JULY 2022
If you research visiting the Acropolis you will find all sorts of contradicting information. Chaos is a Greek word, which you will soon discover when you visit the official website of the Acropolis… We visited the Acropolis in May and discovered that a lot of information on the internet is false, which is why I decided to write this little travel guide, that also includes how you should visit with a baby, because that requires some extra planning. If you follow this guide you will for sure have a good time when visiting!
About the Acropolis
When you visit Athens, bringing a visit to the Acropolis is a must. Akros means “highest part” and polis means “city”, indicating that this once was the highest part of the city. The Acropolis is very high indeed, and you can spot it from all sorts of angles when you are wandering through Athens. The Acropolis once was inhabited (somewhere between 2000 and 1200 BC) and even when most of the inhabitants moved to the lower parts of the city the Acropolis stayed the religious center of Athens. Several parts of the Acropolis have been ruined in wars, but there is still plenty to see if you bring a visit. The most famous building on the Acropolis is the Parthenon, but the Odeion (theater), Temple of Nike and the Erechtheion are still in a very good state as well. I would recommend to factor in 2 hours of time to dedicate to the Acropolis. Make sure to bring enough sunscreen because it can get really hot on top of the mountain and you won’t find a lot of areas with shade.
How to buy tickets
The official website of the Acropolis is very confusing and so is a lot of the information on the internet about how to buy tickets. We bought our tickets on tiqets.com and it worked perfectly. As we visited on a weekend in May I expected the Acropolis to be very busy, so we bought skip the line tickets for € 22 per adult. If you buy your tickets on tiqets.com you receive your tickets directly in the mail and you do not have to go to a tourist office to receive your official tickets. We were able to skip a small queue, I am sure the skip the line tickets adds more value in high season. When we visited there were no COVID limitations and we didn’t have to show a QR code upon entering and didn’t have to wear a mask. You can enter on both entry gates with your skip the line ticket. On tiqets.com you can also book guided tours. As we were visiting with a baby we booked the audio tour instead and I found that it definitely added value and loved all the stories about the Greek gods.
How to visit with a baby
Visiting with a baby requires one extra step, which we didn’t know about before our visit. Even though we did not find this indicated, you are not allowed to bring a stroller on the Acropolis (despite most of the Acropolis being stroller friendly). We expected to bring the stroller into the elevator to the top of the mountain, but only wheelchairs are allowed this route. If you brought a stroller you can leave it in the cloakroom that is located at the main entrance. This cloakroom has some baby carriers that you can borrow for free when you leave an ID as a deposit. The baby carriers feature a little sun roof, which is absolutely necessary. We wish we had known about this procedure before, as we lost of a lot of time trying to enter with a stroller. I cannot really tell about Hugo’s experience, I think he felt very hot on the Acropolis, but it was lively enough that he was able to see a lot and he didn’t complain at all.
Our experience
Visiting the Acropolis had been a dream of mine for a long period, as I am very interested in Greek mythology as I had Greek in high school. Funnily enough the Acropolis reminded me a lot of the Table Mountain of Cape Town, but being a better version of it as it features these beautiful ruins. I will take you along on our visit with my pictures!
We tried to take some pictures of the Parthenon up close, but it is so grand that my camera lens was not able to capture it, so we took some distorted phone pictures instead. Please bring your wide angle lens 😉
