In the last few years, Athens has become more than just a quick stop on the way to the Greek islands. With the plethora of affordable accommodations and exceptional experiences available in the Athens, more and more tourists are opting to spend a few days in the city.

Apart from the most popular experiences in Athens, there's always a market to wander, a rooftop bar to grab a drink, and plenty of shops to explore! From Condé Nast Traveler, here's how to spend 3 days in Athens.

Visit the Acropolis! But first, get acquainted with history with these 8 things you may not know about one of the most impressive and beautiful ancient structures.

After your first fix of ancient history, refuel with a mid-morning koulouri (a ring of sesame-covered bread) from one of the food carts below, and then make your way over to the Acropolis Museum, about a seven-minute walk.

For a late lunch, walk over to the hip-yet-tranquil neighborhood of Koukaki, which sits at the foot of the hill yet still manages to provide a much-needed respite from the more touristed streets nearby. For a budget-friendly option, try some of the best street food in Athens!

After lunch, explore the National Museum of Contemporary Art and spend the rest of the day wandering through the streets of central Athens. At night, grab a cocktail at one of Athens' roof gardens with astonishing views and delicious food.

Day 2

While Athens’ Monastiraki Flea Market is—in theory—open seven days a week, it’s only really worth your time on Sunday mornings, when jewelry makers and artisans set up their stalls for the day.

Don’t miss the Stavros Melissinos sandal shop for a pair of classic leather sandals, and make a quick detour to Pittaki Street to Instagram the 150 lanterns, chandeliers, and lamps that hang above the gritty alleyway. 

In the afternoon, hike up to the top of Mt. Lycabettus where you will see some of the best views of the city.

Try to time it for sunset and grab a drink at hilltop restaurant Orizontes Lycabettus, which has a panoramic terrace, before making your way back down to the Exarcheia below for dinner.

Day 3

Especially in the summer, the heat can start to take its toll so it makes sense that Athenians spend June through August on one of the 6,000 surrounding islands and islets. Take a peak at one of these day trips out of the city or a nearby island like Evia.

If you don’t want to stray that far from Athens, head towards Vouliagmeni Beach or Glyfada, a spectacular seaside town. For lunch try NAMI Sushi Bar.

Alternatively, dedicate your final day to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center near the Bay of Faliro, where you can do pilates on the Versailles-inspired Great Lawn of Stavros Niarchos Park, watch a ballet in the 1,400-seat main hall, catch the Greek National Opera, or even hole up in the brand new National Library of Greece.

At night, make your way back to the city center to Plaka and become mesmerized by the Acropolis once again. For your nightime cocktail, head to The Clumsies, known as one of the best bars in the world.

Source: CN Traveler

UberX recently announced that their services will be suspended until further notice, beginning from April 9, 2018.

The company stated that new local regulations and provisions will impact ridesharing services. UberX is in the process of assessing how they can operate within this new framework.

Uber remains committed to Greece and will continue with uberTAXI while they work with local stakeholders to find a way to enable users to enjoy the benefits of modern technologies like Uber.

We will update with more information as soon as it is available.

Give Mum a break this Mother’s Day, we have face painting and animator for the kids, so she can sit back, relax and enjoy her lunch.

Kids can make some handcrafted artworks with our animator and offer them to their mum as gifts for that day!

For bookings and information contact us at athens_salescoordinator@hardrock.com or at +30 210 3245170

#MumRocks #ThisIsHardRock #MothersDayAthens #TreatMum

On Saturday May 12th, children and mums celebrate together!

We are waiting for you at Esperidon Square in Glyfada from 10:00 a.m to spend a wonderful day full of fun games, educational activities, surprises, gifts and plenty of competitions!

With the support of Kessaris School & Arial Fine Catering.

Against the backdrop of Zappeion, one of Athens’ most glorious neo-classical buildings, the Athens Military Music Festival brings two days of military orchestras, musicians, soloists and dancers from different corners of the globe.

For the first time in Athens, this musical parade combines military music, classical, pop and rock with spectacular lighting and choreography, along with dazzling costumes and fireworks.

Military music has appeared since ancient times, in all armies around the world. Their compositions affect human psychology, aimed at enhancing the morale and enthusiasm of its citizens and soldiers. With orchestras, choruses and dance ensembles, it combines absolute precision, rhythm and synchronicity with an expansive repertoire of both military and traditional songs, classical compositions as well as world music.


