Athens Tour: Ancient Ruins Sightseeing

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Experience the best of Athens, Piraeus, and Glyfada with Athens Open Tour. Hop on and off at your own pace and explore the city’s rich history, architecture, and culture with commentary in 12 languages.

Duration: 4 hours, 35 minutes

Cancellation: 24 hours

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Highlights

Athens Line - Grey Route (Route)

Operating Schedule: The Athens Line is valid with all tickets.
Operating Hours - 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM with a 30-minute interval.
1. Acropolis
Stop 4 - Acropolis
2. Temple of Olympian Zeus
Stop 5 - Temple of Zeus (Adjacent to the temple entrance)
3. Hellenic Parliament
Stop 6 - Parliament…

Athens Line - Grey Route (Route)

Operating Schedule: The Athens Line is valid with all tickets.
Operating Hours - 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM with a 30-minute interval.

1. Acropolis
Stop 4 - Acropolis

2. Temple of Olympian Zeus
Stop 5 - Temple of Zeus (Adjacent to the temple entrance)

3. Hellenic Parliament
Stop 6 - Parliament (Adjacent to the Parliament)

4. Benaki Museum
Stop 7 - Benaki Museum (Across from the Benaki Museum)

5. Panathenaic Stadium
Stop 8 - Panathenaic Stadium (Across from the Panathenaic Stadium)

6. Vallianeio Megaron
Stop 9 - National Library (In front of the Library)

7. National Archaeological Museum
Stop 10 - National Archaeological Museum (In front of the Archaeological Museum)

8. Omonoia, Athens
Stop 11 - Omonia Square (In front of Hondos Center store)

9. Platia Karaiskaki
Stop 12 - Karaiskaki Square (In front of Wyndham Athens Residence)

10. Monastiraki Square
Stop 13 - Monastiraki Square (In front of Nike store)

11. Kotzia Square
Stop 14 - Kotzia Square (Opposite the City Hall)

12. Syntagma Square
Stop 1 - Syntagma Square (In front of Nike store)

13. Plaka
Stop 2 - Melina Merkouri/Plaka (In front of Melina’s statue)

14. Acropolis Museum
Stop 3 - New Acropolis Museum (Behind the Acropolis Museum)

Points of Interest

Acropolis
Acropolis Museum
Syntagma
Monastiraki Square
Temple of Hephaestus
National Theatre of Greece
Panathenaic Stadium
Benaki Museum - Museum of Greek Culture
Agios Eleftherios
Ancient Agora of Athens

Piraeus Line - Purple Route (Route)

Operating Schedule: The Piraeus Line is valid on selected 48 and 72-hour tickets. Please verify your confirmation.

Operating Hours - 12:30, 13:45, 15:00, 16:15. With a 75-minute interval.

1. Acropolis
Stop 4 - Acropolis (next to Dionysos Restaurant)

2. Grand Hyatt Athens
Stop 21 - Intercontinental & Grand Hyatt (to Piraeus)

Stop 22 - Stavros Niarchos (In front of Onassio Hospital)
Stop 23 - Municipal Theatre (Next to the Theatre, on Korai Square)

5. Cruise Terminal A
Stop 15 - 1st Cruise Ships Terminal (Outside Gate 11 at the cruise ships terminals)

6. Cruise Terminal B - Piraeus
Stop 16 - 2nd Cruise Ships Terminal (Outside Gate 12 at the cruise ships terminals)

7. Pasalimani
Stop 17 - Pasalimani (Opposite the statue of the “Clock”)

Stop 18 - Mikrolimano (Opposite “The Alex” Hotel)

9. Athens Marriott Hotel
Stop 19 - Planetarium/Athens Marriott (In front of Athens Marriott Hotel)

10. InterContinental Athenaeum Athens, an IHG Hotel
Stop 20 - Intercontinental (to Acropolis)

Points of Interest

Acropolis
Temple of Hephaestus
National Theatre of Greece
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre
Municipal Theatre of Piraeus

Riviera Line - Green Route (Route)

Operating Schedule: The Riviera Line is valid on selected 48 and 72-hour tickets. Please verify your confirmation.

Operating Hours: 10:00, 11:50, 12:50, 13:40, 15:30, 17:20, with a 90-minute interval.

