arrival in athens airport at 2 am

Yikes, that's early! I suppose it depends whether you will then be staying in Athens or moving on to someplace else. Either way, figure by the time you get through the airport, then either to the city center or the Ferry port it will be closer to 4:00, so still at least a couple hours to kill. I suppose if there is someplace open at the airport, a nap and coffee might be as good there as trying to find someplace else. If you have a Hotel lined up in Athens, you might consider contacting them, you might at least be able to drop your bags off, sit for a bit, then maybe consider hitting the produce market near the city center, it probably opens early and I find markets to be fascinating places.

We used a taxi at 2 am for a an early departure last year--air port was a busy but not crowded--about 50 euro from near historic center.

Note we were warned and still got this one on a day time arrival taxi in Athens--driver would not pull up in front of hotel to drop us off. Driver gets out and takes bags out of trunk, then returns to driver position. He rolls down the passenger window and told us the fee was 60 euro. He was given three 20's stacked in one group of bills. He slides a 5 euro from his hand under to three 20's and hands to 5 back saying we are short 15 euro--indicating that he had not been given three 20's. We hand him another 20 and he Zooms off before realizing what took place. Count out bills one at a time, and keep bills apart when you pay the taxi driver.

Hope you enjoy Athens, it is very special

You may wish to arrange for a driver to meet you at the airport and take you to your next destination. You may also arrange with your hotel/rental accommodation, etc. for an early check in.

It was not mentioned, but there is a bus that runs between the Airport and city center, 24 hrs a day, so a taxi is not the only option. There is also a Train/Metro, but I am not sure of the hours.

We are on a similar schedule - 2:25 am arrival - and are thinking we may need a hotel at the airport just for the shower. Our other option is to take advantage of the yotel in Heathrow for a shower between flights, and then sit in Athens. Tough to decide until you know if you slept at all on the flights.

This was our situation last May. We arranged our itinerary so that we would spend time in Athens at the end of our trip. So when we arrived at 2AM, we rented our car and drove to a hotel about 2 miles away (The Holiday Inn - there is a closer, more expensive hotel but Athens does not have the usual plethora of "airport hotels") We slept the night away, had a great breakfast at the hotel, and then drove to Nafplio. FYI, the airport in Athens was hopping at that time of night. It was very busy and all of the car counters and stores seemed to be open