Best Time to Visit Athens

When you come to Athens changes the trip more than where you stay. The city has a Mediterranean climate, with hot dry summers and mild damp winters, and its calendar of festivals, its beach season and its sailing season do not all open at the same time. This guide sets out the weather month by month, what is on when, and what to pack.

Weather Through the Year

What the Mediterranean Climate Means Here

• Summer: July and August are the hottest months, averaging around 28 degrees Celsius (83 Fahrenheit) over the full day, with afternoon highs of roughly 33 degrees Celsius (92 Fahrenheit). Rain is close to nil. Sun protection and water are not optional if you are climbing the Acropolis at midday.
• Winter: January is the coldest month, averaging about 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit), with daytime highs near 13 degrees Celsius (56 Fahrenheit) and nights around 6 or 7. Snow is rare in the city.
• Rain: Athens is dry by European standards, roughly 365 mm a year. Most of it falls between November and February, with November and December the wettest months at about 60 mm each. Pack an umbrella for a winter trip, not for a summer one.
• Sea: the water off the Attica coast reaches 24 to 25 degrees Celsius in high summer and stays comfortable for swimming from July into September, well after the air has begun to cool.

Choosing Your Window

March to May and September to November are the easiest months: daytime temperatures suit walking, the archaeological sites are bearable in the middle of the day, and queues are shorter. July and August bring the heat and the crowds, but also the largest programme of open-air events, and they are the months when the beaches and the coast are at their best.

At sea the calculation is slightly different. The meltemi, the northerly summer wind of the Aegean, blows from about mid-May to mid-September, picks up in the afternoon and can reach force 7 to 8 at its peak in midsummer, while the sea stays warm long after the city has cooled. Weighing wind against water temperature, the best time to charter a gulet in Athens is usually early summer or the first half of September rather than the first fortnight of August.

The Festival Calendar

The Athens Technopolis Jazz Festival fills the old gasworks complex in Gazi at the end of May, just before summer proper, and admission has traditionally been free. The Athens Epidaurus Festival, the largest cultural event in the country, runs from June to the end of August, with theatre, dance, music and site-specific work staged both in Athens and in the ancient theatre at Epidaurus in the Peloponnese. Through July and August the Athens Open Air Film Festival puts screens up in archaeological parks, courtyards and pedestrianised streets across the city, with free admission and first-come seating.

Neighbourhoods and Everyday Athens

Plaka, below the northern slope of the Acropolis, is the quarter most visitors walk first: pedestrian lanes, bougainvillea over the walls, cafes, small workshops and souvenir shops. It is worth an unhurried hour or two in the cooler part of the day, and the tavernas on its edges are a fair introduction to Athenian cooking without the theatrics of the tourist strips.

Packing for Athens

• Footwear: proper walking shoes for the marble and the cobbles, which are slippery when polished, plus something for the beach.
• Sun protection: high-factor sunblock, sunglasses and a hat between May and September.
• Clothing: light layers in summer with something warmer for the evening, and modest cover for shoulders and knees if you plan to enter churches or monasteries.
• Water: a refillable bottle. Athens tap water is drinkable and there are public fountains around the main sites.

Seeing Athens from the Water

The Attica coastline is broken into coves that the road does not reach, and the Saronic islands of Aegina, Agistri, Poros and Hydra all lie within a short sail of the city's marinas, so a boat is a practical way of adding to a city stay rather than a luxury add-on. Days on the water are also cooler than days in the streets, which matters in July and August.

Gulets are the traditional wooden vessels of the eastern Mediterranean, wide-decked and heavier than a modern yacht, with a crew aboard. That makes them slow but steady, comfortable for families or groups, and easy to live on for a week; itineraries, stops and meals are normally agreed in advance rather than fixed by a schedule. A bareboat or a skippered sailing yacht will cover more ground in a day; a gulet is the better platform if the point of the week is swimming, eating and anchoring.