Athens Itinerary

[DGK]

We are planning our day in Athens and thanks to all of your great reviews have narrowed the search to 3 tour companies… Paul, Greece By Taxi, Jordan from Athens Tours and Spiros Tours. We also need to decide having one day there is it best to stay in Athens and see the Acropolis, National Museum etc. or spend ½ day there and drive down to Cape Sounion and see Temple of Poseidon. I think the full day in Athens includes shopping in Plaka. What is the shopping there like? In Naples and Nice, I have read reviews that you can request a cooler of cold drinks from the tour company is this something one does in Athens ? Any comments regarding the above mentioned tour company’s and itinerary would be so greatly appreciated.

Thanks so very much,

DGK

[cruisemom42]

Regarding your itinerary, I can highly recommend the National Museum. I haven't done Cape Sounion, but have read a couple of reviews here that suggested it was a little disappointing given the amount of time it takes to get there and back, so I suggest you stay in Athens and maximize all it has to offer.

 

The Plaka is a bit touristy, but if you look around all the side streets, etc. there is some nice shopping. Very few bargains anywhere in Europe due to the strong Euro, however. I did buy a beautiful 18K gold ring at one of the recommended stores (made to resemble an ancient Greek coin with Athena on it). I thought it was a fair price for the workmanship.

[cberge]

Stay in Athens,and see the sights...there is so much to see and a day is really not enough so to even leave for Cape Sounion(you will see enough ruins). would not cut it. As for the Plaka..I loved it,and we were there for about 5 days.There are some good places to eat and I enjoyd shopping there...there are some smaller shops that have nice things and decent pricing even with the bad euro vs dollar now.We spent one day with one of Paul's driver and he was really very nice.Can't speak for having a cooler in the car,but if you need water I am sure any of them would stop for you.Enjoy Athens.

[MercedMike]

We used one of Paul's Taxi drivers from the airport to the Plaka. It was a nice clean taxi, non smoking, arrived on time, drove well. The driver we had was not particularly informative. Paul's drivers are not licensed guides so cannot go into the sites with you.

 

If you are a do it yourself type, it would work very well to have the driver bring you into Athens and drop you off at the Temple of Zeus so you can walk the antiquities promenade yourself with a good guide book.

 

Check out

http://www.elite.net/~thehalls/athens.html

for a good way to spend a day in Athens.

 

OTOH if you want a licensed guide then we strongly recommend Greece Ala Carte

http://www.greecealacarte.gr/

who can handle the whole thing for you. Check out our tour with them at

http://www.elite.net/~thehalls/med.html

 

Have a GREAT cruise!

[DGK]

Great advice, I think we will now plan on spending a full day in Athens,

Thanks so much,

DGK

[dileep]

We had planned of going to Cape Sounion with a friend of Paul (Peter was great) but due to the Athens marathon traffic was horribel and it was overcast and did rain. Peter told us that the main attraction for Cape Sounion was the scenery driving there and we would not see much with the weather we had. We went to the Archaelogical Museum instead and enjoyed ourselves.

 

Make sure that you leave early and get to the Acropolis before the crowds arrive.