Athens, Greece: Budget Hacks for a Cheaper Trip
Today, I'm in Athens, Greece! Now, let's figure out how to spend the least amount of money possible here.
If you are a budget traveler, Athens is a pretty awesome city to visit. It is an affordable destination when compared to some other famous European cities, it's a highly walkable city and there is good public transportation.
Not to mention, it happens to be the home city of the goddess Athena, it's where the fabulous Parthenon is located and it has gorgeous beaches. Food, history, shopping, museums, nightlife, you can do everything here. I loved Athens. And it's even easier to love when you know how to spend time there without spending a lot of money there.
Where to Stay
So, let's talk accommodations. This is going to be one of your bigger expenses in Athens, but there are many options. Athens is a very tourist friendly city, so there are plenty of hotels to choose from.
However, I recommend getting a vacation rental. I got a small apartment in Athens for a week and it was just perfect. The rental I got received daily maid service, it had its own little kitchen area and the TV was all set up with Netflix. There are lots and lots of rental options here.
But there are some things you need to be aware of when it comes to staying in Athens. Number one is this: the closer you are to the Parthenon, the more you will pay. Now that actually goes for everything. Restaurants, accommodations, if you can see the Parthenon from where you are, you are paying more money to be there.
Athens is not large geographically. You can literally walk from one side of the city to the other, so don't worry about being right up next to the Acropolis. There are subways and cabs and it's usually very easy to get to where you want to be, so go ahead and get accommodations that are a little bit away from the Acropolis and save yourself some money.
However, there are some areas of the city you should avoid entirely. Omonia, which is north of the Acropolis, has a really bad reputation. I would avoid getting accommodations in this area. When I looked at the map of crimes in Athens, this area did have the most activity, so maybe don't be out and about in this part of the city after dark.
Otherwise, most places you can stay in the city are perfectly fine. What you want to do is look for accommodations that are close to a subway station. You don't want to have a 15 minute walk back to where you're staying at the end of a long day climbing around in ruins, so look for something more in the 5-minute range.
Use Public Transportation
Speaking of the subway, which is actually called the Metro in Athens, get a Metro pass! The 5 day metro pass is an incredible deal. If you ride the subway like four times, the pass pays for itself, and you’ll definitely ride the subway more than four times.
Athens has a pretty good subway system for getting around within the main areas of the city. It will take you straight to where you can see the Parthenon and get to the popular areas of the city. Athens does not have a great transportation system outside of this area, but we will get into that in a future blog. But the Metro pass is a good value and one of my recommended budget hacks for Athens.
The other best way to get around the city is simply to walk. Athens is highly walkable and there’s stuff to see literally everywhere. You’ll walk past statues and ruins and beautiful churches literally everywhere in the city. Even the streets are absolutely beautiful here.
There’s just marble everywhere. You’re walking down a literal marble street in some places. It’s absolutely amazing, so you definitely want to get on the ground and see it. There are also some really narrow streets in Athens that you can only access by walking, so bring your walking shoes and be ready to walk around.
Finding Cheap Food
Another things you should definitely experience while you’re in Athens is the food. Greek food is amazing and I’m going to do some more in-depth blogs about it, but there are some tricks and tips you should keep in mind when it comes to eating on a budget in Athens.
There are a lot of rooftop restaurants in Athens because the city is beautiful and because if you get up high, you can see the Parthenon. It’s at the top of the big hill known as the Acropolis.
So, these restaurants on the roof are very nice and they’re overpriced. Once again, if you can see the Parthenon from the restaurant, you’re probably paying a little more for the restaurant. So honestly, avoid the rooftop restaurants because these places tend to be more pricey and I promise you, you are going to see the Parthenon while you are in Athens. You’ll see it a bunch of times. You don’t need to go to a more expensive restaurant to see it and you will find tons of incredible food on the ground.
Take advantage of the street food! Athens has great street food and lots of little small places tucked into shopping areas. It’s really hard to find bad food in Athens, so go to street food places and you’ll spend less money and you will eat well.
Attractive Attractions in Athens
Athens is a very affordable city to visit, especially if you aren’t taking a lot of cabs and you aren’t eating in the most expensive restaurants. The most expensive thing you’re going to do in Athens is visit the attractions.
The city has a ton of museums and of course, there are the archaeological sites. Athens has seven such sites within the city, including the famous Acropolis and the Parthenon, which are among the more expensive attractions in the city. The National Archeological Museum is also a bit on the more expensive side.
But, there ways to save money on these attractions. The Athenian government offers multiple bundle passes that will get you access to multiple attractions. The Athens City Pass includes admission to the Acropolis and the Parthenon, along with admission to the Acropolis Museum.
You'll also get a hop-on, hop-off bus tour with the City Pass. This costs about $85 for a single day for one adult. The price goes up if you make the pass available for multiple days. The cost of those four attractions is about $107 for one person, so this is a good bargain.
The Athens Pass includes admission to the Acropolis and Parthenon, along with the Acropolis Museum and the hop-on, hop-off bus tour. This is about $120 and it comes with an audio guide and it's a skip the line ticket at the Acropolis Museum, which actually is nice because I stood in that line for a long time.
The bus tour includes a sunset tour of the cape, which sounds pretty nice, but for the cost I'm not sure if this is a great value. I would stick to the Athens City Pass.
The Athens Mythology Pass gets you into the ancient Agora, the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Acropolis. You get a digital guide for each one. The cost of the pass is $129. Admission to these sites altogether is $65, so this is not a good bargain and I don't recommend it.
The Athens Museum Pass is sort of the same way. It gets you access to lots of the museums, including the Acropolis Museum, which I highly recommend seeing, but it doesn't get you into the big national museum and it includes a museum that's on the island of Crete, so you can only really get the most out of this if you're also going to Crete.
It costs about $115 and that's a lot to spend on museums. I suggest picking and choosing the museums you want to visit because even if you hit up several, you probably won't spend this much and you probably won't want to visit all the museums offered through the Museum Pass.
Take Advantage of Free Days
Something else you want to be aware of when you're planning a trip to Athens is this: sometimes, it's free. There are certain days of the year when monuments, archaeological sites, historic sites and some museums are totally free to visit.
I booked my trip around one of these days because, obviously, it doesn't get better than free. So, you can look at the Greek government's culture website to get a full list of these days and double check my accuracy, but these days are on March 6, April 18, May 18, October 28 and the first Sunday of the month from November to March, which is considered to be the off season for travel.
Attractions are crowded on the free days but it's definitely worth it to try to visit Athens during one of these days if you can, because this is clearly the most budget-friendly way to see attractions.
And when you're trying to maximize your value on free admission days, be sure to choose the most expensive places you want to see for these days because you can't see it all in one day so you will have to make choices. This is the time to visit the Parthenon and Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum and the National Museum, because these are some of the most expensive attractions in the city.
And of course, a great way to save money on attractions is to simply visit free attractions that are always free. I will be doing a blog about free stuff to do in Athens, so stay tuned for that info.
We’re going to do a lot more exploring in Athens and keep finding ways to save money here while having fun, so come back and explore Greece with me!
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