There are good number of restaurants in the Athens Plaka, Psiri and surrounding area. If you try these out you will know what a good restaurant should look, taste and feel like, and be less likely to get a disappointing meal in one of the tourist joints. It is quite famous for its fish items.

•    Byzantino restaurant in the Plaka: This is a preferred restaurant of choice for a good number of locals as well as tourists. It is situated in e Small Park on Kydatheneon Street, but the food is good enough to rouse your appetite and Greek clientele who throng the restaurant through out the year. The famous delicacies at the restaurant are the spinach pie, fish soup (psa- row -soupa) which you can get it with or without a plate of fish. More you can enjoy there the Greek salad (hor-ee- ah -tiko), eggplant salad (mel-eetsana salata), yogurt dip (sa-tzi-ki), and all the tourist standards. This all there is served on a very reasonable rates and it is not either expensive. One can also enjoy there their roast potatoes (fourno pahtahtes) and chicken (kotopoulo). They also serve bottled wine and cold beer and ouzo and mezedes. Lamb fricasse is good and as healthy as it gets for carnivores.

•    Hani Restaurant in the Plaka: Hani is a type of inn for travelers and the most of the customers here are mixture of Greeks as well as tourists from all around the world. With live acoustic bouzoukia music, an outdoor garden in the back and tables right on Adriannou Street where you see people moving forth and back. On can dien herea nice mezedes platter, fresh fish, grilled meats, oven cooked meats and vegetables and salads and appetisers and wine by the carafe or bottle. It is indeed is a nice spot for trying up good Greek food and here after you can start your journey to other places of city.  Hani is situated at 138 Adrianou street.  More you can have their Psaronefi (roast pork loin) and their Rouqforte Salad at the restaurant.

•    Psaras Fish Taverna: It is one of the oldest restaurant Tavernas in the Plaka that started back to 1898. Its menu is in English and the waiters and staffs are generally pleasant and helpful. It’s on the corner of Erotocritou and Erehtheos streets up the steps that lead from the Plaka to the Acropolis. It is a grilled soup.

•    To Kioupi: This restaurant is rather famous among locals and businessmen who loves dining here for half a century and may be a longer period.   Apart for food it is too good for an excellent wine. It is indeed is a Good place for lunch but there is no provision for outdoor seating. If you are staying in Kolonaki then it is the cheapest spot to dine in entire area. It is also a sort of place for visiting scholars and archaeologists.

•    Vitro: If you roam through the heart of the historical location of Acropolis, 20 meters close to the metro and across the new museum of Acropolis, you will find out there the famous restaurant “VITRO”. The entire restaurant is filled with tasteful decorated interior lounges that in fact are called “VITRO”. In that romantic atmosphere you can relish a delightful meal that comprises of an amalgam of tastefull dishes and a big variety of wines. The restaurant serves the traditional Greek cuisine, as well as the imaginative recipes and the high quality ingredients that are mixed up of immaculate delicious menu that definitely satisfy your appetite and taste. There at the restaurant you can select from variety of   spaghetti, fresh fish some of our specialties are special “exohiko” lamb, mix soublaki, stuffed egplants and spaghetti.

•    Ideal: It is the oldest of operating restaurant in Greece. It since for the last 80 years provides the Athenians and the visitors of the city, a wide menu of great quality and tasteful food. One can enjoy it there in a friendly relaxing environment at various centers of Athens. It works on the trend and philosophy of mixing up Greek traditional cuisine with present dinning requirements of the people. One can enjoy there a coffee, a dessert from its menu, or a Greek traditional plate that is rare to see at any other restaurant in the city.

•    Petrino: The first ever Petrino restaurant was founded in one of the most elegant old buildings in Athens in 1990. It has an exclusive reputation for being serving excellents snacks and food. It serves international cuisine in a huge variety of our excellent snacks and foods. Celebrities from the political, the art and the academic fields come here to enjoy the days over here.  Petrino, also caters to the business meals and receptions of the highest quality and is staffed and organized in manner to fulfill the desire of most demanding of clients.

