New in town, or still learning Greek? These plans need no Greek to enjoy: kids' shows, museum visits, workshops and seasonal festivals where English-speaking kids can follow along. The list refreshes as new plans are added, so check back before the weekend.
Circo Bonaccini, an Italian circus company, brings Around the World to Alimos: a family circus show themed as a trip across the globe.
It suits families who want a classic night (or Sunday morning) at the circus, and kids who can sit through a full live show.
Circo Mundial has been on the road since 1968, and this stop brings its circus show to Katerini. Kids watch a run of live acts, one after another.
The show carries itself without words, so it works for kids who speak no Greek. It suits families in and around Katerini; from Athens it is a long trip for one show.
An interactive exhibition about one feeling: anger. Kids and parents work through hands-on exhibits that show what anger does in the body, test different reactions through its characters, and look for what helps. The Emotions Museum, a listed house at the foot of Philopappou Hill, has a team of psychologists, educators and drama therapists. It suits kids with big tempers and parents who want a way to talk about them.
KIDOT is a children's festival in Gazi, held at the old OSY depot on the corner of Ermou and Pireos.
It suits families who want a full day out, with the option of a second day if the kids want to go back.
A girl and her ticket wait at a bus stop, and an ordinary wait turns into a trip full of surprises. A dancer and a multi-instrumentalist play with balls, veils, balloons and songs while babies and their grown-ups sit on cushions, watching, laughing and joining in. It was made as a first theater outing, by the team behind The Queen of Everything, the longest-running baby show in Athens.
Each winter Technopolis in Gazi turns into a Christmas village run by Santa and his elves. Kids move between hands-on workshops, a theater show and a fun park with slides, a carousel, bumper cars and an ice rink.
It is come-and-go, so it suits a few hours on a weekend afternoon. Younger kids head for the rides and lights; school-age kids get the most from the workshops and show.
Blue blue blue is a short opera made for the very youngest, staged as part of the Maria Callas Museum's family program.
It suits toddlers rather than older kids used to full-length shows.
Christmas BOOM Village is a children's Christmas festival at Anassa City Events, the event space in Goudi.
The ticket shop files it under kids' festivals, so it suits families looking for a Christmas outing built around children rather than a seated show for adults.
A pocket version of Giselle, the classic ballet, made by the Greek National Opera for toddlers and the grown-up who brings them.
It is a first taste of live ballet for children aged one to three. Older kids who already sit through full-length shows are not the audience here.
The Nutcracker, the Christmas ballet, staged by the Grand Classical Ballet in the theater of the Peristeri Exhibition Center in west Athens.
Kids follow the story through dance and music. It suits children who can sit quietly through a ballet in a theater seat, and makes an easy holiday outing near the Anthoupoli metro.
Schoolchildren march for Ochi Day, the national holiday remembering Greece's "No" to Italy's 1940 ultimatum.
Kids will enjoy it, and it opens an easy conversation about the history behind the holiday.
The ruins of one of the largest temples of the ancient world, begun around 515 BC and finished by the Roman emperor Hadrian more than 600 years later. Of its 104 marble columns, 15 still stand, each almost 17 meters tall. A 16th lies on the ground where a storm brought it down in 1852.
The site sits between the Acropolis and Ardittos Hill, by the old Ilissos riverbed.
Akti Vouliagmenis is the organized sandy beach of Vouliagmeni on the Athens Riviera, opened in 1959 and holding a Blue Flag. Behind the sand there is a fully equipped playground, three canteens, changing rooms, showers and toilets.
The water is clear, and free Wi-Fi covers the beach. It suits families who want a full day by the sea with food and facilities on hand.
This organized beach has fine sand, no rocks and clear, shallow water, with a Blue Flag every year since 2002. Lifeguards are on duty daily through the summer season, and there is a doctor, toilets, changing rooms and showers.
Sunbeds and umbrellas line the shore, and the grounds behind hold football fields, beach volleyball and tennis courts, plus beach bars, ice cream, grill and meze spots.
Royal Bowling is an indoor games hall with 15 bowling lanes, a roller skating rink, billiard and ping pong tables, and arcade and board games. A kids' playland sits alongside the lanes.
Kids' birthday parties take over the hall with black light, light effects and dance music, and include bowling, skating, food and decorations.
Bowling Center Ilion is a 2,000 m² indoor games hall built around 12 bowling lanes. Billiards tables and virtual reality games share the same floor, so kids who tire of bowling have somewhere to go next. It suits school-age kids and teens more than toddlers.
A ten-pin bowling alley that also has virtual reality games, video games, ping pong and billiards under one roof, so kids can switch between them in one visit.
The venue hosts kids' birthday parties, with food and decorations planned around what the family asks for. It suits a mixed group: older kids and adults bowl while younger siblings move on to the games.
The Museum of Experiments is a hands-on science center where kids run physics, chemistry and biology experiments themselves, guided by a museum educator. Sunday workshops are grouped by age, from kitchen-cupboard chemistry for preschoolers and a parent to sessions on light and color for school-age kids.
There is also a science escape room, the Thomas Edison Edition, where older kids solve puzzles by completing experiments.
Planet Physics is an interactive science center built around physics. Its exhibition has around 30 hands-on exhibits, grouped into themed sections across more than 1,000 square meters, and some are found nowhere else in Southeastern Europe.
Specialized staff guide visitors through the exhibits, so kids learn by trying each one themselves. Schools and other groups can book educational programs pitched to their age and level.
Esc Rooms runs five themed escape rooms, each 60 or 80 minutes, built around puzzles that need logic, observation and teamwork rather than special knowledge. For kids' parties, all five rooms are set up for children, with staff on hand to help, and up to 35 kids can play at once. Afterward the group gets a 200 m² party space with tables, ping pong, basketball, foosball and darts.
Kavouri is two sandy beaches back to back, about 900 meters in all, with sand on the shore and the seabed and clear, shallow water. A small islet sits close enough to reach on foot.
A green strip with a wide paved path runs along the sand, and the fully renovated Kavouri Playground is right at the beach. At Megalo Kavouri, a stretch of an ancient road is on view.
A protected pine and cypress forest on the slopes of Mount Hymettus, crossed by footpaths, cycling routes and viewpoints, most of them north of the monastery.
At its center is Kaisariani Monastery, whose church dates to around 1100 and is painted inside with frescoes from 1682. Plane trees, poplars and an olive grove surround it, along with the old refectory and a Byzantine bath house.
Once the summer retreat of the Greek royal family, Tatoi is a protected forest of Aleppo pines, cypresses and plane trees, with 40 historic buildings spread across the grounds.
Kids can walk, bike or picnic on the trails, see the palace from outside, visit the royal cemetery, or head to the artificial Kithara lake for a view over the whole Attica basin.
