Acropolis Tickets

Acropolis tickets: a booked slot, a guide who knows the way up, and two hours that make sense of the rock

Acropolis tickets are the one booking in Athens that punishes improvisation. The rock sells entry by timed slot, numbers are limited, and the popular morning times go first. What a pre-booked ticket buys is a fixed entry hour you can build the rest of the day around. On the partner side you have two useful forms: a two-hour guided tour with entry from about €60, or a plain timed ticket with an app audio guide from about €39. Both put you inside at the time you chose. The guided tour adds a person who can explain what the Parthenon replaced while the crowd shuffles through the Propylaia.

This page lays out that choice, the real prices on the partner sites and at the gate, the verified opening hours with the autumn taper, the two entrances, and what to see once you are up. The short version for a first visit: take the guided tour, book the first slot of the day or the last two hours, go in by the South Slope so you pass the Theatre of Dionysus on the way, and do not step out of the site for a coffee, because the ticket does not allow re-entry.

Guided tour or plain ticket?

Guided, for most first-time visitors. The Headout Acropolis and Parthenon guided tour runs two hours in a small group, includes the timed Acropolis entry, and costs from about €60 per adult, down from a list price of €67 at the time of writing. It carries a 4.5 rating from more than 9,000 reviews and runs in English, Spanish, French, German or Italian depending on the option you pick. The Acropolis is not a museum with labels. It is a hillside of foundations, cuttings and re-erected columns, and without a guide the Erechtheion is a handsome porch and the Propylaia is a flight of steps. With one, you learn that the foundations of the Old Temple of Athena Polias run along the Erechtheion's south wall, that the Parthenon replaced two earlier temples, and where to stand for the view down over the Ancient Agora.

The plain ticket is the right buy if you have read up already, if you are travelling with children who will not follow a two-hour talk, or if you want to walk the site at your own pace at 08:00 before the tour groups arrive. Headout sells the timed ticket for about €39 with an app audio guide in five languages. GetYourGuide sells a similar ticket for about €36 with an optional audio guide and sends you to the South Entrance near Akropoli metro. What you get for the money is a slot booked before the popular morning times sell out, plus the commentary in your own language. Acropolis tickets bought this way are not a queue-jump. They are a reservation.

Two honest caveats. First, the Headout guided tour and the plain Headout ticket cannot be cancelled or rescheduled once booked, and the GetYourGuide ticket is non-refundable. Book those Acropolis tickets once your Athens dates are fixed. Second, if you want a refundable option, the Acropolis plus Acropolis Museum guided combination at about €94.50 has free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start. The GetYourGuide Premium guided tour also cancels free up to 24 hours, but its from-€28 price excludes the entry ticket on most options, so compare like with like before you decide.

Tickets and prices

Acropolis tickets from the partners are priced here as a snapshot from September 2026. The partner page shows the live figure before you pay. Every ticket, partner or official, is the Ministry's "Acropolis and Slopes" ticket, which covers the rock and the South Slope including the Theatre of Dionysus. It is single-use: leave either part and you cannot come back in on the same ticket.

Ticket	Price	Includes
Guided tour with entry (Headout)	from about €60	Two-hour small-group tour, live guide, timed Acropolis entry. Cannot be cancelled	Book
Timed ticket with audio guide (Headout)	about €39	Self-paced timed entry, app audio guide in five languages. Cannot be cancelled	Book
Timed ticket (GetYourGuide)	about €36	Entry via the South Entrance, optional app audio guide. Non-refundable	Book
Acropolis and Acropolis Museum guided tour (Headout)	about €94.50	3.5 to 4 hours, two-hour Acropolis walk plus 90 minutes in the museum, both entries, English guide, maximum 22 people. Free cancellation up to 24 hours before	Book
Acropolis and Acropolis Museum tickets with audio guide (Headout)	about €74.50	Two timed entries, same day or separate days, audio guides in six languages. Cannot be cancelled	Book
Athens Multipass (Headout)	about €135	Acropolis plus Ancient Agora, Roman Agora, Temple of Olympian Zeus, Lyceum and Panathenaic Stadium over three consecutive days. Not cancellable	Book

A reduced rate goes to EU citizens over 65, with ID or passport, and only from 1 October to 31 May. Entry is free for EU citizens up to 25, non-EU children up to 18, visitors with a 67 percent disability plus one escort, and EU/EEA school groups, among other categories the Ministry lists. These categories are checked against ID or a passport on arrival. Everyone else pays the adult rate, and the useful question is then which adult ticket to take: the guided tour, or the timed entry you walk in on your own.

