Santa Maria: A Secret Central California Weekend Getaway

As Southern Californians, we are constantly looking for new California weekend getaway destinations to explore.  We found one of Central California’s secret getaways in Santa Maria.  Santa Maria is probably more popular among visitors coming from other countries than among travelers living in the United States.  This is something that should change because Santa Maria is a quick California getaway with many varied attractions for travelers.  If Santa Maria is known at all, it is known for its wineries, but Santa Maria has so much more to offer including one of California’s best missions, farm-fresh produce, lip-smacking barbeque, hikes with stunning vistas, and quaint museums.

La Purisma Mission State Park

Missions are the oldest structures we have in California.  Just south of Santa Maria in Lompoc is La Purisma Mission, the most fully restored of California’s preserved missions.  The mission can be visited on a self-guided tour, but we joined the two-hour guided tour which is provided every day at 1:00 p.m.  We were surprised to find half our tour group was comprised of travelers from various countries in Europe.  Our guide explained that while Santa Maria is off-the-beaten-path for American travelers, La Purisma Mission is listed in guidebooks available to European travelers as one of the best California missions to visit.

Before the Spanish came, this area was inhabited by the Chumash Indians.  Chumash translates to “the people who make money” and they were called that because while other Native Americans traded goods, the Chumash created a type of money made of shells on a string.  The Chumash were also different from other Native Americans because they had ocean-going boats which they used to travel from the mainland to the nearby Channel Islands.

When Juan Cabrillo was sent from Spain to the Americas, he sailed up the coast from Mexico to San Diego, Santa Barbara, and beyond.  He found the Chumash Indians living their simple lives and reported back that there was nothing worthwhile in these parts.  No one came again to the area for 200 years until the Russians started hunting sea otters in Alaska for their pelts and began expanding down the coast all the way to San Francisco where they built a fort.  Worried the Russians would keep heading south, the king of Spain sent Catholic priests to set up missions.

La Purisma was founded in 1787 and was the 11th of the 21 Franciscan Missions in California.  The Chumash Indians were baptized into the Catholic Church and helped build the first mission.  In 1812, numerous earthquakes destroyed the mission and a new mission was built a few miles away, the current location.  The mission thrived and was known for its hides and blankets, but then the missions were discontinued and abandoned in the 1830s.  La Purisma fell into ruins.  In the 1930s, after the Great Depression, the government commissioned the Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Park Service to restore the mission, making sure to restore La Purisma to exactly what it had been before.

Today, tours lead through all parts of La Purisma Mission including the cemetery, church, soldiers’ quarters, jail, weaving shop, padre’s residence, and outdoor areas.  If you can, try to join the guided tour where you will learn so much more about the history and workings of La Purisma Mission.   An added bonus is you’ll be able to ring the church bells, which you can’t do if taking a self-guided tour.  La Purisma Mission State Park is dog-friendly, including the guided tour, though dogs are not allowed into the visitor center museum.

Oso Flaco Lake Trail

If you’re looking for a pretty hiking trail during your Central California getaway, look no further than the Oso Flaco Lake Trail.  This unusual hiking trail follows a boardwalk that crosses the middle of Oso Flaco Lake and then heads through the dunes before reaching the Pacific Ocean.  The boardwalk trail is approximately a mile and half one way.  Set aside at least an hour and a half for the walk so you’ll have time to stop and enjoy the views.

The Oso Flaco Lake Trail is part of the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes area, the most ecologically diverse dunes complex in California.  The dunes complex stretches from Pismo Beach in the north to Point Sal in the south.  The dunes are full of plants and animals, some of which are rare or endangered.

The waters of Oso Flaco Lake are filled with bluegill, hitch, largemouth bass, and goldfish.  Growing around the lake are examples of dune plant life such as Dune Buckwheat, Beach Bur, Arroyo Willow, Beach Saltbush, Sand Verbena, Dunes Paintbrush, Beach Evening Primrose, and Blochman’s Leafy Daisy.  Oso Flaco Lake provides great bird watching opportunities with American Kestrels, Barn Swallows, Ruddy Ducks, Cliff Swallows, Double Crested Cormorants, California Least Terns, Northern Mallard Ducks, Cinnamon Teal Ducks, Ospreys, and Brown Pelicans.

Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center

I love movies, especially old movies, so I’m always excited when one of my travel destinations has ties to a movie.  A number of movies have been filmed a few miles up the road from Santa Maria.  Movies that have been filmed at the dunes of Guadalupe and nearby include Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Hidalgo, G.I. Jane, Sahara, and many others.

