Things to Do Around Acropolis Athens

The rock is the reason you came, but the ground around it was the working city: the market square, the council hill, the assembly place and the lanes below. Most of it is within twenty minutes' walk. Choosing between acropolis tours athens greece? Know what sits next door first.

The Ancient Agora: €20 and its own hours

The Ancient Agora was the political, administrative and religious centre of Athens, a flat square north-west of the Acropolis crossed by the Panathenaic Way, the procession road up to the rock. It has its own ticket, €20 full and €10 reduced, which covers the site and its museum in the Stoa of Attalos, and the same free days as the Acropolis.

Enter at Thiseio Square for now. The main entrance at Adrianou 24 has been closed for redevelopment since 1 July 2025, and visitors come and go through the Thiseio gate.

The Agora closes half an hour before the Acropolis, so if you do both in the afternoon, do the Agora first.

The Areopagus beside the Acropolis

The rocky hill between the Acropolis and the Agora is the Areopagus, the hill of Ares. The Ministry of Culture describes it as a sacred place linked to Ares and to the goddesses of vengeance, the Furies, and as the seat of the council and court that took its name. On its northern edge are the remains of four large houses of the 4th to 6th centuries AD, possibly schools of philosophers. The Ministry manages it with the Agora as one site, the Ancient Agora of Athens and Areios Pagos. From the top you look down on the Agora and up at the Propylaea.

Philopappos Hill and the western hills

West and south-west of the Acropolis rise three hills that the Ministry lists together as the Acropolis Western Hills: the Hill of the Muses, where the monument of Philopappos stands, the Pnyx and the Hill of the Nymphs. Admission is free and the site is open 24 hours.

Philopappos Hill faces the Acropolis across the valley, and the Pnyx is where the assembly of the Athenians met. The Ministry describes the site as only partly accessible to wheelchair users. It can close when the authorities restrict entry to parks and forests, as it did on 22 August 2021, so check the notices before you walk up in a heatwave.

The south slope already on your Acropolis ticket

You do not need another ticket for the south slope. The Acropolis and Slopes ticket covers the Theatre of Dionysus, the Sanctuary of Asklepios, the Stoa of Eumenes and the paths between them. The catch is that the ticket works once. Coming down from the plateau through the Beulé Gate, signs send you left along the path to the south exit and into the south slope. Leave either area and you cannot go back in on the same ticket. See the south slope on the way up or on the way down, not after lunch.

The Odeon of Herodes Atticus, at the west end, is outside the fenced site. You look down into it from the path.

Plaka below the north slope

Plaka is the old neighborhood that wraps round the north and east foot of the rock. There is no ticket, and the lanes are open at every hour. The Ministry gives it as one of three routes up: take the metro to Monastiraki and walk through Plaka, or through the Ancient Agora, to the Main Entrance. The full-day private car tour ends with lunch and Plaka, and the timed ticket with an audio guide comes with a self-guided Plaka audio walk on your phone.

Go after your visit rather than before. The walk up from Plaka is uphill all the way, and you will want the shade of its lanes once you come down.

Mount Lycabettus, the driver tours' viewpoint

Lycabettus is the steep hill north-east of the centre. The four-hour private car tour describes it as the highest hill in Athens, with a view from the Acropolis to the sea, and drives up for a stop of about 15 minutes with no ticket. The full-day private tour stops there for about the same time. It is the place to see the Acropolis from above rather than from below, and it is too far to add on foot after a morning on the rock.

The same driver tours pass the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Panathenaic Stadium, where, as one listing notes, the first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896.

Tours that combine the Acropolis and the Agora

The Agora is where a guided walk usually goes when it runs longer than two hours. Only the first two put its ticket in the headline fare.

Every place in one view, with what it costs:

Sources: Hellenic Ministry of Culture, odysseus.culture.gr (Ancient Agora of Athens and Areios Pagos, South Slope of the Acropolis, Acropolis Western Hills, Acropolis of Athens); stop times from the tour listings.