Originally posted on WhyAthens

Known as briam, tourlou, or even Greek ratatouille, this dish is an easy and healthy summer recipe that uses seasonal vegetables. This briam recipe can be served as a main or side dish and served with feta or rusks on the side. From The Spruce Eats, "this is another beautiful example of how Greek cuisine is known for taking ordinary ingredients and making them taste extraordinary!"

Ingredients

• 4 large potatoes
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped
• 1/2 cup​ fresh parsley, chopped
• A pinch of dried mint
• A pinch of dried basil
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup of water
• 4 large tomatoes, sliced
• 1 lb. zucchini, sliced into thin rounds

To read this recipe in full, please visit: The Spruce Eats

An initiative developed by the City of Athens, called the Athens Open Schools program, is keeping 25 schools open after class for Greeks, refugees, and residents of all ages. The program, which has won acclaim by the Council of Europe, provides free recreation and development activities in order to revitalize the neighborhood with safe public spaces and opportunities for growth.

The free activities include studying space through a digital planetarium, football team training, lessons in beatboxing, and learning how to film your own documentary.

Athens Open Schools, which is based on an exclusive grant by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, forms part of a wider effort to leverage the support of the private sector for innovative initiatives that improve the quality of life in Athens.

To read this article in full, please visit: Greek Reporter

Photo Credit: Greek Reporter

Greece boasts over 250 days of sunshine, which is the perfect kind of weather to enjoy a rooftop bar and restaurant. Below are some of the best rooftop bars in Athens, with stunning views, tasty eats, and drinks to satisfy your thirst!

One of the best Roof Top Restaurants in the city, “ABOVE” is located on the 9th floor of Wyndham Grand Athens and certainly offers the most breathtaking views of Athens! 

The perfect spot in the city center for getting a mouthful of delicious food and an eyeful of amazing scenery, from the Acropolis to Lycabettus hill and all the way down to the Saronic Gulf! Lay back comfortably in your deck chair and sip on refreshing cocktails or cool off under the impressive waterfall in the most stylish designed roof top pool bar of Athens! 

Address: Wyndham Grand Athens – 2, Megalou Alexandrou Street 
Telephone: 21 6800 9900

 

The GB Roof Garden offers unobstucted views of the Acropolis, Lycabettus Hill and the Parliament in a magnificent setting. For breakfast or lunch, the elegant environment of the GB Roof Garden Restaurant creates a tranquil atmosphere, while dinner is perfect when the city lights come on. For three years in a row the restaurant has been awarded by the Wine Spectator Magazine.

Address: Syntagma Square
Telephone: 210 3330766

The Metropolis Roof Garden with views of the Acropolis is on the tenth floor of Electra Metropolis Athens and is the ultimate dining experience in Athens. It offers a unique opportunity to enjoy today’s creative Greek cuisine and is one of the newest gourmet restaurants in Athens. 

The driving force behind the restaurant is the executive chef, who creates unique dishes with an emphasis on fish or meat. He works to find the perfect balance between Earth and Sea so that his guests can savour truly exquisite results. And you can enjoy all of this while feasting your eyes on the Acropolis, lit either by the famous Greek sun during the day or by impressive flood-lighting at night.

Location: Electra Metropolis Hotel, 15 Mitropoleos, Athens
Telephone: 21 4100 6290

A for Athens with its magnificent rooftop terrace, located on the sixth floor of the homonymous hotel, offers one of the most spectacular views in Athens. Enjoy cocktails in unbelievable combinations, as well as a menu created with special care, with emphasis on local and healthy products!

Location: 2-4 Miaouli, Athens
Telephone: 210 3244244

Art Lounge, rooftop lounge (7th floor) with a panoramic Athens view serving your favorite food & drinks. Designed to be the ultimate penthouse, Art Lounge features a unique Art library with more than 2000 art book titles. The comfort and scenery of the space is reason enough to visit.

Address: New Hotel, 16 Filellinon, Syntagma
Telephone: 694 637 9500

Once you find yourself on the top flor of the Zillers Boutique Hotel and their Roof Garden, you instantly find yourself intergrate in a multifaceted world; an urban roof garden with industrial details and emerald green marbles creates a regreshing atmosphere where you will enjoy your breakfast,luch or dinnner, a coffee or drink an you will feel the ambience of the old merging with the new to create the perfect Athens experience; especially when you have the view of the Acropolis right in front of you!

