The Athens Familiarization Walk (from GreeceAudioGuides.com) begins at Syntagma Square. Bus #95 from the airport terminates there. Chances are, this is the first place you saw when you arrived in Athens. Two Metro lines (2 and 3) stop at the Syntagma Station.
If you arrive by Metro, follow signs to “Syntagma Square” up to the surface. Find the fountain in the center of the Square. Press “Play” on your MP3 player. It’s that easy.
Athens has a great Metro system, connecting all the dots of this great city. Fast, clean, cheap, and convenient, the Metro will take you anywhere your weary feet won’t go. Hop the Metro to visit a museum or take a day trip down to Piraeus. Jump on to get from your hotel to the Acropolis and back again. Buy a day pass (if you have a day to spare) and spend it going from one stop to another, visiting the Olympic facilities, the port, and outlying neighborhoods.
Like every public transit system, there are a few tricks to learn to help you navigate the city like a native. First trick: get a Metro map! There are maps everywhere: printed, posted on walls, displayed inside the trains themselves. You really can’t navigate the Athens Metro by hunch and feel. A Metro map is absolutely necessary to getting around the city … unless you don’t really care where you wind up.
Once you have map-in-hand, using the Metro is fairly simple:
Say you are in Syntagma Station and want to go to the Larissa terminal. (Study the map to the right.) Notice that you need Line #2—the red line. In Syntagma, look for signs directing you to Line #2. But which direction do you want to travel? In this example, you want to go north, towards Agios Antonios (the final station on Line #2 in the direction you want to travel). So follow signs to Line #2—Agios Antonios. Clear?
There will be four stops before you arrive at Larissa. You can count them on the map and as the subway makes its required stops. Make sense?
Right in the center of Athens, there is an important triangle of stations that each serve two lines: Omonia (1 & 2), Monastiraki (1 & 3), and Syntagma (2 & 3). You have to go through one of these three stations if you need to change lines in order to reach your destination.
It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. With a little practice and a bit of patience, you’ll be hopping on and off Metro trains like you were born in Athens.
Trains run daily from 5:30 until after midnight. There are manned and automatic ticket booths at every station.
It’s been a long flight. You’ve gotten through customs, collected your luggage, and stepped out of the airport arrival hall to stand on the street outside. You’re tired, hungry, and in desperate need of a shower.
One of the best things a traveler can do for himself (or herself) is settle on a home-away-from-home before traveling to Greece … decide on a hotel and make a reservation so that, when you land in Athens, you know where you’re going!
Athens has a vast range of hotels covering the gamut of price, location, and amenities. A hotel in the Plaka District—in walking distance of most of your tours—is ideal. If you’d like some help narrowing the field, let us recommend the following websites to check out:
Hotel Kimon « (www.kimonhotel.gr)
Hotel Neos Olympos « (www.hotelneosolympos.com)
Hotel Byron ««« (www.hotel-byron.gr)
Athens Cypria Hotel ««« (www.athenscypria.com)
Herodion Hotel «««« (www.herodion.gr)
So you’ve chosen your hotel and know where you’re going. But how do you get there? Fortunately, visitors to Greece have several options for getting from the airport to their hotel.
Option #1: take the Athens’ Metro. This subway system is modern, clean, and efficient. Line #3 is the newest addition to the system and terminates at the airport. Just follow the signs to the Metro train (the station is only a stroll away!), purchase your ticket (€6), take the escalator down to your train, climb aboard, and then ride in comfort to all the way to Syntagma Square.
Option #2: you can take the bus. Athenians thrive on public transportation. As a result, equipment is clean, schedules are honored, and ticket prices are cheap. A ticket booth sits right outside the airport arrival hall. You want Bus #95 (a bargain at €3.80). Though it makes numerous stops, the final destination is Syntagma Square—the very spot you probably need to be to get to your hotel.
From Syntagma Square (whether you get there by Metro or bus), you can either transfer to a Metro line that gets you closer to your hotel or start walking. The map of Athens near the back of this booklet should help you find your way.
One other option for getting into town is taking a taxi. If you’re really tired, or if it’s very early or very late, a taxi might be your best bet. They are lined up outside the airport arrival hall. Just tell the driver, “Syntagma Square” or “Athens Cypria Hotel” and they will whisk you to your destination for under €50. (The price is higher at night.)
One option you should not try is driving into the downtown area. Athens has confusing roads, heavy traffic, and no parking places. Besides that, Athenian drivers have no sense that driving rules apply to them. I rented a car and drove into Athens one time (long ago). I’ll never do it again.
Once you get to your hotel, take a few moments to unpack, shower, and relax. But, if you just got off a long international flight, resist the urge to take a nap. Don’t go to sleep until your regular bedtime. Painful, I know. But you can either start resetting your body-clock now or suffer miserable nights the remainder of your trip.