My visit to Athens gets off to a rocky start. As I prepare to check into my hotel, it seems something is awry. While I've got the right hotel and the correct day, it soon transpires I've arrived a year early. Yep, I accidentally booked for 2026. As much as I like to be fully prepared, this is a bit much even for me.

To make matter worse, the hotel is fully booked. The summer holidays might be over, but the season in Greece is still far from slowing down in late September.

Accommodation is soon sorted – shoutout to my taxi driver who declared: “We will drive until we find a room!”. If I haven’t yet mentioned that Greeks are among the kindest, friendliest and loveliest people I have ever met, now would be the time.

The next morning, I have eight hours to fill until 3pm when I have to leave for the airport. Time limited, I firmly stick to the classics; the Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum and Plaka.

Skip Acropolis queues with an early morning walking tour

Head to see the Parthenon early before the crowds arrive. Gemma White for The National

I start at the Acropolis, Athen's ancient citadel. How could I not? Rising 515ft above the city, it dominates the low-rise skyline as an eternal reminder of just how much history this ancient country is steeped in. The Parthenon sits on top, just as it has since the 5th century BC, having witnessed war, invasion and conquest, and remaining relatively intact despite a direct hit from a mortar shell courtesy of the Venetians in 1687 during the siege of Athens.

I booked my visit to the Acropolis in advance through Athens Walking Tours, opting for a €67 (Dh284) skip-the-line ticket which offered a tour and, more importantly, access to the Parthenon before the crowds descend. Believe me, when they descend, they descend en masse.

When I arrive at 7.30am, the queue for the ticket office is already an hour or so long. The price of a standard summer ticket is €30 (€15 in winter), but pre-booking the tour means our small group has around 20 minutes to explore and take photos before the daily allocation of 20,000 visitors starts to filter through. It is well worth the higher ticket price.

I watched the sunrise while walking around the Acropolis. Gemma White for The National

The cap on visitor numbers to the Acropolis was introduced in 2023 to prevent overcrowding. It doesn’t. Instead it quickly becomes packed after the gates are opened. It gets pretty windy up there and it's chilly early in the morning, so I dress accordingly.

Our guide, Rina takes us around the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Temple of Athena Nike and the Erechtheion, offering up an impressive array of names, dates, places and information which she tells me Greeks are taught in school from a young age. It’s sometimes hard to tell which tales are true and what is myth, but in a city this old, life can easily become legend and vice versa.

Book online to save time at Acropolis Museum

The Parthenon Gallery at the Acropolis Museum. Reuters

From the Acropolis, it’s a short walk to the Acropolis Museum. Again, I pre-booked my ticket (€26, or €20 from the museum) and breeze past the queue to immerse myself in the array of artefacts dating from the 7th century BC. The busts and sculptures are serenely beautiful, basking in the relatively hushed awe of onlookers.

The Magic Sphere, dating back to the 2nd or 3rd century AD, is an