Veikou Grove is a 25-hectare wooded park on the northwest slopes of the Tourkovounia hills, run by the municipality of Galatsi. Kids get playgrounds, a skateboard track, small soccer and basketball courts, and outdoor gym equipment.
The grounds also hold the municipal pool, tennis and pétanque courts, cafés, a summer cinema and an open-air theater that stages shows in summer.
Attiko Alsos spreads over two rocky hills of the Tourkovounia, replanted with pine and cypress groves on the site of old quarries. Paths for walking and running lead to viewpoints, the best facing south over Athens to Piraeus and the Saronic islands.
Kids get tennis, basketball, volleyball and 5x5 soccer courts, a playground for preschoolers, and summer shows at the open-air theater and cinema.
Goudi Park sits on the grounds of the old Goudi army barracks, now lawns, tall trees and sports grounds. Its standout is a 300-meter stream that starts as a small waterfall by the children's playground and runs north, under two wooden bridges, toward a preserved two-story building that once housed the army command.
Football fields, tennis courts and outdoor fitness equipment line the paths, which suit bikes and long walks.
Pedion tou Areos is a 27.7-hectare park of pine-shaded paths, fountains, a rose garden and a botanical garden, designed in 1934 to honor the heroes of the 1821 revolution, 21 of whom stand as marble busts.
The main playground sits under the pines at the eastern end by Protomagias Square, mostly swings and low slides. A smaller toddler playground has a play ship, swings, a slide and a seesaw.
Lycabettus is a limestone hill rising 277 meters over central Athens, the highest point in the city center, with pine trees around its base. A funicular runs up inside a 210-meter tunnel from Kolonaki in about 3 minutes, or families can climb the trail. At the top sit the Chapel of St. George, a café-restaurant, an open-air theater and views across the city to the Acropolis.
Cine Thisio is an open-air cinema on Apostolou Pavlou street, with rows of seats facing a big screen and the floodlit Acropolis in view above it. Families come for an evening film under the sky, where the setting is half the show. It suits kids old enough to sit through a late film outdoors.
Speed Park is an outdoor kart track in Aspropyrgos, west of Athens, built in 1986 on a technical, demanding layout. Rental karts range from a mini electric kart and a junior kart up to faster 270cc models, plus a two-seater. After each session, drivers collect a printed lap-timing sheet.
The track also runs a kart academy for beginners and hosts birthday parties and timed races.
Kartland is an outdoor go-kart track on Leoforos Anthousas in Pallini. Older kids can drive small karts on their own, and two-seat karts let a parent take the wheel with a younger child riding beside them.
It suits kids who like speed and want to drive for themselves. Children who dislike engine noise or wearing a helmet may find it too much.
The Hellenic Riding Club is where organized riding began in Greece. Army officers and amateur riders founded it just before World War II, and after the war it moved to its grounds in Paradisos, which became the country's first major center for competitive riding.
Today it runs a riding school alongside the sand arenas where its show-jumping competitions take place.
The only zoo in Greece, home to more than 1,500 animals of about 220 species across 81 hectares. The African Savannah has giraffes, zebras, white rhinos and cheetahs, with a giraffe feeding station.
Elsewhere are Asian elephants, chimpanzees, lions, tigers, and wolves and brown bears in the Greek Forest, plus three walk-through aviaries, a lemur forest and a farm where kids can pet goats and ponies.
The Panathenaic Stadium, known locally as Kallimarmaro (beautiful marble), is the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble. It hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896 and is still the finish line of the Athens Marathon.
Kids can run onto the track, climb the marble stands, pose on the podium, walk the vaulted passage, and see Olympic torches and posters from 1896 to today in the museum.
The Roman Agora is the ruined market square Augustus paid for around 2,000 years ago, north of the Acropolis. Kids enter through the Gate of Athena Archegetis, a Doric marble gateway, and cross to the Tower of the Winds.
The octagonal tower stands 12 meters tall with a carved wind god on each side and eight sundials. It once held a water clock, and Roman public latrines stood beside it.
Varkiza Resort runs the organized half of Varkiza Beach, a 1 km stretch of thick sand where the sea stays shallow a long way out, so younger kids can wade and splash near the shore.
The club has sunbeds, dining areas, restrooms, sports facilities and parking. The rest of the beach is free to use, with no sunbeds, and the bay draws windsurfers and water skiers.
Lake Vouliagmeni is a small brackish lake under a sheer rock cliff, formed when a cave roof collapsed about 2,000 years ago. Warm seawater seeps in through flooded caves and mixes with a spring, so the water stays between 21°C and 29°C.
Kids swim straight off the main deck, where sunbeds and tables go first come, first served. Lifeguards are on duty, and there is no natural shade.
Flisvos Park is a long stretch of seafront parkland on Poseidonos Avenue, between the beach and Flisvos Marina. Its fenced playground is split into zones by age, with bouncy castles, pirate ships, trampolines, slides and climbing frames. One 1,000-square-meter structure has ramps for children with disabilities.
Beyond the play areas are walking and cycling paths, outdoor fitness stations, basketball courts and a small wooden amphitheater.
A fenced municipal playground on Poseidonos Avenue, between Flisvos Park and the marina. It is split into six areas: a toddler zone, a big-kid zone, walking paths, a sports field with outdoor gym equipment and mini soccer and basketball courts, an 80-seat wooden amphitheater, and a canteen.
The centerpiece is a 1,000-square-meter frame of slides and lofts, alongside swings, castles, towers and boats.
The Experience Park is the first open part of the Ellinikon redevelopment, on the site of the city's old airport. Its 75 acres hold about 900 trees, 80,000 plants and three plazas.
Kids head for the Forest Playground, built from wooden climbing structures, and the Water Maze, a walk-in fountain of water jets and light. There is also a zen garden and outdoor fitness equipment.
Parnitha is the highest mountain in Attica, rising to 1,413 m at its Karavola summit, and much of it has been a national park since 1961. A network of trails and forest roads runs through Greek fir and pine forest, past springs, streams and rocky cliffs.
It is the only place in southern Greece where red deer still live wild, and over 1,000 plant species grow here.
Syngrou Estate spans about 95 hectares, most of it the Syngrou Forest: Aleppo pine and cypress, and one of the last natural forests in Attica. Tracks for running, rollerblading and cycling include a 6 km perimeter trail, alongside a football pitch, a playground and picnic spots.
Ernst Ziller designed the Syngros tower and the Gothic-style chapel of St Andrew. A Beekeeping Museum shows rare hives.
Founded in 1961 and run with the University of Athens, the Diomedes Botanical Garden holds about 3,000 kinds of plants and is a protected wildlife refuge for mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. Paths wind through cultivated and wild planting and past water features.
