Despite its monochrome, soulless, grimy first impression, Athens can be irresistibly addictive. Look beneath the layers, suggests Sudha Nair-Iliades, and check which neighbourhood meshes best with your personality! Irreverent? Anarchic? If the acrid smell of tear gas and spr...
Read moreDon’t just rush off to the islands. From gripping ancient ruins and splendid beaches to arty cafes and Venetian wiles, you’ll find plenty worth sticking around for in the gracious port town of Preveza, writes Amanda Dardanis. I have a theory about Greek towns where the locals get around on bicycles. It’s not very Greek, you se...
Read morePurveyor of good taste and all things Athenian, Peter Poulos curates his list of interesting, elegant, one-off shops selling all sorts of interesting items perfect for that someone special or for yourself. With Mr. Stavros, his beloved dog in tow, Peter scours every nook and cranny in downtown Athens to come up with a selection of some o...
Read moreNobody does Christmas and New Year quite like the Hotel Grande Bretagne! From the impressive 6 metre high nutcrackers fronting the hotel entrance to the glittering tree in the lobby, it’s hard not to get into full festive mode here! But it’s the GB Corner with its tantalizing range of gifts and treats on offer that really cranks up the ho...
Read moreAthens Insider has your one-stop guide to Christmas in the Capital – and we’ll keep updating it all the way through until December 25, so make sure to check in regularly! From dazzling theatrical spectacles overflowing with Christmas cheer to, festive dining, and family thrills – there’s enough Yuletide action going on in Athens this year to jingle...
Read moreAthens Insider draws up a list of all the Christmas bazaars in Athens that celebrate the city’s cosmopolitan character. Shop for gifts for loved ones and feel the warm, fuzzy spirit of Christmas while supporting the local creative community. Here is Athens Insider's round up of Christmas bazaars in Athens in 2022. If you do kn...
Read moreThe array of florists flanking the Greek Parliament have been as much a city landmark as the monument they were supposed to service - the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Tourists and locals would buy flowers to lay at the tomb, and the shops became a city fixture. Dating back to 1932, of the 11 flower shops that were passed down generations...
Read moreAlexandros Efklidis has run the GNO’s ground-breaking alterative stage at the glittering new Stavros Niarchos Cultural Centre since it opened in 2017, a gift from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation to the Greek state. In this time, the opera house has emerged from the side-lines of musical theatre to become one the world’s most exciting and ...
Read moreLong a favourite of museum visitors and ladies-who-lunch, the Benaki Museum restaurant on Koumpari Street welcomes visitors to its renewed space, with extended hours and a new aesthetic that channels the legendary Fofi’s restaurant in Berlin. With inspiring art by Alexis Akrithakis, and letters and works by his iconic peers who visited hi...
Read moreAt first sight, Athens may not fit our idea of modernist sobriety in planning and design. But over the last 200 years a remarkably rich understanding has slowly emerged, reconsidering the historical pressures that gave the city its unique rhythms. Anthropologist Tyler Boersen argues that this overdue fascination has made Athens into a par...
Read moreAthens Insider Literary Salon returns to Pangrati with a live conversation featuring award-winning writer and curator Ian Collins and veteran journalist Helena Smith discussing the anarchic life and legacy of the rebellious British artist John Craxton, on the centenary of his birth. During the last year, we have had the incred...
Read moreStart planning for Elefsina. With its empty factories and oil refineries, a line of tankers pointing the way around Salamina, its easy to forget that this seaside city was the most hallowed site of Ancient Athens. The city that represents nothing less than the eternal cycle of life and death is now the European Capital of Culture 2023. If...
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