Athens was our first stop for our honeymoon after we got married in 2025 with various wedding celebrations.
Best Time to Visit Greece
Best months to visit:
- May to early June
- September to October
These months offer warm weather, manageable crowds, and lower prices compared to peak summer. July and August can be extremely hot and packed with tourists.
We visited mid-May. May 13th – 15th 2026. The highs were 79-82°F and the lows were 58-59°F.
Day 0: Travel Day
Tuesday, May 12th 2026
We flew direct from Philadelphia PA to Athens on American Airlines.
TSA had a wait of 5 people. A breeze.
Whenever possible, we ALWAYS try to fly direct. We’ve had previous trips completely derailed by delays, and rerouted flights, so the fewer opportunities for travel chaos, the better.
Parking at Philadelphia Airport
We used AirportParking.com and parked at the Holiday Inn Philadelphia Airport for 14 days.
Total Cost: $86.57
What we liked:
- Shuttle runs every 30 minutes, 24/7
- Airport pickup available on demand
- Super easy experience overall and kind professional people
Tip: If you sign up with your email, they send discount codes pretty frequently. We used one that saved us $8. We usually check for the cheapest location, that ALSO has a shuttle running.
Flight Details
American Airlines
- Depart Philadelphia: 4:50 PM
- Arrive Athens (ATH): 9:15 AM
- Flight Time: 9h 25m
This was an overnight flight. I surprisingly managed about 4–5 hours of sleep, which honestly felt like a win. Matt slept even less. We were given a snack, 2 drinks, dinner, and breakfast. All complimentary. Even with the drinks, wine and beer were free.
We also redeemed rewards from our Capital One Venture card for this trip, so our flight to Greece was COMPLETELY FREE. I’ll go down a rabbit hole of travel hacking with credit card sign on bonuses, referral bonuses, and more. But that’s for a diff post. In the meantime, here is our referral link to open a Capital One Credit Card and start earning points to get your next vacation free! We greatly appreciate you using the link, so we can earn referral points.
Day 1: Arriving in Athens
Wednesday, May 13th 2026
We landed in Athens at 9:15 AM. Customs took 40 min to get through, and then we had about a 45-minute ride to our hotel.
There were a ton of taxis outside the hotel just waiting for riders. Or I rec the app called Freenow. It’s Lyft’s version for this area.
Where We Stayed in Athens: Electra Palace Athens
Address: Navarchou Nikodimou 18, 105 57 Athens, Greece
The hotel understandably didn’t have our room ready yet, which we fully expected since we arrived so early.
We freshened up in the bathroom, changed into a second outfit from our carry-ons, checked our luggage with the front desk, and immediately headed out to explore Athens.
Rick Steves Walking Tour of Athens
We followed one of the Rick Steves Athens Audio Tours and highly recommend it for your first day. We did the Athens City Walk.
We made sure to time our start around the Changing of the Guard at the Parliament Building in Syntagma Square, for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The guards change five minutes before every hour, and it’s absolutely worth seeing.
We also encountered a protest when we arrived here. The area around Parliament/Syntagma Square is basically the main gathering point for protests in Athens, so it’s very common for marches and demonstrations to happen there. We looked up what this one was about, since it wasn’t our native language for the chants and signs.
The protests were organized by Greece’s civil servants’ union and focused on:
- higher wages
- cost of living concerns
- restoring extra monthly salaries that were cut during Greece’s financial crisis
- shorter work weeks and labor protections
We resumed the walking tour which took about two hours and really helped us get oriented in the city. Throughout the rest of the trip, we kept recognizing landmarks and understanding where everything connected.
Some of the highlights were:
Metropolitan Cathedral of the Annunciation
Church of Agios Eleftherios
Agia Filothesis Street & Adrianou Street
The neighborhood of Anafiotika. We actually passed through the next day as well, so here are some shots!
Wandering the streets
The tour ends at Monastiraki Square
Lunch: Ather Grill House
By the end of the walking tour, I was absolutely DONE.
Even though I slept more than Matt on the plane, the jet lag was hitting hard. There’s a 7 hours time difference.
Originally, we planned to eat lunch at A for Athens, a rooftop restaurant known for incredible views over Monastiraki Square, the Ancient Agora, and the Acropolis.