The site is also free to everyone on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September, 28 October, and every first and third Sunday from 1 November to 31 March. Free days are busy days, so arrive early and expect company at the Propylaia.

Opening hours and best time to visit

The Acropolis opens seven days a week and publishes two timetables. The summer timetable is 08:00 to 20:00 with last entry at 19:30. The winter timetable is 08:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:30. Between the two the closing time tapers through the autumn: from 1 to 15 September the site closes at 19:30, from 16 to 30 September at 19:00, from 1 to 15 October at 18:30 and from 16 to 31 October at 18:00, with last entry 30 minutes before closing in each case. On Good Friday it opens 12:00 to 17:00 and on Holy Saturday 08:30 to 15:30.

It closes on 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Orthodox Easter Sunday, 25 December and 26 December. Hot weather adds a further risk: during the July 2025 heatwave the Ministry closed the Acropolis and the other central sites from 12:00 to 17:00 on four consecutive days, for the safety of visitors and staff, and announced each closure day by day. That is the pattern rather than a fixed rule, so on a forecast of 40 degrees check the day's announcement and hold Acropolis tickets for the first slot of the morning or the last two hours before closing.

Timing is the whole game here. The Ministry limits numbers and sells entry by timed slot, so book Acropolis tickets for a specific time and arrive at it. The 08:00 slot is the coolest and the emptiest, and in peak season it often sells out. The last two hours before closing are the second-best window, with the light low and the groups gone. Mid-morning to mid-afternoon in summer is the worst of both: heat on bare marble and a slow shuffle through the Propylaia, where the passage narrows and everyone, with or without a booked ticket, waits their turn. No official visit time is published. Allow about two hours on the rock, which is what the guided tours take.

Getting there

The nearest metro is Akropoli on Line 2. From the station, Dionysiou Areopagitou, the pedestrian street along the south of the hill, leads to both entrances. The South Slope entrance at the corner of Thrasyllou Street is about five minutes on foot. It takes you past the Theatre of Dionysus and up to the Propylaia. The Main Entrance on the west side of the hill is about 10 to 12 minutes along the same street, and from there you enter through the Beule Gate. You can also come from Monastiraki station through Plaka or through the Ancient Agora site, about 12 to 15 minutes uphill. From Syntagma Square it is roughly 20 minutes on foot to the Main Entrance.

Which entrance? Take the South Slope if you want the theatre first and a quieter approach. Take the Main Entrance if you have mobility needs, because ticket validation for disabled visitors and the wheelchair lift are there and not at the South Slope. Whichever you choose, you can exit through the South Slope after the Beule Gate, but you cannot come back in.

Our Acropolis Museum tickets page covers the museum directly across Dionysiou Areopagitou from the South Slope entrance, five minutes away and the natural second half of the day. The Temple of Olympian Zeus is about eight minutes east along the same pedestrian street. The information centre at 18-20 Dionysiou Areopagitou, 50 metres east of the South Slope entrance, has accessible toilets.

