AthensTravel Guide

The areas and addresses our writers put first

• Alexandros Giannakakis

  Syntagma

  Staying around Syntagma means marble lobbies, serious service and every metro line at your door.

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• Henry Ren

  Plaka

  The old town under the Acropolis is all neoclassical houses, bougainvillea and pedestrian lanes.

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• Monastiraki and Psyrri

  Athens

  Around the flea market and the graffiti-splashed lanes of Psyrri, Athens keeps its densest cluster of hostels, budget hotels and affordable boutiques — many with rooftop bars aimed at the Acropolis.

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• Koukaki

  Athens

  Just south of the Acropolis Museum, Koukaki has quietly become the connoisseur's base: a real residential neighborhood of cafes and neighborhood tavernas, minutes on foot from the Acropolis entrance, with mid-range ho…

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• Kolonaki

  Athens

  At the foot of Lycabettus Hill, Kolonaki is the city's elegant shopping-and-galleries district — smart boutique hotels, designer stores and the funicular up Lycabettus for the best sunset panorama in Athens.

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Tables worth crossing the city for

• Varvakios Agora

  Athens

  Start at the Varvakios Agora, the central meat and fish market on Athinas Street — a clanging, theatrical hall that has fed the city since the 19th century.

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• Diporto

  Athens

  Tucked into a basement nearby, Diporto is the most famous non-restaurant in Athens: no sign, no menu, a handful of tables and barrels of retsina on the wall.

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• Karamanlidika tou Fani

  Athens

  A few streets away on Sokratous, Karamanlidika tou Fani turns a deli of cured meats into a proper sit-down taverna.

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• Kostas

  Athens

  For the definitive handheld lunch, join the line at Kostas on Agia Irini Square, a tiny counter that has been wrapping pork skewers in pita with tomato, onion and a spicy yoghurt-touched sauce for decades.

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• Lukumades

  Athens

  Afterwards, walk a block to Lukumades on Aiolou Street for the namesake dessert: fried dough puffs doused in honey and cinnamon, made to order.

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• Mavro Provato

  Athens

  Mavro Provato (the Black Sheep) is the standard-bearer: a modern mezedopoleio where plates land in waves — grilled talagani cheese, slow-cooked meats, seafood orzo.

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The things that justify the trip

• Liza Zhukovska

  Anafiotika

  Tucked into the north-eastern slope of the Acropolis rock, above Plaka, Anafiotika is a tiny cluster of whitewashed island houses.

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• Yoav Aziz

  Monastiraki Square

  Where the whole layered argument of Athens piles up in one frame: the small Byzantine church of Pantanassa, whose surviving fragment of a 10th-century monastery gave the square its name — monastiraki, little monastery…

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• MIGUEL BAIXAULI

  Syntagma Square

  The city's formal front room, facing the Greek Parliament and the Monument of the Unknown Soldier.

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• Koukaki and Ano Petralona

  Athens

  Just south of the Acropolis Museum, Koukaki has bakeries, old-school kafeneia and pedestrian streets where life happens at tables on the pavement.

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• Mount Hymettus and the Kaisariani Monastery

  Athens

  When Athenians need silence, they go east to the pine slopes of Mount Hymettus.

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• Dionysiou Areopagitou

  Athens

  The great pedestrian promenade that sweeps below the south slope of the Acropolis, past the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and on toward Thiseio.

  The Loveliest Streets and Squares of AthensSee on the map