An Athens hop on hop off bus is a roofless tour bus that circles central Athens. Riders step off at any stop on the loop and board a later bus to go on. The ride is one of the Greece Tours on Greece Ville.
This post covers what an Athens hop on hop off bus is, the squares it links and the Athens Trilogy. It also covers Kerameikos, the city’s neighbourhoods and Technopolis in Gazi.
Modern buildings, the Olympic legacy, the green spaces and the seaside stops follow. The best months and common questions come last. The sections include Athens hop on hop off tickets and related Athens city tours that can be booked online.
What is an Athens hop on hop off bus?
An Athens hop on hop off bus is a roofless double-decker that runs a loop around Athens. Riders get off at a stop, see the place, and board a later bus. A bus sightseeing tour began in Washington, D.C. in March 1910.
In Britain, city tours by open-top bus became popular during the 1970s. In January 1986, London launched a sightseeing tour with a fleet of 50 modified Routemaster buses. An Athens hop on hop off bus follows that idea.
The first commercial double-decker omnibuses were horse-drawn and ran in England in 1847. That was long before any Athens hop on hop off bus. William Gladstone, a statesman, said the best way to see London is from the top of a bus.
The Routemaster is a London double-decker. Its first prototype was finished in September 1954, and the first buses entered service in February 1956. A total of 2,876 Routemasters were built.
A Routemaster had an open rear platform where a conductor worked. A tour firm can import a British double-decker and convert it to open top. That gives the look of a classic British bus such as the Routemaster.
An Athens hop on hop off bus crosses the eighth-largest urban area in the European Union. More people live in the municipality of Athens than in any other municipality in Greece. Two architects, Kleanthis and Schaubert, drew a plan for the city.
- Layout: Their plan for Athens had wide avenues, gardens and grand public buildings.
- Names: The plan gave the first street names in Athens.
- Cost: Leo von Klenze simplified the plan because it was thought too expensive.
The Ottoman forces left Athens in March 1833. The city had an estimated 400 houses, mostly around the Acropolis in Plaka. An Athens hop on hop off bus crosses the capital that grew from that small town.
Which squares does an Athens hop on hop off bus link?
An Athens hop on hop off bus links four old squares of the city centre. They are Omonoia, Kotzia, Klafthmonos and Monastiraki. Each square has its own story and its own landmarks. Riders step off at a stop and walk around.
An Athens hop on hop off bus can stop at Omonoia Square. The land was first meant for a palace that the architects Kleanthis and Schaubert were to design. From 1925 to 1930, the underground railway between Piraeus and Athens was built.
In 1958, the sculptor George Zongolopoulos and the architect Kostas Bitsios won a contest to redesign the square. From mid-2019 to February 2020, the city rebuilt it and restored the fountain of 1958.
Klafthmonos Square means Lamentation Square. In the 19th century, a minister’s whim was enough to sack a public servant. After each election, the servants gathered there to learn the result and lament.
An Athens hop on hop off bus links Monastiraki Square, where the Tzistarakis Mosque stands. In the Greek War of Independence, the building served as an assembly hall for the town elders. The Pantanassa church on the same square honours the Virgin Mary as the Queen of All.
Kotzia Square was built in 1874 and was first called Loudovikou Square. The square is named after Konstantinos Kotzias. An Athens hop on hop off bus links it with the other three squares.
- Mayor: Konstantinos Kotzias was elected mayor of Athens in 1934.
- Town hall: The town hall by Panagis Kalkos had two storeys, a tiled roof and a Doric-style porch.
- Gate: The square lies just outside the ancient Acharnian Gate.
Diggers found part of an ancient road, tombs and a small building under Kotzia Square. An Athens hop on hop off bus passes layers of old and new Athens in the city centre.
What does the Athens Trilogy show on an Athens hop on hop off route?
An Athens hop on hop off route shows the Athens Trilogy. Its three buildings stand side by side on Panepistimiou Street. They are the National Library, the University and the Academy. The brothers Christian and Theophil Hansen designed them.
An Athens hop on hop off route passes the Academy of Athens. The banker Simon Sinas, born in Vienna in 1810, paid for it. Ernst Ziller supervised the work from 1861, and it ended in 1885.
