3 days in Athens - most important sites?

[MiniCooperLover]

We are going for 4 nights and will have 3.5 days of sightseeing (me, DH and DS who is 12). There are a lot of different companies selling tickets for the various attractions and I'd like to get them booked before we go as we aren't there long. We can buy a ticket for the Acropolis which will allow us to also view the other buildings in the site but any suggestions/combo suggestions are welcome. We are hoping to stay at a hotel that is close to Syntagma Square. Thank you

We got a combination ticket for the Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum and the National Archaeological Museum.

There’s an amphitheatre on the acropolis hill which hosts concerts. We randomly saw The Waterboys! It was a great evening, teen DS really enjoyed it.

Some info here

We really liked the original Olympic stadium
http://www.panathenaicstadium.gr/Αρχική/tabid/40/language/el-GR/Default.aspx
well worth a visit if you have 3 days to spare

1st modern Olympic Games that is.

Would recommend a combined ticket for the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora

On your first day (evening) go to the Library of Hadrian and buy a ticket that gives you entry to that - a small site so easy to see it and then eat - plus the Acropolis, Ancient Agora and Roman Agora. The first full day get up and out to be at the Acropolis as it opens and use the smaller entrance on Dionysiou Areopagitou rather than the main one. After the Acropolis go to the Acropolis musem so you see it whilst its all clear in your mind. The next day do the Ancient Agora in the morning and the Archaeological museum in the afternoon. Final day can either go to the temple of Poseidon at Sounion - easy enough to do on the bus - or the Olympic stadium depending on what you'd prefer. If you go to Sounion you could take swimming costumes and stop off at the beach at Voula on the way back and then take the tram back in to Syntagma Square. An alternative last day would be to take the train to Corinth if you want to see the Roman remains there.

If you are staying in Syntagma then the cafe in the garden at the numismatic museum is lovely (and you don't need to go to the museum unless you want to.

Benaki Museum of Greek Culture. It’s a gem and a a diversion from antiquity. Also see what’s on at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation cultural centre. Modern Greece and an amazing building.

Don't miss the Greek orthodox cathedral and other Greek Orthodox churches - they are jaw droppingly amazing -from the out side look like nothing but inside- oh my.
Acropolis obviously and second the archaeological museum.
Try and catch a changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
A walk up lycabettus hill was good too. Mars hill also.
The agora has an amazingly preserved temple.
We also really enjoyed the Rick Steves self guided walking tour of athens from his book. On this tour really enjoyed the teeny tiny streets on the slopes of the acropolis ( anafiotika) built by workers cut out of the hillside. Very different.
Say hello to all the street cats- they are so friendly.
We did a cookery class near athens central market( The greek kitchen)- great fun and very good.
We also took a day trip to Aegina- really pretty and a day trip down to the riviera by tram and swam in the sea.
But we had a week.

Thank you, all great suggestions. We've booked the ticket that has 6 sites so I think if we manage to do all of those over the three days we'll be quite happy. We've booked a hotel close to Syntagma Square which seems quite central.