1. Acropolis
Stop 4 - Acropolis (next to Dionysos Restaurant)

2. Grand Hyatt Athens
Stop 21 - Intercontinental & Grand Hyatt (to Piraeus)

Stop 22 - Stavros Niarchos (In front of Onassio Hospital)
Stop 26 - Flisvos Marina (Next to public bus stop Oulen, out of Flisvos Marina)

5. Alimos Marina
Stop 27 - Alimos Marina (Next to public bus stop 2nd Kalamakiou in Alimos)

Stop 28 - Ag.Kosmas Beach (Next to public bus stop 2nd Ag.Kosma in Ag.Kosmas)

7. 3rd Glyfada Marina
Stop 29 - 3rd Glyfada Marina (Opposite Glyfada Square (sea side))

8. Divani Apollon Palace & Thalasso
Stop 30 - Divani Apollon (Next to Divani Apollon Hotel)

9. Kavouri Beach
Stop 31 - Kavouri Beach (next to the public bus stop Litous)

10. Astir Beach
Stop 32 - Astir Beach (In front of Okeanis restaurant)

11. Vouliagmeni Lake
Stop 33 - Vouliagmeni Lake

Stop 34 - Voula Park (In front of Galini Hotel)
Stop 35 - Glyfada City Center (On Glyfada square, next to the public bus stop Pl.Glyfadas)

14. Oasis Hotel Apartments
Stop 36 - Glyfada Beach (In front of Oasis Hotel)

Stop 37 - Hellinikon Airport (Next to public bus stop 2nd Ellinikou in Hellinikon)
Stop 38 - War Cemetery (In front of the Cemetery)
Stop 39 - Edem (In front of Posidon Hotel)

18. Athens Marriott Hotel
Stop 19 - Planetarium/Athens Marriott (In front of Athens Marriott Hotel)

19. InterContinental Athenaeum Athens, an IHG Hotel
Stop 20 - Intercontinental (to Acropolis)

Points of Interest

South Slope of the Acropolis of Athens
Temple of Hephaestus
National Theatre of Greece
Flisvos Marina
Alimos
Glyfada
Kavouri Beach
Lake Vouliagmeni
Voula Beach

What's Included

Headsets to hear the guide clearly
24, 28 or 72 hour Hop-on hop-off tour
Free Wi-Fi on board
Digital commentary in a choice of 14 languages
Up to 3 Central Routes depending on selected options

What's Not Included

Gratuities
Snacks

Additional Information

Explore the ancient city of Athens, the cradle of Western civilization and birthplace of democracy, on a hop-on, hop-off, open-top sightseeing tour. Discover the city’s 3,000-year history from the vantage point of the top deck of a double-decker bus. Marvel at Athens’ ancient ruins, including iconic landmarks like the Acropolis, the Parthenon, the…

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings

3.4

(240 Ratings)

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1 star

Kerri_a

Oct 30, 2024

Worth it - easy way to see the city if don't have much time to spend. totally recommend it! also very good drivers

Review provided by Viator

Sandra_m

Oct 24, 2024

Athens in an easy hour & a half - Easy sightseeing. Can sit up top or totally inside. Good commentary through the ear pieces. Enjoyed being able to see the sights & get our bearings.

Review provided by Viator

Luciano_d

Oct 17, 2024

Prompt and smooth ride with excellent tour guide! - Great tour guide that was very informative! Would highly recommend! Hopefully can book another trip!

Review provided by Viator

Traveltrips12

Oct 14, 2024

Riveria and Praeus routes too infrequent, night tour not worth it - Overall had an OK time with Big Bus Athens. Perhaps there are better alternatives. The main Athens route is pretty good. The bus stops are well located and the buses came fairly frequently, although there is always room for improvement. Staff overall were mostly nice and helpful. Some buses audio jacks were not working at all - on multiple seats - with crackly audio or no audio at all. Others looked more updated and worked better. However I say don't bother buying tickets or hopping on board the Riviera or Praeus tours. The buses for these tours are too infrequent (1 - 2 or more hours between each ride) and shouldn't really be called 'hop-on hop-off' because if you hop-off...well good luck getting back to where you started with-in same day using Big Bus. Even if you do get on, there are very long gaps between the audio commentary throughout the journey, mostly because there isn't really much to see or say throughout the journey. Even on the beaches tour, the beach is not directly next to the road so often you can't see much while you sit and wait in Athens traffic in the baking sun. Additionally, don't bother paying extra for the night tour. The night tour for Athens is so much different to the night tours for Big Bus in other cities. In fact, there is NO difference at all between the 'night tour' and the regular 'day tour', apart from the buses running a little later into the day. The 'night tour' still stops at every stop to pick up and drop off passengers (and has the same stops as the day tour), and has the same pre-recorded audio commentary as the day tour. Additionally, the roof was up despite the cool early evening and clear weather, which really inhibits you from seeing anything in particular. Lastly, the first 'night tour' starts so early that the sun has not even set yet. I was so surprised by the lack of difference I had to triple check that I was indeed on the 'night tour'. So really, you may as well save your money and take the last 'day tour' instead. It's literally the same thing. To top it all off, there is no live commentary at all. On any tour, day or night, in any language, which is unfortunate as that would have really enhanced the experience.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Jet43762392306