Leonidas Drosis carved the main pediment, which shows the birth of Athena. His work also includes the statues of Athena and Apollo and the seated figures of Plato and Socrates. An Athens hop on hop off route shows these figures.
The University of Athens was founded in 1837 by King Otto. It first worked from the house of Kleanthis and Schaubert in Plaka. Christian Hansen designed the main building, and work began in 1839.
A fresco on the porch shows King Otto on a throne, with the sciences around him. In the same fresco, Prometheus leads a procession of Greek thinkers, warriors, politicians and poets. The procession ends with the Apostle Paul.
Baron Sinas ordered the fresco from Carl Rahl in 1861. Eduard Lebiedski finished it in 1888, after Rahl had died. Statues in the courtyard show Rigas Velestinlis, Patriarch Gregory V and Adamantios Korais.
- Stone: The foundation stone of the new marble library was laid on 16 March 1888.
- Donors: The Kefalonia-born brothers Panagis, Marinos and Andreas Vallianos paid for the library.
- Collection: The National Library holds over 1.1 million items and 5,500 Greek manuscripts.
Ernst Ziller was born in Saxony in 1837 and worked for Theophil Hansen. Hansen sent him to Athens in 1861. An Athens hop on hop off route shows the work of the Hansen brothers and Ziller.
What does Kerameikos show on an Athens hop on hop off route?
An Athens hop on hop off route shows Kerameikos as a place of gates, graves and a stream. Riders see the Dipylon, a gate of about 1,800 square metres. They also meet grave monuments and a small museum.
A stop on an Athens hop on hop off route leads to the Dipylon, which means “Two-Gated”. Its double gates formed a square court with four corner towers, a killing ground against attackers.
Sulla sacked Athens in 86 BC. Plutarch wrote that blood flowed through the gate and flooded the suburb. The writer Lucian, in the 2nd century, said love messages and other graffiti covered its walls.
An Athens hop on hop off rider at the Sacred Gate sees an unusually well preserved site. It shows building phases from the 5th century BC to the 1st century AD.
An Athens hop on hop off rider at Kerameikos meets the Eridanos. This small stream began in the foothills of Lykabettos and ran through the ancient Agora. Greek tortoises live by the old stream bed there.
A marble grave marker of about 540 BC hangs in the Kerameikos museum. It shows a boxer with a broken nose and swollen ear. The monument of Aristonautes, a Greek foot soldier in hoplite armour, dates to around 320 BC.
- Burial: Athens buried its war dead in a public grave at Kerameikos.
- Coffins: Each coffin in the procession stood for one tribe, and one more stayed empty for the missing.
- Plague: An 11-year-old girl named Myrtis died of typhoid fever in the Plague of Athens.
A museum built in 1937 adds to an Athens hop on hop off stop at Kerameikos. Gustav Oberlander, a Prussian entrepreneur, paid for it. The German Archaeological Institute at Athens has led the digs since 1913.
Which neighbourhoods does an Athens hop on hop off bus reach?
An Athens hop on hop off bus reaches six old quarters. They are Kolonaki, Psyrri, Metaxourgeio, Koukaki, Thiseio and Exarcheia. Each has its own story. Their stories reach from a book of 1678 to a museum of 1975.
An Athens hop on hop off rider in Kolonaki finds a name that means “Little Column”. A two metre column marked the area before it was built up. In Ottoman times the empty land was called Katsikada, because milkmen grazed goats there.
Kolonaki Square officially carries the name Plateia Filikis Etaireias. It honours the Friendly Society that supported Greek independence. The War Museum of Athens, near Kolonaki, was inaugurated on 18 July 1975.
An Athens hop on hop off rider in Psyrri enters a quarter first named in print in 1678. The French doctor Jacob Spon listed it as one of the eight districts of Athens.
At Easter 1847 residents of Psyrri wrecked the house of David Pacifico. From 1870 gangs called koutsavakides made Psyrri a dangerous part of Athens. Police chief Dimitrios Bairaktaris arrested them in December 1893.
A royal palace was planned for Kerameikos. So the Duchess of Plaisance and princes Karatzas and Kantakouzinos bought land or built homes in Metaxourgeio. The silk factory later bought the half-built mansion of Kantakouzinos and tore it down.
- Name: Koukaki comes from the bed factory of a man named Koukakis.