•    Zorbas Tavern: This restaurant is in operation for 40 years under the Acropolis, and is one of the most historical and interesting places in Athens. The restaurant is known internationally for its reputation. One can enjoy at restaurant the traditional Greek meals like as casserole stamnas and lamb Zorbas in tomatos, delicious snacks as well as the best and most tasteful wines on the reasonable prices. More it is added with an excellent service and the quality cusine.

•    Erato: It is a beautiful traditional restaurant situated under the Acropolis in the beautiful Plaka, which is one of the most beautiful spots in Athens. Here you can enjoy the traditional Greek cuisine, delicious snacks as well as the best and most tasteful wines.  The most favorable period of the year to sit at this restaurant is winter where you can amidst bon fire outside in a green garden full of plane trees, flowers and arbours.  The restaurant has a separate room of recreational activities like air conditioning with comfortable spaces and luxury.

With its experience to shopping, Athens comparatively has a few shopping malls or large departmental stores instead it is quite popular for small, family run shops. And one can even get ample souvenirs out there. There is ample shopping opportunity is available to people in terms of  antiques, museum reproductions, embroideries and other folk art and goods, and Greek food and drink products.

For articles by street vendors who sold those out on the pavement the tourist congregate can reach out at Plaka and Monastiraki. There vendors items consist forgeries, cheap knock –off and illegal CDs. However with purpose of shopping in Athens downtown is a shopper’s paradise. In the areas of Plaka and Monastiraki there is a large variety of tourist shop situated there. Along with that there is central Athens which is too popular for shoppers for having shopping and other activities.  The area of central Athens has been closed down for all motor vehicles and has become an interesting area for walking shoppers with every kind of shopping items being available over there. There you can have street merchants selling out everything from scarves to devices that make out stuffed grapes leaves or hollow out a zucchini. There are also quality clothing shops where one can get variety of men and women’s apparel from all across the world.

Spiliopoulos towards the bottom of Ermou and at the right side of on Athinas Street there are a number of clothing shops where one can get more casual stuff, jeans, T-shirts and the Polynesian shirts in branded category. Next on Athinas street between Ermou and Agia Erinis there are cloths even available. On the same street you can buy cool souvenir shirts, not like the ones they sell in the flea market or the Plaka.
There at Syntagma Square there is situated electronics video-CD-DVD-electronics shop called Public. In downtown Athens, one can get an entire block of stores that sells out doorknobs. And there doorknobs are known even from the ancient period to modern times.  More you can get here are different types of lights and furniture at streets around Syntagma Square.

More at Ermou streets in Athens one can get good numbers of quality shoes or clothes and if you are found of expensive clothes then even you can have branded clothes like Benneton, Zara and other international shops. There is even a Bodyshop. Ermou that once was Main Street for traffic is been now closed to cars and now is like street fair of any metropolitan city. There thousands of shoppers, street musicians and people selling hot chestnuts in the winter and corn-on-the-cob in the summer. It’s like a high-class bazaar. They also sell out fabric, silk flowers, all kinds of tailoring supplies, buttons, costumes, and other items.

Other important shopping streets in Athens are Eolou and Agiou where one can find out incredible bargains in clothes, fabrics, yarn, shoes and cafes. These markets are sometimes even run by young men and women from Russia and Persia who sometimes sells out silks shirts, socks and underwear on the street.  Another place worth visiting is Athens Central Market. If you go down Evripidou Street and cross Athinas street you will come across to an area which is known to be the Athenian Eqiuvelant of China town.

Kolonaki Athens is the city’s most fashionable neighborhood and is home to Italy’s Aristocracy. Kolonaki shopping is interestingly would be nice example for someone who is found of and have taste for the finer things in life. Along the streets of Kolonaki there are located some posh designer shops from both international and Greek designers that provides the latest fashion and styles. If you have an appetite for a classic Greek dish, then Kolonaki’s beautiful streets there are lined with one of the best restaurants in Greece. Cafes and bars are very common object to be observed.