It is a garden for walking and looking rather than a park: kids play only in the areas set aside for it.
One of the last wildlife refuges in the Athens basin, this park centers on six man-made lakes linked by an artificial canal, a stopover for water birds that lost their wetlands elsewhere.
The Hellenic Ornithological Society has recorded 175 bird species here and runs environmental programs on site. The rest is varied planting with space for long walks and bike rides.
A fenced grove of pines and cypresses planted in the 1920s, about 5 hectares of dense shade in the middle of Nea Smyrni. Kids get a playground, outdoor chess, two fountains and dovecotes housing hundreds of pigeons.
A bike lane runs the whole perimeter path, handy for scooters and first bikes. Inside there's a canteen and an open-air theater that holds about 2,500 people.
Philopappos Hill, the ancient Hill of the Muses, rises southwest of the Acropolis under pines, olives and cypresses. Stone paths and resting terraces laid by architect Dimitris Pikionis in the 1950s climb to the Philopappos Monument, the 2nd-century mausoleum of a Roman consul.
On the way, kids can look into the rock-cut caves known as the "Prison of Socrates" and stop at the small church of Agios Dimitrios Loumbardiaris.
The National Garden is a 19th-century English-style park behind the Parliament, with winding paths, small bridges and about 6,600 trees. Kids head for the duck pond and goldfish pond, then the playground and the Children's Library. A small Botanical Museum, a sundial and Roman ruins add a little history.
Bikes and scooters can't be ridden inside, which keeps the paths calm for toddlers on foot.
Stavros Niarchos Park is the 21-hectare green space around the Renzo Piano-designed cultural center that houses the Greek National Opera and the National Library. Kids can run the Great Lawn, try the Sound Garden, find their way through the Labyrinth and play at the playgrounds.
Fountains in the seawater canal dance to music through the day. It is the world's largest public Mediterranean garden.
The Hellenic Motor Museum fills the top three floors of the Athenian Capitol building with more than 110 cars from the 19th and 20th centuries, from veteran and vintage models to modern classics.
Kids can walk through an Old Car Workshop that ran from the 1930s to the 1960s, packed with over 3,000 period objects, and the museum also has a Formula 1 simulator.
Georgios Averof is an armored cruiser launched in Italy in 1910, and the only ship of its type still in existence. It led the Greek fleet in the First Balkan War and served through World War II.
Kids walk the open decks past the big gun turrets, then take steep stairways down below. The trireme Olympias, a reconstructed ancient Greek warship, docks nearby as part of the same museum.
Little Kook is a themed cafe whose decor goes over the top, from the props hanging off the ceiling to the tables set out in the lane. Kids come for the look of the place as much as the food, and every corner has something to spot. It sits in Psyrri, the old lanes just north of Monastiraki.
The Wall is a sport climbing park in Pallini, set on about 4,000 square meters. Its main outdoor wall stands 14 meters high, with room for 30 climbers on ropes at the same time, and a separate bouldering area has short routes climbed without ropes. A café, changing rooms and a shop for climbing and outdoor gear sit beside the walls.
SportsPark is a large indoor entertainment center with auto-scoring bowling lanes, a 600 m² black-light laser tag arena themed as a space battle, and an enclosed disco roller rink.
The renovated soft play has a jungle climbing frame, a trampoline and a small Mundialito soccer pitch. There are also bumper cars, a mini train, billiards, ping pong, and a cafe and restaurant for parents.
A two-floor indoor entertainment center inside the Colosseum shopping center. Downstairs are 12 bowling lanes with automatic scoring, billiards tables and a snack bar.
Upstairs, kids get a roller skating rink, three trampolines and a 200 m² supervised play area with ball pits, slides, inflatables, mini football and a two-story play structure. Galaxy Wars, a separate laser tag arena, sits in the building next door.
Super Bowl is a big games hall with 25 bowling lanes spread over three rooms, two roller skating rinks styled on the 1970s, 28 pool and snooker tables, and 10 ping-pong tables. A café serves club sandwiches and waffles with ice cream between games.
Kids' birthday parties run on lanes fitted with bumper rails, with balls and shoes sized for children.
Dreamhouse is an indoor play area with a lounge cafe and full kitchen beside it, so parents sit on sofas with coffee or a meal and keep the play floor in view. Kids play freely, use Montessori-style materials and fine-motor games, and join a different arts and crafts project each day, led by an early-years educator at no extra charge.
Tricky Fun Park is a neighborhood play park in Rizoupoli. Kids move between inflatable castles and slides, ball pools, play structures, trampolines and a baby kart track, while parents wait at the snack bar. The youngest have a separate baby park of their own. The park also hosts children's birthday parties.
Perperino has run as an indoor play center for 28 years. Inside are a ball pit with climbing nets, a toddler area with a slide and a bouncy castle, and arcade rides. Party rooms host birthdays, and birthday cakes can be ordered.
Volta Cloud is the roller and lounge branch of Volta Fun Park, on the third floor of Athens Metro Mall. Kids put on roller skates and lap an indoor rink styled in pop and disco.
There is also DigiWall, an interactive climbing wall built on video game technology, and a corner of virtual reality games. The venue hosts birthday and name day parties, with the space set up to order.
Volta Fun Park fills part of the first floor of Avenue mall, with an indoor hall and a large outdoor area. The youngest kids have their own play structure, trampoline and baby games. Older kids get a castle town, giant inflatables, ride-on limousines and a roller track.
The Volta café sits alongside the play areas, so parents can have a coffee and still keep an eye on the kids.
PLAYMOBIL FunPark is a 1,100 square meter indoor play center where kids play with Playmobil toys across eight themed areas: knights, pirates, fairies, animal parks, dollhouses and royal palaces. Toddlers have their own PLAYMOBIL JUNIOR space.
Toys stay in their themed area, and running and climbing on the structures are not allowed, so it suits imaginative play more than burning energy. Lechuza Cafe and a Playmobil store are on site.
The Athens Concert Hall, known locally as the Megaron, has four halls: two large ones of nearly 2,000 and 1,750 seats for concerts, opera and ballet, and two smaller ones for chamber music and dance. The biggest, the Christos Lambrakis Hall, holds the largest pipe organ in Greece.
Its Megaron for Children season puts on concerts and stage shows made for young audiences.
XPLORE fills 4,500 square meters inside the Golden Hall mall with three zones. Science has hands-on exhibits on sound, light, air and water, including a giant floor piano and a water table. Adventure has a castle mirror maze, a dinosaur jungle, a construction zone with a life-size digger, a TV studio and a race track. Oceans is an aquarium with 20 tanks of sharks, rays and jellyfish.
