Doable in 8 hours?

I don't think you would enjoy your day in Athens with all you have planned. You can easily combine three of your activities. Go to the new Acropolis Museum. Plan on spending about 2 or 3 hours there. You might still feel rushed. Timing should be good for you to go to the Acropolis Museum cafe for lunch. The food is good and reasonably priced. It also has a fantastic view of the Acropolis. The cafe has air conditioning, or you can chose to eat out on the patio. Check out Google for the view from the Acropolis Cafe. You might decide that's good enough. The hike from the Museum to the Acropolis is longer than it appears. Climbing the hill to the Acropolis is very slick. The steps are uneven. Make sure you have good non slip shoes and lots of energy if you decide to climb up to it.

There are lots of little cafe type places with outdoor tables. They are perfect for getting a drink and resting your feet. They are good for people watching too.

We didn't see as much as we wanted the first time in Athens. We've been back a couple more times since then.

I forgot to mention the traffic in Athens is awful. It will take a while to even get into Athens from the ship. I don't remember the exact time, but I'm thinking it was something like an hour. That will need to be figured into your time.

I forgot to mention the traffic in Athens is awful. It will take a while to even get into Athens from the ship. I don't remember the exact time, but I'm thinking it was something like an hour. That will need to be figured into your time.

Regarding grannycb's point on the traffic, can the Athens's experts weigh in on what is the usual travel time (our group has a minibus) from Piraeus port to Acropolis around 7:30 am and the return at around 4:30 pm? It makes a difference in our plans if I should allocate 30 minutes versus one hour each way.

I noticed that there were a lot of views of this thread so I am sharing a couple of the underlying principles I used to put the schedule together, in case other Athen's first time visitors are wondering about that:

1. Historical structures versus museums:

I was re-reading the entire thread and acknowledge that the museums did not get as much time as they should. That was a very difficult choice and didn't even get to include the Stoa (sigh) due to limited time at this port. I read a book (Frommer's 500 Places to See Before They Disappear) and my take away is that these historical structures are disappearing so if we want to see them in their natural habitat and state, do so as soon as we are able to. In comparison, items that are already in the musems are already being preserved and most likely will be still there when we do visit again. So for the cities we are visiting, that is the thought process I was following when I have to make the difficult choice of historical structure versus museum. I just hope that we will be lucky enough like the other posters so come again someday.

2. A packed "see as much as we can" pace but only get a taste of the places versus a more leisurely and more in depth visit of a few selected places. Another difficult choice. For a first time visit of the place, I opt for the 1st method and see as much as I can, in case I don't come back to the place again. For a return visit, I choose the 2nd method and focus on certain places at a more leisurely pace. This strategy has worked well. For example, I have visited the Holy Land and Argentina. Hectic trips where we saw a lot of the places which I am glad we did because I am not sure I will have a chance to visit them again since as previously mentioned, the bucket list is long. In comparison, we are lucky enough to visit again places such as London and Rome. And for those return visits, we opted for the more leisurely pace. It does sound like we should put a return trip to Greece in our list--just saw pictures of Cappadocia and still lots to see at Athens.

Btw, the title of this thread might be misleading. It is really 8 hours for the actual sightseeing plus up to 2 hours for the travel time between port and city so up to 10 hours total for this port stop.

Athens will be a first time visit so we are trying to see as much as we can. The big question is about calibrating the schedule. It will be packed but i hope I can put together a realistic and achievable plan, with adequate time to be back at the ship before it sails away. I am continuing to tweak our schedule--I now have classified the places under either the Priority 1 versus Priority 2 list. Again, thank you for your responses/feedback.

When do the crowds die down? Our ship only docks at 12:00, and I am rying to determine the best time to visit the Acropolis.

Difficult to tell when the crowds die down. My guess would be after 1pm. On our way out, approximately 10am, it was literally "wall to wall" of people...we didn't wait around. :)

It also depends on your stamina with the heat & humidity ;)

 

I would combine the Plaka visit with lunch

 

Is this a port stop or are your there before or after the cruise?

I would choose the hightlights for you then if you have time do the other things on your list

 

Enjoy

I'd cut out the changing of the guards and the shopping, and agree, you don't need to spend two hours at the Acropolis.

Combine lunch, shopping and Plaka into an hour. It will give you a tourist's taste, a bite to eat and a chance to buy a souvenir or two.

You really have to factor heat and humidity if you are visiting Athens late July, August into early September. It can be brutally hot and that slows down the most hearty of folks.

Acropolis requires at a very minimum an hour to see what is the most worth seeing, IMO I think you cheat yourself if you try to do a Chevy Chase in the movie 'Vacation' and fly by everything which leaves you seeing little to nothing.

I'd skip changing of the guard. It is brief, not as impressive as in other cities in Europe and being there on time could upset the rhythmn of the rest of your touring.

Athens is a fabulous city and while I understand you only have one day there, you cannot possibly do it justice in a day. Pare down your 'must sees', if you can.

