The Acropolis in Winter: Free Sundays, Shorter Hours and How to Book a Timed Slot

Booking your slot on the rock

Winter opening is 08:00 to 17:00, daily. Buy before you fly, because you are choosing an hour, not just a day. The slot is per person, so if you're travelling together, book everyone into the same window.

Any hour will do for the Parthenon in winter. The sun stays low from morning to afternoon, so the marble holds its colour instead of bleaching out.

You go up through the Propylaea, the old gateway, and come out on top with the Parthenon in front of you. The Erechtheion stands beside it, with its porch held up by carved women, the Caryatids. The small Temple of Athena Nike sits near the entrance. One flank of the site is under scaffolding, with a restoration crane above it.

If it's raining hard, don't go up. The paths are worn marble, they turn slippery, and there's nowhere on the rock to shelter.

The free Sundays

Free entry runs on the first and third Sunday of each month, from 1 November to 31 March. It applies at the state-run sites and museums. So those two Sundays also get you into the Ancient Agora, Kerameikos, the Roman Agora, the Olympieion and the National Archaeological Museum for nothing.

Plan the day around the early closers. Kerameikos, the Roman Agora and the Olympieion all shut at 15:00 in winter. Start on the Acropolis at 08:00, walk down to the Agora, and keep a museum for the afternoon. The central market is closed on Sundays, so leave that for another day.

The museum five minutes away

The Acropolis Museum is five minutes from the hill and has its own €20 ticket, which has nothing to do with the Acropolis one. In winter it's open 09:00 to 17:00, until 20:00 at weekends and 22:00 on Fridays. Last entry is half an hour before closing.

Friday is the one evening in the week you can see the sculpture after dark, and the top floor is worth the trip on its own. It's a glass gallery set at the same angle as the hill, so the Parthenon sits in the windows while you walk round its frieze.

The free Sundays don't apply here, but the museum is free on 6 and 25 March. The Acropolis is closed on 25 March anyway, which makes it an easy swap.

Below the Acropolis

The Ancient Agora of Athens is a short walk downhill, with the entrance at 24 Adrianou Street near Monastiraki. Most people go past the gate without stopping. Inside stands the Temple of Hephaistos, still roofed and still ringed by its columns, on a low green rise. The €20 ticket covers the museum in the long reconstructed stoa along one side. Winter hours are 08:00 to 17:00, except Tuesday, when it opens at 10:00.

Kerameikos reopened on 15 September 2026 after three years of work, and ground that had been fenced off is walkable again. It's €10, €5 reduced, museum included, open 08:00 to 15:00. You walk the ancient cemetery among carved grave stones, past the double Dipylon gateway, with the Eridanos stream running through the field. In winter you'll often have it to yourself.

The Roman Agora of Athens is a 20-minute stop for the Tower of the Winds, an eight-sided marble tower with a winged wind god carved on each face. The entrance is on Dioskouron Street, a couple of minutes from Monastiraki metro. It's €10, €5 reduced, open 08:00 to 15:00.

The one to leave out is the Olympieion. Those are the tallest columns in Athens, and the view back up to the Acropolis is clear. But it's €20 for a field you can see most of from the fence on Vasilissis Olgas. It sits beside Hadrian's Arch, a few minutes from Akropoli metro, open 08:00 to 15:00. On a free Sunday, by all means go in.

Free walks on the slopes

Filopappou Hill gives you the view people come for, with the Parthenon at eye level straight across from you. It's a public park with no ticket, no gate and no closing time. A cobbled path winds up through the pines to bare rock platforms at the top. Go in the last half hour before sunset, which in midwinter falls in the late afternoon.

Wear proper shoes. The rock gets slippery when wet, the walk down after dark is unlit, and there are no facilities at the summit. If you want longer, the Pnyx and the Areopagus link into the same circuit for a walk of about two hours.

Anafiotika is a cluster of whitewashed island houses built onto the side of the Acropolis rock. Stonemasons brought over from Anafi put them up in the middle of the 19th century, in the style of home. Climb from upper Plaka onto Erechtheos, then turn onto Stratonos. People live here, so keep the noise and the cameras down. It's all narrow steps, with no step-free way in.

Wet afternoons indoors

The National Archaeological Museum holds the deepest collection in the country, and it's €20. From 16 November it's open 08:30 to 15:30, and 13:00 to 20:00 on Tuesdays. Last entry is half an hour before closing. The gold Mask of Agamemnon and the bronze god from Artemision are both here. It's at 44 28th October (Patission) Street, with Omonia and Victoria the nearest metro stations.

The Benaki Museum of Greek Culture is free every Thursday from 18:00, and stays open until midnight that night. The free part is the permanent collection; temporary shows carry their own ticket. The rest of the week it's €12, €9 reduced, and it's closed on Tuesdays. Byzantine icons fill the upper rooms of the old mansion. It's at 1 Koumbari Street on Vasilissis Sofias, walkable from Syntagma or Evangelismos metro.

Soup at the central market

Varvakios Agora is where Athens shops, in an iron-and-glass hall on Athinas Street, about seven minutes' walk from Monastiraki metro. The tavernas inside serve patsas, a tripe soup, for €5, and it's the warmest cheap lunch in the middle of town. It trades Monday to Saturday, with the fish and meat halls running from early morning into the early afternoon. Outdoor stalls mostly want cash. The meat hall is whole carcasses at head height, so skip it if that's not for you.

Sounion in winter

The Temple of Poseidon stands on a bare headland above the sea at Cape Sounion, with the Aegean on three sides. Winter suits it, as the sunset it's known for comes in the afternoon. Admission is €10, about half the summer rate, and the free Sundays apply here too. The site opens in the morning and closes near sunset, roughly 09:30 to 17:00 depending on the date, so check before you go.

KTEL buses leave from the Mavromateon terminal near Victoria metro, take about two hours and cost €7 each way. By car it's about 70km and an hour and a quarter. If you've only got two days in Athens, leave it out. The return bus eats four hours for a site you'll have seen in forty minutes.

Closed days and booking

The state sites and museums close on 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Orthodox Easter Sunday, and 25 and 26 December. Book the Acropolis slot before you travel, and buy the Acropolis Museum ticket separately.

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