Even one can reach Kolonaki by an easier means in Athens as is being situated at the southwest of Lykavittos Hill. Kolonaki too is close and is in within walking distance from Syntagma Square that is the main plaza in the city. Some of the best museums in Athens can be get at Kolonaki, the prominent museums there includes the Benaki Museuem, the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art, the Byzantine Museum, and the Athens War Museum. Many of the museums and art galleries situated around Kolonaki are housed in impressive neo-classical buildings. The History Museum of Greek Costume and the Theater Museum are two smaller Kolonaki Athens museums are for the person suffering with a bite a bite of a creative bug.

Being situated at the posh location, Kolonaki not only attracts a number of high-class restaurants and stores, but also presents options for luxury Kolonaki hotels. In the area there are found around both 5-star and 4-star Kolonaki hotels where you can enjoy world-class amenities and comfort as well you can have in reach there some of the best shopping, dining and monuments in Athens. For another different type of shopping experience near to Kolonaki there is situated Plaka flea market close by Monastariki where both Athenians and foreigners look for antiques items for discounts and reasonable rates and price.

Athens which is a very important city with perspective to ancient roman culture and civilization has many a good number of historical monuments and places in the city those have unique reputation among architectural legends of present times. Below are briefed some important landmarks from ancient city of Athens.

•    Academy: It is a Plato’s school of philosophy, founded approximately about 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece.The site of Akademia was sacred to Athena and other immortals. Other important persons who learnt at Akademia are Aristotle, Heraclides Ponticus, Eudoxus of Cnidus, Philip of Opus, Crantor, and Antiochus of Ascalon.

•    Acropolis: The Acropolis of Athens or Citadel of Athens is a renowned acropolis in the world. Though there are many other acropoleis in Greece yet Acropolis of Athens is far superior and better than others. The Acropolis is considered as the pre eminent monument on the European Cultural Heritage list of monuments on 26 March 2007. It is a flat-topped rock that rises 150 m (490 ft) above sea level in the city of Athens, with a surface area of about 3 hectares.

Parthenon and the Acropolis

•    Acropolis Museum: The Acropolis Museum is an archaeological museum based upon the findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis of Athens. The museum was constructed in a manner that all the artifacts found on the rock can be accommodated properly over there.   The museum was founded in 2003 and open to public on   June 21, 2009. Presently about 4,000 objects are exhibited over an area of 14,000 square metres in the museum.

•    Arch of Hadrian: The Arch of Hadrian is a monumental gateway to the  (arrival) of the Roman Emperor Hadrian and to honor him for his many benefactions to the city, on the occasion of the dedication of the nearby temple complex in 131 or 132 AD

•    Areopagus: It is the rock north-west of the Acropolis that in the ancient period was used as high court of Appeal for criminal and civil cases in Athens. Ares was supposed to have been tried here by the gods for the murder of Poseidon’s son Alirrothios showing it to be an example of aetiological myth.

•    Monument of Lysicrates: The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates near the Acropolis of Athens was developed by the choregos Lysicrates, to celebrate the award of first prize in 335BC that he sponsored in the theatre of Dionysus.

•    Hellenic Parliament: The Hellenic Parliament is the Parliament of Greece, located in the Parliament House. It is a unicameral legislature of 300 members as selected for four year term. Many Important Greek statesmen stated the seat of Speakers of the Hellenic Parliament.

•    Odeon of Herodes Atticus: The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is a stone theatre structure positioned on the south slope of the Acropolis of Athens. It was constructed in 161 AD by Herodes Atticus in remembrance of his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla. With sitting capacity of around 5,000 people it is a three stone steep sloped amphitheatre.

