Sunset in the Athenian Riviera

I guess you all have heard the well-known Athenian Riviera, if you haven’t then you must have seen pictures from some person online or browsing the internet, it is one of the must things to see and do if you are visiting Athens close to the summer.

If your travel plans are not close to the summer so you won’t go swimming but you need a change in the scenery and escape the “big” city then is a must. Why you should go? When you think about Athens and Greece two things come in mind, history and sea. Those two are correlated with the city and the country itself you shouldn’t leave without experiencing them, visiting the south after seeing all the history will give you a complete view of the city.

Most probably you are wondering now on how far it is from the center and how much time you should spend there. The very beautiful parts of the Athenian Riviera that have a lot of things for you to see starts in Glyfada, Voula and Vouliagmeni and ends up in Sounio. In order for you to reach Glyfada from the city center (Syntagma square) it will take you about 30-40 minutes with public transportation and around 25 minutes with the car and that if it doesn’t have any traffic.

There are a lot of ways for you to come in Athenian Riviera with public transportation from the city center, the fastest one will be to take the metro until the end of the red line which is Elliniko and then take a bus from there to the south or you can take directly a bus or a tram from the Syntagma square to the south. Taking the bus is significantly faster than the tram but the tram does take a scenery route very close to the shore which would be good to see if you are not in a hurry(it does a lot of stops so you can stop and enjoy the sea as well).

Visiting the Athenian Riviera in the summer does mean that the first thing that you would like to do is to go directly to the beach, so I would suggest you skip Glyfada and Voula and go straight to Vouliagmeni. Vouliagmeni has a lot of nice beaches, some of those are private and some of them public, if you are looking for an organized beach then you should visit Asteras Vouliagmenis but if you are fine with a public beach and you can find your way through it then you could go across from Asteras to a small little public beach. Generally they are a lot of public and organized beaches but the best organized beach close to the city center would definitely be Asteras and the nicest public beaches would start in Vouliagmeni.

What will you do if you are not visiting the Athenian Riviera in the summer? If you are not visiting the south in the summer then you should stop first in Glyfada which is also one of the main shopping areas of the south and has a lot of restaurants, bars and coffee shops. Enjoy a nice walk in Glyfada and why not buying something if you see something that you like, you can also have a coffee with a sea view and really relax and experience the Athenian life. What else can you see or do in the Athenian Riviera? It would be great if you could rent a bicycle and ride it from Glyfada until Vouliagmeni, it is such a nice route! If you don’t want to ride a bicycle then you can walk as well Glyfada from Vouliagmeni is not that far, it will take you around an hour to walk from Glyfada to Vouliagmeni but if the weather is nice and you take the route close to the shore it will be a walk to remember.

You could also go and Visit the Lake of Vouliagmeni, the lake is the gem of the south and it is really beautiful to see and experience it. You can also enjoy your coffee on the restaurant bar that is on the lake and afterwards you can go and eat fresh fish in one of the many restaurants that are nearby. If you are not in the mood for fish and would like to go to a Wine Bar or relax eat something else you can go to Voula which has a lot of nice little wine bars and shops literally next to parks that are full of green.

If you liked the post and helped you see and experience a different side of Athens then let’s help together more people and share it. If you have any questions regarding your trip or questions I would be happy to help you, safe travels!