Oct 19, 2024

Disappointing waste of time - We only had one day in Athens so chose to do the hop on hop off to see as much as possible! That didn’t work out. We bought the three day pass even though we only had one day to get the extra (port, riviera, night) tours. The first Athens tour was ok. We did the port tour - interesting drive but not HOHO as buses infrequent - thought we would fit in another Athens tour then do the Riviera (beach) tour. On the second Athens tour, the driver would stop and just sit and wait at bus stops for 10 or 15 minutes which meant the tour took over two hours and we missed the Riviera tour. The “live chat” told me it was due to traffic which was nonsense. The audio wasn’t working for most of the tour. I tried to speak to the driver who was rude and told us the audio was working just swap seats. It wasn’t working at all! So disappointing. I don’t know if the other tours are any good but I would definitely avoid big bus. When the commentary did work it was mostly Greek music.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Joeandshirley

Oct 28, 2024

Not worth it! - Where's the bus? Still waiting for the bus to pick us up - already 40 minutes late, and no bus in site! Definitely wouldn't use Big Bus Tours again.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Stefanblomqvist

Oct 26, 2024

Disaster - room for improvement - Disaster. Often take these bus tours coming to a new city and it’s mostly very good. Athen was a disaster. The sound system was out of order on 4 out of 5 seats we tried. On the ones working it has issues on sound and the music volume was significant louder than the speech. The content was very basic on the edge to minimal, no stories or in depth insight like on the London version. The bus did on top of this stand still for like 50% of the time on the tour, on 2 particular stops. Not good value spending €84 for a family of 4. Step up!

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Tripsie

Oct 24, 2024

Terrible Experience - Dreadful experience 975519268 We’ve taken this type of tour in cities throughout Europe and mostly enjoyed them, but this was easily the worst experience ever, Due to the way some of our combined tickets were organised, we used both the Big Bus and the Blue buses. There wasn’t much to choose between them other than the The audio guide was very sparse and the English version stopped midstream at some point (the French and Spanish versions kept going). Most of the stops on the city tour are in the traffic jammed city centre, so you will spend most of your time sitting in traffic, breathing in fumes and listening to musack on a loop. Big Bus offers a city tour, a tour to Piraeus and a tour to the beach. We didn’t try the beach trip, the Piraeus tour is really just a way of moving cruise ship passengers from their ships to the Acropolis, most of the stops are at cruise ship terminals and of no interest to anyone else. Athens is a small city, and if the next location you want to visit on the city tour is less than fifteen or twenty minutes walk away, it will almost certainly be quicker to walk than take the tour bus. The Acropolis interchange is a chaotic nightmare. The Big Bus person actually admitted he had no idea where any bus will be going until he asked the driver. If you ask staff when the next bus will be, their opening bid always seems to be fifteen minutes (although it may well take a lot longer, in which case they will blame the traffic). The experience could be improved considerably if all the companies set up a joint bus stop elsewhere at the Acropolis car park to separate cruise passengers wanting to return to their ships from people waiting for the city tour. Also, given the length of time they expect their passengers to wait, the companies could club together and buy some proper benches rather than expect people to balance on uneven rocks close to the ground. If you want an orientation tour of Athens, try the free walking tours

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Vince_r

Oct 22, 2024

Terrible - We purchased tickets for 48 hours for Monday however we didn’t use them and tried to use them on Tuesday and they said they were scanned. It was impossible. I had the documentation. He tried to have us re buy them when we arrived for the bus.

Review provided by Viator

Wbmurphy

Oct 13, 2024

Very poorly run operation - Garbage tour. Poorly run. Signage is awful. Stops are chaos. Waited in the line for the Riviera line and they let a bunch of random people on who were behind us in line or not in line at all. Couldn’t get a seat. Bus is dumpy. I’d demand my money back if you could actually find someone who works here.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Check Availability

From $22

up to 15 guests

1 Adult