiraki Square. The kebab street is to the right of this stoned structure.

This side street is Mitropoloeos, where we found the restaurant Thanasis about 2nd on our right.

After a morning of ruins, we wanted to sit down. If you’re sensitive to 2nd hand smoke, I advise you to sit inside. I wish I thought of that. We got two cokes, one Thanasis Kebab plate and one pork souvlaki plate to share. The portion was great!

Thanasis Kebab was what everyone was ordering and indeed was very tasty!

If you do not plan to sit down, you could get the souvlaki wrap for to-go. We saw patrons get that one after another. I’m sure it’s much cheaper too.

I wanted to check out the modern area of Athens, so we walked up and down the nearby Ermou Street.

Ermou Street is basically pedestrian only and lined with non-souvenir style stores. I was amazed how many shoe stores there were and it was tempting. At the end of the street, we saw the Parliament building and turned around to Monastiraki Square to take the Metro Green L1 straight to Pireaus. Back in Pireaus, we followed the water and went back to ship terminal.

With the whole mishap about finding the Metro in the morning, we ended up skipping the National Archaeological Museum. One major reason was that we got put off a bit by the amount of graffiti we came across, and I did some negative reading on the neighbor around the museum. We felt like we already saw what we came to see, and was happy to call it a day.

It’s said that Greece

was in the middle of the political turmoil but we did not encounter or witness any riot or anything different from normal life.

Hope you enjoy reading the post! After I’m done with all the port DIY posts, I will put up the ship review with the links to these posts.

(If anyone who can tell me an easy way how to make the images a bit smaller, I'd appreciate it. So far I'm just typing in the URL of the image in the "Insert Image" field.)

Thanks, that was great.

One addition, if you don't want to walk from the ship to the Metro station, you can take a bus. When you get up to the street, cross over and buy the ticket from the kiosk. The Metro ticket is also good for the bus. Buses 843 and 859 go to the Metro station.

Great info! Thank you! One question. Are the names of the metro stations (in the stations) listed in Greek and the English translation or just Greek? Wondering how easy it was to navigate.

Thanks for all of the helpful info. Can you tell me how long it took to get from Monastiraki back to the ship?

Great info! Thank you! One question. Are the names of the metro stations (in the stations) listed in Greek and the English translation or just Greek? Wondering how easy it was to navigate.

The names are listed in both Greek and English.

The only tricky one I came across was the Monastiraki station, which could also be spelled as Monastirion. I was using the route map at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Athens_metro_2007.png. More info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastiraki_station.

If you're really worried, just compare your route map with the one posted on the wall, such as the one on top of the stairs in the first photo of this thread.

Thanks for all of the helpful info. Can you tell me how long it took to get from Monastiraki back to the ship?

You can use this website: http://www.isap.gr/eng/index.asp

Simply choose the stations you want.

The walk from the Piraeus station to the ship, for example, Terminal A, was about 20 minutes.

Thanks, that was great.

 

One addition, if you don't want to walk from the ship to the Metro station, you can take a bus. When you get up to the street, cross over and buy the ticket from the kiosk. The Metro ticket is also good for the bus. Buses 843 and 859 go to the Metro station.

I suggested that to my husband at first, but he got intimidated by all the kiosk guys we passed by and decided to walk. The strange thing was, I kept an eye out for all the buses that passed by, and didn't see one with either bus number. (Not to scare off those who plan to take the bus. Maybe we ventured out too far...)

Thank you for sharing. We are doing the same cruise at the end of August. This helps a lot.

Yes, you did a great job of explaining using the metro to get to Athens/and the other directions as well. Loved the pics.

I had researched taking the HOHO bus. The price is 22 euros.

How long did it take on the metro to get to where you got off in Athens?

We DIY'ed in Athens last week and had similar experiences so I can answer a few questions.

First, the '20 minute walk' from Terminal B to the Metro station which Rick Steve's describes is closer to a 30 minute walk (and we don't dawdle!). We were fortunate to run into fellow cruisers who were doing the same thing so we didn't bail early thinking we were lost. I would do it again but just would have liked to have known that it's about a mile and a half walk in my estimation.

Time from Piraeus to Monastariki by Metro is 20 to 25 minutes.

If you plan to buy tickets at the main Acropolis gate, get there early. We arrived at 10:30 and the line was about 45 minutes long. We heard from others on our cruise that there was no line by 12:30 p.m. so maybe we should have gone in the afternoon.

Rick Steve's audioguides worked great. We did the Acropolis one and the walking tour of the Plaka/Syntagma Square.

We were in Athens the day after their elections last week and you would have never known it (except for the media camped out at the hotels lining Syntagma Square).

We liked Athens much better than we had expected to. Acropolis is amazing (couldn't believe we were there!) and the Plaka is a lovely area. The graffiti is ubiquitous and many on our cruise thought Athens was 'dirty' because of it. It's definitely too bad but some of it is quite artistic so it didn't bother us.

When returning to the Port on the metro, we opted for a 8Euro cab ride back to Terminal B.

We have always found Athens to be among the easist DIY ports. Yes, the walk over to the train station (in Pireaus) can take up to 30 min....but there is also a public bus route which you can take from across the street of the port over to the train station. I believe that now that they have combined the Metro and bus ticket systems a single ticket can be used on both the bus and Metro (there is a time limit which is about 1:30). Once in Athens we prefer to walk just about everywhere but its also possible to use the Metro to save some walking. There is a great walking route from the Acropolis area through the Plaka to Syntagma Square which combines the most famous sites with the neat Plaka shopping/eating neighborhood. If you buy the all day ticket (about 4 Euro) that will cover the bus (from near the port over to the station) and all days transportation (including getting back to the ship). It's hard to beat 4 Euros for the cost of an all day tour (just get a tour book such as the Rick Steves guide and follow the suggested walking tour).