Except… we somehow ended up somewhere completely different.
I saw a sign that said “Athens,” walked in, sat down, ordered waters, and started looking at the menu.
Side note: In Greece, they ask what kind of water you want – still, sparkling, etc. Even regular water usually comes bottled and costs money.
Anyway, it wasn’t until Matt checked my itinerary and said:
“Uhh… this isn’t a rooftop.”
I was so sleep deprived that I genuinely didn’t realize we were at the wrong restaurant.
Instead of A for Athens, we accidentally ended up at Ather Grill House.
It’s a cafe right by Monastiraki Square.
Oh well! I was too hangry to keep walking.
We ordered gyros, relaxed for a bit, and had a good lunch.
Also – the wine prices in Greece are WILD. It was almost cheaper than water and basically the same price as soda.
After lunch, we explored a little more, before heading to our next stop.
Mount Lycabettus
After lunch, we wandered toward a quieter area of the city and called a ride using Freenow.
At 909 feet above sea level, Mount Lycabettus is the highest point in central Athens and gives you incredible views over the entire city, all the way to the Acropolis and the sea in the distance.
When putting Mount Lycabettus into the app, make sure you specifically enter the Lycabettus Amphitheater as your destination if you want driven close to the top. Since the mountain is such a large area, simply typing “Mount Lycabettus” can bring you somewhere completely different.
It’s especially popular around sunset when the city starts glowing at golden hour and then lights up after dark.
We headed up the mountain – not for a concert at the theater, but for one of the best panoramic views in all of Athens.
We walked along the winding pathways to the main observation point, explored the tiny whitewashed Church of St. George at the summit, peeked around the restaurant areas, and just soaked in the views for a while.
Eventually, we bought tickets from a small kiosk near the summit (under the restaurant, Sky Bar) and took the Lycabettus Cable Car back down the mountain.
- Official name: Lycabettus Funicular (Τελεφερίκ Λυκαβηττού)
- Ride duration: About 3 minutes
- Cost: €7 (we only went one way, but this might be good for round trip!)
- Entrance location at the bottom: Aristippou Street in Kolonaki
- Location at the top
- Hours: Typically runs from around 10 AM–2 AM (seasonal hours may vary)
Dinner in Athens: IT Restaurant Athens
After coming back down the mountain, we started walking back toward our hotel (20-30 min)
One thing we immediately noticed: the area where the cable car dropped us off felt WAY less crowded than the streets we had explored earlier in the day. Our driver had told us earlier:
“Athens is all tourists.”
Around the major attractions, the crowds were intense. So walking through a quieter neighborhood afterward was actually really nice and felt a little more authentic.
We ended up stopping at IT Restaurant Athens for dinner.
At this point, we honestly weren’t even that hungry, so we each ordered a drink and had a half dish.
Dessert: Goat It Ice Cream
“Original Cretan Goat Milk Ice Cream”
After dinner, we finally headed back to the hotel. But! Came across… ice cream!
You’ll find gelato shops EVERYWHERE in Athens, but we stumbled upon a place serving something I had never seen before: goat milk ice cream.
The sign outside read: Goat It Ice Cream
As someone who is lactose intolerant… I was absolutely thriving.
Hotel for the night
We then finally started to head for our hotel, passing even more fun/pretty sights.
THEN we finally checked in at Electra Palace Athens.
One unexpected perk: the hotel gave us two complimentary glasses of wine at the lobby bar, Duck Tail Bar.
So naturally, we took advantage of that.
After our drinks, we headed upstairs, showered, unpacked, and absolutely crashed.
I think it was only around 6:30 PM when we got back to the room, and we were asleep by about 8 PM.
Our goal was to push through the exhaustion and avoid napping so we could adjust to the 7-hour time change as quickly as possible.
We took in the sunset views over the hotel pool and Acropolis, as we got ready for our first full day in Athens the next morning.
Aren’t these rooftop views from our hotel amazing? Click the button below to learn more about staying here, at Electra Palace!
The Day’s Highlights:
Our fav part of the day, was the walking tour of Athens, because we covered so much ground. And also the trail/view from Lycabettus.
Next Up:
Day 2 in Athens, Greece