The most interesting movie story from the area is that of the 1923 silent film The Ten Commandments.  Cecil B. DeMille directed this epic Hollywood film and built for it the largest set in movie history at that time.  Rather than the set being taken apart and carted away when filming was complete, DeMille decided to have the entire set buried in the sand of the dunes.  It became known as the “Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille” even though the people that lived in the area never forgot.

In 1982, Los Angeles filmmaker Peter Brosnan decided to embark on a quest to unearth the lost city as part of an idea for a documentary.  He began working with an archaeologist in 1990, but the project didn’t go very far because there wasn’t enough funding.  After a couple false starts some of the movie set was finally excavated in 2014 and is on display at the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center.

The Dunes Center museum has been open for almost 16 years.  The relics from The Ten Commandments comprise its most well-known exhibit, but also on display are exhibits about the Chumash Indians, who have been in the area for over 10,000 years, the natural aspects of the dunes, and the cultures of the residents of Guadalupe.

Rancho Guadalupe Dunes

After visiting the Dunes Center, head a few miles south and visit the Rancho Guadalupe Dunes to try to catch a glimpse of where The Ten Commandments movie set remains buried.  You can’t actually walk up to the dune, but you’ll recognize it because it’s the one that has a lot of debris.

Driving through the Guadalupe Dunes is kind of like driving through mountains of snow.  The dunes’ sand drifts across the road, almost completely covering the pavement in some parts.  While driving through the dunes, we passed an area that looked more like swamp land and were treated to the sight of some wild boar traipsing through the water.

If you visit the dunes between March and October, you will notice that part of the dunes are closed to protect the Western Snowy Plover, a tiny shorebird that weighs less than two ounces.  The dunes are where the plovers come to breed and nest.  If you walk along the beach you’ll need to keep your eyes open for nests in the sand and chicks on the beach.

Santa Maria Museum of Flight

Santa Maria has a small airport that is mostly for private planes, though two airlines run commercial flights to Santa Maria from Los Angeles and Las Vegas.  At the far end of the airport is a museum, the Santa Maria Museum of Flight, where we learned more about the airport, Santa Maria, and the eclectic mix of flight exhibits curated by Mike Geddry, a Vietnam vet who gave us an informative and fascinating tour of the museum (accompanied by his beautiful service dog Kayla).

The Santa Maria Airport was originally built as the Santa Maria Army Air Base to train bomber pilots for World War II.  The Santa Maria Airport is also named after Captain G. Allan Hancock who founded the Hancock College of Aeronautics which trained the army pilots.  After the war the airstrip eventually became a public airport. 

The Santa Maria Museum of Flight has been around for 31 years, but has been on the airport property for 27 years.  Part of the museum is housed in a wooden hangar that was created as a movie set for The Rocketeer.  In that building are model airplanes of all sizes, a costume from The Rocketeer, the museum’s library, and one of three still flyable 1929 Fleet Biplanes painted in the colors of Hancock College.

Outside are some more real planes including an F-4 Phantom, a homebuilt general aviation aircraft, and an airplane from World War II, though it never actually flew in combat.

Inside the second building of the museum are more airplanes, including a prop from The Aviator.  Other exhibits include a piece from the Challenger Space Shuttle, something I found moving as that may be the first disaster I experienced and comprehended as a child, and a section dedicated to The Ninety-Nines, an organization of women pilots founded in 1929.  Outside of the museum is a memorial garden celebrating The Ninety-Nines.

Santa Maria Barbecue

One of Santa Maria’s claims to fame is the Santa Maria Style Barbecue.  Barbecue is so important in Santa Maria they’ve even got an official Santa Maria Valley barbecue website.  Santa Maria’s barbecue roots go back to the mid-1800s when the Santa Maria Valley was filled with ranches.  Traditional Santa Maria Style Barbecue is tri-tip rolled in a mixture of seasonings and barbecued over red oak coals before being sliced and served in a French roll with fresh salsa.

