We’re staying in central Athens now and considering a day trip to Piraeus. It sounds like there is a good archeological museum and tavernas on the water front. If we decide to do so, it looks like a 30-minute trip from the Monastiraki Metro Station.
Anyone done this? Is it worth it? We’ve visited many of the other museums in the city on previous trips and are looking for something a little different.
Thanks!
I really like the Piraeus Museum. It’s fairly small but has some good exhibits- especially the bronzes - and there is a small theatre behind the building. This may be more detail than you want but scrolling through will give you an idea of the exhibits. Look at the section after page 185 in particular
https://www.latsis-foundation.org/content/elib/book_9/piraeus_en.pdf
The museum is around half an hour’s walk from Piraeus metro. There’s a longer, but more pleasant walk, from Neo Faliro metro. A walk through a small park takes you to the Mikro Limami (small harbour) which is where the waterfront fish tavernas are. I don’t eat fish and so have never eaten there.
It would be easy enough to walk from Piraeus metro to the museum, drop down to the Zea Marina and then walk round to Mikro Limami and back via Neo Faliro.
It’s not something I’d recommend to someone in Athens for the first time but it makes a pleasant alternative if you’ve already done the other museums.
Alan
Piraeus is more than a place to get a ferry.
Once you get away from the main ferry area you'll find two beautiful marinas to walk along filled with pleasure and fishing boats.
it has a special Metro Station from the 1920s(?) that is truly unique and also houses a great museum
There are Central Markets similar to the one in Athens but on a smaller scale, lovely archeological museum, shops, markets and tavernas.
it's not as touristy as Athens and is a nice get away if you've seen most of what Athens has to offer.
Easy, quick and inexpensive to get to via Metro.
Check out this great Piraeus website:
I walked to the Museum from the Metro Station in Late May (I had about 3-4 hours before my ferry & I left my big bag with an agency). It was a HOT day & seemed like a long walk. I had to stop at a couple of shops to ask directions. When I got there, I was almost the only visitor. Good sculptures, the rest not remarkable. the Marinas with restaurants seem a b it farther... u might consider a taxi... but IF you do, havae your map & show it to driver, & get a € figure befoe u get in Piraeus taxis are known for rip-offs.
Thank you Alan, tommyk5, and janet! We’ve been in Greece for nearly a month - traveling around the mainland with a majority of time in the Peloponnese. It’s all been excellent! Good weather, delicious food and welcoming locals!
I’ll post a trip report when we return!
Cheers!
A quick update to say that we did make this trip today. We probably made a tactical error when we decided to exit at the Neo Faliro Metro Stop. We walked through the park and along the harbor to Piraeus. Unfortunately, the Archeological Museum was closed on Tuesday (though my Rough Guide said otherwise). We walked about 5.5 miles but it seemed further because of the heat - we took the Metro back to Monastiraki from the Piraeus Station.
We’re glad we made the trip! Now we’ll know what to expect if we take a ferry to the islands one day. As a bonus, while we were at Syntagma Station we were able to get an ATH.ENA Card so that we can reload it for future Metro fares.
Thanks again for the advice. I agree that it’s something that you’d do if you had already seen the museums, etc. in Athens.
Thanks for letting us know. Sorry you missed the actual museum!
For the next time, know that you can also take the bus line 40 from Syntagma Square, there is a stop 200 meters from the museum.
That’s great to know JoLui!
That tip will save us a few steps!!
Thank you!
