Acropolis and Parthenon tours
On an Acropolis tour Athens is at your feet: a licensed guide walks you up past the old theatres on the slopes to the Parthenon, in 2 to 4 hours. Below are the two tours worth booking, at $33 and $38 per person: what each price covers, how the entry tickets work, and which one to pick.
Quick answer
The short answer. For an Acropolis tour Athens has two listings worth your money. Book the museum tour at $33 per person: rated 4.8 from 14,129 reviews, with the Acropolis Museum in its main route. Want audio earsets, a guide in French, Spanish or German, or the hill alone? The Parthenon tour at $38 per person is rated 4.7 from 9,936 reviews. On both, some options leave out the entry tickets, so check before you pay.
The museum tour
The listing with the most reviews of any Acropolis tour Athens offers here: 14,129, at 4.8.
The $33 per person listing is an Acropolis of Athens guided tour with a licensed guide, rated 4.8 from 14,129 reviews. Guides speak English or Italian, and you can join a group or book a private version.
The route starts on the slopes. You see the Theatre of Dionysus, where the first ancient dramas and tragedies were performed, walk around the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and pass the sanctuary of the healing god Asclepius. At the top come the Propylaea, the Temple of Nike, the Erechtheion and the Parthenon, monuments from the 5th century and the Golden Age of Pericles.
After a short break, with time for the bathroom, the group walks a few minutes to the Acropolis Museum. It is an Athens walking tour in miniature, and the museum earns its place: excavations under glass floors, five of the six original Caryatids on the first floor (the sixth is in the British Museum), and on the top floor the Parthenon frieze next to a view of the hill. If you want an Athens Acropolis and museum tour in one booking, this is the simpler choice.
Two tours, side by side
Both prices are per person. Lengths, ratings and review counts are the live listing figures.
| Tour | Price | Length | What you get | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acropolis and museum, guided | $33 per person | 2 to 4 hours | A licensed guide on the hill, then the Acropolis Museum | 4.8 · 14,129 |
| Acropolis and Parthenon, museum optional | $38 per person | 2 to 4 hours | A licensed guide, audio earsets, the museum as an upgrade | 4.7 · 9,936 |
The Parthenon tour
The Acropolis tour Athens guides run with earsets, in six languages.
At $38 per person, the second listing is an Athens Acropolis and Parthenon walking tour led by a licensed expert guide, rated 4.7 from 9,936 reviews. You walk through the Propylaea, stand in front of the Parthenon and see the Caryatids on the Erechtheion, with the history and myths of ancient Athens told along the way.
Two things set it apart. You get a personal audio earset, so the guide comes through clearly on a busy hill. And the guides work in six languages: English, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish and German. Private and small-group options are listed too.
Here the museum is an upgrade, not part of the base tour. Add it and a guide takes you through the museum, home to the original Caryatids; or keep it to the Acropolis alone.
Tickets
Ticket rules for an Acropolis tour Athens operators sell differ by option, and that matters more than the $5 between the two prices.
On the Parthenon tour, the Acropolis and museum option with tickets includes entry. The museum tour also sells options with entry tickets.
Buy them with the link sent after booking, within 48 hours of booking and at least a day before the tour.
Buy Acropolis and museum tickets at least one day ahead and contact the operator to match time slots. At the meeting point they only sell full-price adult tickets, in cash.
Neither listing says which option its listed price belongs to. Open the options and check that tickets are in before you pay.
What these tours are not
An Acropolis tour Athens guides run stays on the hill and, at most, the museum.
Each listing is an Athens Acropolis walking tour at heart: the guide stays on the hill, and the museum is the only other stop. If you were after an Athens city tour with Acropolis time and the streets below, neither covers it, and neither is a guided tour of Athens as a whole.
For a walking tour of Athens with food on the way, see our food tours guide; for the centre by electric bike, our e-bike guide.
Before you go
Small print from the two listings, worth reading before the day.
The museum tour asks you to reach the meeting point 20 minutes before the start. The meeting point depends on the option you book.
The Parthenon tour warns that security checks may take 30 minutes or more, and entry is strictly timed. Late arrivals cannot join or get a refund.
The Parthenon tour runs in any weather. The museum tour lasts 3 to 4 hours, depending on the pace of the group and the weather.
On the museum tour, other groups’ equipment can affect the audio at crowded times, and guides may change the order of the sites.
Our verdict
Book the museum tour. If this is your only Athens Greece tour, the $33 per person listing gives you the hill and the Acropolis Museum with a licensed guide, at the lower price and the higher rating: 4.8 from 14,129 reviews.
Want earsets, or a guide in French, Spanish or German? The Parthenon tour at $38 per person is the one, and the museum stays optional.
Book direct
The two Acropolis tours first, then two catamaran days from Alimos Marina for the day after. Every price here is per person.
★ 4.8 · 14,129 reviews
★ 4.7 · 9,936 reviews
★ 5.0 · 395 reviews
★ 4.9 · 675 reviews
Pair it with a boat trip
After an Acropolis tour Athens has a gentler way to spend a day: at sea. Our top pick, the Greek meal catamaran, costs $191 per person for 5 hours from Alimos Marina, with a barbecue cooked on board and two swim stops. Compare it with the other nine in our list of catamarans.
Common questions
Per person, the museum tour is $33 and the Parthenon tour with an optional museum $38. Those are the listing prices; whether entry tickets are in depends on the option you choose, so check before you pay.
Partly. The museum tour says you skip the lines at the ticket offices, and the Parthenon tour says pre-arranged tickets skip the queues at the ticket lines. Neither skips security: the museum tour notes there is no skip-the-line separate entrance, and the Parthenon tour warns checks may take 30 minutes or more.
Both listings show their starting times only when you check availability, so look for an afternoon slot there. On the Parthenon tour, entry is strictly timed: without a valid ticket for the right time, you cannot join.
An Acropolis tour Athens guides lead lasts 2 to 4 hours on both listings, depending on the option. The museum tour’s own notes say 3 to 4 hours, depending on the pace of the group and the weather, with a short break before the museum.
On the museum tour it is part of the main route, though one option, a premium Acropolis tour for up to 12, leaves it out. On the Parthenon tour the museum is an upgrade you choose when you book.
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