The Zoological Museum belongs to the University of Athens biology department, and its collections date back to 1858. Across 2,200 m² it shows around 500 mammals as mounts or skeletons, including a tiger, about 2,500 birds covering every species found in Greece, plus nests and eggs, and around 1,000 reptiles, amphibians and fish. Dioramas recreate Greek and world habitats, with a focus on endangered Greek species.
The first museum in Greece devoted to jewelry, set in Ilias Lalaounis's former workshop building just below the Acropolis. The permanent displays draw on 50 collections he designed between 1957 and 2002, inspired by ancient Greek art, nature and children's designs, alongside two temporary exhibitions a year.
In the ZEM and ZEDET artists' studios, visitors can watch jewelers demonstrate ancient and modern metalsmithing techniques.
A national museum of Byzantine art in the Villa Ilissia, an 1848 mansion built for the Duchess of Plaisance. More than 25,000 objects span the 3rd century to the modern era: icons, frescoes, marble carvings, pottery, textiles and manuscripts, plus the wall paintings of a Byzantine church from Episkopi in Evrytania.
Free printed educational material for families waits at the gallery entrance, and the garden has a cafe.
The Athens Olympic Museum tells the story of the Games from ancient Olympia through the 1896 revival to Athens 2004, using videos, augmented-reality displays and hands-on interactive exhibits next to original objects such as Olympic torches.
A full section is given to the Paralympic Games and their athletes. The museum sits in the Golden Hall mall, linked by a footbridge to the Olympic Stadium (OAKA).
The Hellenic Air Force Museum on Dekelia Air Base restores and shows aircraft flown by the Greek air force. More than 40 planes and helicopters fill the main hangar and the grounds around it, so kids can get close to a Spitfire, a Tiger Moth, Starfighters and a Phantom.
Air force divers raised rare wartime wrecks from the sea for the collection, including a Junkers Ju 52.
A two-story 1840 mansion with an inner courtyard holds the largest collection of Greek folk instruments, from the mid-18th century on, gathered from the islands, the mainland, Constantinople, Pontus, Cappadocia and Cyprus. Drums and wind instruments fill the ground floor, string instruments the first floor, and bells and sound-making objects the basement.
An audio guide app covers the highlights, and summer brings concerts in the garden.
Greece's national art museum covers Greek and European art from the 14th to the 20th century. The focus is Greek painting from after the Byzantine era, hung alongside El Greco's The Concert of the Angels and works by Dürer, Rubens, Picasso and Rodin.
It suits kids old enough to enjoy an hour or two of looking at paintings. Toddlers who need to run will find little here.
The military museum of the Greek Armed Forces traces Greek history from antiquity to the present across four floors. Inside are ancient helmets, a Byzantine warship model, Greek Revolution weapons, army uniforms, and swords and armor from around the world, including a samurai suit.
Outside, the yard holds artillery guns from different eras and decommissioned Greek Air Force aircraft.
Part of the Benaki Museum, the Toy Museum is housed in the seaside Kouloura Mansion. It is built on Maria Argyriadi's collection of 20,000 vintage toys, games, children's books and clothes, one of the largest in Europe. Kids get to see what children played with and wore generations ago, and compare it with their own toy box.
More than 100 working reconstructions of ancient Greek inventions fill this museum, from Philo's robot maid and early automata to the Antikythera Mechanism, early cinema devices and telecommunication systems. Each model is built from ancient texts and archaeological evidence.
A separate exhibition holds 45 reconstructed ancient instruments and toys, with live demonstrations of how they were played. It suits school-age kids who like gadgets and how things work.
The museum holds Cycladic figurines, ancient Greek and Cypriot art, and a gallery on daily life in antiquity, spread over two buildings joined by a corridor.
Families can rent the Family Kit at the entrance: a box of maps, exhibit copies, story cards and an augmented reality app that puts kids in photos with the largest figurine. Weekend workshops run by age group, from toddlers with a parent to 12-year-olds.
A science and technology museum in a restored neoclassical house in Thissio. The permanent EUREKA exhibition shows working models of ancient Greek inventions: a mechanical maidservant that pours wine into a guest's cup, Heron's temple doors that open when a fire is lit on the altar, and a large see-through model of the Antikythera Mechanism, a 2,000-year-old analog computer that predicted eclipses. Best for curious school-age kids.
The permanent Natural History Exhibition runs through eight galleries: zoology, insects, reptiles, marine life, plants, birds, geology and fossils. The first botany halls were designed with support from the Natural History Museum in London.
At the GAIA Centre, "Climate Change and Us" is an interactive exhibition, and a digital dome screens animated films about dinosaurs, coral reefs and space. NATU Restaurant sits in the museum garden.
Hellenic Cosmos is the cultural center of the Foundation of the Hellenic World, set in an old industrial complex on Pireos Street. Its landmark is the Tholos, a domed virtual-reality theater with a 350 m² screen that takes audiences from Ancient Olympia and the Agora of Athens to outer space.
Kids can also try VR headsets, watch children's theater at the Theatron, see exhibitions and join weekend workshops.
The Eugenides Foundation's digital planetarium seats 278 under a 24.5-meter hemispherical dome, with full-dome shows on astronomy and other sciences.
Family titles include The Stellars, where three stranded aliens ask the audience to help save their rainforest, and The Enchanted Reef, about two fish on a mission to save a reef. The same building holds the Science and Technology Center, with interactive exhibits on physics, chemistry and robotics.
An interactive museum of optical illusions where visitors step into the exhibits and pose for photos that trick the eye. Kids cross the spinning Vortex Tunnel, test their balance in the Tilted Room, walk through the upside-down Reversed Room, and grow or shrink in the big and small room. Mirror rooms, hands-on installations and puzzle images fill the rest of the route.
The Children's Museum of Athens, run by the Hellenic Children's Museum, fills the ground floor of the Athens Conservatoire building with hands-on exhibits. Kids play in a biscuit-themed kitchen, play vet at the Pet Care Clinic, blow bubbles, try math games in Hello Pythagoras!, study maps and practice road safety. A separate playspace is set up for babies and toddlers, and kids can make things to take home.
Greece's largest archaeology museum holds more than 20,000 objects, spanning Greek history from prehistory to late antiquity. Kids tend to make for the Mycenaean gold, including the mask once wrongly named for Agamemnon, the Artemision Bronze, Egyptian mummies, Bronze Age wall paintings from Akrotiri on Santorini, and the Antikythera mechanism.
Out front, a garden lined with sculptures has a café.
The Acropolis Museum holds the sculptures and objects found on the Acropolis rock and its slopes. Glass floors look down onto the excavated remains of an ancient neighborhood, which you can also walk through from the courtyard.
Inside are the original Caryatids from the Erechtheion and Archaic statues with traces of their paint. The top-floor Parthenon Gallery spaces its columns like the temple's, with glass walls facing the Acropolis.
