Athens & Greece Travel News

Athens switched from myAthensPass to the free AthensWay app on 21 September. Existing profiles, wallet balances and parking history migrate automatically, while the new app adds live OASA bus arrivals, municipal parking availability, EV charging locations and other mobility tools.

It's a genuinely unusual year for Athens' museum scene. The Old Acropolis Museum — closed since 2007, when its collection moved to the current Acropolis Museum — is reopening on the southeast side of the Parthenon as an extension of the archaeological site, headlined by an exhibition on Athens' layered history. In Piraeus, the long-anticipated National Museum of Underwater Antiquities is set to open inside the restored 1930s SILO building at the port, bringing together over 2,500 objects recovered from Greek waters — ancient shipwrecks, naval remains, Byzantine-era finds — many never shown to the public before.

North of the city, the former royal Tatoi Estate beneath Mount Parnitha is reopening as a public cultural park after a large-scale restoration following the 2021 wildfires, and a new Museum of Archaeology designed by Renzo Piano is under construction south of the centre on the site of a former Olympic car park. Not all of these will be fully open by the time you read this — check official opening dates before building a visit around any of them specifically.

If you're visiting in July or August, build flexibility into your Acropolis plan. Greece's culture ministry has closed the site during the hottest afternoon hours — typically midday to 5pm — during heatwaves in each of the last several summers, most recently as temperatures pushed past 40°C. It's paired with a wider labor-ministry work stoppage for outdoor workers across the city, so this isn't an Acropolis-specific quirk — it's how Athens now handles extreme heat generally.

The practical takeaway: a morning visit (the site opens at 8am) is the safer bet in summer regardless of any closure, since it also means shorter queues and cooler conditions on a hill with almost no shade. Separately, the Acropolis has operated under a daily visitor cap and staggered hourly entry slots since 2024, so booking a timed ticket in advance — rather than turning up and hoping — is worth doing either way.

The EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) went live on 10 April 2026 and now applies to every non-EU visitor entering through Athens International Airport. On your first entry, expect to have your passport scanned and a facial photo (and in some cases fingerprints) taken at an automated kiosk or staffed booth — this replaces manual passport stamping for most travelers. It adds a few extra minutes at border control, especially at busy times, so it's sensible to build in some buffer if you have a tight connection.

ETIAS, a separate €7 pre-travel authorization for visa-exempt visitors, has not launched yet — recent official guidance points to late 2026 at the earliest, with some reports suggesting a slip into 2027. It is not required to travel to Athens right now. Confirm current status before you book using the official source linked below.

Greece's suspension on new short-term rental (Airbnb-style) registrations in central Athens neighborhoods remains in place through 2026, as part of a wider government push to manage housing pressure in the city center. This doesn't affect travelers booking existing, already-registered listings — it affects which new properties can legally come onto the market. If you're booking an apartment rather than a hotel, a quick check that the listing displays a valid registration number is a reasonable extra step in a market being actively regulated.

The nightly accommodation fee introduced in 2024 continues to apply across Greece, including Athens, and is charged in addition to your room rate — most properties add it automatically at checkout rather than folding it into the quoted price. It's tiered by hotel category, roughly from €0.50 per night at 1–2 star properties up to €10 per night at 5-star hotels, and it applies to short-term rental platforms as well as traditional hotels. It's worth budgeting for separately rather than being surprised by it on your final bill.