Thanksgiving Weekend in Athens, Greece | Travel
This past November, over Thanksgiving break, Sam and I took a spontaneous trip to Athens, Greece. Yup, we traded in our turkey, stuffing, and ham for gyros, olives, and ouzo. Yamas! (That’s Greek for “cheers!”)
November in Athens has gorgeous weather too. It was in the low 70s the entire time, with lots of sun and a nice breeze. Sigh. I never wanted to leave.
(Scroll to the bottom of this post for a quick summary of travel tips if you don’t want to read about the entire weekend trip.)
Greece is a country that was always at the top of my travel buck list, but for some reason I always thought of it as being too inaccessible for us - somewhere we would have to hold off on visiting until we were older and had more money, more free time, more….I have no idea. Why I thought this is frankly a mystery because if you are living in Europe (or have any plans to visit Europe in the future), Athens, Greece is a TOTALLY easy and inexpensive 4-day weekend trip! I don’t know why we didn’t come here sooner!
Now, if you are planning to visit Mykonos or Santorini or some other touristy Greek island famous for honeymoons and sunsets, I’m sure your experience will be verrrrry different from visiting Athens. Just wanted to put that out there so there’s no confusion! I’m ONLY talking about Athens here in the hopes that it will inspire you to put it on your bucket list, because it was amazing.
DAY 1 - Friday - Busy Tourist Day
Itinerary: Breakfast at a cafe - Bike tour: 09:30 - 1300 - Lunch of gyros and trying Greek beer - Afternoon: Acropolis Museum & Acropolis Ruins - Sunset overlooking Athens from the Acropolis - Evening: Accidental nap (whoops!) and late dinner at an Italian restaurant near our Airbnb.
TIP: We spent most of the day on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) traveling to Athens and getting settled into our Airbnb, so I won’t include that day in this list. However, I will mention that traveling on a holiday or on a weekday if you can is typically wayyyy cheaper! We flew Ryanair and I think our entire roundtrip flight for two people was around $160. We use an app called Skyscanner to look for the cheapest times to fly and I highly recommend it!
We started off this day with a bike tour around Athens that we booked through Airbnb Experiences. This was a roughly 3-hour tour of the city on electric bikes, and I don’t recommend doing a bike tour of Athens unless it’s on electric bikes. This is because Athens is HILLY. We had to ride up and down soooo many hills, but it was incredibly easy with an e-bike that basically does all the hard work for you. (Pic by our tour guide)
TIP: If you’re visiting a new city that has a lot of interesting history and tons of landmarks you want to visit, I definitely recommend taking a citywide tour FIRST THING. This was amazing for our trip because if we saw anything super cool on the tour, we a) now knew exactly where it was and how to get back there on our own, and b) we already had information from our tour guide about cost of entry and the best times of day to visit.
If it wasn’t for taking our bike tour on the first day, we would have never known that the best time of day to visit the Acropolis is right before sunset! So after our tour we had gyros for lunch, then headed straight to the Acropolis Museum. (Our tour guide recommended visiting the museum before the ruins, and I definitely agree. That way, when you actually see the ruins you already have a general idea of what you’re looking at and why it’s so important.) We were able to avoid the crowds AND had this amazing view from the Acropolis at the end of our visit:
Definitely watch the sunset from the Acropolis if you can! It was so peaceful, and walking back down through the groves of olive trees was stunning in the fading light. I wanted to set up camp and live there.
Day 2 - Saturday - Laid Back Day
Itinerary: Sleeping in - Swimming Tour: 1100 - 1400 - late afternoon walk around the Plaka Neighborhood - fancy dinner & wine bar evening.
TIP: I feel like this is something I have had to learn over many years of taking shorter international trips, and it might be my most valuable piece of advice EVER: If you only have 2 or 3 days to spend somewhere, plan for one of those days to be a “down day”. What I mean by that is have a single day where you only plan to do one or two major things, and plan to spend the rest of that day just doing whatever the hell you feel like doing. If you feel exhausted, take a nap. Sleep in without setting an alarm. Spend the afternoon tracking down that dish you really wanted to try and savor every bite when you get there. Enjoy just walking through old town, soaking up the sun and sounds. Buy a tacky souvenir plate that just isn’t practical but you like the pretty colors. Basically, just enjoy yourself on this “day off” and don’t feel pressured to explore any major attractions. I think sometimes we can get caught up in trying to see EVERYTHING when we go somewhere new, and this actually can create too much pressure and tension during your trip. Remember that you’re on a vacation and that it should be relaxing and fun. :)
On this day, we were back at it again with another Airbnb Experience! We spent most of the afternoon with a local named Elena, who took us to a natural spring lake just outside of Athens. (Click here for Elena’s Airbnb page. She was so accommodating and I highly recommend her services!)
Yup, the lake had those tiny fish that nibble on your dead skin! We had never experienced these “spa fish” before, so this was definitely a very memorable part of the trip for us. And the lake was just incredibly beautiful. I spent a lot of time sunning myself and eating ice cream.
TIP: If you’re going on a short weekend trip like this to a major city, I recommend that if you are booking tours, try booking something that takes you outside the city limits for a few hours. It makes your trip feel so much more well-rounded! Not only did you get to see the major city sights, but you’ll leave feeling like you got to do something extra and special that most people visiting that city don’t get the chance to do. It really makes a huge difference when you get to switch up your surroundings for a few hours, trading in busy cityscapes for a tranquil afternoon by the lake.
As the itinerary suggests, we spent the rest of this day just eating delicious food and drinking all the wine, which I did not take pictures of. The following morning, we caught our very early flight back to Germany (the heavy wine drinking the night before was maybe not the best decision before a flight, but when in Greece, amiright?)
All in all, this was definitely one of my favorite trips we have ever taken while stationed in Europe. I hope I’ve convinced you to visit the beautiful historic Athens! Or if not, I hope you at least picked up some helpful travel tips along the way.
TL;DR - Some Helpful Travel Tips
For cheaper flights, fly on a weekday or holiday, and use the Skyscanner app to find the cheapest times of year to fly, or the cheapest destinations to fly to.
Take a tour of a new city FIRST THING. You will know where everything is for the rest of your trip, plus get info on prices, best times of day to see attractions, where to eat, etc.
Plan a “down day” on short trips. Trying to see too much all at once will wear you out quickly, in my experience, and leave you feeling too overwhelmed.
When visiting a new city, book at least one small tour outside the city limits. You’ll end up experiencing and seeing more than the average person who visits that city, and leave feeling like you had a well-rounded trip.