7 days family trip to Athens-Greece, what to do, cost, recommendation etc

Important Details

• The post can be helpful for any family to plan their next travel to Athens, Greece.
• Total cost(2 adults + 1 kid) : 170 ( visa ) + 301 (flight ticket) + 354 ( accommodation) + 400 ( Misc including Athens transport ) = 1225 euros.
• Overall recommendation : Yes

TL/DR — short version

• While Athens is considered a great historic place, there are only pillars remained in most of the monuments. There is nothing else to see other than marvel.
• The only thing worth visiting are beaches in and outside Athens and old market. The water is very clean. The beaches were very peaceful during this time of the year(April). Old market is a great place to buy some memorable stuff from Athens.
• The city has great public transport. One of it’s tram lines(T7) runs along the coast line. You can enjoy the ocean view while travelling in this tram.

Please read the long version for more details.

Long Version

Day — 0

Travel to Athens from Bucharest

Flight Duration : 75 minutes.

Cost : 301 euros ( to and fro )

There is direct Tarom flight connecting Athens with Bucharest.

Once at the airport, take the express bus (Bus numbers starting with ‘X’) to your location. My accommodation was in Kalithea (locality close to coastline in athens) and there is a direct express bus (X96) from airport to Kalithea.

Express Bus ticket cost : 5.50 euros/adult.

Validity : only 90 minutes. You need to scan the ticket in the bus once inside.

The ticket can be purchased from ticket machines from outside the athens international airport.

Day — 1

Athens is very well connected with public transport. So we decided to explore the city using public transport.

Cost of public transport pass : 8.20 euros/adult. Ticket/pass can be bought from the ticket machines installed at tram/bus stops.

Validity : 5 days. Now we were all set to explore the city.

Recommendation: yes

On our first day we decided the explore the beaches around the athens coastline. The tram 7(T7) runs across the coastline and it’s the best way to explore the city beaches.

Day — 2

Acropolis and city centre

Ticket cost for acropolis : 20 euros or 30 euros.

Time from entry to exit : 3 hours.

Recommendation — No. There are only pillars left and nothing much to see. We didn't like this place much though it is considered as one of the top attractions.

There is discrimination between children from EU and non-EU. The children from EU are charged half of the ticket cost. Non-EU children have to pay full ticket price which is same as adult.

If you still decide to see this place then I recommend taking 20 euros ticket as with 30 euros ticket doesn’t give access entry to anything significant.

There are long queues both at ticket counter and at entry.You can save some time by buying ticket online from etickets.tap.gr and skip the ticket queue. You will still have a long queue for entry so please plan accordingly.

Once we came out of acropolis, we were contacted by some bus service operators at the exit who operates city tour buses. After talking to them we decided to buy the ticket for one of the service provider.

Day — 3

Time to explore city centre, street shopping and flea market

Ticket cost for city tour Bus : 38 Euros / family.

Validity : 2 days.

Recommendation — yes. If you are shopping lover and like to purchase ancient stuff in decent price then this is the place for you. We truly enjoyed this place.

If you like to explore indian market like palika or sarojini in athens, then this is the place to go. The city tour bus can drop you to this place and stop name is Omonia Square.

Day — 4

Astir Beach & Vouliagmeni lake

Ticket cost to enter in a private beach : 3 euros / adult.

Recommendation : yes. If you love clean water and quite place then you can’t miss this.

The city tour ticket that we purchased had connectivity to couple of places outside of city and it was our go to place on day 4.

With last day of city bus tour subscription, we decided to explore beaches outside athens. This was wonderful experience. The water was clear and places were not very crowded.

Day — 5

New Parliament, Acropolis museum, template of zeus & Olympic stadium

Ticket cost to enter into acropolis museum — 10 euros / adult.

Recommendation : yes only for guard rotation at new parliament.

Route — T7 + T6. The last stop of tram 6 is right in-front of new parliament.

New Parliament — There are 2 guards standing in front of parliament all the times and they are rotated every hour. The guard rotation event is worth visiting and this is done in very traditional way and lasts for 10 minutes.

Other places are kind of optional as we didn’t find them very fascinating. Most of things are just stones and pillars which is visible everywhere in athens.

Day — 6

Second trip to vouliagmeni beach

Ticket cost to enter in a private beach : 3 euros / adult.

Recommendation : yes. If you love clean water and quite place then you can’t miss this.

Since we liked the beach very much, we decided to go to beach again but this time using public transport. The connectivity is awesome. Route -> T7(Tram 7) till last stop + Bus 117/122 . The bus will drop you right next to the beach.

Day — 7

Athens to Bucharest

Express Bus ticket cost : 5.50 euros/adult.

Validity of ticket : only 90 minutes. You need to scan the ticket in the bus once inside.

We took direct airport express bus (X96) to airport. And then the flight back to Bucharest.