New in town, or still learning Greek? These plans need no Greek to enjoy: kids' shows, museum visits, workshops and seasonal festivals where English-speaking kids can follow along. The list refreshes as new plans are added, so check back before the weekend.
Circo Bonaccini, an Italian circus company, brings Around the World to Alimos: a family circus show themed as a trip across the globe.
It suits families who want a classic night (or Sunday morning) at the circus, and kids who can sit through a full live show.
Circo Mundial has been on the road since 1968, and this stop brings its circus show to Katerini. Kids watch a run of live acts, one after another.
The show carries itself without words, so it works for kids who speak no Greek. It suits families in and around Katerini; from Athens it is a long trip for one show.
An interactive exhibition about one feeling: anger. Kids and parents work through hands-on exhibits that show what anger does in the body, test different reactions through its characters, and look for what helps. The Emotions Museum, a listed house at the foot of Philopappou Hill, has a team of psychologists, educators and drama therapists. It suits kids with big tempers and parents who want a way to talk about them.
KIDOT is a children's festival in Gazi, held at the old OSY depot on the corner of Ermou and Pireos.
It suits families who want a full day out, with the option of a second day if the kids want to go back.
A girl and her ticket wait at a bus stop, and an ordinary wait turns into a trip full of surprises. A dancer and a multi-instrumentalist play with balls, veils, balloons and songs while babies and their grown-ups sit on cushions, watching, laughing and joining in. It was made as a first theater outing, by the team behind The Queen of Everything, the longest-running baby show in Athens.
Each winter Technopolis in Gazi turns into a Christmas village run by Santa and his elves. Kids move between hands-on workshops, a theater show and a fun park with slides, a carousel, bumper cars and an ice rink.
It is come-and-go, so it suits a few hours on a weekend afternoon. Younger kids head for the rides and lights; school-age kids get the most from the workshops and show.
Blue blue blue is a short opera made for the very youngest, staged as part of the Maria Callas Museum's family program.
It suits toddlers rather than older kids used to full-length shows.
Christmas BOOM Village is a children's Christmas festival at Anassa City Events, the event space in Goudi.
The ticket shop files it under kids' festivals, so it suits families looking for a Christmas outing built around children rather than a seated show for adults.
A pocket version of Giselle, the classic ballet, made by the Greek National Opera for toddlers and the grown-up who brings them.
It is a first taste of live ballet for children aged one to three. Older kids who already sit through full-length shows are not the audience here.
The Nutcracker, the Christmas ballet, staged by the Grand Classical Ballet in the theater of the Peristeri Exhibition Center in west Athens.
Kids follow the story through dance and music. It suits children who can sit quietly through a ballet in a theater seat, and makes an easy holiday outing near the Anthoupoli metro.
Schoolchildren march for Ochi Day, the national holiday remembering Greece's "No" to Italy's 1940 ultimatum.
Kids will enjoy it, and it opens an easy conversation about the history behind the holiday.
The ruins of one of the largest temples of the ancient world, begun around 515 BC and finished by the Roman emperor Hadrian more than 600 years later. Of its 104 marble columns, 15 still stand, each almost 17 meters tall. A 16th lies on the ground where a storm brought it down in 1852.
The site sits between the Acropolis and Ardittos Hill, by the old Ilissos riverbed.
Akti Vouliagmenis is the organized sandy beach of Vouliagmeni on the Athens Riviera, opened in 1959 and holding a Blue Flag. Behind the sand there is a fully equipped playground, three canteens, changing rooms, showers and toilets.
The water is clear, and free Wi-Fi covers the beach. It suits families who want a full day by the sea with food and facilities on hand.
This organized beach has fine sand, no rocks and clear, shallow water, with a Blue Flag every year since 2002. Lifeguards are on duty daily through the summer season, and there is a doctor, toilets, changing rooms and showers.
Sunbeds and umbrellas line the shore, and the grounds behind hold football fields, beach volleyball and tennis courts, plus beach bars, ice cream, grill and meze spots.
Royal Bowling is an indoor games hall with 15 bowling lanes, a roller skating rink, billiard and ping pong tables, and arcade and board games. A kids' playland sits alongside the lanes.
Kids' birthday parties take over the hall with black light, light effects and dance music, and include bowling, skating, food and decorations.
Bowling Center Ilion is a 2,000 m² indoor games hall built around 12 bowling lanes. Billiards tables and virtual reality games share the same floor, so kids who tire of bowling have somewhere to go next. It suits school-age kids and teens more than toddlers.
A ten-pin bowling alley that also has virtual reality games, video games, ping pong and billiards under one roof, so kids can switch between them in one visit.
The venue hosts kids' birthday parties, with food and decorations planned around what the family asks for. It suits a mixed group: older kids and adults bowl while younger siblings move on to the games.
The Museum of Experiments is a hands-on science center where kids run physics, chemistry and biology experiments themselves, guided by a museum educator. Sunday workshops are grouped by age, from kitchen-cupboard chemistry for preschoolers and a parent to sessions on light and color for school-age kids.
There is also a science escape room, the Thomas Edison Edition, where older kids solve puzzles by completing experiments.
Planet Physics is an interactive science center built around physics. Its exhibition has around 30 hands-on exhibits, grouped into themed sections across more than 1,000 square meters, and some are found nowhere else in Southeastern Europe.
Specialized staff guide visitors through the exhibits, so kids learn by trying each one themselves. Schools and other groups can book educational programs pitched to their age and level.
Esc Rooms runs five themed escape rooms, each 60 or 80 minutes, built around puzzles that need logic, observation and teamwork rather than special knowledge. For kids' parties, all five rooms are set up for children, with staff on hand to help, and up to 35 kids can play at once. Afterward the group gets a 200 m² party space with tables, ping pong, basketball, foosball and darts.
Kavouri is two sandy beaches back to back, about 900 meters in all, with sand on the shore and the seabed and clear, shallow water. A small islet sits close enough to reach on foot.
A green strip with a wide paved path runs along the sand, and the fully renovated Kavouri Playground is right at the beach. At Megalo Kavouri, a stretch of an ancient road is on view.
A protected pine and cypress forest on the slopes of Mount Hymettus, crossed by footpaths, cycling routes and viewpoints, most of them north of the monastery.
At its center is Kaisariani Monastery, whose church dates to around 1100 and is painted inside with frescoes from 1682. Plane trees, poplars and an olive grove surround it, along with the old refectory and a Byzantine bath house.
Once the summer retreat of the Greek royal family, Tatoi is a protected forest of Aleppo pines, cypresses and plane trees, with 40 historic buildings spread across the grounds.
Kids can walk, bike or picnic on the trails, see the palace from outside, visit the royal cemetery, or head to the artificial Kithara lake for a view over the whole Attica basin.
