Athens/Piraeus Itinerary Before and After Cruise

I suspect your ship will board before 2 pm.

I think you best bet is to take a taxi or the Metro into central Athens and find a baggage storage company. Drop off your bags and explore the highlights of Athens. Pick up your bags and commute to the airport (metro, or taxi) where Avras shuttle picks up guests.
Here are several options for luggage storage in Athens.
https://www.thisisathens.org/useful-tips/luggage-storage

Thank you, Carol, for your reply. We will be sailing on Virgin Voyages for the first time. We have been told that they usually have later embarkation times and port departure times than other cruise lines. We will find out. We can drop our baggage before our scheduled boarding time, so we will most likely get to the ship before noon.

Thank you for your suggestion, stanbr. Sounds like a great way to spend our last day in Greece.

We are going on a cruise early September and will be in Athens for a day and also celebrating our 50th. I saw your post and would love you feedback on your experience in Athens and suggestions on navigating around there, tours and restaurants. thank you

Hello bhgambill, congratulations on 50 years of marriage! I would be happy to share our experiences with you, after we return. Expect to hear from me mid-June. All the best ...

Thank you Robin. We look forward hearing from you.

Here's a great website for Piraeus and you'll find it's more than just a place to get a ferry.

More there than people realize:

https://www.destinationpiraeus.com/index.php

Robin, Have you got back from your trip and can share your experience? thank you

Yes, we have returned. I will share some details about our time in Athens soon.

About our time before and after cruise:
Athens – 2 night stay in Koukaki neighborhood of Athens - May 2025
Transportation:
Airport to apartment – taxi met us at the arrival area with sign, arranged by our rental host
While staying in Athens, we walked everywhere
After our stay, car with driver picked us up at apartment and took us to cruise ship in Piraeus
After our cruise, we used the same airport taxi driver (thru WhatsApp) to take us from Piraeus to Rafina, where we stayed at Hotel Avra for our last night in Greece. They have an airport shuttle that runs every hour. Hotel is walkable to restaurants along the shore and in the town square.

Restaurants:
Little Tree Books and Coffee (Kavalloti 2 Athens) – nice breakfast
Vanilla Bistro (Veikou 40 Athens) – nice breakfast
Drupes & Drips (Zitrou 20 Athens) spritz bar – Before dinner, we had cicchetti and spritz - recommend
Dioskouri Plaka (13 Dioskouron, Athens) – went here for dinner, recommended by our host – food ($50) was ok, view is lovely – wouldn’t go again – We had wanted to try Restaurant Scholarhio (Tripodon 14 Athens). It was closed that night.
Kalamaki Bar (Drakou 21-15, Athens) – we enjoyed dinner here very much. Dinner for two was $52. Food and service were good. Many local people dining here.
Lukumades – multiple locations – serving traditional puffed pastry with different toppings. We had the traditional ones topped with honey. 1 portion was plenty for two people

Activities:
Day 1 – Relaxed. Late afternoon went to Drupes & Drips. Strolled the neighborhood. Arrived at the Hadrian Arch and Temple of Zeus. Did not go in. Continued our walk around Plaka, which is hilly. Had dinner at Dioskouri. Watched the sunset. Went back to the apartment.
Day 2 – Late breakfast at Little Tree Books & Coffee. Croissant with chocolate, toast with honey and tahini, cappuccino and café freddo. Delicious! We headed to the Parliament building and watched the changing of the guard. It was very interesting to watch. On our way to the Ancient Agora, we came to the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Annunciation (aka Metropoli). Beautiful church, worth going inside. Our walk took us to Monastiraki Square and then the Ancient Agora. Did not go in; time to go back for our tour of the Acropolis. We passed by Hadrian’s Library on the way. The one thing we had planned for this day was the Athens Walking Tours – Golden Hour Acropolis: Acropolis Museum and Tour in the Afternoon Light. We purchased this online with tickets, so no waiting in line. We met our guide, Elena, at the appointed spot at 2:45. Wonderful guide. The Acropolis Museum is worth seeing. It prepared us for our tour of the Acropolis. We left the Acropolis as the sun was setting. Gorgeous! We finished a wonderful day with a delicious dinner at Kalamaki Bar. We had hummus with pita, couscous, kebab and veal skewer. Topped off by Lukumades with honey (at Lukumades store).
Day 3 – Had a late breakfast at Vanilla Bistro. A very cute local place. We had cappuccino, café freddo, pancakes with chocolate (so decadent!) and soft boiled eggs with toast and salad. Fresh and delicious!
Our driver picked us up and took us to the cruise ship in Piraeus. 60 euros
After our 10-day cruise, we disembarked at 10 am. We had our luggage and were through security by 10:30. Our taxi driver was outside waiting for us, with a sign. She drove us to the Hotel Avra in Rafina. 65 euros
We had lunch at Fish Tavern Galini on the water. The food and service were good. We had fresh fish, meatballs and french-fries ($47). For dinner we ate at local souvlaki, gyros, kebab place. The waitress recommended the “small” meat platter, which came with fries, fresh tomato and lettuce, tzatziki sauce and yogurt. It was huge (portions are large in Greece). Very good! $37.50.
If you have any questions, let me know. I will try to answer them.

