We will be in Athens in 6 days.
Any recommendations on whether or not to hire a guide for the Acropolis? We have occasionally have hired guides, but usually just follow a Rick Steve’s self guided tour.
If so, is there a guide that you’d recommend?
Posted by
France Southwest - Occitanie
4330 posts
You can now find audio tours on the official Hellenic Heritage website, available via apps for Android or iPhone.
You can download the audio tours in advance to avoid using up your mobile data.
https://www.hh.gr/en/digital-guide/
Whether you need a real guide depends entirely on how much information you want about what you are seeing. Professional guides in Greece have completed a specific multi-year training program and are the only ones authorized to guide you. They can answer any questions you might have, whereas an audio guide cannot address your questions or interact with you.
Therefore, an audio tour and a professional guide offer two completely different experiences. It is up to you to decide which one you prefer.
A list of official professional guides, including their contact details, is available here:
https://www.tourist-guides.gr/
To narrow the results to the Athens region, enter "ATTICA" as the keyword.
Posted by
Philadelphia, PA, USA
3844 posts
OP appears familiar w Rick Steves Free downloadable audio tours -- always works best if you listen beforehand also. In addition, any reading about Acropolis helps too. Are you going to the Acropolis Museum? (not part of the Govt sites) ... off-season like this, you can readily do walk-ins and, at least earlier this year, people said that free audio guides for Museum were available at desk. Also, interesting to go up escalator immediately to TOP floor, where there is a 30-milnute video on Acropolis and Parthenon, full history of the site. The Rooftop sculptures are there. 2nd floor has other major artifacts, including the original Carytids (maidens) of the Erichthaieon temple. A plus = glassed-in terrace restaurant for light refreshments, decent prices.
Posted by
Freedonia
19633 posts
My only suggestion is to get there when it opens otherwise you will be fighting the crowds.
Posted by
France Southwest - Occitanie
4330 posts
There are many online sources of information about Greek archaeological sites. You can do without a guide, provided you are willing to devote some time to reading and study and want to make mute stones speak instead of listening to your smartphone,
If you are up for that, take a look, for example, at this interesting text about the Acropolis:
https://books.openedition.org/obp/2136?lang=en
Another monument located on the hill, the Erechtheion; is also the subject of a study:
Posted by
Montreal, QC
22 posts
Just back from a 3 week vacation in Greece and I found the Hellenic Heritage app very useful. We used it at numerous Peloponnese sites. One advantage of the online version is the apps' Map feature which overlays the audio guide points of interest with site locations (otherwise the audio guide numbering are not laid out sequentially a site visit). We used the app at 4 sites and consumed about 400 MB of data.
The app wasn't available during our trip last year.