Address: 54 Mitropoleos, Athens
Telephone: 210 3222277

Air Lounge Bar


Credit: Fresh Hotel

It’s not only the view that is breathtaking. It’s the whole environment in every detail from the bright colours, right down to the Charles Eames chairs… and, of course, its menu! Their Executive chef is the head creator of their sophisticated Greek and Mediterranean cuisine, transforming sheer inspiration to pure culinary enjoyment.

Located in rooftop terrace of Fresh Hotel Athens, the Air Lounge Bar & restaurant is offering panoramic views of the Parthenon, the Acropolis and Athens skyline, all day long!

Location: Fresh Hotel Athens,  26 Sofokleous, Athens
Telephone: 21 0524 8511

Main Photo Credit: GB Roof garden

Spoudase Festival is returning for the 2nd consecutive year in the most central spot in Athens on May 19 & 20!

All public universities, all private colleges and IEKs of Greece and Cyprus will be participating in the 2nd Spoudase Festival!

Guests will have the chance to learn all about top-rated undergraduate or postgraduate studies, in Greece and Cyprus, but also have the opportunity to claim some of the hundreds scholarships that will be offered by the participants exclusively for the festival's visitors. 

A number of workshops & speeches will also be taking place regarding fields such as education, technology, bitcoin and culinary.

Attendace certificates will be given to those attending workshops.

The biggest educational feast ever held in Greece, will provide the following through 200 career guidance counselors:

• Free Psychometric Tests
• Free Vocational Guidance
• Free CV advice
• Free evaluation of Linkedin profiles and other work platforms
• Free session for handlging stress during an exam
• Free counseling for internships, internships abroad - housing -scholarships
• Free Counseling for Selecting Graduate Programs Abroad
• Free counseling for GMAT - GRE - TOEFL - IELTS sign up

In order to take part, you will have to register by clicking HERE!

FokiaNou Art Space is pleased to present a collaborative art exhibition between two artists, Rea Stavropoulos and Iliana Theodoropoulou.

Rea Stavropoulos is an “Athenian Florentine Londoner” in an age when the notion of nations, boundaries and allegiances shifts and becomes increasingly uncertain. The installation “Shifting Spaces” and related events is a dialogue with the city of her birth. Her “Secret Gardens” project  has travelled across Europe since 2001, developing with each new space. It relates to the search for a personal space in the heart of a city and a place in the world, and to spatial relationships, constantly shifting physically, psychologically and metaphorically. The installation will be like the artist’s studio, a process of shifting spaces challenging us to “re-envision” the world, looking within and without.

Iliana Theodoropoulou‘s work, which began in 2005, also takes part in the dialogue, exploring spatial phenomena such as surfaces, rocks, walls and especially sidewalks or pavements, while observing the linear elements they create. This linearity is felt both as experience and inspiration, resulting in small abstract works that are grouped together and set in a grid. A second, more recent series of folded works which began in 2017 refer to autobiographical routes within Athens and focus more on decay, memory and absence. These pieces open and unfold, revealing an ephemeral moment that is the product of recording and editing.

Rea Stavropoulos is a British artist of Greek origin who works internationally. Currently based in London and Brighton, she continues to collaborate with arts organisations in Florence where she had a studio for 16 years. She studied Art in London (St Martin’s School of Art), Paris (Beaux Arts) and Florence and has exhibited her paintings, artists books and three dimensional works in private and public spaces all over Europe and in  Brazil since 1976. Her practise involves collaborative projects, installations, teaching, lecturing, writing, curating, advocacy and campaigning for women artists. Her work is in private and public collections all over the world. www.reastavropoulos.com

Iliana Theodoropoulou is a visual artist from Athens, Greece. She has studied Surveying Engineering in Athens and Photogrammetry in London. She spent several years doing research and working in Berlin. Since her return to Greece, she has been exclusively working as a visual artist. Her main field is painting, where her work inhabits the border between abstraction and landscape painting, but she also explores the possibilities of photography and film. She has had two solo exhibitions and participated in several group shows. www.ilianatheodoropoulou.com

FoKiaNou Art Space is an artist-run project space in the intimacy of a small apartment in an old building in the center of Athens.  The apartment has been transformed into an open space that encourages collaborative creative efforts between Greek and foreign artists, thereby promoting and supporting the local art community.  The space hosts exhibitions, workshops and projects under the direction of two artists, Mary Cox and Panagiotis Voulgaris.

Hours:  Thursday to Saturday, 17:00-20:00