Best base for a week’s beach holiday with an Athens day trip?

[mightyducks]

me and DH would really like to go and see the acropolis, but we’d like to fit it into a week holiday including a beach etc - flights to Athens also see quite pricey - is there somewhere else we could fly to - from Manchester- where we could do a day trip to Athens to see it?

We stayed in Vouliagmini (sp?!) and did a day trip to Athens. It’s about half an hour away. A day was more than enough in Athens for me. It was grimy, dirty, loud and just not very nice. If I was to do it again I would investigate which islands are possible to day trip from and suck up the long day and chill out for the rest.

There are a number of islands (the Saronic islands) near enough to Athens for a day trip. Aegina is probably best for beaches. I’m not sure any of them would be my top choice of island for a week’s holiday though.

A different idea - book outbound flight to Athens, spend a night there, then get a ferry to one of the Cyclades islands for the rest of your holiday. At the end of your holiday either fly home from that island (Santorini and Mykonos have airports) or if you chose a different island, get a short ferry to Santorini or Mykonos for your flight home. Or you could do this in reverse and see Athens at the end.

Or you could have your week holiday on the mainland - Napflio is a popular holiday spot within driving distance of Athens (there are buses too).

We stayed in an apartment via Booking.com which was on the coast of Athens, 45 min drive from the centre/acropolis. We got an Uber approx halfway there & got the tube the rest of the way