The 7 Best Views in Athens, Greece

Episode 14 | #athens #greece | July 2023

We spent the month of July living in Athens, Greece. With the history, food, culture, and amazing people, it quickly became one of our favorite cities. While we were there, we found that our favorite views were actually from the Seven Hills of Athens. So we decided to hike to the top of all of them in one day to share them with you.

0:00 The 7 Hills of Athens
0:35 Sunrise at Filopappou Hill
1:26 Pynx, the birthplace of democracy
2:13 The Hill of Nymphs
3:03 The Acropolis
5:27 Areopagus Hill
6:37 An Olympic View
9:24 Sunset at Lycabettus
11:32 Dinner with a view
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We’re Danny and Leigh Anne Mayberry, a husband and wife dream team from Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. After the sudden loss of a dear friend and a health scare of our own, we quit our jobs, sold our apartment, and are learning to appreciate the present moment. We are currently living out of our suitcases and are finding our home wherever we lay our heads. So subscribe and join us as we travel the world, explore the outdoors, embrace new cultures, and find our own version of Mayberry.

Where can you catch the best views in all of Athens, Greece? After being in this incredible city over this past month, we found that our favorite vantage points are actually from the seven hills that Athens was built on. They each offer their own unique perspective of this amazing city. So today, we’re going to climb each one of those seven hills and show you some of our favorite spots in all of Athens. While we’ve been staying in Athens, we’ve been staying in the little neighborhood of Petralona and the hills of Athens have been right in our backyard. We actually cross over most of these hills going into the city every single day as part of our daily walk. Our first stop of the day is Fillapappou. It’s one of the best places to catch a sunrise over the Acropolis and the rest of the city, as well as taking the history with the monuments, tombs and theater along the way. Now that the sun is high in the sky and before it gets too hot, we’re going to go visit to the other hills that are right next door to Fillapappou before going into the Acropolis. This is a short walk over from Fillapappou to our second hill, Pynx. And this one offers another unique view of the Acropolis and the rest of Athens. But the coolest thing about this spot is that it’s actually the birthplace of democracy. So the Athenians had one of the earliest known democratic legislatures, and they met right here. And right behind me, about a two minute walk from Pynx is the Hill of Nymphs, which houses the National Observatory of Athens. We’re going to head over there now. And in typical Mayberry fashion, we have arrived at the hill of Nymphs to the National Observatory just a tad too early. In fact, we’re way too early for the best view that’s available at this location, which is a view of the night stars. This observatory offers tours for people to come and look through their telescope and see the same sky that the Athenians saw thousands of years ago. Well, all morning we’ve been chasing the best views of the Acropolis. But now it’s time to revisit the place of my childhood dreams. So we got here just after seven, and there is already a line forming. It doesn’t open until eight. We’re just going to hang out and wait until they let us in. We’ve made it to the top of our fourth hill of the day, the Acropolis. It’s just after 8 a.m., and we are some of the only people up here. And the reason we got up to the top so early in the day is, one, to beat the crowds, but then to also to beat the heat. It’s summertime here in Athens. Temperatures have been getting to over 100 degrees by midday. So we’re just excited to explore this amazing complex here in this early morning. On the top of the Acropolis is absolutely gorgeous. And in fact, this is actually our second time up here. The first time we got a tip to visit it late in the afternoon, about 2 hours before closing. And we would miss the majority of the crowds and be able to kind of explore the entire grounds, virtually empty. The Parthenon is a site Leigh Anne had always wanted to visit. And our first time up here, she actually broke down into tears. What’s going on, honey? I’ve always wanted to be here. And in high school, she actually built a scale model of this entire structure, as it would have looked in ancient times. And from the Acropolis, you can actually see the six other hills of Athens, including Filapappou where we started our day with sunrise. And now we’re about to head over to our fifth hill of the day. After a very brief walk down from the top of the Acropolis, we’ve arrived at Areopagus. And as you can tell, the first five hills of Athens are located in such a small vicinity of each other. But they all offer their own unique perspective. And Areopagus no different . From here, you not only have a view of the Acropolis and the Athena Nike, but also the Ancient Agora and many historical sites. Not only does Areopagus offer great views, but it also serves as a historical site in the spreading of Christianity as the Apostle Paul taught right from this very hill. Lots of people come out here in the evening with some refreshments to enjoy time with their friends and family, as well as watch a beautiful sunset. I can see it. I can see it. It’s right there. This is awesome. We’re back after a brief reprieve from the sun. It’s cooled off to a semi comfortable 102 degrees and we’ve made our way to one of the places that I’ve been most excited to see in all of Athens – the Panathenaic Stadium. When Leigh Anne mentioned that this is one of the places that she most wanted to go to in Athens, it is no surprise. She is an Olympic nut. Every Olympic cycle she follows every single athlete, knows all of their back stories and stats and fills up the DVR with every sport from snowboarding to the two hour marathon. And last Winter Olympics, her mom flew all the way out from Connecticut to Hawaii, and they had an Olympic Party to catch the entire event. Well, my little Olympic obsessed self is so happy. So let me nerd out for just nerd out a little bit with some fun facts. As you probably know, Greece was the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games as early as 776 B.C.. But then there was a 1500 year break in the action. And then the first modern Olympic Games was held here in 1896. And now we’re here walking these same steps, going through this shoot, we’re down on the track. This is absolutely amazing. And it’s a really beautiful stadium. I believe it’s the only stadium in the world that’s made of all marble. Although you’re probably wondering, what does the stadium have to do with the Seven Hills of Athens? It’s actually conveniently located right next to our Ardittos Hill, which is one of the seven hills. Now, instead of climbing to the top of the hill, we chose to climb to the top of the stadium. So we’re actually right next door. But from this vantage point, we have a great view of our seventh and final hill – Lycabettus. We made our way over from the stadium, through the gardens and up winding through a gorgeous neighborhood. And now we are at the base of Lycabettus. So we’re going to begin our climb and hopefully make it to the top in time for sunset. Yes, there are quite a few stairs along this hike up. However, it is good to know that there is also a cable car to the top. So for those of you that don’t want to hike in 100 degree weather, feel free to take a ride and enjoy the sights that way. What a beautiful walk so far. We’ve just gotten above the treeline and so we’re treated to these amazing views. You can see all the way to the sea and it’s also cooled off quite a bit at this point, which is really nice. So I think it’s going to be a really enjoyable walk to the top. Made it to the top and it was absolutely beautiful. Obviously a very popular sunset spot with St George’s Church up there and just this 360 degree view of Athens. So we’ve actually decided to come back down and have dinner at one of the restaurants that we saw on our way up and enjoy our own sunset. I’m so glad that we saved this for our last hill. It is the tallest overlooks all of Athens and all the amazing places that we visited during our time here in Greece. Be sure to subscribe and catch us on our next adventure.