Acropolis Museum: Tickets, Hours, Glass Floor

Acropolis Museum tickets cost €20 for general admission and €10 reduced (official info, October 2026). You can buy the general ticket at the desk, or buy Acropolis Museum tickets online from the museum's own e-ticket service on its official website, theacropolismuseum.gr; the museum warns about a look-alike .org site that has nothing to do with it.

Reduced and free tickets are only issued at the desk with proof: visitors under 25 from the EU go free, those under 25 from outside the EU pay the reduced price (official info, October 2026).

The ticket covers all the galleries and the excavation under the museum. Your Acropolis ticket does not include the museum.

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Acropolis Museum opening hours change with the season and the day:

• Winter (1 November-31 March): Monday-Thursday 9:00-17:00, Friday 9:00-22:00, Saturday-Sunday 9:00-20:00
• Summer (1 April-31 October): Monday 9:00-17:00, Tuesday-Sunday 9:00-20:00, Friday 9:00-22:00

Last entry is half an hour before closing, and the galleries start clearing 15 minutes before closing time. The excavation is open in summer Monday 9:00-17:00 and Tuesday-Sunday 9:00-20:00, and in winter daily 9:00-17:00.

Closed on 1 January, Easter Sunday, 1 May, 25 and 26 December; entry is free on 6 March, 25 March, 18 May and 28 October (official info, October 2026).

Caryatids meaning, in one line: a caryatid is a column carved as a standing woman, carrying the roof on her head instead of a plain shaft. That is the caryatids definition in architecture books; the name is usually traced to the women of Karyai in the Peloponnese.

The six caryatids of the Acropolis held up the small porch of the Erechtheion. Five of the originals stand together in the Acropolis Museum, and in our video we stopped right in front of them.

The sixth was taken to Britain with the Parthenon marbles in the early 19th century, so one of the caryatids is in the British Museum in London; the figures on the hill today are copies.

Three stops stand out among the exhibits.

The glass floor and the excavation: at the entrance and in the lower part of the museum the floor is glass, and looking down you see the remains of houses from ancient Athens. You are literally walking over the past. The excavation itself is entered from the courtyard on the same ticket.

The Caryatids: the originals of the statues of young women that hold up the porch of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis are here; the ones on the hill are copies. The Parthenon Gallery: the top floor is laid out to the exact size of the Parthenon, and the reliefs that ran around the temple are shown in order. Behind the glass stands the Acropolis itself.

The gaps in the gallery have a story. Part of the temple's sculpture was taken to Britain in the early 19th century and is still in the British Museum.

When Greece asked for it back, the answer was that Athens had no museum to look after it; the old museum stood on the hill, and the new Acropolis Museum was built partly as a reply. The pieces have still not been returned.

Our Acropolis Museum review in one line: yes, it is worth it, and go before the Acropolis itself. The museum was built to show the sculptures and architectural pieces taken from the hill, so everything you see inside is a real part of the buildings you are about to walk past on top. After the museum we looked at the Parthenon in a completely different way.

The museum is right next to Akropoli station on metro line 2, at the start of the Dionysiou Areopagitou pedestrian street (the Acropolis Museum address is Dionysiou Areopagitou 15, Athens, Greece); from here you walk up to the Acropolis entrance (official info, October 2026). The metro from the airport is covered in our Athens transportation guide .

Museum first, hill second. Come here before you climb the Acropolis; this is where you learn what the buildings up there mean.

Friday evening works well. On Fridays the museum stays open until 22:00, and an evening visit spares you the midday heat.

The café and the restaurant. The ground-floor café does not need a ticket. The restaurant on the second floor looks straight at the Acropolis; you go up with a free ticket from the desk, and on Fridays and Saturdays it stays open until midnight (official info, October 2026).

No photos in the Archaic gallery. Photos and video are not allowed in the Archaic Acropolis Gallery, where the sculptures still carry traces of their original colour, and large bags and backpacks go to the cloakroom (official info, October 2026).

The museum is in Makrygianni, right next to Koukaki; stay on this side and you can walk to both the museum and the Acropolis: See Koukaki hotels  Ad. Ad We stayed nearby in Plaka, at Hotel Byron: See Hotel Byron prices  Ad. Ad Koukaki, Plaka and the other areas are weighed up one by one in the where to stay in Athens  guide.

For restaurants near the Acropolis Museum, walk on into Plaka and try the orange cake (portokalopita) at Lyra on Mnisikleous Street, the best dessert we had in Athens.

For dinner we had calamari and saganaki to live music at Stamatopoulos in Plaka. Lyra, Stamatopoulos and every other meal of our trip, with what we paid, sit together in one list, the where to eat in Athens  guide.

For the hill across the road see our Acropolis of Athens  guide, and for every other stop our things to do in Athens  guide.