What to see: highlights

• The Propylaia. The monumental entrance built in the Classical period by the architect Mnesikles. Everyone passes through here, the passage narrows, and the queue forms. A guide fills the wait.
• Temple of Athena Nike. The small temple on the bastion south of the Propylaia, built around 420 BC by Kallikrates. Look for it on your right as you climb.
• The Parthenon. Temple of Athena Parthenos, built under Perikles in the fifth century BC on the site of two earlier temples, and the most imposing building on the rock. The Parthenon sculpture that remains in Athens is shown in the Acropolis Museum across the road, beside casts of the pieces held abroad. Here you see the architecture in its setting.
• The Erechtheion. The Ionic temple of Athena and Poseidon-Erechtheus on the north side, with the porch of the Karyatides. The figures on the porch are copies. The originals stand in the Acropolis Museum. The foundations of the sixth-century Old Temple of Athena Polias run along its south wall.
• Temple of Rome and Augustus, and the pedestal of Agrippa. The small circular Roman temple of 27 BC east of the Parthenon, and the tall pedestal opposite the north wing of the Propylaia, reminders that building on the rock went on into Roman times.
• Theatre of Dionysus, South Slope. Covered by the same ticket and on the way up if you use the South Slope entrance. The Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a working concert venue, is seen from the path.

Tips before you go

Small backpacks and handbags are allowed inside. Large luggage is not, and the baggage and stroller check-in north of the Main Entrance does not take it either, so leave suitcases at the hotel. Expect to leave strollers there too: the paths are marble and stepped. No food or drink, no smoking, no pets other than assistance dogs, no tripods or drones, and wear shoes with grip, because the marble is worn smooth. Bring a hat. The toilets inside the site are closed for renovation, so use the ones to the right of the Main Entrance or the portable ones to the left before you go in.

Wheelchair users and visitors with reduced mobility have a lift, installed in 2020, reached from a separate entrance north of the Main Entrance along a 350-metre path. It rises about 25 metres to the plateau north of the Erechtheion and is operated with trained staff. Phone the Chief Guard's Office an hour before you arrive, enter at the Main Entrance, and note that the lift does not run in strong winds or severe weather. Headout does not recommend its guided tour for lift-dependent visitors, and the guided combination excludes lift use, so in that case the plain ticket is the better buy. Show partner Acropolis tickets on your phone with photo ID at the gate.

A simple plan: book the two-hour guided tour for the first slot of the morning, meet the guide at the point named on your voucher, go up through the Propylaia while it is still cool, and come down by the South Slope. Cross the road to the Acropolis Museum for the hottest hours, then walk east to the Temple of Olympian Zeus in the late afternoon. In the autumn taper weeks, check the closing time for your date before you book a late slot.

How to book, in four steps

1. Pick guided or plain. First visit: the two-hour guided tour with entry from about €60. Repeat visit, children, or an early solo climb: the timed ticket with audio guide from about €39.
2. Pick the slot. The 08:00 slot in summer, or the last two hours before closing. Arrive at the booked time, at the entrance the voucher names, with photo ID.
3. Book when your dates are fixed, or choose the refundable combination. The guided tour and the plain Acropolis tickets cannot be cancelled. If you may need to move the day, the Acropolis and museum guided combination at about €94.50 cancels free up to 24 hours before.
4. Pair it with a neighbour. The Acropolis Museum is across the street and the Ancient Agora is round the west side of the rock. Either one makes the second half of the day.

Nearby and combinations

The natural pairing is the Acropolis Museum, where the original Karyatides and the Parthenon sculpture kept in Athens are shown. The guided combination at about €94.50 covers both with one English-speaking guide over three and a half to four hours, and it is the only product in the table above with free cancellation. The self-guided version, two timed entries with audio guides for about €74.50, lets you split the two across separate days but cannot be cancelled.

For antiquities beyond the rock, Ancient Agora tickets cover the civic centre of classical Athens about seven minutes from the Main Entrance, and the Headout Multipass at about €135 bundles the Acropolis with the Agora, the Roman Agora, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Lyceum and the Panathenaic Stadium over three consecutive days. It pays only if you would visit most of them anyway. If your list runs to four or more sites and museums in two or three days, the Athens City Pass options include Acropolis timed entry alongside the museum and the hop-on hop-off bus.

Two shorter pages sit under this one. The Acropolis opening hours page tracks the seasonal timetables, the taper dates and the closures, and the Acropolis map shows the two entrances, the metro exits and the route over the rock.