12 Top Things to Do in Athens, Greece

Bernard Tschumi's 2009 Acropolis Museum is the most thoughtful museum building in Europe. Glass floors above an in-situ archaeological dig at the entrance, the original Caryatids (5 of 6 - the sixth is in the British Museum), and a top-floor Parthenon Gallery of exact dimensions facing directly towards the Parthenon itself, 300 metres uphill.

The Parthenon Gallery displays the surviving frieze, metopes, and pediments alongside white plaster casts of the missing pieces (still in London at the British Museum) - a visual argument for repatriation that has shifted UK public opinion since 2009. Entry is EUR 15. Allow 2-3 hours.

Plaka is Athens's old town - a labyrinth of pedestrian alleys, neoclassical houses with bougainvillea spilling over their walls, Byzantine churches dating from the 11th century, and tavernas with vine-shaded terraces. The neighbourhood predates modern Greece (founded 1832) and sits on top of the ancient agora and Roman forum, with archaeological remains visible in basement bars.

Walk the main spine from Adrianou Street to Lysikratous Square. Stop at the Lysicrates Monument (335 BC, the oldest surviving choragic monument), the Tower of the Winds in the Roman Forum, and the Mnemonic stone of Hadrian's Library. Skip the souvlaki touts on Adrianou and head to side streets for tavernas where Greeks actually eat.

The Ancient Agora was Athens's civic, commercial, and judicial heart for 1,200 years - where Socrates argued, Plato learned, and the world's first democracy met for jury duty. The site preserves the Stoa of Attalos (a fully reconstructed 2nd-century BC arcade now housing the Agora Museum) and the Temple of Hephaestus, the best-preserved Doric temple anywhere.

The Agora is included in the Acropolis Combined Ticket (EUR 30) or EUR 10 standalone. The Stoa of Attalos museum holds ancient ostraka - shards of pottery scratched with names of Athenians being voted into exile (the original ostracism). Allow 90 minutes.

The National Archaeological Museum holds the world's most important collection of Greek antiquities - 11,000 objects across 8,000 sq m of galleries. The unmissable pieces are the gold Mask of Agamemnon (excavated by Schliemann at Mycenae in 1876), the bronze Antikythera Mechanism (the world's oldest analogue computer), the Jockey of Artemision, and the frescoes from Akrotiri (the Bronze Age Pompeii of Santorini).

Entry is EUR 12 (free first Sunday of the month, October-March). Allow 3 hours minimum. The museum is in Exarchia, a politically charged but safe-by-day neighbourhood with the city's best graffiti, vinyl shops, and student bars.

Mount Lycabettus is the highest point in Athens at 277 metres - a limestone cone topped by the whitewashed Chapel of St George (Agios Georgios) and a panoramic terrace with the city's widest view, from the Saronic Gulf to Mount Hymettus to the Acropolis just below. The hill is the geological remnant of an ancient sea floor; legend has it Athena dropped it while building the Acropolis.

The funicular runs from Aristippou Street in Kolonaki to the summit in 4 minutes (EUR 10 return, every 30 min from 9am to 2.30am). The walking trail from Plateia Dexamenis takes 30 minutes uphill - shaded, stepped, free. The summit cafe-restaurant Orizontes is touristy but the views over the Acropolis at sunset justify a single drink.

Syntagma (Constitution) Square is Athens's official centre - a 19th-century neoclassical plaza in front of the former Royal Palace, now the Hellenic Parliament. The square hosts the changing of the Evzones, Greece's elite presidential guard, in their pleated foustanella skirts (with 400 pleats representing each year of Ottoman rule) and clog shoes weighing 3 kg each. The hourly ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a slow, ritualised exchange.

The full Sunday 11am ceremony is the showcase - the entire Evzones platoon parades up Vasilissis Sofias from the barracks with a brass band. Hourly changes Monday-Saturday are simpler. The square itself anchors the Athens metro hub and the start of Ermou shopping street.

The Panathenaic Stadium (Kallimarmaro - 'made of fine marble') is the only stadium in the world built entirely from marble. Originally an ancient stadium from 330 BC for the Panathenaic Games, it was rebuilt in white Pentelic marble for the first modern Olympics in 1896. It now hosts the Olympic Flame ceremony and the finish line of the annual Athens Marathon.

Entry is EUR 10 with audio guide. You can run a lap of the 204-metre track, sit in the marble seats (50,000 capacity), and visit the underground tunnel where ancient and modern athletes entered. The vault gallery preserves Olympic torches from every Summer Games since 1936.

The Temple of Olympian Zeus (Olympion) was the largest temple in Greece - construction began in 6th century BC under Peisistratus and finished 638 years later in AD 131 by the Roman emperor Hadrian. Originally 104 Corinthian columns of Pentelic marble, 17 metres tall; today only 15 stand, plus one collapsed in a 1852 storm. The colossal scale dwarfs everything around it.

The adjacent Hadrian's Arch (AD 131) marked the boundary between the old Greek city and Hadrian's new Roman district. The west face inscription reads 'This is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus'; the east face 'This is the city of Hadrian, not of Theseus'. Entry to the temple is EUR 8 (or included in the Combined Ticket); the Arch is free outside.

Monastiraki Square is Athens's working-class market heart - a tangle of antique shops, leather sandal makers, vinyl stores, and Sunday morning flea market stalls anchored by the 10th-century Byzantine Church of the Holy Apostles, Hadrian's Library ruins, and the Tzistarakis Mosque (1759, now a folk art museum). The Acropolis rises directly above the square.

The flea market itself is on Pandrossou and Ifestou Streets - busiest on Sunday mornings 8am-2pm when locals haggle over coins, vinyl, military memorabilia, and rebetiko bouzoukis. Melissinos the Poet Sandal Maker (Aghias Theklas 2) has hand-cut leather sandals for EUR 35 - John Lennon and Sophia Loren were customers.

Anafiotika is a tiny district of 45 whitewashed houses with blue shutters, bougainvillea, and stepped alleys built into the north slope of the Acropolis - so quiet and self-contained it feels like a Cycladic island village dropped into central Athens. It was built in the 1860s by craftsmen from the island of Anafi (hence the name) brought to Athens by King Otto to construct the Royal Palace.

The neighbourhood is residential - 45 houses, 50 residents, three churches. Streets are too narrow for cars; cats laze on the steps. The walk from Plaka up Stratonos and Theorias Streets takes 10 minutes and is the most photogenic in Athens. No tickets, no fees, no commercial premises - just walk respectfully.

The Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion stands on a 60-metre cliff at the southernmost tip of Attica - 16 white Doric columns of local Agrileza marble, built in 444 BC at the same time as the Parthenon. Lord Byron carved his name into one of the columns in 1810 (look for it on the second column from the right). The temple's sunset view over the Aegean is the most photographed in mainland Greece.

KTEL Attikis buses run every 60-90 minutes from Pedion tou Areos park (Mavromateon Street) for EUR 7 each way. Journey is 90 minutes via the coastal Athens Riviera. Site entry is EUR 10. Allow 30 minutes at the temple plus 15 minutes for the coastal walk to the small pebble beach below.