Herodion Athens

•    Olympic Sports Complex: The Olympic Athletic Center of Athens “Spiros Louis” or OACA (Greek: OAKA), is a sport facilities complex situated at Marousi, northeast Athens, Greece. This entire sport facility is consisted of five major venues as well as other supplementary sport facilities. It hosted the Mediterranean Games in 1991, the World Championship in Athletics in 1997 as well as other important athletic and cultural events. OACA was the main venue for the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.

Athens Olympic Complex

•    Temple of Hephaestus: The Temple of Hephaestus and Athena Ergane is the one of the best preserved ancient Greek temple. It is a Doric order peripteral temple situated on the north-west side of the Agora of Athens, on top of the Agoraios Kolonos hill. From the 7th century until 1834, it worked as the Greek Orthodox church of St. George Akamates.

Hephaistos Temple

•   Temple of Olympian Zeus: The Temple of Olympian Zeus too referred to as the Olympieion, is a colossal ruined temple in the centre of the Greek capital Athens and was dedicated to Zeus, king of the Olympian gods. The construction of the Temple started in the 6th century BC during the rule of Athenian tyrants and was completed in 2nd century AD nearly 638 years after.

•   Theatre of Dionysus: It was a major open air theater in Athens where plays in honor of god Dionysus used to be performed there on festivals.  The plays in    festivals earlier used to occur at flat circular area in the Agora of Athens, however, later on transformed to the sloping southern side of Acropolis in 500 BC.

Theatre of dionysus

•   Tower of the Winds: Also known as horologion it is an octagonal Pentelic marble clock tower on the Roman agora in Athens. This structure is consisted of sundial, a water clock and a wind vane. It was constructed by Andronicus of Cyrrhus around 50 BC

Other important landmarks and places of importance in Athens are Panathinaiko Stadium, Pedion tou Areos,  Philopappos Hill / Monument,  Plaka,  Pnyx, Presidential Palace, Stoa of Attalos, Mount Lycabettus, Monastiraki, Kapodistrian University of Athens, National Archaeological Museum, National Gardens, National Library of Greece, National Theatre and Ancient Agora.

Considered the origin of Western Civilization, Athens has been able to maintain its unparalleled significance over the centuries. One of the most popular tourist havens, the Greek capital is home to more than 3.7 million people. Athens is famed for many things, most important among them being the Olympic Games. The city is surrounded by three hills, and there are twelve more inside it. Being such a great tourist city, there are many attractions in or near Athens. The accommodation facilities offered to visitors are of the best standard. The city is full of exciting things to do, as you will realize once you visit it.

There is an efficient transport system for getting in and around the city. The Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport is the main gateway into Athens. From the airport, you can get your way in to the other parts of the city through buses, taxis and rail. The Port of Piraeus also acts as gateway to the city and it serviced by a number of ferries and boats, Cruise ships are also a common phenomenon on the port. Athens can sometimes suffer from congestive traffic jams, but there are pedestrians side walks and bicycle lanes that can be used to escape the traffic.

One of the most outstanding things about Athens is the architecture. The city is home to hundreds of neo classical buildings that have survived through major world conflicts. A mixture of this traditional buildings with the post modern sky scrappers gives the city a distinctive picturesque.

There are many historical landmarks in Athens. The Acropolis is one of them and it has been certified by UNESCO as one of the world’s heritage sites. It contains the Parthenon, the Temple of Athena, the Temple of Zeus, the Roman Agora, the Erectheion and the Kerameikos.

In Athens you will find numerous museums that showcase paintings, statues, sculptures and architectural work dating thousands of years ago. There are other fun activities that include the Athens and Apidaurus festival, the weekly free bike tour cruising and relaxing on the beaches.

Greeks are known to love socializing. Most of their socializing is done in restaurants and other eating joints. The food served in Athens’ restaurants varies from place to place. Accommodation facilities are usually located near the airport or near some of the major attractions. Athens city provides a most thrilling experience for anyone who vacations there.