In any case, enjoy it.

It could be don in sneakers ....

Coming back to this thread to just provide feedback about our experience (several years late but better late than never). We had an amazing time at Athens! We ended up taking out the Temple of Zeus and we just viewed the Theater of Dionysus from afar. But we did everything else. We traded our Plaka shopping time for a seat-in meal at a restaurant so we were able to enjoy Greek food. We went in early June so the weather was hot but not yet unbearable.

I credit our successful tour to our tour guide, Kapi Panou. She was awesome! She calibrated the tour to increase/decrease the time for the various sites to make them most interesting to us. She was even able to add a visit to a small but historically significant church and a quick stop to the metro station that had an interesting display about the excavations at that site. When we visited the New Acropolis Museum, she narrated the displays in such a way that it mimics how a traveller to Acropolis would have experienced it in ancient times. Kapi had excellent English and she had a wealth of knowledge about the various sites. Not surprising since she is a trainer for tour guides. We found her in Viator and her price was reasonable for a large group like ours. I do wish to come back to Athens someday to do touring on our own for a more in depth experience and some shopping :-)

Thank you for coming back with the update. Athens (ok, actually Piraeus) will be my embarkation port next year, but even 3 full days doesn't seem like enough time to see everything.

The ride in and back plus navigating the big port you need to give yourself an hour each way. Zeus can be seen in a couple of minutes, changing of the guard is non stop so 15 minutes. Start at acropolis, line for tickets can be big, come down hill to museum in the plaka, walk to Zeus, stadium, through to parliament etc then plaka and getting a cab back is fun. Make sure you negotiate price before getting in.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

You're welcome. You're right, two days is not enough. It was definitely only a taste of Athens. I do hope to come back someday to savor Athens. There was still other places to see. It was hard to pass by the Stoa and not go see it. And hard to walk through Plaka and see many nice Greek-style dresses and sandals and not have time to shop.

And I agree with Tiggertastic. We allocated one hour each way to/from ship so 10 hours total and it worked well for us.

Hope you all have an awesome trip!

In case anyone is interested, our awesome guide's contact info is as follows:

KapiPanou

Philosophical School - University of Athens

Licensed Tourist Guide for Greece

Trainer - School of Guides, Athens, 2005 - 2010

National Trainer of WFTGA

Tel.:+30 6976122505

E-mail: kapipanou@yahoo.gr

I found our itinerary for the 8 hour walking tour of Athens. Add one hour in the front and back ends for the trip from/to Piraeus Port for total of 10 hours.

7:00: Leave Piraeus port and drive to Athens.

8:00 am: Meet guide at the base of the Acropolis. Start our walk towards the top of the Acropolis rock. See Propylaea, Parthenon, Erechtheion (copies of the Caryatids in situ, at the Erechtheion). See the PanathenaicStadium, from a distance - the best possible view of the Stadium (totally out of our way).

9:30 am: Depart the top of the Acropolis & walkthrough the southern slopes of the rock, towards the Theater of Dionysos. Arrive & see the Theater of Dionysos.

10:00 am: Exit the archaeological site of the Acropolis, through the exit of the Theater. Pass by the New Acropolis Museum & continue, through the pedestrian Dionysios the Areopagite street, towards the Temple of Olympios Zeus, passing next to the Gate of Hadrian (or Arch of Hadrian, wrongly called so).

10:30 am: Enter the site of the Temple of Zeus & walk close to it.

11:00 am: Depart the Temple of Zeus and walk towards Syndagma Square, in order to catch up with the Changeof the Guards, at 12:00 pm. See some sites, on the way (National Gardens, Churches, metro excavations, etc.).

12:00 pm: Be at the Parliament Building & Memorial to the Unknown Soldier & watch the Change of the Guards. After the Change of the Guards, walk through SyndagmaSquare, towards & through Ermou Street. See (and pay a quick visit, if open) the unique "Kapnikarea" Byzantine church. Continue, through the Old City of Athens, towards Monastiraki Square (old market area).

1:00 pm: Enjoy an hour's exploration, for quick "souvlaki" & Greek salad lunch and shopping.

2:00 pm: Meet in front of the ancient Agora, so as to enter the site for a visit to the Temple of Hephaestus.

2:45 pm: Depart the upper exit of the Agora & walk towards the New Acropolis Museum. If we are lucky & meet the little trainon wheels (on the way), we could jump on to it and get to the Museum quicker...It costs approx. 6 euros, per person (hopefully, ticket will not be increased this year).

3:15 pm: Arrive at the Entrance of the New Acropolis Museum. Quick visito f the Museum - just to see the original Caryatids & the Parthenon'ssculptures, not to mention the unique inner arrangement & structure of the Museum, which is worth seeing.

4:00 pm: Pick up the mini-bus, from the coach park(at the back of the New Acropolis Museum). Transfer back to Piraeus Port.

5:00: Back at ship.