Hank

We have always found Athens to be among the easist DIY ports. Yes, the walk over to the train station (in Pireaus) can take up to 30 min....but there is also a public bus route which you can take from across the street of the port over to the train station. I believe that now that they have combined the Metro and bus ticket systems a single ticket can be used on both the bus and Metro (there is a time limit which is about 1:30). Once in Athens we prefer to walk just about everywhere but its also possible to use the Metro to save some walking. There is a great walking route from the Acropolis area through the Plaka to Syntagma Square which combines the most famous sites with the neat Plaka shopping/eating neighborhood. If you buy the all day ticket (about 4 Euro) that will cover the bus (from near the port over to the station) and all days transportation (including getting back to the ship). It's hard to beat 4 Euros for the cost of an all day tour (just get a tour book such as the Rick Steves guide and follow the suggested walking tour).

 

Hank

Great info. We will be in Athens on 9/10/2012 on the Equinox and we are thinking about taking the Athens Free Walking Tour. Anyone try this?

Thanks!

Yes, you did a great job of explaining using the metro to get to Athens/and the other directions as well. Loved the pics.

 

I had researched taking the HOHO bus. The price is 22 euros.

 

How long did it take on the metro to get to where you got off in Athens?

Thank you, captainsail. Which HOHO bus are you using? I see City Sightseeing has one for a few Euros less than that and looks pretty good.

The metro ride for me was about 20min + 3min transfer + 5min to the Akropolis station.

We were in Athens the day after their elections last week and you would have never known it (except for the media camped out at the hotels lining Syntagma Square).

lovestx, glad to hear that you enjoyed Athens very much! Lucky to you that nothing happened to you for going there the day after the election. It could have gone any way, you know...

Hmm. Not really :)

It was just elections.

Only foreign press tended to think this was something to talk about in a "something may happen" way.

Greeks just voted and that was all. Then they went for their Sunday eating out :)

Nothing would happen, any way things were going, except some newspapers frenzy.

Thanks for the great pictures and informations.We'll be there in Oct. This will be helpful, since this is the first time for us.

Really appreciate all your work in making Athens a DIY adventure. Will be there Sept. 2012

At the station of Akropoli, there were a lot of stairs involved to go up. I joked, “Do I have to climb all these stairs already before going up the Acropolis? Is this like a preview?

There are escalators in all Athens metro stations but not at every exit. You need to look for this sign:

Well, since it didn't kill you to use the stairs I guess it's not an issue for you and may have done you some good. But for us elder types an escalator sure would be nice to have, ;)

Thanks for sharing the photo, cruise pup. :)

Probably because of those stairs and the like, I ended up losing weight from this cruise! :D

Thanks for sharing the photo, cruise pup. :)

Probably because of those stairs and the like, I ended up losing weight from this cruise! :D

Well, when you're off the ship, running around all day, instead of having 8 meals, it's bound to happen. I did a cruise to Turkey, Greece in Israel last October. I would get back to the ship around 7 pm and lie down. Next thing I know, dinner was over and I'm too tired to get out of bed and get to the phone to call room service.

Thanks for sharing the photos and what you did.

Keith

We DIY'ed in Athens last week and had similar experiences so I can answer a few questions.

 

First, the '20 minute walk' from Terminal B to the Metro station which Rick Steve's describes is closer to a 30 minute walk (and we don't dawdle!). We were fortunate to run into fellow cruisers who were doing the same thing so we didn't bail early thinking we were lost. I would do it again but just would have liked to have known that it's about a mile and a half walk in my estimation.

 

Time from Piraeus to Monastariki by Metro is 20 to 25 minutes.

 

If you plan to buy tickets at the main Acropolis gate, get there early. We arrived at 10:30 and the line was about 45 minutes long. We heard from others on our cruise that there was no line by 12:30 p.m. so maybe we should have gone in the afternoon.

 

Rick Steve's audioguides worked great. We did the Acropolis one and the walking tour of the Plaka/Syntagma Square.

 

We were in Athens the day after their elections last week and you would have never known it (except for the media camped out at the hotels lining Syntagma Square).

 

We liked Athens much better than we had expected to. Acropolis is amazing (couldn't believe we were there!) and the Plaka is a lovely area. The graffiti is ubiquitous and many on our cruise thought Athens was 'dirty' because of it. It's definitely too bad but some of it is quite artistic so it didn't bother us.

 

When returning to the Port on the metro, we opted for a 8Euro cab ride back to Terminal B.

Hello LoveSTX,

How did you get a taxi from the Metro station at Piraeus to the ship at terminal B which is only 1 mile or so?

Thanks,

Bruce4fun

Hello LoveSTX,

How did you get a taxi from the Metro station at Piraeus to the ship at terminal B which is only 1 mile or so?

Thanks,

Bruce4fun

We simply exited the metro station and there was a cab stand. We thought the driver wanted to charge us more than he should have (he wanted 9Euros) but we ended up paying 8 Euros and gave him a 2 Euro tip (bit of a story here about negotiations that were stupid on our part). But there were plenty of cabs if I remember correctly.