6 to 6.5 h. walking tour (Private tour)
(private transportation + guidance all the way and walking tour through the Syndagma Square, the National garden, the Zappion Mansion, the temple of Olympic Zeus and guided visit of the Acropolis, walk pass the Ancient Agora and explore Monastiraki)
This tour includes most of the highlights of Athens, one can see in a day, combined with a unique experience of tasting along the way specialties and Greek delights that the Greeks love, from the places they love, many of them being "holes on the wall".
As you leave the ship, your private transportation vehicle will await you at the designated meeting point with a sign with your name on it. You will begin your 30 minutes drive towards the city center. During your drive you will be seeing some of the different parts of Piraeus, such as the Kastela and Mikrolimano ports. Since Athens hosted the Olympic Games in 2004 and most of the Olympic settlements were located on the southern suburbs of it, you will cross an Olympic Venue and you will follow an open free way that will bring you right at the center of Athens and Sydagma square where you will be met by your licensed tour guide.
Close by is one of the oldest and most famous bakeries, where you will be able to taste the best "tyropita" - cheese pie, in order to get some extra energy for your walking tour.
You will then proceed to the Monument of the Unknown Soldier, where the famous guards with their Greek traditional uniforms are standing unmovable and if you have a good timing you will also be able to see the changing of the guards. You will then move on to the National Garden, grabbing a koulouri with sesame seeds from a street vendor to taste and stopping for the "must taste" Greek coffee, either in the gardens area or around Sydagma square depending on the weather.
From there you will proceed to the Zappion Mansion, a very impressive building, which having been built in 1896, it has served as the base of the Olympic Committee, during the world's first modern Olympics. Nowadays it is being used for several exhibitions and conferences, as well as for public festivities.
Across from there is the temple of Olympic Zeus, which you can enter and visit with the same combined ticket that you can use for most monuments in Athens. You can actually buy the combo ticket there and not have to wait in line for it at the Acropolis, which can be very crowded, and on the contrary it's never very busy at the temple of Olympic Zeus.
Passing by the Arch of Triumph of Hadrian, you will walk across to the pedestrians' street that leads to the Acropolis and you will stop by the famous Greek yogurt shop where you will be able to taste it either with honey or with homemade siruped fruits topping.
After your short relaxation you will continue walking, passing outside the very impressive New Acropolis Museum, and you will then proceed to walking up to the Acropolis, which is 156 meters (about 600 feet) all the way to the top. Most of the ancient marble paths are still there, for you to walk on and to "travel" with your imagination, back in the glorious "Golden Age of Pericles", when most of the Classical period monuments you will admire were built. Climbing up you will see and hear explanations about the Filopappos hill, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the Dionysius theatre, the Pnyx hill - birthplace of Democracy and the Areopagus hill.
Stopping before the Propylaea, you will have an excellent view of the temple of Wingless Nike and the Ancient Agora, where Socrates, Plato, Aristotle introduced great philosophical schools. Walking through the Propylaea you will reach the top and you will see the breathtaking Parthenon and the Erechtheion temple opposite it.
At the end of the guided tour, you will enjoy some free time to explore on your own and take pictures of the roof tiles of the buildings in the Anafiotika and Plaka districts, the Lycabetus hill e.t.c. Meeting your guide down the hill you will continue your walking tour to the other side of the sacred hill, passing very close to the Areopagus rock.
From there you will walk around the outside of the Ancient Agora of Athens, which will get you into the flea market area (Monastiraki) and you will have the chance to grab and taste gyros and pita, at the oldest and most famous restaurant in Athens. This is where your walking tour with your private tour guide will end and your private transportation vehicle will pick you up from, to drive you back to your cruise ship.
The order of the visits on this tour might change, according to your guide's judgment, depending on the weather, traffic or other reasons that might affect the timings and your enjoyment, which is our main goal.