My favorite classic Santa Maria tri-tip sandwich with fresh salsa was from the Filipino Community Center Barbecue Food Truck which can be found in the Smart & Final parking lot on South Broadway.  Since Romeo is Filipino, of course we had to patronize the Filipino food truck.  We also learned at the Dunes Center that there is a large Filipino community in the Santa Maria area.  The tri-tip is barbecued truck-side on the outdoor grill.  The food truck is a fundraising operation and proceeds go toward the Center’s building and scholarship funds.  We grabbed tri-tip sandwiches and fresh salsa to go and enjoyed them at our first wine tasting stop, Riverbench Winery.  There is nothing more perfect than sipping a glass of Santa Maria wine and dining on a tri-tip sandwich while sitting in the sun with views of the Santa Maria Valley vineyards.

Another place to get tri-tip sandwiches is Orcutt’s Old Town Market, a wine shop and deli that includes Santa Maria barbecue on the menu.

For fancier Santa Maria barbecue, head to Santa Maria’s fine dining establishments.  Romeo decided to go all out and get prime rib for dinner both nights.  Our first night we dined at Vintner’s Bar & Grill, a restaurant located inside the Radisson Santa Maria.  The second night we ate at the Garden Room Restaurant at The Historic Santa Maria Inn.  The Santa Maria Inn has been around since 1917 and has had many famous guests throughout history like Cecil B. DeMille, William Randolph Hearst, and Marilyn Monroe.  The hotel, including the restaurant, feels old-timey with wood paneling and paintings on the wall.  While Rome had the prime rib, I went for one of their other steakhouse specialties, the New York striploin with a cabernet reduction and bleu cheese butter.  Another plus for the Garden Room Restaurant is the dining area in the outdoor courtyard is dog-friendly.

Farm-Fresh Berries

Santa Maria is a small town surrounded by even smaller towns like Guadalupe, Orcutt, and Sisquoc.  Between these small towns are acres and acres of fields growing fresh produce.  As we drove through the fields we smelled the aroma of upturned earth and fresh-cut greens.  We spotted tractors and other farm vehicles driving through the fields and witnessed farm workers picking, sorting, and packing the harvest of the day.

A 2014 report from the California Strawberry Commission, as cited by the Santa Maria Times, states California’s strawberry farms grow 90 percent of the country’s strawberries.  Strawberries are a huge part of Santa Barbara County’s income, the county in which Santa Maria is located. 

While we were driving around we noticed a few fields marked with signs for Darensberries, one of Santa Maria’s strawberry growers.  We got to sample the berries from those fields when we visited Darensberries’ berry stand on the corner of East Betteravia and Nicholson Avenue.  The red, succulent strawberries being sold were picked earlier that day and were perfectly sweet and juicy.

San Ramon Chapel

The San Ramon Chapel became the first historical landmark in Santa Barbara County in 1966 when it was called the Benjamin Foxen Memorial Chapel.  The Foxens were an important family in the Santa Maria Valley (the main road is called Foxen Canyon Road).  The property was purchased by Frederick and Ramona Foxen Wickenden.  Three years later Frederick Wickenden sold 5,000 sheep to purchase the building materials for the chapel.  Fred Foxen, Thomas Foxen, and Chris Clausen built the chapel in 1875 and the remains of Benjamin Foxen were moved to the cemetery in 1876.  The chapel is now named San Ramon Chapel because it was placed under the patronage of San Ramon, the patron saint of farming and agriculture, in 1879.  The chapel is not always open, but it does hold services on Sundays and at other times visitors can walk through the cemetery and around the outside of the chapel.  

Santa Maria Valley Wineries

One of Santa Maria’s main draws is that it is wine country, so if you enjoy wine, a trip to Santa Maria would not be complete without making some stops at a few wineries.  Many of the wineries are close together on and around Foxen Canyon Road. 

We visited four wineries during our trip, all of which were unique.  Riverbench Winery’s tasting room is in a refurbished farm house that used to be part of a dairy farm.  Wine tastings can be enjoyed in the tasting room or outside on the lawn at small café tables.  Down the street is Rancho Sisquoc Winery, with a tasting room in a rustic looking wood cabin.  Nearby is Kenneth Volk Vineyards, where wine tastings are served in a warehouse filled with wine barrels.  Cottonwood Canyon Vineyard and Winery is a larger, brightly colored wine tasting facility complete with a wine cave which visitors can tour and where they can experience a barrel tasting.  All of these tasting rooms are dog-friendly.

