Has anyone bought tickets for the Acropolis recently?

[MegCleary]

Any one bought tickets for the Acropolis. I have been on the hhticket.gr website but cannot get any for end of may. Have I left it too late??
are they released in blocks? Can get until end of April. But nil for May
asvice appreciated.

We got them whilst we were actually in Athens for the week. Online was no problem. This was in June last year.

This is what it says on the FAQs
You can check availability in the calendar on the product page. If a date in the current month is listed as unavailable, it means that tickets are sold out, or the monument is closed or free on that date. If the desired date is not available for more than one full month in the future, it is possible that we still do not have tickets available. In that case, we suggest that you revisit our website at a later date

So May is completely sold out or not open to book yet?

When we went last year we just queued and bought tickets on the day.

I would guess it just isn't available yet

We are there now, they didn't release April until 1st April so I expect May will be the same.

I'd go for 8am if you can because after that it's mental

We couldn’t buy tickets for later this month until 1st Aprl, though I thought they released the summer months en masse. But clearly not. Just had a look at the official site, tickets for 30th April available but not any date in May or some random dates I picked for subsequent months.

maybe get the acropolis museum booked first, and just keep checking on the Acropolis itself? Bit of a pain I know.

Hope you have a great holiday.

@boys3 Thanks for the reply. What are you planning for your trip and do report back please. All tips appreciated.
@NormalAuntFanny how is it going? What do you recommend.

Actually sitting on a plane to go home @MegCleary. Has been lovely.

We only did the Parthenon, the archeological museum and the very fun but also terrible modern art museum.

Did a rooftop resto (Elysium Athens) last night which was great and it was Easter and streets packed with processions which was cool. Also did an evening food tour which was excellent (Athens food on foot) and a wine tasting (drunky mule) also fun.

Food very good, not particularly cheap except gyros etc but nice.

Walked a lot as were staying just below slopes of Parthenon and did a quick trip to Hydra for one night which was lovely too. Felt perfectly safe too

Would not go in summer but spring perfect.

@NormalAuntFanny thanks for all that info and safe journey home

Yep. I was there last week . We bought tickets a couple of days before and there were people buying them as we were queuing.

@HighLadyofTheNightCourt How was your trip? Am going mine Mumsnet for tips!

Fantastic.
As others have said, the Acropolis gets busy so I’d go for early tickets. Plus I wouldn’t want to do that climb in hot weather!
The changing of the guards happens on the hour, every hour and is interesting to watch! Only lasts about 10 mins.

We spent our evenings in Plaka which has lots of shops, bars and restaurants. Some bars had pretty decent happy hours so drinks were quite cheap. We had 11 year old DS with us so it was nice to have a few drinks, play cards and people watch.

We also did the war museum but that was for DS as he loves his military history.

@HighLadyofTheNightCourt @NormalAuntFanny what was the EES system like arriving at Athens airport?. We visited Spain last month and it was very quick, maybe ten minutes at most to get through the new EES process, but friends going through the same airport a few days later faced near 2 hr queues. We seemed to have arrived at a sweet spot - only seemed to be our 2/3 at most full plane to process.

We arrived at the same time as another flight so queued for about 45 mins. It seemed to be moving quite quickly though tbh. We visited Rome recently and that was a disaster because nothing was working!

Seems to me that everyone goes in the morning, thinking it will be less crowded and cooler but it doesn't always work that way. I went in the evening for late slot and there were only a handful of people around at that time. Just a thought. That was at the end of May, warm alright but nothing awful.

I'd say the tickets for May have not been released yet.

@zantez I am considering an evening one as not wishing to drag teenagers up in the morning.
do you have any other suggestions for Athens?

the very fun but also terrible modern art museum.

😀 can you elaborate @NormalAuntFanny ?

Tbh now wondering if we've booked for long enough. We are there for four nights, so really just three full days. Acropolis museum and Acropolis aside, also looking at the Ancient Agora and going up Lycebettus hill. We're staying fairly near Evangelismos metro station and DH is quite keen on visiting the War Museum as that will be very close by. I'd like to visit the Panathenaic Stadium, and the National Garden, and generally just have a relaxing wander round.

We toyed with the idea of getting a ferry over to Hydra, but having the time to stay the night there as @NormalAuntFanny did, is something we won't have.

Wine tasting / vineyard visit is something we've looked at but not booked. Plus we can do plenty of wine tasting at lunch and dinner each day anyway! There's then all the various museums that we almost certainly won't have time for.

We kind of take the view less is more and all those things we won't have time for does mean we'll just have to book a second trip to Athens at some point maybe mixing that with a few nights on somewhere like Hydra.

Currently in Athens (home tomorrow). I booked the Acropolis and museum on a tour, Greek walks on Viatour. It was excellent, brilliant guide.
We are staying in Plaka and have enjoyed wandering around and watching the Easter events.
Panathenaic stadium is a must. We liked the ancient agora and National Archeological museum.
Also recommend Cspe Sounion, stunning.

We just rocked up in the morning and bought tickets for the Acropolis, it was no problem.
The stand-out things for our teenagers were:

• Acropolis museum ( they loved it, we didn't have time for the Archaeological Museum too

-Olympic stadium - this was fabulous, so atmospheric, and there's a sweet little museum about the modern Olympics there too

• strolling, strolling, strolling. Its such an easy city to walk around and mooch through the shops
• funnily enough, the city (modern) cemetery.
• Lycabtus hill. We got the fernicular railway uo the evening we arrived and watched the sun set over the city. Absurd magical and gives you a sense of the layout of the city. Walk back down afterwards, it's lovely.

I'm jealous, would love to go back.

For island trips, I did Aegina easily as a day trip from Athens - there’s the ancient temple there too

The best ice cream shop we found was called Kokkion. A few paces from the Acropolis tube station is an amazing little shop called Pistachio Land - great for delicious well priced gifts.

Restaurant recommendation: Scholario in Plaka for amazing and excellent value meze. Full of locals!
Liondi also good, but touristy, opposite the Acropolis museum.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/greece-eu-entry-exit-system-ees-biometrics-british-travellers-b2960369.html

worth knowing. Arrival process in Athens was pretty quick - maybe 15 mins to get through passport control. Around 40 mins from touch down to being in arrival hall. A lot quicker than I expected.