- Church: The Byzantine church of the Holy Archangels in Thiseio dates to the 11th or 12th century.
- Weather: The oldest working weather station in Greece began in 1858 in Thiseio.
An Athens hop on hop off ride also reaches Exarcheia. The Skiadika of 1859 were the first mass student protest in modern Greek history. In 1901 students protested against a translation of the Gospels into everyday Greek. The government and the Archbishop of Athens resigned.
What does Technopolis show on an Athens hop on hop off route?
An Athens hop on hop off route shows Technopolis, the cultural centre of the City of Athens. It stands on the site of the old gasworks in Gazi. The plant gave the city energy and light for nearly 130 years.
The story behind an Athens hop on hop off stop at Technopolis starts with gas lighting. A French businessman, François Théophile Feraldi, took on the job of lighting Athens with gas. The works began under a royal decree of King Otto.
Coal gas is a fuel made when coal is heated strongly without air. In a gasworks the coal was heated in retorts, leaving coke behind. A gas holder stored the finished gas.
The first buildings of the Athens gasworks had retort furnaces, which are ovens. They also had gasholders, chimneys and water tanks. In 1938 the French contract ended, and the city of Athens took over the plant.
The gasworks stopped for good on 1 October 1984 after strong protests from local residents. It was seen as out of date because of its pollution and its place close to the Acropolis.
An Athens hop on hop off stop at Technopolis shows the restored buildings. Restoration began in the late 1990s. It ended shortly before the Athens 2004 Olympics. Technopolis has a symbol, a sculpture called The Sphere of the Millennium. It shows the earth ringed by olive branches.
- Opening: The Industrial Gas Museum was inaugurated in 2013 inside the old gasworks.
- Preservation: It is Europe’s best-preserved gas plant, with all its machines in place.
- Objects: Typewriters, an old telephone exchange and a gramophone are on show.
Gazi, on an Athens hop on hop off route, is named for the Greek word for flammable gas. The chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont first used the word gas in the 17th century. He seems to have copied the Greek word chaos.
Which modern buildings does an Athens hop on hop off bus pass?
An Athens hop on hop off bus passes modern buildings on Vasilissis Sofias Avenue. The Athens Concert Hall, the United States embassy and the Hilton Athens stand there. The Athens Tower, at 103 metres, is the tallest building in Greece.
The Athens Concert Hall, called the Megaron, opened in 1991 with two halls. Two more halls came later, so it now has four. Its architects were Emmanouil Vourekas, Kyriakos Kyriakidis and Kostas Sgoutas.
An Athens hop on hop off bus also passes the United States embassy at 91 Vasilissis Sofias Avenue. Walter Gropius designed its office building, the chancery. It was built between 1959 and 1961.
On an Athens hop on hop off ride, the Athens Tower stands in the district of Ampelokipi. Work began in 1968 and ended in 1971. It was then the second tallest building in Southeast Europe.
An Athens hop on hop off route also shows the Hilton Athens, built from 1958 to 1963. It was the first international chain hotel in Athens. During the 2004 Olympics it was the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee.
The Athens Conservatoire was founded in 1871. It is the oldest school of the performing arts in modern Greece. Ioannis Despotopoulos designed it, and he was the only Greek who studied under Walter Gropius.
- Organ: The Christos Lambrakis Hall holds the biggest pipe organ in Greece, with 6,080 pipes.
- Metro: The Megaro Moussikis station on Line 3 sits just outside the Athens Concert Hall.
- Parthenon: The simple Bauhaus form of the embassy was inspired by the architecture of the Parthenon.
Onassis Stegi is another modern landmark on an Athens hop on hop off ride. The first show on its main stage was inspired by a poem of Bertolt Brecht. It honoured the workers who built the centre.
What Olympic legacy does an Athens hop on hop off route show?
An Athens hop on hop off route shows the legacy of the 2004 Summer Olympics. The Games ran from 13 to 29 August 2004. The Olympic Athletic Center of Athens and the Faliro complex still stand. The Athens Olympic Museum tells the story.
The 2004 Games had 301 medal events in 28 sports. Athletes came from 201 countries. Athens became the fourth city to host the Summer Games twice, together with Paris, London and Los Angeles.