Related: Tasting Santa Maria, a Central Coast Wine Region

Where to Stay In Santa Maria

This entire trip to Santa Maria all started because we were invited by Club Carlson to stay at our choice of any of their properties to help promote #AroundTheWorldIn75Days.  Club Carlson not only has a property in Santa Maria, the Radisson Santa Maria, it is also the highest rated Santa Maria hotel on TripAdvisor.  What makes the Radisson Santa Maria unique is its location along the Santa Maria airport and rooms that have runway views.  For more information, read my full review of the Radisson Santa Maria.

If you’re looking for an off-the-beaten-path California weekend getaway, consider heading to Santa Maria, a great destination for a quick getaway with a number of Central California attractions.  Santa Maria is a fun weekend getaway for history, hiking, and great food and drink.

Santa Maria is a great Central California road trip destination. 

Here are drive times from various nearby cities (without traffic):

San Diego to Santa Maria: 4.75 hours

Los Angeles to Santa Maria: 2.5 hours

San Francisco to Santa Maria: 4 hours

Las Vegas to Santa Maria: 6 hours

Thank you to Club Carlson and the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce Visitor & Convention Bureau for hosting our visit to Santa Maria and making this post possible.  As always, all opinions are my own.

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The Best of Athens in One Day

Admittedly one day in Athens isn’t enough to really get to know the city, but oftentimes travelers to Greece spend very little time in Athens before heading out of the city to explore other parts of the mainland or one of the hundreds of islands.  So if you do only have 24 hours in Athens, it is best to have a game plan before heading out so you can see as much as possible in a short time.

It was no different for us when we traveled to Greece.  We had a few hours in Athens the day we arrived before leaving the next day for our off-road trip through central Greece.  We returned to Athens for one night and half a day, when we took our Athens food tour, before leaving again to explore Crete, and then at the end of our trip we had one full day to devote entirely to Athens.  While much of our time in Athens was scattered, our well-planned one day in Athens provided the perfect, albeit brief, overview of the city covering many of the more popular Athens tourist attractions.

National Archaeological Museum of Athens

Start your day at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.  While every other site in this article can be reached and explored on foot, this museum is a little bit outside of the city center and is best reached by metro (Omonia stop on line 1 (green) or line 2 (red)).

Greek civilization is one of the oldest in the world and it is displayed step-by-step in this all-encompassing museum.  You can explore the museum on your own, but I highly suggest paying extra for the guided tour (50 euros split between however many people join the tour).  Our guide Andromachi did a wonderful job of tying thousands of years of history into one neat little package, all in one hour.

Our tour started with the Stone Age in 6000 BC when Gaia, goddess of earth, was the main god worshipped during a time when women were revered because their bodies had the magical ability to give birth.  We were surprised to learn people had gold jewelry in the Stone Age.  Men wore the symbol of the female and women wore the symbol of the male.

We moved on to the Cycladic period, 3000 BC, when the ancient Greeks built boats and sailed to Egypt.  The Greeks have a great way of telling stories, even ancient ones.  Andromachi told us how the Greeks arrived in Egypt, saw the pyramids, and asked the Egyptians how they were able to build such wondrous structures.  The Egyptians pretty much told the Greeks, y’all need to stop using those stone tools and start using these super cool bronze tools.  And that’s how the Greeks moved into the Bronze Age.

The National Archaeological Museum of Athens was built over 120 years ago to house the Mycenaean gold written about by Homer as well as other Greek antiquities.  One of the most well-known of these gold objects is the Mask of Agamemnon, though archaeologists now believe the mask was created a few hundred years before the time of Agamemnon. 

A heart-breaking exhibit of Mycenaean gold is that from the burial of a queen who died giving birth to twins.  There was a large gold crown for the queen, full-body gold coverings for the babies, and 1,000 gold rose pedals used to cover the queen and her babies.

Some other interesting pieces in the museum include a wine jug that has engraved on it what is believed to be the oldest existing example of writing using the Greek alphabet.  The Dipylon inscription on the wine jug roughly translates to say, “Now I belong to the man who is the best dancer.”  

The museum also displays the Artemision Bronze, believed to be either Zeus or Poseidon, which is one of only five bronzes in existence from the period 500 BC and was found in the sea of Cape Artemision.  Another impressive bronze statue is that of the Artemision Jockey from 140 BC.  This bronze was saved, in pieces, from a shipwreck in Euboea.  The statue is of a young jockey on a galloping horse, expressing so much movement and emotion.

