Budget Breakdown: Five Days in Athens, Greece

I recently spent five amazing days visiting Athens, Greece. I thoroughly enjoyed every day and would highly recommend visiting if you haven’t yet. If you’re looking to plan a trip to Athens but are unsure how much it costs, then you’re in the right place! In this post, I go into detail about how much I spent as a budget traveler for five days in Athens. In those five days, I think it’s fair to say I got a pretty good feel for the city and had plenty of time to see most of the major attractions Athens has to offer.

Introduction to Athens

I’m going to assume if you’re researching how much it costs to visit Athens, then you already have a pretty good grasp on what Athens is as a city. But just in case you don’t, here’s a quick run down.

Athens is the capital city of Greece. It is located in the Attica region, on the southeastern side of the Greek mainland and has been continuously inhabited for 5,000 years. It is almost unanimously considered the birthplace of Western civilization.

The ancient Greeks created and/or made important contributions to democracy, philosophy, theater, and mathematics. And the center of this civilization was located in Athens. For this reason, Athens boasts an incredible number of historical and cultural sights and attractions from the ancient Greek civilization. If you want to learn more about what there is to do in Athens, read my Athens Travel Guide here!

Athens on a Budget

For a popular tourist destination in the EU, I found Athens to be a pretty affordable city. No, it’s not the cheapest place you’ll ever visit. And yes, you could easily blow through a lot of money here if you aren’t mindful of your spending. But, for someone looking to visit a major European city on a budget, Athens isn’t a bad choice. I found that public transportation, food, and entrance fees to sites are all very affordable for western standards. Due to the affordable entrance fees, I didn’t feel the need to pick and choose which museums or sights I wanted to pay to visit.

Five Day Budget Breakdown for Athens

Travel Budget / Spending Categories

Before we get into the numbers, I want to say a few things about how I categorize my spending. For this trip to Athens, I’ve broken down my spending into five categories:

Accommodation – hostel, hotel, airbnb, etc.
Transportation – local buses, trains, taxis, metro, tram, etc.
Food & Drinks – all meals, groceries, coffee, alcoholic drinks, water, etc.
Sightseeing & Museums – sight entrance fees, museums, guided tours, etc.
Other – souvenirs, e-SIM, shopping, & other miscellaneous expenses

I typically include a section for activities as well but I didn’t do any activities in Athens. Activity costs would include things such as concerts or performances, cooking classes, river cruises, etc. I usually consider it an activity if it’s something you do rather than something you see.

Budget Breakdown

And now what you’ve been waiting for. For five full days in Athens, I spent a total of €305 or about $325 USD on everything, excluding flights. This averages out to about €61 or $65 USD per day. Below you will find my total and daily costs for each category of spending.

Category	Daily Cost	Total Cost
Accommodation	€15	€73
Transportation	€5	€26
Food & Drinks	€26	€129
Sightseeing & Museums	€13	€67
Other	€2	€10
TOTAL	€61	€305

Notes about my Spending

Accommodation

At this point in my life, when I’m traveling I don’t care much for where I stay. I usually leave my accommodation early in the morning, and come home late. So it’s really only a place to sleep. For that reason, I try to keep my spending low in this category. I stayed in a small hotel room with a private bathroom that was located slightly on the outskirts of the city center. I split the price of the accommodation with my partner.

The price of a hostel dorm bed runs in the range of €15-30 per person per night based on my research. If you’re also planning on spending the whole day exploring the city, then I’d recommend getting something on the lower end of the spectrum and saving your money for other spending categories. This is an easy way to save money on your trip to Athens.

Food & Drinks

I spent a lot more on food and drinks than I budgeted for. Food and drink was actually my largest spending category on this trip. Normally I wouldn’t spend so much; however, I had just come from Istanbul where vegan food options were extremely limited. So I was very excited with all the vegan restaurants in Athens and I didn’t hold back on my food expenses. Here are some additional notes on my spending in this category.

