Is Athens worth a visit?

An honest review of our one day in Athens as fulltime travellers.

It’s so addictive to see all the big cities when doing vanlife. You’re heading past the city anyways, so why not make a quick stop so it’s off your bucket-list? And when you’re there, you really can’t miss the…-fill in the blanks. So how about Athens?

Not missing out

It was the same with Athens. We didn’t want to miss out, but it’s rather a struggle doing big cities in a van and with a dog. Luckily for us we found a free parking spot with good safety reviews on Park4Night (camper-spots app) and it was right next to a park! The park was already great for doggy-walks, but even more amazing: the park was right next to the hill of the Acropolis. 

We decided visiting the Acropolis as it’s the main attraction of Athens, and leave it at that for the popular hotspots. We didn’t want to spend much money on Athens and we wanted a relaxed experience; without too much tourists and hassle. We took our time on the Acropolis (Jonathan read ALL of the history signs) and we goofed around a bit. 

National Garden of Athens: a little break

After visiting the Acropolis, we walked to the National Garden of Athens. It’s a big park with little ponds, ducks, swans, turtles, palm trees, birds, goats, water-elements and of course plants and flowers. It was so peaceful to listen to all the birds and to take the time to look at the fish in the water. We laughed hard at the pigeons landing on top of the turtles and we wondered how beautiful the garden would look in summer. 

We looped back right through the main city centre shopping streets, past all the souvenir stalls, past all the restaurants, and right back to our van & Alaska. In the evening we walked 5 min to a tiny local tavern with great food and great prices. You know it’s good when the menu is in Greek and the owner asks the other guests to translate for her. 

Review

In all honesty: if we wouldn’t have found that amazing free parking spot in the centre of Athens, the chances would have been big that we would’ve passed it. Like in almost every city you can spend an entire week in Athens and keep yourself busy, but doing the city in one day is also possible. If you’re into history and ancient architecture you should stay a day longer for all the museums & other hotspots though.

Our advice: when it isn’t too much trouble going to Athens and seeing the Acropolis: go for it! But when it is a lot of hassle for just one day: just safe it for later, especially if you’re not that into history (at the moment).

All in all: we really loved our easy-going day in Athens. We didn’t see everything, we probably missed some hotspots, we weren’t there for long, but we enjoyed it and chose for it this way. And that’s what First Gear is all about. Making your own decisions and doing what makes you happy.