Syntagma Square and the Changing of the Guard

After the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, grab the metro at Omonia and take line 2 (red) two stops to Syntagma, where you can visit Syntagma Square in front of the Greek Parliament and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  

The draw of this square is the hourly changing of the guard ceremony.  The guards, Evzones, wear the traditional kilts, red hat, white stockings, and shoes with pompoms, called tsarouhi.  You can even take a picture with one of the guards, but don’t try to make any funny poses or you will be reprimanded.  The ceremonial changing of the guard occurs on Sundays at 11:00.

Temple of Olympian Zeus

Walk along or through the National Garden to get to the Temple of Olympian Zeus.  The construction of this temple started as early as 515 BC, but progress was halted multiple times.  It was finally completed by Emperor Hadrian and was inaugurated in 131-132 BC.  The Temple of Olympian Zeus was one of the largest in the ancient world.  It started to fall apart in the 5th century AD.  Only 16 of the original 104 columns survive, one of which fell in a storm in 1852 and continues to lay in pieces on the ground.

Hadrian’s Arch

Just outside of the Temple of Olympian Zeus is Hadrian’s Arch.  Hadrian’s Arch was erected at the same time the Temple of Olympian Zeus was inaugurated.  It was built to honor Hadrian for his public works and it marked the boundary between the new and old city.  On the west side of Hadrian’s Arch was inscribed, “This is Athens the ancient city of Theseus,” and on the east side, “This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus.”  The arch was converted into a gate in 1778.

Stroll the Plaka and Monastiraki Neighborhoods

From Hadrian’s Arch you’ll cross the busy Vas. Amalias Avenue and enter the popular Plaka neighborhood.  Meander through the Plaka and Monastiraki neighborhoods, passing sites like the Clock of Kyristos, Roman Agora, and Library of Hadrian to get to the Ancient Agora.  You can even take a slight detour and walk part of Ermou, Athens’ shopping street, and pass through Monastiraki Square with its little church right in the center of the square.

Ancient Agora and the Museum of the Stoa of Attalos

The Agora was the heart of the ancient city of Athens, the center of democracy, and the world’s first parliament.  The Stoa of Attalos has been reconstructed and now houses the museum with items found in the Agora, including artifacts related to Athenian democracy like the tools used for ostracism, the act of temporarily banishing corrupt politicians from the city.

Acropolis Museum

To make sure you get 360-degree views of the Acropolis, continue circling the Acropolis counter-clockwise by following Apostolou Pavlou, a tree-lined street with outdoor eateries and stands selling souvenirs, and Dinyssiou Areoragitou through the ritzy Anafiotika neighborhood to get to the Acropolis Museum. 

The Acropolis Museum was first created in 1863 and was on top of the Acropolis, but the new Acropolis Museum was completed recently, in 2007.

We found that the best way to explore the Acropolis Museum is to start at the top floor and first watch the short film about the Acropolis.  The museum has a very well put together exhibit on the top floor that mimics the Parthenon, with metal columns representing the stone columns of the Parthenon and the statues and carvings salvaged from the Parthenon, plus some reproductions, displayed in the exact same way they would have originally been on the Parthenon.

A floor below contains five of the six caryatids, female figures, which acted as columns of the Erechtheion’s Porch of the Caryatids.  The Erechtheion is one of the smaller ancient Greek temples on the Acropolis.  The exhibit one floor below that contains a number of sculptures and artifacts found in the slopes of the Acropolis.

Acropolis

We saved the best for last, the Acropolis.  There is a method to this madness.  The Acropolis gets hot and crowded, which does not make for a fun viewing experience.  The best times to visit the Acropolis are first thing in the morning or at the very end of the day.  As I’m not a morning person, the end of the day was a better choice.  The crowds are far less at the end of the day, the temperature is cooler, and the light for photos of both the temples and the city below is best late in the day.

The Acropolis is the huge rock that juts out of the center of the city of Athens.  The Acropolis was always an important religious center and sacred.  Temples were first built on the Acropolis in the 11th century BC.  The Parthenon, dedicated to the goddess Athena, the namesake of the city, was completed in 438 BC and surprisingly took only nine years to build.  The frieze was completed after only another six years.

The Parthenon had to first be reconstructed in 267 AD when it was destroyed by a fire.  The Parthenon continued as a temple to Athena for a couple more hundred years until it was ordered that all pagan temples were to be closed.  The Parthenon was later converted into a Christian church, then a Roman Catholic church, and later an Islamic mosque.  In the 1600s the Parthenon sustained the most devastating damage when an explosion occurred.  Finally in 1801 the Earl of Elgin came and removed sculptures and demolished buildings.  Today the Parthenon is in the midst of the very long process of restoration.

