Athens and which island?

[Chocbuttonsandredwine]

Thinking of doing twin centre holiday… 3/4 nights in Athens then catch a ferry to somewhere chilled, beach/small town… ideally not too far away.

can anyone recommend?

Milos

It's stunning, not over developed and so so chilled. Amazing beaches

Sifnos and Mikos are lovely. Sifnos is very quiet, we stayed in vathi 10 + yrs ago. Milos has more going on, we stayed in the north. We went sea kayaking there, it was great. We got ferry to both from Pireus

*Milos

Don't bother with 4 nights in Athens. Really polluted. Acropolis is the only thing worth seeing. And the museum beside it. Which in true Greek chaos style has zero connection to the Parthenon and you need to buy separate tickets.
2 nights max I'd say

Aegina but gets busy at the weekend when all the Athenians decant, or Poros or Spetses

Keeeeeepdancing when was the last time you went to Athens? It was definitely very polluted say about 35 years ago when I first went, but it's changed out of all recognition.

I would definitely say the ancient Agora, the National Archaeological Museum and Lycabettos Hill are worth a visit, at the very least. Plus all the classic city things- eating, drinking, shopping, culture etc.

2023

there's loads and loads and loads of things to see and do in Athens. If you think two nights is enough I can only imagine you ran round everything as quickly as humanly possible or did no research at all whatsoever to see what attractions there are.
we spent 6 nights and still didn't see everything we wanted to see. And the city is no more polluted than any other major city. Yes it's got graffiti and it's not a beautiful architectural gem like Paris but to say there's nothing to do is absurd.
and the Acropolis museum has nothing to do with the Parthenon ??? I mean it's filled with archaeological finds from the Acropolis site, of which the Parthenon is part. Did you not understand what you were looking at ?

Athens has plenty to see and do, and I certainly didn’t begrudge paying for both the Parthenon and its museum. Both are world-class and more than worth the price of admission. I spent four nights in Athens in 2022 and am keen to go back.

It is a shame to hear it’s made the top 5 overtouristed cities, although I’m not surprised.

Marking place! I know the Greek islands pretty well but not the ones easily accessible from Athens.

Amorgos is an overnight ferry ride from Athens (you can get a cabin) and is pretty quiet and unspoiled. Not a quick hop, but efficient.

If you are flying into and out of Athens then suggest having 2 nights each end as the ferry times may not line up with flight times. Or you could fly into Athens and out of eg Santorini or Mykonos would enable doing a Cyclades island in between.

I did a bit of research on this a few weeks ago and it's more complicated and costly than I'd expected. It could be that I'm just an idiot of course.