An Athens hop on hop off rider can reach the Olympic Stadium, home of the opening ceremony. Dimitris Papaioannou directed that show on 13 August 2004. The windsurfer Nikolaos Kaklamanakis lit the cauldron. The main stadium was completed only two months before the Games opened.
An Athens hop on hop off route can reach OAKA, the Olympic Athletic Center of Athens, in Marousi. The Olympic Stadium opened on 8 September 1982. With 75,000 places, it is the largest sports venue in Greece.
The Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava designed the stadium roof. Its two giant arcs have a total span of 304 metres and a maximum height of 72 metres. The roof weighs 18,700 tons.
An Athens hop on hop off route also shows the Faliro Coastal Zone Olympic Complex. It has two indoor arenas and a beach volleyball stadium. In 2004 it hosted handball, taekwondo and volleyball.
- Strength: The roof is built for winds up to 120 km/h and earthquakes up to magnitude 8.
- Velodrome: The velodrome has a 250 metre track of Afzelia wood and a roof by Calatrava.
- Indoor hall: The Nikos Galis Olympic Indoor Hall hosted gymnastics, trampolining and the basketball finals in 2004.
The Athens Olympic Museum has a floor of 3,500 square metres in a shopping centre in northern Athens. A pedestrian bridge links it to OAKA. It worked with more than 40 cultural institutions.
Which green spaces lie on an Athens hop on hop off route?
An Athens hop on hop off route passes green spaces such as Pedion tou Areos and Rizari Park. Pedion tou Areos was designed in 1934 to honour the heroes of the Greek Revolution of 1821. Syngrou Forest and the Tritsis park add woods and lakes.
Twenty-one of those heroes stand as marble busts in the park. A statue of King Constantine the First on a horse has stood at the main entrance since 1938. A memorial near Alexandras Avenue honours soldiers of the Battle of Greece.
An Athens hop on hop off rider sees a park planted between 1935 and 1940. In those five years, 46,000 trees and bushes were planted. Special care was taken not to block the view of the Acropolis.
A renovation led by the architect Alexandros Tombazis was delivered on 28 December 2010. It covered 25 hectares. An Athens hop on hop off rider now sees 1,200 trees, 50,000 flowers and 2,500 roses.
Ilisia is named after the Ilisos river, which rises near Kaisariani on the slopes of Mount Hymettus. Rizari Park is a green oasis of Mediterranean plants near the War Museum.
An Athens hop on hop off route can add Syngrou Forest in the northern suburbs. It borders Kifisia, Marousi and Melissia. It covers roughly 95 hectares. Aleppo pine is the main tree, and wild olive, cypress, laurel and stone pine grow there too.
- Rizaris: Georgios Rizaris left the plants of Rizari Park in 1844.
- Birds: More than 50 bird species have been recorded in Syngrou Forest.
- Exhibition: In 2021 Onassis Stegi held an open-air show about artificial intelligence at Pedion Areos.
The Antonis Tritsis Metropolitan Park in Ilion is the largest park in Attica. It has six artificial lakes. Urban green space covers 15% of Athens, and the average for European capital cities is 7%.
Which seaside stops does an Athens hop on hop off line add?
An Athens hop on hop off line can add seaside stops at Palaio Faliro. There the cruiser Georgios Averof, the trireme Olympias, Flisvos Marina and Flisvos Park lie beside the bay. The tram runs along the same shore.
The cruiser Georgios Averof was built at the Orlando shipyard in Livorno, Italy. She was launched on 12 March 1910. Her museum berth is at Palaio Faliro. The ship is 140.13 m long and 21 m wide.
An Athens hop on hop off rider at the bay finds a ship with a war record. She served in two sea battles of the Balkan Wars, at Elli and Lemnos. On 17 October 1944 she carried the Greek government home from Cairo.
In both battles she left the battle line and chased the Ottoman fleet alone. At Elli the admiral hoisted the Z flag, which means “Independent Action”. After Lemnos, the Greek crew called her “Lucky Uncle George”.
The trireme Olympias gives an Athens hop on hop off rider a look at an ancient warship. She is a full-size copy of an Athenian warship, built in Piraeus from 1985 to 1987. Olympias is 36.9 m long and 5.5 m wide, and 170 oarsmen row her in three banks.
