Acropolis & Acropolis Museum Combo Tickets Athens

The Acropolis of Athens: Entry, Opening Hours and Getting There

The Acropolis is a limestone hill rising about 150 metres above sea level in the centre of Athens, crowned by the temples built in the 5th century BC and listed by UNESCO since 1987. Entry now works with timed slots to control crowds, so pre-booked Acropolis tickets are the surest way in. With this combo you go straight to the South Entrance, scan your ticket at the gates and start climbing.

How to get to the Acropolis is simple: take metro line 2 to Acropolis station, then walk about five minutes along the pedestrian street of Dionysiou Areopagitou. Acropolis opening hours are 8:00 to 16:30 from November to March and 8:00 to 19:30 from June to August, with times in between during the other months. The best time to visit the Acropolis is the first slot of the morning or the last two hours before closing, when the light is soft and the summit cooler.

Inside the Site: Propylaea, Athena Nike, Parthenon and Erechtheion

Your ticket covers all the monuments on the summit. The Propylaea, the marble gateway finished in 432 BC, leads you onto the rock beside the small Ionic Temple of Athena Nike, dedicated to Athena as goddess of victory. Ahead rises the Parthenon, built between 447 and 432 BC to honour Athena Parthenos and still the most admired Doric temple in the world, with restoration work continuing on its columns.

On the north side stands the Erechtheion with its Porch of the Caryatids, six marble maidens holding up the roof; the ones on site are copies, the originals being in the museum. In the default option your guide explains the myth of Athena and Poseidon competing for the city and shows you the sacred olive tree. Plan about two hours on the rock, including time for the views across Athens.

The Acropolis Museum: Statues, Caryatids and the Parthenon Gallery

The Acropolis Museum opened in 2009 at the foot of the hill and displays the finds from the monuments you have just seen. Glass floors at the entrance look down on an excavated ancient neighbourhood, the Archaic gallery shows painted statues of young women and the famous Calf-Bearer, and on the first floor five original Caryatids stand side by side. Your museum ticket is valid on any day within opening hours, so you can come back on a different day if you prefer.

The top floor holds the Parthenon Gallery, a glass hall set at the same angle as the temple, where the frieze appears in its original order around a central core, mixing original marble with casts. Allow at least an hour and a half; with the live-guide option, the guided visit links each piece to the place on the rock where it once stood.

Plaka, the Old Town below the Acropolis

Every option includes a self-guided audio tour of Plaka on your phone, the perfect way to continue after the museum. Plaka is the oldest inhabited quarter of Athens, wrapped around the northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis, with neoclassical mansions, small Byzantine churches, pedestrian lanes and squares shaded by bougainvillea and fig trees.

Above Plaka lies Anafiotika, a tiny cluster of whitewashed cottages built in the 19th century by island builders, which feels like a corner of the Cyclades in the middle of the capital. The audio tour also leads you past the Tower of the Winds in the Roman Agora and the old souvenir streets. Bring earphones to listen comfortably as you walk at your own pace.