Best Things To Do in Plaka Neighborhood in Athens

The neighbourhood of Plaka, which you will be walking through during any visit to the Acropolis in Athens, as it lies at its foot, is the best known and most popular neighbourhood in the Greek capital and also a witness to the city's history. Although its boundaries are blurred today, its narrow streets and irregular buildings are easy to distinguish due to the Turkish influence of its layout.

Plaka, which is also known as the Quarter of the Gods because of its open view of the Acropolis, is the oldest quarter of Athens and one of the most picturesque and visited areas of the city. Walking around it is definitely one of the best things to do in Athens.

Plaka is the oldest quarter of Athens and has been rebuilt several times, especially during the Turkish rule of the city, when it took on its current appearance of narrow, criss-crossing streets.

The main of these streets is Adrianou, which runs through the entire neighbourhood and is the central hub of Plaka life, with its shops, variety shops, art galleries, restaurants and monuments.

Adrianou is a picturesque street that starts at Monastiraki and becomes narrower and narrower towards the north until it ends at Filomosou Eterias Square , which marks the heart of the neighbourhood and is surrounded by restaurants with open terraces facing the Acropolis and the Parthenon and street musicians.

If you visit Athens in summer, you'll find the Plaka Flea Market on Adrianou and Kydathineon streets. Here, shops bring all their wares out onto the street and slash prices. A stroll along Adrianou is the best way to get to know Plaka and its traditional spirit.

Interesting details

• Location... Plaka is located at the foot of the Acropolis and Adrianou runs through the neighbourhood from Monastiraki to Filomosou Eterias Square.
• How to get there... From the centre of Athens at Omonia Square you can take bus lines 11, 500 and 790 to Philellenon and then walk for five minutes to Plaka. You can also take the Athens sightseeing buses which include stops in the neighbourhood.

Plaka is the neighbourhood where the daily life of Athens takes place , as it is not only the most visited place by tourists, but also the epicentre of the locals' life, so it is the perfect place to shop and visit souvenir shops, handicraft shops and typical products.

Getting lost among the shops in its narrow streets is one of the best things to do in Athens.

In the shops of Plaka you will find clay pottery with Ancient Greek motifs , wooden handicrafts, typical shoes and sandals and sponges called loofahs that contain natural exfoliants.

You can also buy a nazar, which is a charm against the evil eye and is typical of Turkey, but has been offered in the neighbourhood since the time of the Turkish occupation.

Drinks shops are also central to Plaka, so you can sample the local liquors and wines, many of which come from the cellars you may have seen if you have been on a trip to the Greek islands.

Be aware that as it is a neighbourhood visited by tourists, prices can be high but also that in most shops you can haggle over prices.

• Location... There are shops in every street, as Plaka is a shopping district, but most of them are in Andrianou and around Filomosou Eterias Square.

Plaka is located at the foot of the Acropolis, which is the main attraction of Athens, so when many visitors finish their tours of the ancient monuments they visit the neighbourhood to eat and relax.

Here you can enjoy the best local food at good prices, although the cheapest options are found in the outlying streets of Adrianou.

Among the local dishes to try in Plaka I recommend the musaka, a lamb and aubergine lasagna. There are also many fish, squid, octopus and seafood restaurants serving stew casseroles accompanied by taramasalata sauce , a puree made from fish roe in brine.

If you're in a hurry or looking for a cheaper option, you can opt for kebab or keftedes.

Plaka is the ideal place to relax after a tour of the Acropolis or to have lunch before continuing your tour of Athens on a bike tour or cruise along the Athenian coast.

If you plan to go to Plaka for dinner I recommend you choose a place in a restaurant with a terrace and enjoy the spectacle of seeing the Parthenon illuminated at the highest point of the city.

• Location... The cheapest restaurants are located in the streets away from Adrianou and from the terraces of the tavernas in Filomosou Eterias Square you can see the illuminated Acropolis at night.

With narrow alleys and whitewashed houses, Anafiotika is a small neighbourhood within Plaka that has similarities to the buildings of Andalusia.

The whitewashed houses were built in the 19th century by masons who came to Athens from Anafi to build the Presidential Palace. They brought with them the tradition of the Cyclades, with their flowery windows and low houses, which today attract the attention of visitors to the Greek capital.

A stroll through this picturesque neighbourhood reveals the unique architecture of its labyrinths, but it is also the only corner of Plaka that is not crowded with shops or enclosed by a chaotic path of streets and alleys. Anafiotika also has two churches and is located exactly between Stratonos Street and the Acropolis.

If you visit Athens at Christmas time, you will also discover that decorations storm the windows of Anafiotika, marking a noticeable difference in style from the rest of the buildings in Plaka.

• Location... Anafiotika is located on the edge of the Plaka district, between Stratonos and Prytaneion streets and the base of the Acropolis.

The Lantern of Lysicrocrates may go unnoticed because it is surrounded by some of the most iconic buildings of Ancient Greece, but it is a 2500 year old monument that was very popular in Athens and has a very particular history.

This monument was built by the millionaire Lysicrocrates to celebrate an award he received from the Athenian government for a play he wrote. Today, Greek legend has it that if you want to attract good fortune you must visit the monument during your trip to Athens.

The Lantern is important to Plaka because, although the oldest neighbourhood in Athens, it was destroyed and rebuilt several times throughout its history and was also damaged during World War II, so the Lantern of Lysikrates, which was remodelled in the 19th century, is one of the few ancient treasures it houses.

The monument is located on Tripodon Street , at the end of the pedestrianised Lysikrates Street, which leads directly to Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Zeus, marking the route of one of the few symmetrical streets in the Plaka district.