Veikou Grove is a 25-hectare wooded park on the northwest slopes of the Tourkovounia hills, run by the municipality of Galatsi. Kids get playgrounds, a skateboard track, small soccer and basketball courts, and outdoor gym equipment.
The grounds also hold the municipal pool, tennis and pétanque courts, cafés, a summer cinema and an open-air theater that stages shows in summer.
Attiko Alsos spreads over two rocky hills of the Tourkovounia, replanted with pine and cypress groves on the site of old quarries. Paths for walking and running lead to viewpoints, the best facing south over Athens to Piraeus and the Saronic islands.
Kids get tennis, basketball, volleyball and 5x5 soccer courts, a playground for preschoolers, and summer shows at the open-air theater and cinema.
Goudi Park sits on the grounds of the old Goudi army barracks, now lawns, tall trees and sports grounds. Its standout is a 300-meter stream that starts as a small waterfall by the children's playground and runs north, under two wooden bridges, toward a preserved two-story building that once housed the army command.
Football fields, tennis courts and outdoor fitness equipment line the paths, which suit bikes and long walks.
Pedion tou Areos is a 27.7-hectare park of pine-shaded paths, fountains, a rose garden and a botanical garden, designed in 1934 to honor the heroes of the 1821 revolution, 21 of whom stand as marble busts.
The main playground sits under the pines at the eastern end by Protomagias Square, mostly swings and low slides. A smaller toddler playground has a play ship, swings, a slide and a seesaw.
Lycabettus is a limestone hill rising 277 meters over central Athens, the highest point in the city center, with pine trees around its base. A funicular runs up inside a 210-meter tunnel from Kolonaki in about 3 minutes, or families can climb the trail. At the top sit the Chapel of St. George, a café-restaurant, an open-air theater and views across the city to the Acropolis.
Cine Thisio is an open-air cinema on Apostolou Pavlou street, with rows of seats facing a big screen and the floodlit Acropolis in view above it. Families come for an evening film under the sky, where the setting is half the show. It suits kids old enough to sit through a late film outdoors.
Speed Park is an outdoor kart track in Aspropyrgos, west of Athens, built in 1986 on a technical, demanding layout. Rental karts range from a mini electric kart and a junior kart up to faster 270cc models, plus a two-seater. After each session, drivers collect a printed lap-timing sheet.
The track also runs a kart academy for beginners and hosts birthday parties and timed races.
Kartland is an outdoor go-kart track on Leoforos Anthousas in Pallini. Older kids can drive small karts on their own, and two-seat karts let a parent take the wheel with a younger child riding beside them.
It suits kids who like speed and want to drive for themselves. Children who dislike engine noise or wearing a helmet may find it too much.
The Hellenic Riding Club is where organized riding began in Greece. Army officers and amateur riders founded it just before World War II, and after the war it moved to its grounds in Paradisos, which became the country's first major center for competitive riding.
Today it runs a riding school alongside the sand arenas where its show-jumping competitions take place.
The only zoo in Greece, home to more than 1,500 animals of about 220 species across 81 hectares. The African Savannah has giraffes, zebras, white rhinos and cheetahs, with a giraffe feeding station.
Elsewhere are Asian elephants, chimpanzees, lions, tigers, and wolves and brown bears in the Greek Forest, plus three walk-through aviaries, a lemur forest and a farm where kids can pet goats and ponies.
The Panathenaic Stadium, known locally as Kallimarmaro (beautiful marble), is the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble. It hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896 and is still the finish line of the Athens Marathon.
Kids can run onto the track, climb the marble stands, pose on the podium, walk the vaulted passage, and see Olympic torches and posters from 1896 to today in the museum.
The Roman Agora is the ruined market square Augustus paid for around 2,000 years ago, north of the Acropolis. Kids enter through the Gate of Athena Archegetis, a Doric marble gateway, and cross to the Tower of the Winds.
The octagonal tower stands 12 meters tall with a carved wind god on each side and eight sundials. It once held a water clock, and Roman public latrines stood beside it.
Varkiza Resort runs the organized half of Varkiza Beach, a 1 km stretch of thick sand where the sea stays shallow a long way out, so younger kids can wade and splash near the shore.
The club has sunbeds, dining areas, restrooms, sports facilities and parking. The rest of the beach is free to use, with no sunbeds, and the bay draws windsurfers and water skiers.
Lake Vouliagmeni is a small brackish lake under a sheer rock cliff, formed when a cave roof collapsed about 2,000 years ago. Warm seawater seeps in through flooded caves and mixes with a spring, so the water stays between 21°C and 29°C.
Kids swim straight off the main deck, where sunbeds and tables go first come, first served. Lifeguards are on duty, and there is no natural shade.
Flisvos Park is a long stretch of seafront parkland on Poseidonos Avenue, between the beach and Flisvos Marina. Its fenced playground is split into zones by age, with bouncy castles, pirate ships, trampolines, slides and climbing frames. One 1,000-square-meter structure has ramps for children with disabilities.
Beyond the play areas are walking and cycling paths, outdoor fitness stations, basketball courts and a small wooden amphitheater.
A fenced municipal playground on Poseidonos Avenue, between Flisvos Park and the marina. It is split into six areas: a toddler zone, a big-kid zone, walking paths, a sports field with outdoor gym equipment and mini soccer and basketball courts, an 80-seat wooden amphitheater, and a canteen.
The centerpiece is a 1,000-square-meter frame of slides and lofts, alongside swings, castles, towers and boats.
The Experience Park is the first open part of the Ellinikon redevelopment, on the site of the city's old airport. Its 75 acres hold about 900 trees, 80,000 plants and three plazas.
Kids head for the Forest Playground, built from wooden climbing structures, and the Water Maze, a walk-in fountain of water jets and light. There is also a zen garden and outdoor fitness equipment.
Parnitha is the highest mountain in Attica, rising to 1,413 m at its Karavola summit, and much of it has been a national park since 1961. A network of trails and forest roads runs through Greek fir and pine forest, past springs, streams and rocky cliffs.
It is the only place in southern Greece where red deer still live wild, and over 1,000 plant species grow here.
Syngrou Estate spans about 95 hectares, most of it the Syngrou Forest: Aleppo pine and cypress, and one of the last natural forests in Attica. Tracks for running, rollerblading and cycling include a 6 km perimeter trail, alongside a football pitch, a playground and picnic spots.
Ernst Ziller designed the Syngros tower and the Gothic-style chapel of St Andrew. A Beekeeping Museum shows rare hives.
Founded in 1961 and run with the University of Athens, the Diomedes Botanical Garden holds about 3,000 kinds of plants and is a protected wildlife refuge for mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. Paths wind through cultivated and wild planting and past water features.
