The Athens passes in detail

Four passes, three different ideas

Athens has no single official city pass. Instead, four commercial packages compete, and they differ in three things: how validity is counted (consecutive days, a number of picks, fixed time slots or a whole year), how many sights are included beyond the Acropolis and its museum, and who reserves the Acropolis time slot for you. Public transport is a side issue for all of them: not included as standard, an add-on with the City Pass and a 24-hour ticket in the MegaPass Explorer tier (more on the public transport page).

The Athens City Pass: the broad package

The Athens City Pass by Turbopass is the all-inclusive option. It runs for one to six consecutive days from the start date you choose and includes the Acropolis with a reserved slot, the Acropolis Museum, 48 hours of hop-on hop-off bus and around a dozen smaller museums, among them the War Museum, the Herakleidon Museum, the Hellenic Motor Museum and the two Kotsanas collections. A public transport ticket for one or five days can be added, the airport line excluded. Cancellation is possible until the day before the first day of validity, minus a handling fee, and only if nothing has been used. The weak spot is the fixed run of days: a rest day costs you validity.

The Athens Flex Pass: pick your own

The Athens Flex Pass by the same issuer turns the logic around. You buy a number of picks, from two to seven, and choose on the spot from a list of eleven sights, including the Acropolis, the museum and the bus. The window is 30 days from the first visit, the widest of all Athens passes. There is no transport add-on, the bus uses up one pick, and with only two sights the reduced Acropolis price for young EU citizens can make single tickets cheaper. As long as no sight has been reserved, the pass can be cancelled free of charge.

The Athens Pass: three parts, fixed slots

The Athens Pass sold by Tiqets is a package rather than a pass: Acropolis entry with an audio guide, the Acropolis Museum and a two-day bus ticket, each at the date and time slot you pick when booking. It suits a first visit with one or two days and a plan that will not change, because it cannot be refunded once booked. Cape Sounion can be added. Smaller museums are not part of it.

The Athens MegaPass: a year to use it

The Athens MegaPass by MegaPass, sold through Headout, covers the same three essentials, each usable once within 365 days of the start date you choose, and adds an eSIM data package. The Explorer tier includes the Cape Sounion sunset tour, a 24-hour public transport ticket and discounts on further sights. It is the only pass that comfortably spans two visits in a year. Against it: no cancellation or change of date, and every time slot is reserved by you in the MegaPass account. The eSIM is only worth something to travellers from outside the EU.

When no pass is worth it

If the Acropolis is your only goal, the single timed-entry ticket is the cheaper route. Visitors under 18 and EU citizens up to 24 enter the Acropolis and the state museums free, and from November to March admission is free for everyone on the first and third Sunday of the month; the gate price itself has been the same all year since April 2025. In those cases a pass only pays off if you really want the bus and several museums as well.