After viewing all the angles of the Parthenon and the other temples on top of the Acropolis, it is nice to just take some time to sit, relax, and take it all in.  The Acropolis provides 360-degree views of the sprawling city of Athens, all the way to the sea.  While enjoying the view, you can also enjoy the sounds of the city.  Some of those sounds include sirens and traffic noises, but they’re also the sounds of birds chirping, church bells ringing, and music.

When it’s time for the Acropolis to close, you’ll hear guards blowing whistles and asking people to start heading towards the exit.  If you wait until the very end, you’ll see the military march up the steps to enter the Acropolis and make sure everyone is gone.  If you haven’t had enough of the Acropolis yet, head to one of Athens’ rooftop bars for more views.

Where to Eat in Athens

Of course amongst all this sightseeing, you’ll need to find some nourishment.  There are numerous restaurants and eateries throughout Athens.  Here are a few restaurants we tested in Athens’ popular neighborhoods.

Diodos Archaias Agoras (ΔΙΟΔΟ – ΑΡΧΑΙΑΣ ΑΓΟΡΑΣ) – This restaurant is part of a row of restaurants between the Thisio and Monastiraki neighborhoods northwest of the Acropolis at 19 Adrianou Street.  The restaurant serves a number of traditional Greek foods, provides a view of the Acropolis from over the Agora, and sometimes even gets some added entertainment, like a fire breather.

Aischilou Grill House Psyri (Αισχύλου Ψητοπωλείο Ψυρρή) – If you’re looking for meat, meat, and more meat, with the possibility of sides of salads and seafood, Aischilou Grill House in the Psyri neighborhood at Aishilou 14-16 is the place for you.  You can order kebab, souvlaki, gyros, lamb, or a mixture of meats with the mixed grill.  What I really loved about this restaurant was the décor.  The walls were plastered with old Greek movie memorabilia.  They also have live bouzouki music at night and a little dancing.

To Kaveneio (Το Καφενείο) – To Kaveneio is a traditional coffee shop on a narrow sloping street in the middle of the Plaka neighborhood at Epicharmou 1.  They have tables inside and outside, are open all day, and also sell small plates, making it the perfect place for lunch while exploring Athens. 

Thanasis Souvlaki (Ο Θανάσης) – Thanasis came highly recommended by our waitress at Point α Bar as the best place for souvlaki.  Her opinion was confirmed when we asked a storekeeper for directions.  Thanasis Souvlaki is in Monasteraki at Mitropoleos 69.  The restaurant has been around for decades and is popular with the locals.

Air Lounge Bar and Restaurant – If you’re looking for a break from traditional Greek food, but don’t necessarily want to eat non-Greek food (a conundrum I know), head to the rooftop restaurant and bar of the Fresh Hotel Athens.  Air Lounge Bar serves modern Greek food with a side of Acropolis view.

Where to Stay in Athens

If you’ve got a full day to spend in Athens, you’ll also need a hotel.  We loved our stay at the colorful Fresh Hotel in Athens.  The Fresh Hotel is located just north of the Psyri neighborhood.  The area is covered in graffiti and street art, but feels very safe.  There are always people out and about, even late at night.  Psyri, Monastiraki, and the shopping street of Ermou are an easy walk from the hotel.

Rooms are modern, minimalist, and very comfortable.  The white rooms are accented with bright colors like green curtains, red glass enclosed showers, and orange shower curtains.  After staying in a number of hotels throughout central Greece, I was also very appreciative of the number of easily accessible outlets in the room which we could use for charging our phones and camera batteries and also of the strong wifi.

Booking.com

As mentioned above in the dining section, the hotel has a very good rooftop restaurant and bar.  They also serve a very nice breakfast in the morning with Greek pastries and yogurt, fresh-squeezed orange juice, eggs, meat, bread, cereal, and more.

So there you have it, what I think is the perfect itinerary for one day in Athens.  There are so many things to do in Athens, but these provide a great overview of the city and the history of Athens.

Thank you to the City of Athens Convention & Visitors Bureau, Fresh Hotel, and Tripology Adventures for hosting our time in Athens and making this post possible.  As always, all opinions are my own.  This post contains affiliate links.  If you book through them, it costs you nothing extra and we earn a small commission which goes towards running this website and bringing you more travel stories.

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