Cheap flights to Athens are on every serious traveller's wish list. The sight of the floodlit Parthenon at the top of the Acropolis alone is worth whatever you've paid for the tickets.
Athens has bags of character and a unique atmosphere, the result of those 2,500 years of life, endeavour and effort. Once dismissed as smoggy and dirty, hosting the Olympic Games in 2004 gave the city a new lease on life and now it's one of the top city-break destinations in the world. However, while boutique hotels have sprung up and ritzy restaurants are being written up in the world's press, while the airport is just losing its freshly-constructed sheen and residents and visitors are enjoying their journeys on the new metro, while new and expanded museums are attracting visitors, the heart of Athens beats strong.
With Syntagma Square and Monastiraki, Omonia Square is the third point of the triangle at the heart of modern Athens. Plaka, the tangle of streets in the skirts of the towering Acropolis is to the south. Further east, the regenerated areas of Thissio and Gazi are now firmly on the map.
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Athens's climate is Mediterranean; the weather is beautiful year round. Summer temps can climb to 33 degrees Celsius, while temperatures during the winter months average 13 degrees. Snow sometimes falls during the winter months.
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Peak Season:
July and August are high season months when most travellers take cheap flights to Athens. However, lots of Athenians shut up their businesses and take their holidays during the second half of August.
Off Season:
November to March is, in general, low season.
Shoulder Season:
May-June and September-October are shoulder season times when there are fewer tourists in Athens.
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Taxis are available at the taxi rank outside the airport terminal, 24 hours a day. Fares to the city cost about €15 (approximately $24 AU).
The Metro takes about half an hour to get to Syntagma Square and Monastiraki – two of the key points in Athens. Bus X95 travels to Syntagma Square for €4 ($6 AU) and takes about 40 minutes.
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The Athens metro has three lines - Line 1 (the old Athens-Piraeus electric rail service known as ISAP), Line 2 (underground) and Line 3 ( underground). Fares cost about one euro.
The tram network links Syntagma Square in the city centre to the coastal suburbs in the south.
Metered, yellow-colour taxis are readily available. The driver must activate the meter when hired.
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- The Moscow metro is stunning, but the Athens one is not far behind. Classical music, marble floors and statues. Granted, the statues are not authentic. Some of the originals are thousands of miles away, in the British Museum in London, but others are much closer - in the Acropolis Museum. The station hall is home to a replica of the Elgin Marbles (original? British Museum) and the platforms are decorated not by contemporary posters, but a terracotta frieze.
- To experience the Parthenon in relative solitude, get an early breakfast and get to the Acropolis gates before 8am. Buy a ticket (it'll also get you into the Agora, the Theatre of Dionysos and the Temple of Olympian Zeus) and ascend as quickly as you can. Tourists will start to arrive about 10ish.
- The Benaki Museum of Islamic Art in Psyrri is an annex of the bigger Benaki Museum (near Syntagma Square). Stuffed into the museum are tombstones from Egypt and a reception room from a Cairo mansion, ceramics from Iraq, prayer carpets and astronomical instruments among many, many other fascinating objects.
- The National Archaeological Museum boasts a fascinating collection of ancient art that spans thousands and thousands of years. An early start is called for here too. It opens between 8am and 7.30pm daily (Mondays, from 1pm). Our favourite rooms are 15, dominated by an enormous statue of Zeus (or Poseidon) that dates from 460BC, and 21 where the child-on-horseback statue appears to be frozen at mid-gallop.
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