5 Reasons for a City Break in Athens!

So we spent 4 days total in Athens while on our mini Europe Tour. We both really enjoyed the City and it made us think what an underrated City Athens is! Especially because so many people visit Greece but head straight to the islands. And we get it, the Greek islands are beautiful and that’s where you’ll have a real chilled holiday, but we think that you should consider a city break in Athens too. Here are our top 5 reasons to visit Athens:

1. Athens is SUPER Cheap and it can be visited on a Budget!

We found Athens to be really good value for money, it’s possible to get a meal in a restaurant in the tourist area of the City for as little as €5.00, a bigger meal will be around €10.00, and if you just want a famous Gyro these can be purchased from just €2.50 in restaurants and to take away. We lived on these the whole trip - They are amazing! Best place to get them from is Gyristroula Restaurant and they were only €2.25

Budget accommodation in a hostel can start from around €10.00 a night (to check out the range of Budget Accommodation or places like Athenaeum Eridanus Luxury Hotel where we stayed (gorgeous!), in a great location and has a rooftop with incredible views, starts from €42 a night with a delicious breakfast included!

2. It's easy to get around Athens!

The metro system in Athens is really good and for some reason this really surprised us. It’s easy to use as there are only 3 lines, 2 lines being the main lines, its pretty regular, there are stations everywhere, it is clean and like in any City it gives you a really local feel for Athens. It’s €1.40 for a 90 minute ticket or €4.00 for a 24hour ticket which is pretty good!

The tickets can be purchased by cash and card at the station with the booths or the machines (if you won't like talking to people) and even places like the Acropolis has its own station making the popular sites really easy to visit on your own using public transport. The metro also goes from the Airport right into the City Centre (35 minutes) for €9 one way or €16 return if used within 7 days!

3. Its easy to get to and only 3 hours from London

We originally flew from Splits, Croatia but we flew back from Athens into our local airport Bristol. The flight was only 3.5 hours long with Easyjet and we had a row to ourselves as the plane was empty! We thought the flight was going to be around 4 hours which initially is why we thought that it’s not a popular City Break from the UK as 4 hours each way is quite long for a weekend trip, however the flight was is only 3 hours from London!

It takes about 3 hours to get to Baltics which are popular for City Breaks so there’s no reason why Athens cannot be visited for a long weekend from the UK or anywhere else in Europe too.

We use Skyscanner and Google Flights to look up all our flights so we can check all the date options and find the best deal... Check out our 'How to book the CHEAPEST flights' post!

4. There are lots of things to do in Athens!

After a day of seeing the iconic sites, learning about the history of Athens and enjoying Athens nightlife you may wonder what else there is to do in Athens but there’s actually a lot of activities on offer in Athens. Plus you can even escape to the beach just a short metro ride away. Even though we saw so many beaches and the gorgeous blue greek water when landing in Athens I didn’t realise just how easy it is to get to a beach from Athens City Centre and that there is a stretch of beaches called The Athens Riviera!

We also saw and found a number of rooftop bars that overlook the Acropolis and the city which were perfect for a few sunset drinks with an awesome view, still at good value for money. Our favourite bar was Savvas which had incredible views and great food! On this note, the nightlife in Athens is also very good but remember that the Greeks go out late and the streets and bars may look quiet at 10:00pm but they will get busier as the Greek eat lunch late, dinner late and they drink late too!

5. Athens has a really cool vibe!

Athens actually has a really cool and quite modern vibe mixed in with its old streets and heritage. Areas like Monastiraki are really cool! Monastiraki Square is one of the most famous squares and centre point for a City Break in Athens. From the square you can see the Acropolis and can even walk up there from the Square. Just be careful of pickpockets and scammers as they are everywhere!

During the day the streets are filled with shops and markets, including a Flea Market, plus lots of cafes and restaurants, the area still gives off the same vibe early evening but with pretty fairy lights and people singing outside restaurants. Come night time a lot of the area turn into bars for a good night out.

We hope this posts helps convince you that you should go on a City Break in Athens!