Acropolis Tickets: Hours and the Parthenon

How much are Acropolis tickets in Athens, Greece? The entry fee is €30, reduced €15. You buy them from the official e-ticket service of the Greek Ministry of Culture, the official website for Acropolis tickets (hhticket.gr), or at the ticket office at the entrance; for online tickets for the Acropolis in Athens you have to pick a date and a time slot.

The ticket is valid for one entry at that date and time, can be changed up to two hours before your visit and at most twice, and is not refundable (official info, October 2026).

We came with a group, so we went in on priority and never stood in the ticket queue. If you are going on your own, buy before you go: the ticket-office queue gets long in summer and the morning slots sell out first.

With a ticket bought in advance you skip the ticket office and walk straight to the entrance; on a skip-the-line guided tour of the Acropolis in Athens the guide handles the tickets and explains what you are looking at on top.

See Acropolis tickets and skip the ticket-office queue  Ad

The Acropolis Museum is a separate ticket at €20; if you are doing both on the same day, start with the museum. Everything about it is on our Acropolis Museum  page.

The Acropolis is the rocky hill in the middle of Athens and the temples on top of it: the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, the Temple of Athena Nike and the Propylaia gateway. So, Acropolis vs Parthenon: the Acropolis is the whole hill, the Parthenon is the biggest temple on it, the temple of Athena you see from all over the city.

Where is the Parthenon? On top of the Acropolis of Athens, Greece, right above Plaka and across the road from the Acropolis Museum.

The city takes its name from here too. In the myth, Athena and Poseidon compete to give their name to the city: Poseidon strikes salt water from the rock, Athena offers an olive tree. The people find the olive more useful, and the city becomes Athens. Of all the Acropolis and Athens history you will hear on the hill, this story is the one every guide tells.

Propylaia: the gateway to the hill; after the olive-lined path you walk up between its columns. Temple of Athena Nike: the small temple just to the right of the Propylaia. Parthenon: the temple of Athena and the largest building on the hill. Most of the Parthenon sculptures are no longer on the building: the surviving pieces are in the Acropolis Museum across the road, and part of them in the British Museum.

Up close you notice that the columns are not straight but slightly curved, so the temple looks balanced from a distance. The restoration has been going on for years, so do not expect a photo without scaffolding.

Erechtheion and the Caryatids: the temple north of the Parthenon, its porch carried by statues of young women, the Caryatids.

The ones on the hill are copies; the originals are in the Acropolis Museum. Odeon of Herodes Atticus: you look down on it from the south slope on the way up, and concerts are still held there in summer. From the edge of the hill you can see the whole of Athens out to Piraeus.

From Akropoli station on metro line 2 it is a 12-minute walk to the main entrance to the Acropolis, and on the Acropolis Athens map above you can see the hill sits right above Plaka; from Monastiraki on lines 1 and 3 you walk up through Plaka (official info, October 2026). The metro from the airport and ticket details are in our Athens transportation guide .

Acropolis Athens opening times: the site opens daily at 8:00; closing time changes by month, and last entry is 20 minutes before closing (official info, October 2026):

• 1 April-31 August: daily 8:00-20:00
• 1-15 September: 8:00-19:30
• 16-30 September: 8:00-19:00
• 1-15 October: 8:00-18:30
• 16-31 October: 8:00-18:00
• 1 November-31 March: 8:00-17:00

Closed on 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Easter Sunday, 25 and 26 December. Entry is free on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September, 28 October and on the first and third Sunday of each month from 1 November to 31 March (official info, October 2026).

Be there at 8:00. If you visit the Acropolis in Athens in the warm months, this matters most: we arrived at opening time and had room to look around; on the way down there was a long queue at the gate. By midday the heat is hard going, and there is no shade on top.

The marble is slippery. Steps and paving have been polished smooth over the years; wear shoes with grip, and take extra care on hot days.

Mind the photo rule. Guards come straight over to anyone jumping, doing handstands or striking poses, and they wait until the photo is deleted from the phone. Take normal photos.

Museum first, then the hill. Seeing the pieces in the museum first makes the ruins much easier to read once you are up there.

For a hotel near the Acropolis in Athens, the two closest areas are Plaka and Koukaki/Makrygianni; most hotels near the Acropolis sit in one of the two. Stay in Plaka and you can walk to the 8:00 opening: See Plaka hotels  Ad. Ad Koukaki is quieter and within walking distance of both the museum and the hill: See Koukaki hotels  Ad. Ad We stayed at Hotel Byron in Plaka, a few steps from Akropoli metro: See Hotel Byron prices  Ad. Ad

For hotels with a view of the Acropolis in Athens, go area by area through the where to stay in Athens  guide.

Coming down into Plaka, sit down at Lyra on Mnisikleous Street; its orange cake (portokalopita) was the best dessert we had in Athens. For dinner, Stamatopoulos in Plaka has live music every evening; we had calamari, grilled prawns and saganaki with a glass of Plomari ouzo.

Towards Monastiraki, Hoocut does the gyros and Lukumades the loukoumades. We put all four, with prices, into our where to eat in Athens  guide.

Plaka, Anafiotika and the Ancient Agora are all a short walk from the Acropolis; every stop is in our things to do in Athens  guide.