I’m going to be honest, we thought about skipping Athens, Greece on our 3 week honeymoon trip (both when we were planning AND when we were in Venice, Italy and Athens was our next stop). We knew our final stop of our honeymoon was going to be Santorini, Greece and since our honeymoon had been very packed and constant “on the go” we were contemplating on having more “down time” in Santorini and skipping Athens all together to get to the sunny and relaxing Santorini faster. I am writing today to say I am SO glad we did not skip Athens, Greece on our honeymoon itinerary. We believe a day and a half was the perfect amount of time for what WE wanted to see/do.
The flight from Venice, Italy to Athens, Greece is around two hours. We checked into our hotel around midnight and we stayed at New Hotel. This hotel is a new hotel (lol) that is very modern inside. We had booked a suite for this stay but unfortunately when we arrived they canceled our reservation (we’re still not sure how that happened) but they had one standard room left and we were able to stay there. The room was just that…standard…but we were only staying two nights so we were okay with it. I do have to say the hotel did accommodate us in other ways for their mistake of canceling our honeymoon suite by providing us a free spa service for each M and I as well as complimentary dinner/drinks on their rooftop restaurant (which was fabulous).
The first full day in Athens, Greece we ate breakfast at the hotel and walked 10 minutes to the Acropolis and Parthenon for our semi-private tour we pre-booked prior to the trip. Our tour guide was informative and I highly recommend pre-booking this tour because the lines to get into (or I should say up to) the Acropolis and the Parthenon was V V long by the time we were done with our tour. Now, I must say, M went back to the Acropolis and Parthenon the next day before it opened to the public and was one of the first ones in line and said it was very peaceful and not packed at all. I also have read that going during the evening/sunset is also worth it and not very packed. It takes around 15 minutes to get to the top of the Acropolis and Parthenon with a mix of walking, hiking and stairs. We completed this tour in about 2 hours. Afterwards, we ate lunch at a little restaurant near the hotel for falafels and gyros (so good). Later we returned to the hotel for massages in the New Hotel spa (highly recommend) then enjoyed our lovely dinner and drinks at the New Hotel rooftop restaurant “New Taste” to end our night in Athens, Greece.
In the morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel and M returned to the Acropolis and Parthenon for one last look while I packed our bags to leave for Santorini. The flight from Athens to Santorini is about 30 minutes.
Don’t forget to read my blog post on our Santorini, Greece vacation! Our final stop to our 3 week European honeymoon.
-Xx
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