The Mediterranean’s busiest passenger port — and a city in its own right of 500,000 people, with a fish-market harbour at Mikrolimano and the new Renzo Piano cultural centre.
Piraeus is the Mediterranean’s busiest passenger port — fifteen million ferry passengers a year, twice as many cruise calls as Barcelona — and a working city of half a million people, with three harbours, three urban districts and a 2,500-year-old maritime culture.
The main harbour (Limin Piraios) is where the Cyclades and Dodecanese ferries dock — Gates E1–E12, busy from 06:00, the practical-but-uninspiring half. Mikrolimano (the small harbour, on the south side of the Akti peninsula) is the postcard half — a circular stone-faced harbour ringed with twenty fish tavernas, sailing yachts moored stem-first, the most-photographed image of Piraeus. Pasalimani (the third harbour, between the two) is where the locals live — pedestrian boulevard, gelato kiosks, the Sunday family promenade. The new Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center — a Renzo Piano building from 2016 with the new National Library and the Greek National Opera under one rolled-glass roof, set in a 170,000 m² public park — is on the eastern edge of the city; the single best new public building in Athens. Combine with: a Cyclades or Saronic ferry day, or a half-day on its own using the metro.
A Piraeus half-day.
Line 1 from Monastiraki — twenty-five minutes to Piraeus station; walk to the harbour.
Two hours; the four monumental bronzes; €4 entry.
Half-hour walk along the Akti peninsula — sea on the left, the new SNFCC visible inland.
Pre-booked stem-front table; three hours of fish-and-wine; €140 per head.
Twenty-minute walk; an hour at the Renzo Piano building and the canal-side park.
Line 1 home; back in central Athens by 18:30 for evening.
By metro.
Twenty-five minutes by metro Line 1 — direct to Monastiraki and Omonoia. The natural pairing.
Gates E8–E10 of the main harbour — Hydrofoil to Aegina, Hydra, Spetses.
Fifteen-minute drive east — the start of the Athens Riviera.
Five-minute ferry from the small Perama harbour — the closest island. Detail on the Salamina page.
Ten-minute walk from Pasalimani — the Renzo Piano building.
Tell us a little about the trip you want — pace, who's coming, how you'd like to spend your mornings. We'll build the days.