It is a garden for walking and looking rather than a park: kids play only in the areas set aside for it.
One of the last wildlife refuges in the Athens basin, this park centers on six man-made lakes linked by an artificial canal, a stopover for water birds that lost their wetlands elsewhere.
The Hellenic Ornithological Society has recorded 175 bird species here and runs environmental programs on site. The rest is varied planting with space for long walks and bike rides.
A fenced grove of pines and cypresses planted in the 1920s, about 5 hectares of dense shade in the middle of Nea Smyrni. Kids get a playground, outdoor chess, two fountains and dovecotes housing hundreds of pigeons.
A bike lane runs the whole perimeter path, handy for scooters and first bikes. Inside there's a canteen and an open-air theater that holds about 2,500 people.
Philopappos Hill, the ancient Hill of the Muses, rises southwest of the Acropolis under pines, olives and cypresses. Stone paths and resting terraces laid by architect Dimitris Pikionis in the 1950s climb to the Philopappos Monument, the 2nd-century mausoleum of a Roman consul.
On the way, kids can look into the rock-cut caves known as the "Prison of Socrates" and stop at the small church of Agios Dimitrios Loumbardiaris.
The National Garden is a 19th-century English-style park behind the Parliament, with winding paths, small bridges and about 6,600 trees. Kids head for the duck pond and goldfish pond, then the playground and the Children's Library. A small Botanical Museum, a sundial and Roman ruins add a little history.
Bikes and scooters can't be ridden inside, which keeps the paths calm for toddlers on foot.
Stavros Niarchos Park is the 21-hectare green space around the Renzo Piano-designed cultural center that houses the Greek National Opera and the National Library. Kids can run the Great Lawn, try the Sound Garden, find their way through the Labyrinth and play at the playgrounds.
Fountains in the seawater canal dance to music through the day. It is the world's largest public Mediterranean garden.
The Hellenic Motor Museum fills the top three floors of the Athenian Capitol building with more than 110 cars from the 19th and 20th centuries, from veteran and vintage models to modern classics.
Kids can walk through an Old Car Workshop that ran from the 1930s to the 1960s, packed with over 3,000 period objects, and the museum also has a Formula 1 simulator.
Georgios Averof is an armored cruiser launched in Italy in 1910, and the only ship of its type still in existence. It led the Greek fleet in the First Balkan War and served through World War II.
Kids walk the open decks past the big gun turrets, then take steep stairways down below. The trireme Olympias, a reconstructed ancient Greek warship, docks nearby as part of the same museum.
Little Kook is a themed cafe whose decor goes over the top, from the props hanging off the ceiling to the tables set out in the lane. Kids come for the look of the place as much as the food, and every corner has something to spot. It sits in Psyrri, the old lanes just north of Monastiraki.
The Wall is a sport climbing park in Pallini, set on about 4,000 square meters. Its main outdoor wall stands 14 meters high, with room for 30 climbers on ropes at the same time, and a separate bouldering area has short routes climbed without ropes. A café, changing rooms and a shop for climbing and outdoor gear sit beside the walls.
SportsPark is a large indoor entertainment center with auto-scoring bowling lanes, a 600 m² black-light laser tag arena themed as a space battle, and an enclosed disco roller rink.
The renovated soft play has a jungle climbing frame, a trampoline and a small Mundialito soccer pitch. There are also bumper cars, a mini train, billiards, ping pong, and a cafe and restaurant for parents.
A two-floor indoor entertainment center inside the Colosseum shopping center. Downstairs are 12 bowling lanes with automatic scoring, billiards tables and a snack bar.
Upstairs, kids get a roller skating rink, three trampolines and a 200 m² supervised play area with ball pits, slides, inflatables, mini football and a two-story play structure. Galaxy Wars, a separate laser tag arena, sits in the building next door.
Super Bowl is a big games hall with 25 bowling lanes spread over three rooms, two roller skating rinks styled on the 1970s, 28 pool and snooker tables, and 10 ping-pong tables. A café serves club sandwiches and waffles with ice cream between games.
Kids' birthday parties run on lanes fitted with bumper rails, with balls and shoes sized for children.
Dreamhouse is an indoor play area with a lounge cafe and full kitchen beside it, so parents sit on sofas with coffee or a meal and keep the play floor in view. Kids play freely, use Montessori-style materials and fine-motor games, and join a different arts and crafts project each day, led by an early-years educator at no extra charge.
Tricky Fun Park is a neighborhood play park in Rizoupoli. Kids move between inflatable castles and slides, ball pools, play structures, trampolines and a baby kart track, while parents wait at the snack bar. The youngest have a separate baby park of their own. The park also hosts children's birthday parties.
Perperino has run as an indoor play center for 28 years. Inside are a ball pit with climbing nets, a toddler area with a slide and a bouncy castle, and arcade rides. Party rooms host birthdays, and birthday cakes can be ordered.
Volta Cloud is the roller and lounge branch of Volta Fun Park, on the third floor of Athens Metro Mall. Kids put on roller skates and lap an indoor rink styled in pop and disco.
There is also DigiWall, an interactive climbing wall built on video game technology, and a corner of virtual reality games. The venue hosts birthday and name day parties, with the space set up to order.
Volta Fun Park fills part of the first floor of Avenue mall, with an indoor hall and a large outdoor area. The youngest kids have their own play structure, trampoline and baby games. Older kids get a castle town, giant inflatables, ride-on limousines and a roller track.
The Volta café sits alongside the play areas, so parents can have a coffee and still keep an eye on the kids.
PLAYMOBIL FunPark is a 1,100 square meter indoor play center where kids play with Playmobil toys across eight themed areas: knights, pirates, fairies, animal parks, dollhouses and royal palaces. Toddlers have their own PLAYMOBIL JUNIOR space.
Toys stay in their themed area, and running and climbing on the structures are not allowed, so it suits imaginative play more than burning energy. Lechuza Cafe and a Playmobil store are on site.
The Athens Concert Hall, known locally as the Megaron, has four halls: two large ones of nearly 2,000 and 1,750 seats for concerts, opera and ballet, and two smaller ones for chamber music and dance. The biggest, the Christos Lambrakis Hall, holds the largest pipe organ in Greece.
Its Megaron for Children season puts on concerts and stage shows made for young audiences.
XPLORE fills 4,500 square meters inside the Golden Hall mall with three zones. Science has hands-on exhibits on sound, light, air and water, including a giant floor piano and a water table. Adventure has a castle mirror maze, a dinosaur jungle, a construction zone with a life-size digger, a TV studio and a race track. Oceans is an aquarium with 20 tanks of sharks, rays and jellyfish.
