Athens on a Budget: What I’m Planning

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After six nights in Sofia, I’m flying south to Athens on Monday 16 November for four nights, before a long-haul flight to Singapore on the Friday. Athens isn’t usually anyone’s idea of a budget city, but in November the crowds are thinner, some ticket rules work in your favour, and the public transport is good value. Here’s what I’m planning before I go. A Blithe in… video and an update will follow after the trip.

Getting there: Sofia to Athens

I’m on a morning Aegean flight from Sofia, landing in Athens just before lunchtime. It’s about an hour in the air, and Greece is on the same time as Bulgaria, so no clock changes. Aegean check-in at Sofia closes 40 minutes before departure, so I’ll be leaving the hotel early. I’m flying carry-on only, and I booked this flight and my Athens apartment through Trip.com. The flight cost me £35.30 (GBP, as paid).

If you’re building a multi-country route like this, flights between European capitals can be cheaper than you’d expect if you’re flexible with dates. I compare them on Aviasales first; there’s more in How I Find Cheap Flights and Turn the Layover into a Second Country. Packing light helps too: see Carry-On Only.

Airport to the city: metro, bus or taxi

Athens Airport is a fair way out, so this is where you can spend a lot or a little. Here are the current official fares:

• Metro (line 3): €9 one way, or €16 return. The airport ticket is valid for 90 minutes on all city transport, so it covers your change onto another line.
• X95 express bus to Syntagma: €5.50, runs 24 hours, slower in traffic.
• 3-day tourist ticket: €20, unlimited city travel for three 24-hour periods plus one airport trip each way by metro or express bus.
• Taxi: official flat fares to the city-centre inner ring are €50 by day (05:00–24:00) and €65 at night (00:00–05:00), including surcharges, set by government decision in September 2026 and listed on the Athens Airport website. The rank is at Exit 3 on the arrivals level.

Don’t buy an ordinary €1.20 city ticket for the airport; you need the airport fare. You can also tap a contactless bank card or phone for full-fare tickets without queuing at a machine.

I’m arriving at lunchtime, so the metro is the obvious budget option for me, with the X95 as a backup and a taxi if things go wrong. A word of warning on the tourist ticket: it runs for 3 × 24 hours from the first time you validate it. If I start it when I land on Monday, it runs out on Thursday, so it won’t cover my Friday trip back to the airport. I’ll work out whether it beats two single airport tickets plus a few city fares once I know how much I’m moving around. For more on apps and transport, see my getting-around guide.

Where I’m staying: Metaxourgio

I’ve gone for a studio at Connect Studios & Apartments in Metaxourgio, a more local neighbourhood just west of the tourist centre, right by Metaxourgio metro station on line 2. It’s a couple of stops from Omonia and Syntagma, and you can walk towards Monastiraki. Staying a few stops out is one of my standard ways to save, and an apartment means I’ve got space to edit in the evenings. Like any big city, I’ll keep my wits about me at night. You can compare Athens apartments on Trip.com, and I booked mine with free cancellation; there’s more on why in Where I Stay. Four nights cost me £122.44 (GBP, as paid), about £30.61 a night.

Getting around

Once you’re in, city fares are cheap. A 90-minute ticket is €1.20 and a 24-hour ticket is €4.10, both available by tapping a contactless card. Validate every time you enter or leave a metro station; the fine for travelling without a valid ticket is €100. Most of what I want to film is walkable from the central metro stops.

The Acropolis on a budget

The big one. A standard Acropolis ticket is €30, and every ticket is for a timed entry slot. The only official online ticket site is hhticket.gr (Hellenic Heritage); your ticket is valid from 15 minutes before to 15 minutes after your chosen time, and they advise arriving 30 minutes early. Search results are full of resellers with “Acropolis” in their web address, so make sure you’re on the official one. From 1 November winter hours apply: the site is open 08:00 to 17:00.

The money-saving trick is free entry on the first and third Sunday of each month from November to March. Annoyingly for me, the November free Sundays are the 1st and the 15th, and I arrive on the 16th, so I’ll be paying. If your dates are flexible, it’s worth planning around them. Children under 18 from outside the EU go free on any day with a passport, but UK adults, including 18–25s, pay full price.

I haven’t booked yet, but I’m aiming to go first thing, when it opens, for the light and the smaller crowds.

Below the hill, the Acropolis Museum is €20. Its winter hours are 9am to 5pm Monday to Thursday, until 10pm on Friday and until 8pm at weekends. I leave on Friday morning, so it’s no good to me, but if you’re there on a Friday, the late opening is a good way to fit it in after a day on your feet. If you’d rather have a guide, you can book a guided tour instead, but remember the entry ticket is usually extra.

Free and cheap things I’m planning

• Walking the pedestrian streets around the Acropolis and up through Plaka.
• Watching the city from the free hills, such as Filopappou.
• Monastiraki. The big flea market around Avissinias Square is on Sundays only (the City of Athens sets its hours as 07:00 to 15:30), so I’ll miss it on a Monday-to-Friday stay, but the shops in the surrounding streets open through the week.
• Street food: souvlaki and gyros are the classic cheap eats. I haven’t checked prices yet, so I’ll report back.

A day trip to Cape Sounion?

Four days isn’t long, but one option I’m considering, not confirmed, is a day out to the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion. I won’t be hiring a car, so it would be the bus or a tour. The KTEL Attikis coastal bus normally leaves from Aigyptou Square at Pedion tou Areos and takes about two hours each way, but KTEL suspended the coastal service from 4 October 2026 “until further notice”, so check whether it’s running again before you plan around it. If it isn’t, an organised trip is the easier way; you can compare Sounion tours on GetYourGuide.

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Entry and data

Greece is in Schengen like Bulgaria, so my days in both countries count towards the same 90-in-180-day limit. Leaving Athens for Singapore, I’ll be exiting the Schengen area, so I’m allowing extra time at the airport for passport checks. The eSIM I set up for Sofia should cover Greece too if you pick a Europe-wide plan. Check GOV.UK travel advice before you go (see Visas: Always Use the Official Site), and make sure your insurance covers the whole trip; my travel insurance guide explains what I look for.

If you have a spare day, see my guide to day trips from Athens, covering Cape Sounion, Delphi and Hydra.

What’s next

On Friday 20 November I fly from Athens to Singapore with Scoot, the start of the Asia leg of this trip. When I’m back online properly, the Athens episode of Blithe in… will go up and I’ll update this post with what I really spent and what I’d do differently.

Featured photo: Lycabettus Hill from the Acropolis, Athens by Jebulon, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.