Athens (Piraeus), Greece

Categories:Greece

by Travel with Elders |

on November 5, 2017

Transportation around Athens

To commute between airport and city center, take M3, or X95.
To commute between cruise terminal and city center
- Bus – take X80. If not running, take bus line 859/843/826 to Piraeus metro station or bus line 040, the local stop version of X80.
- Metro – You can alo take the Metro to Gate E3 then take taxi to the cruise gate.
- Taxi/uber – between cruise Terminal and city center is around 20-25 Euro. In 2023 Uber is available in Athens, it is operating with the local Taxi. You can call the taxi and pay for the fare using Uber app. The fare is determined by meter and is the same as if you call the taxi on the streets.
- Note – based on our experience – if you arrive to Athens on a cruise for a day, it’s very easy to take the X80 bus (ticket is valid for 1 day) between cruise port and city center. However, if you are embarking on a cruise from Athens and if the cruise is leaving from E12 gate, we would recommend taking a taxi. The bus stop to the baggage drop/check in area is not that close.
To commute between cruise terminal and airport, take X96 or transfer at Syntagma Station.

More at Athens Metro info and ticket here.

Piraeus Port

Piraeus is Athens main port, there are Ferries to Greek Islands as well as cruise terminal are all located here. There is Metro and Bus to Athens city, Metro station is close to E3 gate. The first time we cruised to Athen back in 2017, our cruise docked at Cruise Terminal A(E11) and the X80 bus was right outside the Terminal. The second time we cruised from Athens in 2023, the cruise embark/disembark from Cruise Terminal C (E12). Since we had luggage and were not sure how far the walk to the cruise terminal is we took a taxi from Athens to the cruise port and it was around 20 Euro.

Rafina port

Rafina port is another port in Athen, it’s about 20 mins from Athen airport. On our visit in 2023 we stayed 1 night at Rafina Avra hotel the last day of our trip. The hotel had free shuttle to/from airport.

There are ferry from Rafina to some of the Greek Islands and can be an alternate ferry option to Piraeus.

Sim card

During our visit in 2023 we wanted to get a local SIM card for our travel duration. During our research before the trip we found that getting a local SIM card at the airport is more expansive than in Athen City. There are many “sim card stands”, basically one person with a stand or just a sign, that sells to tourists. They are legitimate and deals are much better than getting them in stores. We got a Vodafone SIM card for 10 Euro that included 10GB of data. Unfortunately, even though the sales person said the data will work in Turkey, we found out that it didn’t for the 3 days we were in Turkey. Here’s a picture of a stand, I forgot to take a picture of the one we got ours from, it was just a person with a little vodafone sign standing at a store corner.

First visit 11/2017

We are lucky that our visit day is one of Acropolis of Athens free admission day and only one cruise is at the port (Piraeus Port Authority S.A.). However, the Acropolis of Athens is still full of people. You can tell how busy the attraction will be on season.

Transportation to Athens city from Piraeus Cruise Port

The cruise docked at cruise Terminal A (E11), X80 is a very convenient express bus straight into city center for cruisers. Its cruise stop is right outside cruise terminal. The bus stops at Acropolis near the Temple of Zeus and then it goes Syntagma station as final stop. When you come out cruise terminal, pass through taxis and keep on left fence toward coach bus parking lot. X80 ticket booth is at the entrance of coach parking lot. More taxi drivers will try to talk you out at the entrance. Just ignore them. In order to take X80, you need to buy 24-hour ticket. Ticket booth doesn’t take credit card but cash. When taking remaining changes back along with tickets from the booth staff, count carefully how much you should get back exactly.

Check if X80 is in operation when visiting, it seems like X80 is only running during peak summer season (starting from March/April to October/November). The local bus running on the same route is 040 but may take longer.

Terminal A has Duty free shop that might sell cheaper than stores in Plaka or Monastirak Flea Market.

One day itinerary in Athens from cruise

Since we only have 1 day in Athens we took the x80 bus from cruise Terminal to Temple of Zeus.

From Temple of Zeus cross the street to visit the New Acropolis Museum (highly recommended – more about Acropolis history and see essential art pieces before visiting Acropolis)

Then visit Acropolis from the south slope entrance.

Walk to Ancient Agora from Acropolis

After visiting Ancient Agora walk through Monastiraki Flea Market/Plaka to Syntagma square

From Syntagama Square take bus X80 back to port.

Second Visit 3/2023

Second visit to Athens, this time we are taking a cruise from Athens and had a day before and after the cruise.

We arrived at Athens Airport and took the X95 bus to Syntagma Square. The hotel we stayed is 5 mins walk from Syntagma Square. After checkin we walked to Plaka for dinner and stroll to Flea Market but the stores were closing around 8pm.

Next morning, we visited the Acropolis before heading to the cruise port for our 9 day cruise.

After the cruise we did a one day trip from Athens to Delphi and Hosios Loukas stayed one night at Rafina and flew out from Athens airport the following morning.

Places We Go

Temple of Zeus

Acropolis Museum

The museum store many exhibition from Acropolis. The Parthenon Gallery especially has the installation of the frieze of the Parthenon on the rectangular cement core that has exactly the same dimensions as the cellar of the Parthenon. Don’t miss it.

Acropolis

If you can get tickets online to avoid waiting in line for tickets. There are combo tickets for Acropolis with Museum or Acropolis only.

Office website to buy ticket online. On our visit in 2023, we got to the entrance around 10am and the line for ticket was already long and moving very slowly (only 1 ticket window open). There was a sign posted for online ticket and we were able to get the tickets online immediately and probably saved at least 30 mins.