The Zoological Museum belongs to the University of Athens biology department, and its collections date back to 1858. Across 2,200 m² it shows around 500 mammals as mounts or skeletons, including a tiger, about 2,500 birds covering every species found in Greece, plus nests and eggs, and around 1,000 reptiles, amphibians and fish. Dioramas recreate Greek and world habitats, with a focus on endangered Greek species.
The first museum in Greece devoted to jewelry, set in Ilias Lalaounis's former workshop building just below the Acropolis. The permanent displays draw on 50 collections he designed between 1957 and 2002, inspired by ancient Greek art, nature and children's designs, alongside two temporary exhibitions a year.
In the ZEM and ZEDET artists' studios, visitors can watch jewelers demonstrate ancient and modern metalsmithing techniques.
A national museum of Byzantine art in the Villa Ilissia, an 1848 mansion built for the Duchess of Plaisance. More than 25,000 objects span the 3rd century to the modern era: icons, frescoes, marble carvings, pottery, textiles and manuscripts, plus the wall paintings of a Byzantine church from Episkopi in Evrytania.
Free printed educational material for families waits at the gallery entrance, and the garden has a cafe.
The Athens Olympic Museum tells the story of the Games from ancient Olympia through the 1896 revival to Athens 2004, using videos, augmented-reality displays and hands-on interactive exhibits next to original objects such as Olympic torches.
A full section is given to the Paralympic Games and their athletes. The museum sits in the Golden Hall mall, linked by a footbridge to the Olympic Stadium (OAKA).
The Hellenic Air Force Museum on Dekelia Air Base restores and shows aircraft flown by the Greek air force. More than 40 planes and helicopters fill the main hangar and the grounds around it, so kids can get close to a Spitfire, a Tiger Moth, Starfighters and a Phantom.
Air force divers raised rare wartime wrecks from the sea for the collection, including a Junkers Ju 52.
A two-story 1840 mansion with an inner courtyard holds the largest collection of Greek folk instruments, from the mid-18th century on, gathered from the islands, the mainland, Constantinople, Pontus, Cappadocia and Cyprus. Drums and wind instruments fill the ground floor, string instruments the first floor, and bells and sound-making objects the basement.
An audio guide app covers the highlights, and summer brings concerts in the garden.
Greece's national art museum covers Greek and European art from the 14th to the 20th century. The focus is Greek painting from after the Byzantine era, hung alongside El Greco's The Concert of the Angels and works by Dürer, Rubens, Picasso and Rodin.
It suits kids old enough to enjoy an hour or two of looking at paintings. Toddlers who need to run will find little here.
The military museum of the Greek Armed Forces traces Greek history from antiquity to the present across four floors. Inside are ancient helmets, a Byzantine warship model, Greek Revolution weapons, army uniforms, and swords and armor from around the world, including a samurai suit.
Outside, the yard holds artillery guns from different eras and decommissioned Greek Air Force aircraft.
Part of the Benaki Museum, the Toy Museum is housed in the seaside Kouloura Mansion. It is built on Maria Argyriadi's collection of 20,000 vintage toys, games, children's books and clothes, one of the largest in Europe. Kids get to see what children played with and wore generations ago, and compare it with their own toy box.
More than 100 working reconstructions of ancient Greek inventions fill this museum, from Philo's robot maid and early automata to the Antikythera Mechanism, early cinema devices and telecommunication systems. Each model is built from ancient texts and archaeological evidence.
A separate exhibition holds 45 reconstructed ancient instruments and toys, with live demonstrations of how they were played. It suits school-age kids who like gadgets and how things work.
The museum holds Cycladic figurines, ancient Greek and Cypriot art, and a gallery on daily life in antiquity, spread over two buildings joined by a corridor.
Families can rent the Family Kit at the entrance: a box of maps, exhibit copies, story cards and an augmented reality app that puts kids in photos with the largest figurine. Weekend workshops run by age group, from toddlers with a parent to 12-year-olds.
A science and technology museum in a restored neoclassical house in Thissio. The permanent EUREKA exhibition shows working models of ancient Greek inventions: a mechanical maidservant that pours wine into a guest's cup, Heron's temple doors that open when a fire is lit on the altar, and a large see-through model of the Antikythera Mechanism, a 2,000-year-old analog computer that predicted eclipses. Best for curious school-age kids.
The permanent Natural History Exhibition runs through eight galleries: zoology, insects, reptiles, marine life, plants, birds, geology and fossils. The first botany halls were designed with support from the Natural History Museum in London.
At the GAIA Centre, "Climate Change and Us" is an interactive exhibition, and a digital dome screens animated films about dinosaurs, coral reefs and space. NATU Restaurant sits in the museum garden.
Hellenic Cosmos is the cultural center of the Foundation of the Hellenic World, set in an old industrial complex on Pireos Street. Its landmark is the Tholos, a domed virtual-reality theater with a 350 m² screen that takes audiences from Ancient Olympia and the Agora of Athens to outer space.
Kids can also try VR headsets, watch children's theater at the Theatron, see exhibitions and join weekend workshops.
The Eugenides Foundation's digital planetarium seats 278 under a 24.5-meter hemispherical dome, with full-dome shows on astronomy and other sciences.
Family titles include The Stellars, where three stranded aliens ask the audience to help save their rainforest, and The Enchanted Reef, about two fish on a mission to save a reef. The same building holds the Science and Technology Center, with interactive exhibits on physics, chemistry and robotics.
An interactive museum of optical illusions where visitors step into the exhibits and pose for photos that trick the eye. Kids cross the spinning Vortex Tunnel, test their balance in the Tilted Room, walk through the upside-down Reversed Room, and grow or shrink in the big and small room. Mirror rooms, hands-on installations and puzzle images fill the rest of the route.
The Children's Museum of Athens, run by the Hellenic Children's Museum, fills the ground floor of the Athens Conservatoire building with hands-on exhibits. Kids play in a biscuit-themed kitchen, play vet at the Pet Care Clinic, blow bubbles, try math games in Hello Pythagoras!, study maps and practice road safety. A separate playspace is set up for babies and toddlers, and kids can make things to take home.
Greece's largest archaeology museum holds more than 20,000 objects, spanning Greek history from prehistory to late antiquity. Kids tend to make for the Mycenaean gold, including the mask once wrongly named for Agamemnon, the Artemision Bronze, Egyptian mummies, Bronze Age wall paintings from Akrotiri on Santorini, and the Antikythera mechanism.
Out front, a garden lined with sculptures has a café.
The Acropolis Museum holds the sculptures and objects found on the Acropolis rock and its slopes. Glass floors look down onto the excavated remains of an ancient neighborhood, which you can also walk through from the courtyard.
Inside are the original Caryatids from the Erechtheion and Archaic statues with traces of their paint. The top-floor Parthenon Gallery spaces its columns like the temple's, with glass walls facing the Acropolis.
