Wonderful private museum housed in a beautiful mansion. What's great about the Benaki is that it offers a brilliant overview of Greek history (not just classical) through its collection of artifacts, art works, costumes and furniture.

Koumbari 1 (cnr Vasilissis Sofias)
210-3671000
Nearest metro: Syntagma ‎
www.benaki.gr/
maps.google.co.uk/maps/place?cid=14957132971109921392&q=1+Koumbari&hl=en-GB

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Greece is mainly famous for its ancient glorious past; thus, the museums that are associated with that period are the mostly visited. However, Greece kept on living and evolving and there are many museums that are addressed to every kind of taste.

ANTIQUITY-RELEVANT: This year, the New Museum of Acropolis (www.newacropolismuseum.gr/ ) opened. Its ambition is to house all the finds and statues that were discovered in Acropolis from archaic till Roman times. In the National Archaeological Museum you will have the chance to see a panorama of ancient Greek art, its development and some of the major artworks of that period. You can also experience ancient Athens through a virtual reality time travel in the Hellenic Cosmos Cultural Centre, which is housed in an original industrial complex. Grasp the opportunity of seeing how the Ancient Agora or Ancient Olympia really looked like!

FOR ART/HISTORY LOVERS: The National Art Gallery and the National Museum of Contemporary Art house collections of contemporary Greek painting and art. There is also the National History Museum for those who want to get acquainted with the medieval and modern Greek history.

FOR CHILDREN: In the Hellenic Children’s Museum, children can combine playing with learning, in the Goulandris Museum of Natural History they will come in contact with the elements of the natural environment whereas in the Museum of Touch they will have the chance to touch every single exhibit. There is even a Museum of Children’s Toys.

VARIOUS: The Museum of Islamic Art, the Jewish Museum and the Numismatic Museum are considered to be among the best of their kind in a global level.

So, if you want to scratch the surface of the city in order to reveal its real self, visits to the museums are definitely recommended.

For a list of the museums of Athens, you can check: www.athens-greece.us/athens-museums/

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Budget (or indeed any) travellers to Greece should look out for evening 'summer cinemas' where locals sensibly sit outside to watch films, rather than sweat it out inside. They're also great value (although you might want to spray yourself with insect repellent first). The most spectacular has to be the rooftop Cine Paris right in the historic centre of Athens where the action on screen has to compete with the magnificent view of the Parthenon. Wonderful.

Plaka Square, Athens

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Avoid the scores of tacky tourist shops that spring up in Plaka during the summer months - your friends and family won't miss the miniature Acropolis keyring or T-Shirts printed with 'It's all Greek to Me' you could have wasted your Euros on.

Instead, there are two brilliant places to pick up local and traditional Greek handicrafts.

Oikotexnia is run by the Institute of Social Protection, so you will be helping to preserve and promote traditional Greek handicrafts as well as scoring some top quality souvenirs. Best buys include knotted carpets, fluffy Flokatis rugs, embroidered cushions and tablecloths.

The Centre of Hellenic Traditions is a haven from Plaka's mass-produced tat and sells Greek art, icons, pottery, wood carvings, embroideries, and prints. Best of all, there's a charming cafe on-site for enjoying a view of the Acropolis

Oikotexnia, Filellinon 14, Plaka

Centre of Hellenic Tradition, Mitropoleos 3 and Pandrossou 36 in the Plaka

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Escape the heat and crowds in the calming oasis of the Goulandris Collection of Cycladic Art. The museum houses a prehistoric collection from the 3rd millennium BC (Early Bronze Age), the most evocative being marble figurines, some of them near lifesize.

4 Neophytou Douka, GR 106 74 Athens; tel: 210 72 28 321; www.cycladic-m.gr
nearest metro: Syntagma or Evangelismos;
Closed Sunday and Tuesday

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See the most densely populated inner-city in Europe. Apartment blocks stand squeezed shoulder to shoulder eight storeys high. Residents from Ethiopia, Nigeria , Bulgaria ,Pakistan , Albania and Poland occupy miserly flats some below ground level. Flora and fauna comprise of pigeons, alley cats, anorexic pergamon trees and plant pots leaning over balcony railings. Take a stroll through the neighbourhood and listen unfettered to every form of industrial noise disallowed by the health and safety act. There is nowhere like it.

Nearest metro: Agios Nicholaos

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Make a late-night call to a Rembetika club to hear the haunting hashish-fuelled blues of the Greek refugees who were forced to leave Turkey in the repatriation that followed the 1922 Asia Minor catastrophe.

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In Athens there are more than one open-air summer cinema. They are a cultural delight.

Aigli – Village Cool Summer Cinema, Zappeion (in the National Gardens), Historic Centre; Tel: 210 336 9369/6970; Nearest metro: Syntagma

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The grassy ruins of the ancient agora, if not the walkway of Dionysiou Areopagitou. Here amongst the butterflies and bees you’ll experience Athens at its most magical and atmospheric.

Entrances on Adrianou and on the descent from the Acropolis, Monastiraki; Tel: 210 321 0185; Nearest metro: Monastiraki or Thisio; Open: 8am-7pm daily May-Oct, 8am-5pm daily Nov-Apr, (museum closes 30mins before site); Admission: €4, €2 concessions, free to holders of €12 Acropolis ticket (no credit cards); www.culture.gr/

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The highpoint of any trip to Greece is a visit to the Acropolis – if only to discover as Freud did, that it exists “just as we learnt at school”. As monuments go it’s breathtaking, no matter how many times you see it up close. But climbing the limestone rock is neither kind nor easy in the torturous Athenian heat. The trip should be made early morning, or (gates permitting) at sunset when the capital is bathed in red, violet and blue.

Dionysiou Areopagitou; Tel: 210 321 0219; Nearest metro: Akropoli; Open: 8am-sunset daily Apr-Dec, 8.30am-2.30pm daily Jan-Mar; Admission: €12, €6 concessions, free to under-18s, free to all Sun Nov-Mar (no credit cards); www.culture.gr/

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Unbeknown to most, Athens boasts an array of exceptional museums, not least the Museum of Islamic Art, which houses the biggest selection of Islamic art outside the Muslim world and is rightly regarded as one of Europe’s must-see cultural institutions. It opened in 2004 as an annexe to the Benaki Museum, which is also worth visiting along with the Cycladic Museums. Technopolis, a foundry converted into an art gallery in the Gazi area, puts on good shows and concerts.

Museum of Islamic Art, Agion Asomaton 22 (cnr Dipylou), Keramikos; Tel: 210 367 3000; Nearest metro: Thisio/ Monastiraki; Open: 9am-5pm Mon & Wed-Sat, 9am-3pm Sun; www.benaki.gr/

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