Athens gets treated as a transit lounge. People land with the islands already fixed in their heads and give the capital an afternoon on the way to a ferry. Nina Garcia's argument in the latest edition of her Insider Guide is that this is a mistake, and that Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey has handed the city a fresh reason to detain you. If the film sent you back to the myths, this is where you can walk around inside them.
What she values in Athens is how close the ancient and the current sit. The Acropolis is less a scheduled stop than something that keeps appearing between buildings and is still glowing after everything else has gone dark. Neoclassical houses have become small hotels, family tavernas share streets with contemporary galleries, and a generation of chefs, designers and makers is rewriting what Greek creativity looks like.
For this edition she drew on her own trips and asked four people whose taste she trusts: Vivia Costales, who owns Love Floris, the designer Mary Katrantzou, the jeweller Nikos Koulis, and Christina Martini, creative director of Ancient Greek Sandals.
When to go
No single season owns the city. Spring and autumn give you warm days and comfortable evenings. Summer works if you intend to divide your time between the centre of town and the Riviera beach clubs. Winter has quiet museums and quiet restaurants and something close to the run of the place.
Where to stay
Hotel Grande Bretagne has been taking guests since 1874 and looks out over Syntagma Square. Its rooftop restaurant, the GB Roof Garden, is one of the better vantage points in the city and worth a dinner even if you are sleeping somewhere else.
The Dolli at Acropolis occupies a restored neoclassical mansion, hung with art and kept deliberately small. The rooftop pool is a favourite of Garcia's, and the rooms mix contemporary pieces with antiques and marble. Costales rates the restaurant for the Mediterranean cooking and for looking straight at the Acropolis.
The Four Seasons Astir Palace sits on its own pine covered peninsula on the Riviera, with private beaches and long cinematic sunsets. This is Martini's recommendation for anybody extending the trip or who would simply rather wake up beside water.
Also worth a look: Okupa, Perianth Hotel and Mona Athens.
Breakfast and lunch
Katrantzou calls Athenee an Athens institution, the sort of place where breakfast slides into lunch and coffee into dinner and you keep running into people you know. Akra is the other morning fixture, strong coffee and precise cooking, and just as good for a slow lunch or an early dinner if a table can be found.
Ariston Bakery has been in the same premises under the same family since 1910. Go for the savoury pies, and specifically the tyropita while it is still warm.
At lunch, Papaioannou has two rooms on the water, one in the port at Piraeus and one on the Riviera, both doing seafood with as little intervention as possible. Plyta hides on a quiet lane and cooks Greek comfort food from Giannis Koskinas, who has a devoted local following. Wine is Fine serves Franco-Greek sharing plates against a list that will hold a wine drinker's attention, and Martini rates it for a late afternoon drink.
Dinner
Pharoah is modern Greek in spite of the name, and busy in the way visitors are hoping for. Zigoala is quieter and more intimate, and Costales points at the chicken and the salads. Birdman is a Japanese bar and grill down an unpromising alley, serving yakitori alongside Greek wine with a record playing.
Byzantino has been reworked into a French leaning brasserie and still carries the older Athens atmosphere, Koulis says, right down to the cheese and dessert trolleys. Vezene cooks contemporary Greek over wood. Gamay belongs to the growing natural wine scene and works either side of dinner. Iodio, one of Katrantzou's picks, crosses Italian with Greek, and the orders are the calamari cacio e pepe and the sea urchin pasta. Linou Soumpasis, a new style taverna in Psiri housed in a former candle shop, gets a joint endorsement from Koulis and Martini.
Also try: Manari Taverna, Taverna ton Filon, Ta Kanaria, Island Club Restaurant, Taverna Saita, Papadakis and Ekiben Kitchen.
What to see
The National Observatory of Athens is ringed by pines and threaded with paths, and the climb up Filopappou Hill pays for itself in the view. The Acropolis Museum rewards a return however many times you have been. Cine Oasis is an outdoor cinema running vintage programming, one of several independents in a city that takes film seriously.
Krabo is Garcia's pick of the Riviera beach clubs, a restaurant that runs from day into night with sunbeds and cabanas on a secluded bay at Kavouri. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center brings Renzo Piano architecture, gardens and a rotating programme of exhibitions and performances. The Museum of Cycladic Art makes the case for the durability of Greek form, and both Costales and Katrantzou insist the shop is part of the visit. The Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum was the first in Greece given over to jewellery making, and its shop carries the house alongside other Greek designers.
Also worth your time: Kolonaki, The Intermission gallery in Piraeus, the Alekos Fassianos Museum and the Stefanidou Tsoukala Gallery.
Where to shop
Ancient Greek Sandals keeps its flagship here. Martini founded the label with Nikolas Minoglou, and the range runs from gladiators through to clogs. Naxos Apothecary stocks skincare, hair products, perfume and homeopathic remedies built on natural ingredients and local botanicals. Nikos Koulis opened his own flagship in 2024, and his mix of classical geometry and something sharper reads differently in the city that produced it.
Mouki Mou sits behind the souvenir shops of Plaka, where Maria Lemos keeps a calm concept store of fashion, jewellery, books and homeware from Greek and international names. Lito Fine Jewelry combines precious stones with fine metalwork, and the hand painted evil eyes are the thing to look for. Martinos Antiques goes back to 1895 and is, in Koulis's description, a Greek treasure chest: kilims from Turkey, silver, rare ceramics and furniture running from Art Deco to the Memphis Group.
The Monastiraki Flea Market is touristy midweek and turns into something closer to a souk at the weekend. Arrive early and look for rugs, carved statues and icons, old records, and olive oil or honey to carry home.
Also on the list: The Store at the Ilisian, Oikos, Yiannis Sergakis, Ileana Makri, Zeus and Dione, Erato Bookstore, Enny Monaco, The Benaki Museum Shop and Maggoosh.
The one rule
Garcia's closing instruction is to stop treating the city as a prelude to somewhere better. Walk around without a plan, eat on roofs for as many evenings as you can manage, and let it show you things in its own time.