• Location... The monument is on Tripodon Street, at the end of the pedestrian Lysistrates Street, which leads to Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.

The Acropolis Museum is the largest and most famous archaeological museum in Greece and the perfect complement to your visit to the Parthenon and the other monuments.

It is not formally located in the Plaka neighbourhood, but on the outskirts, in Makriyianni, but because of its proximity to the Acropolis and because Plaka formerly occupied a larger territory that included the current museum grounds, local guides point to it as one of the neighbourhood's attractions.

The museum exhibits archaeological finds from the Acropolis and the hillside, as well as other archaeological relics from the Peloponnese. It also has a café, a restaurant and a gift and souvenir shop.

It is possible to book a guided tour to learn the secrets of the exhibits.

The Acropolis Museum area also houses other museums in the city such as the Jewish Museum, the Museum of Art, the Frissiras Museum, the Music Museum and the Museum of the University of Athens.

Interesting details

• Location... Dionysiou Areopagitou 15, Athens.
• Hours.... Tuesday to Sunday from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm and Monday from 8.00 am to 4.00 pm.
• Price... General admission to the museum costs approximately 5 euros.
• How to get there... Take the M2 metro line from the centre of Athens to Akropoli station.

Athens is one of the cradles of ancient civilisation and is full of historical monuments and temples, but at the foot of the Acropolis, in Plaka, stands the Benizelos Mansion, which is the oldest house in the Greek capital, built in the 16th century.

Benizelos also houses a museum where it is possible to learn about daily life during the days of the Ottoman Empire.

The building has an eclectic design that mixes Greco-Roman architecture with Turkish details. It has Greek arches on the ground floor, roofed galleries, and an interior garden dominated by a cistern.

The house has the characteristics of a luxury dwelling of its time and was also a convent. It is estimated to be about 500 years old.

Benizelos also houses an exhibition of paintings from the time of its construction, ordered by an aristocratic family of Athens, as well as details in wood and stone that give an insight into the 16th-century construction work.

Interesting details

• Location... Adrianou 96, Athens.
• Horatius... Monday to Saturday from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm. Sundays from 11.00 am to 5.00 pm.
• Price... Admission costs approximately 10 euros.
• How to get there... From the centre of Athens by bus lines 1, 12 and 227 to Philellenon.

Most Greeks who profess a religion choose Orthodox Christianity. The Church of St. Catherine, one of the main churches of Athens, is located in the Plaka district.

This church was built on the foundations of an ancient space that worshipped Artemis and its architecture has eclectic details, with a mixture of remains of Western Roman buildings and Byzantine decoration in its interior.

Today it is possible to visit its palm-lined courtyard and see the domed roof. St. Catherine's is a simple church, built on a Greek cross base and marks the history of Athens' growth in height over the last two centuries, as St. Catherine's is built on the foundations of an ancient temple and is still below present street level.

It is possible to visit the church during church services and also to commemorate the martyrdom of St. Catherine every 25th November. Its visit is also often included in tours and excursions of Athens that include Plaka.

Details of interest

• Location... Chairefontos 10, Athens.
• Horatius.... It can be visited on the days of religious services.
• Price... Admission is free.
• How to get there... From the centre of Athens by bus lines 1, 2, 4, 5, 11, 12, 15 and 227 to Philellenon.

At the time of its construction in the 1st century BC, the Tower of the Winds is believed to have been one of the most technologically advanced buildings in Athens.

With its octagonal shape and its Pentelic marble construction, the twelve-metre-high, eight-metre-diameter tower measured the weather and the direction of the wind, and its strategic location made it visible from all parts of the Roman Agora in Athens.

Today, after several years of renovation, you can visit the Tower of the Winds and I assure you that you will be surprised by its interior and the functions it fulfilled in its time of splendour, which led it to be considered a forerunner of the bell towers and clock towers of medieval European cities.

I recommend that you pay attention to the friezes that mark the cardinal points and that were coordinated with the compass it housed inside and the weather vane on the roof that marked the direction of the wind.

Similar constructions to the Tower of the Winds were used in other Greek cities. You can see them, for example, if you take a trip to Meteora and Delphi, but none of them proved as effective as this Athenian building.

Interesting details

• Location... Aiolou 105, Athens.
• Hours.... Every day from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm.
• Price... General admission to the museum costs approximately 5 euros.
• How to get there... Metro line M2 from the centre of Athens to Akropoli station and bus lines 35 and 227 to Monastiraki.

Visiting a hammam is the best way to unwind at the end of your tour of Plaka. These Turkish steam baths are considered sacred spaces in Greece, so they are not only considered useful for relaxing the body, but also the mind.

The hammams are considered a wet variant of the sauna but in the Roman style, which means that the visitor does not have to stand still, but move around in different sectors increasing the temperature of the water and inducing sweating.

There are many hammams you can visit in Plaka. The best known are Al Hammam and Old City, but the best alternatives are undoubtedly to be found in the old quarter of Athens given the area's Turkish influence.

A relaxing visit to a Turkish bath will allow you to recover from a long walk and learn more about Greek culture.

Please note that each hammam may have different general rules and some do not allow access to people with tattoos. They are also not suitable for minors, so make sure you check the requirements of the Turkish bath you plan to visit in advance of your visit.

Details of interest

• Location... There are hammams available all over Plaka but most are located on Tripodon Street.
• Price... They start at 45 euros.
• How to get there... From the centre of Athens at Omonia Square you can take buses 11, 500 and 790 to Philellenon and then walk five minutes to Tripodon Street.