On a clear evening, Athenians climb a hill or drive down the coast road to watch the sun go down, then eat late. These are the spots we'd take kids for it: room to run around and a view worth the climb. Some sites close at sunset, so check the hours on each card. Here's what we checked, from the funicular up Lycabettus to the clifftop temple at Sounio.
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.
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 Temple of Poseidon stands on the headland at Cape Sounion, almost 60 meters above the sea, which surrounds it on three sides. Built around 444 to 440 BC, it still has 15 of its original 34 Doric marble columns standing.
Kids can hunt for the name of Lord Byron carved into the base of one column, then find the ruins of the Temple of Athena close by.
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 flat land between Anavyssos town and the sea was a salt works from at least 1520 until 1968. Canals fed seawater into pans, where it dried into big white crystals each summer.
Refugees from Palea Phocaea in Asia Minor worked the pans in the early 20th century. Today it is still wetland, a short stop for kids curious about where salt comes from.
On a clear evening, Athenians climb a hill or drive down the coast road to watch the sun go down, then eat late. These are the spots we'd take kids for it: room to run around and a view worth the climb. Some sites close at sunset, so check the hours on each card. Here's what we checked, from the funicular up Lycabettus to the clifftop temple at Sounio.
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.
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 Temple of Poseidon stands on the headland at Cape Sounion, almost 60 meters above the sea, which surrounds it on three sides. Built around 444 to 440 BC, it still has 15 of its original 34 Doric marble columns standing.
Kids can hunt for the name of Lord Byron carved into the base of one column, then find the ruins of the Temple of Athena close by.
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 flat land between Anavyssos town and the sea was a salt works from at least 1520 until 1968. Canals fed seawater into pans, where it dried into big white crystals each summer.
Refugees from Palea Phocaea in Asia Minor worked the pans in the early 20th century. Today it is still wetland, a short stop for kids curious about where salt comes from.