- Navy ship: She rests in a dry dock at Palaio Faliro but is a commissioned navy ship.
- Marina: Flisvos Marina is Greece’s first marina with full land development, on 3,800 square metres.
- Tram stops: Batis, Flisvos, Parko Flisvou, Trocadero, Aghia Skepi and Delta Falirou serve the bay.
The first 16 Athens horse trams had covered tops in winter with 16 seats. In summer they ran with open tops and 20 seats. A steam tram also ran to Faliro, then a seaside resort with sea baths.
Which months suit an Athens hop on hop off ride?
An Athens hop on hop off ride is brightest from late spring through September. July is the sunniest month at the coastal town of Alimos, with 350.68 hours of sunshine. December is the dimmest month, with only 106.91 hours.
On an Athens hop on hop off ride, the sun shines longest in summer. June gets 334.34 hours of sunshine at Alimos and August 333.10 hours. Late spring brings 282.18 hours, and September 263.88 hours.
Rain follows the same pattern in reverse. At Alimos, December brings 61.43 mm of rain and November 52.46 mm. June, July and August bring only 6.11 mm, 6.78 mm and 8.33 mm.
Heat sets the limits for an Athens hop on hop off ride in July and August. At Alimos the average July high is 32.16 °C, against 13.18 °C in January. At the Kallithea station, the average high is 35.9 °C in July and 35.1 °C in August.
Records show how hot an Athens hop on hop off day gets. Kallithea has recorded 43.4 °C in July and 43.3 °C in August. Nea Smyrni has recorded 42.9 °C in August, 42.2 °C in July and 37.4 °C in late spring.
- Dry summer: Palaio Faliro gets 5.2 mm of rain in July and 4.3 mm in August.
- Peak heat: Palaio Faliro has recorded 42.5 °C in August and 39.3 °C in July.
- January: Dionysos in the north averages 9 °C by day, Nea Smyrni in the south 15 °C.
The 1987 Athens heat wave lasted from 20 to 31 July. Athens reached 41.9 °C on 23 July, and Nea Filadelfeia peaked at 43.6 °C on 27 July. Piraeus has a steady sea breeze, and its death rate was about seven times lower than in Athens.
What do riders ask about an Athens hop on hop off bus?
An Athens hop on hop off bus raises six common questions. They cover open-top buses, the tram and metro, and the way to the sea. They also cover UNESCO sites, height above sea level and Greek words on stop signs.
What is an open-top bus on an Athens hop on hop off route?
A bus can become open-top when all or part of its roof comes off. Open-top buses carry sports teams in victory parades. They also serve as viewing platforms at events such as the Derby. The first Paris double-decker motor bus appeared in 1906.
How long are the tram and metro lines near an Athens hop on hop off route?
Tram line 6 runs 18.2 km from Syntagma to Pikrodafni and has 19 stops. Tram line 7 runs 16.1 km from Akti Poseidonos in Piraeus to Asklepieio Voulas and has 43 stops. Metro Line 3 includes 20.7 km of mixed-use suburban railway.
How far is the sea from central Athens on an Athens hop on hop off ride?
Peiraios Street links the centre of Athens with the port of Piraeus and is 10 km long. Andrea Syngrou Avenue is 6.23 km long and links downtown Athens with the Bay of Faliro. The Athens coast from Piraeus to Varkiza is about 25 km long.
Which UNESCO sights lie near an Athens hop on hop off route?
For an Athens hop on hop off rider, UNESCO lists the Acropolis as entry 404. The Daphni monastery joined the list in 1990. It shares entry 537 with Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios. UNESCO praises their gold-ground mosaics and says each monastery earns its place alone.
How high above sea level does an Athens hop on hop off route run?
The municipality of Athens lies between 70.1 m and 338 m above sea level. Palaio Faliro, on the coast, stands only 5 m above the sea. Strefi Hill, near Exarcheia, is about 150 m above sea level. Marousi, in the north, stands 230 m above sea level.
What Greek words appear on an Athens hop on hop off bus stop sign?
The Greek word στάση (stasi) means a stop, and στάση λεωφορείου means a bus stop. The word λεωφορείο (leoforeio) means bus. It was coined in 1863 to translate the French bus and omnibus. Road signs in Greece show two languages: Greek and English.