Rick Steves Is Extremely Excited About The Future Of One European City

"I used to think of Athens as a big ugly city with obligatory ancient sights," wrote Rick Steves in the spring of 2024. "But while updating my guidebook one summer, I enjoyed the city more than ever before." Today, the popular travel expert observes a city on the rise. A wave of creative energy has revitalized the Greek capital's streets, boulevards, and squares into attractive hubs of culture and cuisine. Stylish bars, cafes, and restaurants thrive with wares from home and abroad, bolstering the city's ascending status as a modern European capital.

Gentrification critics will be pleased to know that this renaissance has not stamped out Athens' alternative undercurrent. For better or worse, there is still a tatty edge to the city, especially in the Exarchia neighborhood, with its chaotic graffiti, student politics, and bohemian watering holes. Peering down on these urban scenes are dozens of rooftop bars with commanding views across the city's sweeping sprawl. Rooftop spaces are so plentiful here that we presume Athens must be a contender for the densest cluster of such venues in Europe.

Athens' ancient past is still central to the city's identity, but it should no longer dominate the appeal for visitors. Years after the economic woes of the financial crisis, Athenians have charged their city with an inviting harmony of antiquity and modern, cosmopolitan living — and Steves is looking forward to what's next.

Rick Steves remembers when Psyri — a neighborhood north of the Acropolis — was a run down area with decrepit shops and businesses. Though remnants of that era persist in some corners, the rest of Psyri has undergone a remarkable transformation. Today, there is a real village vibe with bars and restaurants lining Psyri's intimate web of cobbled, vine-draped streets. The best of these include Krasopoulio tou Kokkora, a traditional Greek tavern popular with locals that serves shish kebab, pastitsio, and other classic regional dishes. At night, under the glow of fairylights, Psyri is one of the best places in the city for food, drink, and lively conversation.

Steves contrasted the Psyri's charm with the nearby Central Market, a 19th-century structure that serves serious local customers rather than wandering tourists with holes in their pockets. This isn't London's Borough Market or Barcelona's La Boqueria, so prepare yourself for the pungent rows of fish, chicken, pork, beef, lamb, and all the odds and ends, too, including hooves, tripe, and liver.

One of Athens' most charming neighborhoods is Plaka, the historic core in the northern foothills of the Acropolis. Steves finds this area rather touristy, and he's not wrong — but they are there for a reason. The sloping cobbled streets are for pedestrians, not motorists, and they wind for miles around neo-classical dwellings and restaurants painted in warm pastel hues and adorned with pretty flowers and plants. 

As the cradle of Western civilization, Greece is arguably Europe's heaviest historical hitter. Rick Steves writes that antiquity will forever be Athens' main draw, namely the Acropolis and the Parthenon, which he always visits at the best time of day. 

Another required trip is the Acropolis Museum, situated just southeast of its namesake. This modern, glass-paneled building is home to some 3,000 ancient artifacts spread across its vast 150,000-sq-ft exhibition space. Some of antiquity's best statues, busts, and pottery are on display here, and behind them are arresting views of the Acropolis and the Parthenon — it's a beautifully presented institution.

Further ancient majesty is available at the National Archaelogical Museum, which Steves describes as "far and away the top ancient Greek art collection anywhere." The museum does vital work in mapping the narrative of Western culture, tracing the threads from the Minoans and the Mycenaeans to the Greeks, Macedonians, and Romans.

Steves may still think Greece's best ancient sites are outside of Athens, but it seems he will no longer recommend visitors see Athens' relics and flee. Travelers would be wise to visit Greece's under-the-radar islands as part of any Hellenic voyage, but don't skip on the City of Reason.