Playing The Athens Tour Guide

Summer heat and sunshine brings everyone out of winter hiding, and this includes tourists and friends from far away places. This past week I had the pleasure of playing tour guide to a group of 5 colleagues from various parts of Europe. We had planned a short 2-day team-building break, a well-earned escape from the everyday pressures of work. For most of them, it was their first time in Athens, and expectations were high!

 

I had planned a jam-packed schedule, an introduction to some of the city's highlights and a taste of 'my Athens'... And I do mean 'jam-packed'. By the end of their stay, we all felt like a week had passed, rather than just 48 hours.

 

Here's what we did:

 

After arrival, coffee on the rooftop of the Athens Gate hotel (where they were staying). This is a mid-range hotel, perfect for a city break, in arguably the best location in the city, and with a 3600 rooftop view that is not to be missed.

 

We wandered around the Acropolis area, and climbed the hill up to the Areopagus for some photos. Then, already in need of more caffeine, we popped in to Root Artspace for a quick refuel.

 

Dinner was at Kotili taverna on Adrianou St. This is a better-than-average tourist taverna, which also attracts locals, and has live music 7nights per week. If the right crowd is there, you may find some of them dancing too!

 

The evening ended with a drink at TAF - a city-centre fave hidden away in Monastiraki.

 

The next morning we did a fun tour of the historical centre with Athens Segway Tours. 2 hours of spinning around the pedestrian streets to see all that we can see - they loved it.

 

Then we grabbed a taxi and headed towards Glyfada for lunch at Balux House Project. This is a full-on playground for young and old, literally right on the beach, with a delicious menu (from pizza to sushi), and a great relaxed vibe. This was a definite highlight for my guests!

 

Back to the centre for a quick shopping break... And off to Athens Clue - this is one of the super-popular 'escape rooms' that have taken the city by storm. You take a group of 5-6 friends, get locked in a room, and have 60minutes to figure out the clues and escape the room. Of course, we didn't manage to escape in time - surely we had a very difficult room...

 

Dinner was at Moma - my default dinner spot in the Monastiraki/Adrianou corridor. On the walk back towards their hotel, we stopped off at Yiasemi, on the famous stairway of Mnisikleous St., for a nightcap and a toast to a wonderful couple of days.

 

"Can we move our office here?" and "You live in paradise!" were the overall comments. Sure, on the company's tab, everywhere could be paradise. But my colleagues are well-travelled and worldly people. If they think Athens is brilliant, who am I to argue...?

 

Until next week,

 

Jack

 

 

Balux House Project

             

Athens Segway Tours

 

Athens Clue