Do remember that if you are looking to optimize your time while visiting & exploring Greece, Athens is a two-night or one-full-day stay. This is plenty of time to see the main sites and leave the big city behind.

Here is a list of the main sites to see in Athens:

☼ Acropolis & Acropolis Museum

☼ Temple of Olympian Zeus

☼ Changing of the Guards

☼ Panathenaic (Olympic)  stadium

And … the not so main sites if you have the time and the energy:

☼ Plaka & Monastiraki area

☼ Anafiotika walk around the Acropolis

☼ Mount Lycabettus

☼ Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center

☼ The Athens Riviera (coastline) all the way to Cape Sounion and the Temple of Poseidon (ideally for the sunset which can be nice or not).

Not to forget … you need a nice place to enjoy lunch and/or dinner. The restaurant in Athens are “touristy” but food can not go wrong even in Athens. However, it does not compare to the food (service, authenticity, pricing, etc) you get in the countryside of Greece!!!

You can visit most of the main Athens sites on foot without using a taxi or the underground. Then, you may need a half-day tour if you look to visit the nearest to Athens sites:

☼ Ancient Corinth & Corinth Canal

☼ Cape Sounion & the Temple of Poseidon

Another half-day tour would be to visit the Nemea area (the Greek Napa Valley!) for wine-tasting with the option of adding Ancient Corinth, or Ancient Nemea, or the Caves of Wander (Kapsia caves), the Acropolis of Corinth, Nafplio Old Town, and -0f course- the Corinth Canal.