During this trip I only ate at a full service sit-down restaurant once. Every other day I ate at fast-er food options where you order at a counter and can take-away or eat outside.
I travel with a filtering water bottle and very rarely drink anything other than water. For that reason I almost never pay for water at a restaurant or at grocery stores
I don’t drink alcohol or coffee, unless it’s decaf. These two expenses could add up to quite a bit more for others who frequently enjoy a night out or morning at the coffee shop. I generally manage to keep my food & drink spending a bit lower as a result.
I also don’t eat out for breakfast regularly. When I can, I go to the local grocery store and pick up some oatmeal or cereal and fruit to eat for breakfast.

Transportation

I walked everywhere that I could in Athens. Besides helping me get a feel for the layout of the city, this saved me money on local transportation costs. I found that Athens was a very walkable city. The only time I took public transport was: to/from the airport, to visit the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, and to reach Plato’s Academy which was outside the city center.

Sightseeing & Museums

I visited pretty much every major paid museum or attraction in Athens. For this reason, my spending in this category might be higher than someone who picks a select few attractions to visit.

I am too old to get reduced prices for any of the museums or ancient sites, so I paid full price in the summer season. If you are aged 25 or under and/or are an EU citizen your spending in this category might be a lot lower.

Tips for Saving Money in Athens

Visit during the winter season: In Athens, the winter season is from November 1^st – March 31^st annually. During this period, many attractions have reduced admission prices. For example, the acropolis museum costs €10 in winter versus €15 in summer. If you opted to buy a ticket to see just the acropolis and slopes (not a combo ticket) it costs €10 in winter versus €20 in summer.
Walk everywhere: This tip is pretty straightforward, but walking instead of using public transportation or taxis can save you a chunk of money. I found the city center of Athens to be extremely walkable. Everything is pretty condensed and if you plan your days to do things that are near each other, then there is no need to use public transit. I only used a bus when in Athens to get outside of the center to see Plato’s Academy.
Opt for fast-er food options: This tip isn’t really specific to Athens but if you limit the number of full-service sit down restaurants that you eat at, you will save money. There are so many options for eating take-away style food in Athens. There is absolutely no shortage of cheap dönor shops! You can also shop for breakfast and lunch items at the grocery store. Grab some olives and baked goods and have a picnic!
Limit your paid attractions: Pick and choose which paid museums and sites you’re genuinely interested in seeing. And do research into things you can visit for free. For example, I did not need to visit both the acropolis museum and the archaeological museum. One would have sufficed for me. There are also plenty of exciting free things to do in Athens such as climbing the various hills or partaking in a free walking tour.
Keep an eye out for reduced prices: Even if you are a non-EU citizen, like myself, if you are 25 or under, you can gain reduced admission prices into many paid attractions. Note that they usually use the year of birth as the cut-off, not the specific birth date. For example, if you were born in 1998 and it’s 2024 (you will be turning 26 this year), even if you are still currently 25, you will have to pay full price admission.
Stay outside the city center: While I don’t always recommend this, I think that it’s perfectly reasonable to stay slightly outside of the main tourist center of Athens. On a map, Athens looks huge, even the tourist center looks really big. But when you’re there, it’s very walkable and has efficient public transportation. It sure doesn’t feel as big as it seems on a map. In my opinion, staying slightly outside of the main city center will save you money and won’t cause a significant inconvenience.*

*Contrary to reviews I read online when I was researching accommodation, I did not feel unsafe walking around at night outside the city center. I read a lot of reviews in certain areas, including the one I stayed in, that said there were used needles on the ground and it was very sketchy. Not to say this doesn’t exist, but I did not encounter this at all.

Conclusion

For a popular tourist destination and a major city in Europe, I consider Athens to be an affordable travel destination. If you’re mindful about your spending and follow some of my money saving tips, such as limiting how often you eat at full service restaurants, you can certainly visit Athens on a budget! I averaged spending $65 USD per day, but it’s possible to visit for even less.

If you’re planning a trip to Athens, be sure to check out my other posts to help plan your trip! You can find the entrance fees to all the major attractions in the city to further plan out your budget using my Athens travel guide below.

Athens Travel Guide

Vegan Food Guide to Athens

Visiting the Temple of Poseidon – Sounion