We are also going on a cruise leaving from Piraeus September 7. We land from the US Sept 6 at 10 am. I'm trying to decide if we will be able to stay up for the golden hour tour mentioned above or if we should go early on the 7th before we head to the cruise terminal. I have booked ACROPOLIS CITY LIFE BH which is supposed to be central. Any input is welcome.
Margaret

Hello Margaret. I think you will have enough time to get to your hotel, rest for a short while and then take the Golden Hour tour of the museum and the acropolis. (We met our Athens Walking Tour guide at 3:15 pm.) That is it could work, if everything goes as planned. If your plane is late or if the drive from the airport encounters an accident or heavier than usual traffic, then that could impact your plans. If you are not comfortable taking that risk, then I recommend that you do a tour the next morning. Your hotel would probably hold your bags or perhaps you could get a late checkout.
Whichever date you select, I recommend that you go to the museum before doing the Acropolis. And because there is so much to see, it is best to do this with a guide.
Just a suggestion - When I used to go to the UK for work from the East Coast of the States, I would go directly to the office from the airport. This would help me to adjust to the new time zone more quickly. But of course, I was younger then.
I hope this helps. I'm sure you're going to have a wonderful time!

Hi Robin. Can you tell me how you liked the cruise and what islands you visited? I am considering doing a Greece cruise with Virgin next year. I’m in my sixties and my daughter in her late thirty’s. I’m Not big party people but love good food and being taken care of. Did you feel too rushed in the ports or was the amount of time in each port adequate?
We’ve never been to Greece before and are a bit intimidated by trying to go island to island on our own. We thought that the cruise would give us a small taste of the islands for our first trip. Then next time we could return feeling just a little less intimidated to do it on our own! Grateful for your thoughts. Thanks.

Hi Donna. Thank you for your questions. We did the 10 night "Starry Nights in Greece and Croatia" cruise on the VV Resilient Lady. It was our first VV cruise. As you said, we also wanted to have a structured way to visit Greece and other places so we could decide if we would want to visit them again. We sailed from Piraeus (Athens), Greece to Santorini, Greece, Bodrum, Turkey, Mykonos, Greece (where the ship stayed overnight, so we had almost two days there), a day at sea, Dubrovnik, Croatia (would definitely return!), Kotor, Montenegro (unfortunately, we were both not feeling well, so we did not get off the ship due to colds, Corfu, Greece (very different from the other two Greek islands), day at sea, and returned to Piraeus (Athens), Greece. We were in most ports for at least 12 hours e.g. 8 am - 8 pm. In my experience this is longer than on most other ocean cruises. We felt it was enough time in each place. In Santorini, we took the "Santorini & Oia on Your Own with Athinios Return" excursion. I liked it very much, as the tender took us to a port where we got right on the bus that took us up the hill - no waiting in line for the cable car. Our guide showed us around and then gave us time to be on our own. We met back at the bus where we were driven back to the port to get on the tender. In Bodrum, we took the ship-offered excursion to Ephesus which includes a 3 hour each way bus trip. Friends had told us that we must see it. I'm glad I went, but it was a long day. On the second day in Mykonos, we took a tour to the island of Delos where we visited the museum and had a walking tour. In Dubrovnik we took a Game of Thrones and History tour, as many of the scenes from that TV series had been filmed there. Given the opportunity, I would like to return to Croatia to see more of this country. Since we were on the ship 10 nights, we had the opportunity to try the restaurants (all included in our fare) and a few twice. The food was very good and in some restaurants excellent. To get more acquainted with what Virgin Voyages has to offer, I suggest you watch some YouTube videos of travel vloggers who talk about the restaurants, the entertainment, the cabins, and other venues. In my opinion Virgin Voyages could do a better job with the entertainment and events, like the sail away party and the Scarlet night. We are not big partiers either, but we do appreciate good entertainment. One of their theatres is quite small and fills up early. We would do a VV cruise again. We especially liked the food and all that was included in our fare, including gratuities and all the dining venues. We were given $300 in a bar tab by the cruise line (some special incentive they were offering at the time). We used it for cocktails, wine, and specialty coffee. We spent the last $5 of it on a coffee on our last morning. They do not have a main dining room and no cruise director. Our cabin with balcony was very comfortable and our room stewards took great care of us. I would recommend going to Greece in May (or maybe April) or the fall. It will be cooler and less busy. I hope this helps with your decision making process. If you have any other questions, please let me know. I hope you have a wonderful visit to Greece.

Thank you Robin. You provided a lot of very helpful information and a lot to think about. I may take you up on your offer to provide more information as our plans become more firm.