One of our first Greek stops on Royal Caribbean’s Mediterranean cruise took us to Athens, Greece! I LOVED Athens, but fair warning- if you plan to visit in the summer, get ready to experience some HOT temperatures.

If you are sailing on a Royal Caribbean ship, they dock in what is actually Piraeus, Greece. This is about a 20-30 minute ride into Athens. Because I had read some iffy stories about taking a taxi in Athens, I opted for another mode of transportation to get us from Piraeus to Athens. The Big Red Bus! I knew this was a reliable company and would be air-conditioned, so I bought our tickets in advance (which I always recommend doing for any major tourist attraction) and we were on our way. I also thought the Big Red Bus was a great option because I knew there would be stops all throughout Athens, so if we walked a bit after our main stop at the Acropolis, I didn’t have to worry about getting back to the ship. I knew we would eventually get back to it because of the routes of the Big Red Bus. When you come off of your ship, you will have to walk through the port terminal and into the public transportation garage. You won’t see the buses and will think you are lost. You need to make a left out of the garage and keep walking until you are out on the main street. Once you are out of the terminal, you will see all of the buses lined up along the water. From there, we hopped on the bus and began our trek into Athens.

Big Red Bus Schedule: You will be given a map when you board, but I always print one out in advance

To Acropolis/Parthenon: A7
The interchange with Athens Line (First Tour is 8:15)

Frequency: Every 15 minutes

Round Trip Tour Duration: 40 minutes

When you arrive at the Acropolis & Parthenon (Bus Stop A7 Interchange) you can Hop-On to the Bus for the Athens Line and do the historical center which lasts 90 minutes round trip. These buses come around every 15 minutes.  To visit the archaeological site of Parthenon, allow about 30-45 minutes. To get back to the Cruise Ship terminal from A7 Interchange, it will take about 40 minutes.

I HIGHLY recommend you get off your ship as early as possible when you have a port of call for only a short of amount of time in a city like Athens. There is so much to see and do, and with the temperatures climbing pretty high in the summer, the heat can be extreme. Our Big Red Bus took us to the Acropolis stop and from there we climbed up the long and windy steps to the Acropolis entrance. BUY YOUR TICKETS IN ADVANCE. The line was SO long to purchase tickets for the day. You could spend hours in line if you don’t buy them in advance, and if you are only in Athens for 9 hours, it really doesn’t give you a lot of time to do anything else. There are bathrooms at the entrance and then again at the top of the Acropolis. Use these before you go because it is quite the trek and wait until you get to the next bathroom. We spent a good hour at the Acropolis museum. You could have spent so much more time there, but again, the sun and heat were so strong, it was about all the time we wanted to spend up there. It was amazing to see in person and unbelievable to see the history and how it has lasted all of this time. After the Acropolis, you could also venture to the Ancient Agora and museum and if you have spare time as well as the Temple of Zeus.

Because our main “To Do” was to see the Acropolis, we crossed that off our list and began to walk back down the hill toward the main roads. You can actually walk from here to the main area of town where there are shops and restaurants lining the streets. The locals were SO friendly here. We stopped into a shop and I bought a Greek hand towel and a little bag. They were so appreciative and even gifted me a card to show their appreciation. They were SO sweet!

I LOVE a good rooftop bar, so we walked to Athens Was Hotel. (This is totally walkable from the Acropolis and took about 15 minutes) When you get to the hotel, take the elevator or the stairs right on up to the top to SENSE at Athens Was Hotel. Because we visited the Acropolis so early, we were able to get to the hotel and up on the rooftop before anyone else got there, leaving us with the best views and seats at the hotel. I highly recommend this rooftop bar! We only stayed for drinks, but are so glad we did!

After our drink stop, it was time for lunch. One of my step mom’s friends is Greek and was actually visiting her family in Athens (what are the odds?!) while we were on our cruise, so we made plans to meet up with her for lunch. She took us to an Authentic Greek restaurant, but where it still felt comfortable for non-Greeks to be in there and the food was amazing!! This was also walkable from the hotel, so if you want some delicious Greek food, this was a great spot! If you are ever in Athens, eat at Athinaikon. It is authentic food with some great flavors!

Our ship left early in Athens (on board time was 4:30 PM) which again, why it is is so worth getting up early to see as much as possible, so we found our Big Red Bus stop and made the journey back to the ship. The most important thing is to watch your time. The Big Red Buses do run a bit slower even if they typically follow a schedule. That was really fun watching my hubby and dad stress about us getting back to the boat, but I had had enough rose, I wasn’t concerned haha!

We ended up back with time to spare, so we made it, but just keep that in mind for any port of call that you stop in!

Love and Travel Dust,

Molly