Surf Athens with a Local

"Surf Athens with a Local" walk is an amazing initiative of the "This is Athens" project. It is excellent way to see the city through the eyes of locals that love their city and willing to share its love with you. Highly recommended!

This was such a great way to start to get to know Athens and have a starting point to jump off of for the next few days in the city!

Please see below...

It was very interesting. I learnt a lot of details about Athens.

We choose Miltos, who is a friendly and funny local man.
He showed us the better and less known parts of the city including the more touristy and the lesser known "artistic" parts.

We had a wonderful walk with Danai on our first day in Athens. She is sweet, kind, and incredibly knowledgeable about the city. We learned so much about Athens as she guided us to all the major landmarks and some hidden gems, showcasing the best of the city. It was such a memorable experience, and we would gladly do it again if we return to Athens!

I would like to thank Nikki very much for the informative tour. Our tour was based on Ethnikos Kipos, Zappeion Garden and Presidental Palace garden from the outside. We have also seen Byzantine and Christian Museum. I was also informed about the historical periods of Athens and how the city had been improved. Since our walk was based on gardens, we talked about different tree types and where they came from. We saw also some archeological areas and talked about the Athens conservatory on the way. We talked about the Greek history and society. I have gotten so much information that I didn't know before. Thank you Nikki for the impressive and informative tour.

We were so excited to explore Athens with a local. We definitely tried exploring on our own and kept ending up in the same places or in places that we were not comfortable. Unfortunately, our local ended up cancelling at the last minute due to illness. Such a great idea, but we didn't get to experience it. Maybe next time.

We had a great time exploring different neighborhoods of Athens

Initially we had asked for an architectural tour, but unfortunately nobody was available. So we decided to opt for the Surf tour and were assigned to Demetra. We were pleasantly surprised that it turned out she was not only very knowledgable about the area, but also knows a lot about the different architectural periods and styles. So we had a very pleasant and informative walk with her.

We did a different walk off the beaten path and it was good to see how everything connected.

Our Locals, Danai B. and her husband, Alex, were delightful hosts and guides. We met at Syntagma Square on a drizzly Sunday afternoon, but the rain did not deter us. We meandered through the streets of Psiri, Monistraki and Plaka, with Danai pointing out goods and trends and places special to those neighborhoods. We stopped for coffee and delicious pastries at a wonderful sidewalk bakery. The rain stopped, and the sun came out. Thank you, Danai, for making us feel welcome, for the parting gift, and for sharing Athens with us. And, for making sure that I stayed warm and dry while we walked and visited. I highly recommend this laid back way to explore Athens, and Danai made a very informative and interesting guide who generously gave her time and knowledge. Efcharisto.

The walk was great and I was able to explore some places I wouldn’t have been able to find on my own.

The tour with a local is such a great idea to offer for visitors of Athens. To say that it exceeded my expectations would be understatement. Not only was it two hours of magic and wonder to walk around in the streets and in the stories that Niki had found and prepared and that she presented marvellously, but already before we met in person we were getting to know each other through emails, which made me feel very welcome and appreciated. It was an encounter that made my first visit to Athens very special. I’m thoroughly amazed by this experience and recommend it wholeheartedly.

The walk with Danai was very interesting. She also answered many questions for us and made numerous recommendations. She also showed us Greek specialties.

Absolutely brilliant what the government trying to implement. We learn so much bout Athens through the eyes of a local. Definitely a good way to introduce Athens to the world. It was recommended by a friend of ours and I’ll definitely will recommend it to others if they ever visit Athens.

Nikki is an amazing person, very polite, nice and pleasant! Young, multicultural, talented. The tour was interesting, mixed with actual and an understanding of the city neighborhoods, its people, and lifestyle.
Your initiative is really outstanding :) Congratulations!

We had a fabulous orientation to Athens on our walk with Ekaterina. A great mix of information on the history and culture of the city, coupled with great local tips.

It was really good and enjoyable! Would definitely recommend to anyone visiting Athens.

i really enjoyed the walk.

We loved this fun, fast-paced & informative walk around Athens with Miltos!! I highly recommend it, as it is a great way to see some of the different neighbourhoods. Miltos is an excellent guide & very funny & friendly 😀

It was a fantastic walk with Nikos. He told us a lot about Athens. We enjoyed it very much.

The walk was good. All because of the coolest guide we had

It has been an opportunity to discover this initiative, which has allowed to share part of our time in Athens talking and walking with a local, discovering new places but also sharing opinions and knowledges about how life is in Athens and in other parts of Greece. The walk we did let us to discover two different places not known before, which bring us the opportunity to complement the tours done by our owns.

Nous avons beaucoup apprécié ce tour faisant découvrir un autre point de vue d’Athenes que les tours habituels.

Niki crafted a very personalized and tailored talk for my wife and I, showing us a side of Athens we might never have seen without her diligent and thoughtful planning. But our favorite part was after the tour when she took the time to chat with us about Greece, city planning, and the more modern history of this fascinating city. It was a thought provoking conversation with a local that we would likely never had the chance to have had we not booked this tour. I highly recommend considering slotting this tour into your Athens exploration to round out your experience in the city—it’ll help you witness a whole other side to this complex and interesting city.

The walk with Niki has been really nice. She is lovely and really well informed about Athens.
I really enjoyed the time spent with her and also our short stops to say hello numerous cats (patatoni) living in the city center.
A pleasant experience that I will definitely recommend to friends visiting Athens!

It was amazing and rami was very nice. He speaks three languages fluently and he is very welcoming and friendly.

We really like the walk across Athens , we have the pleasure to saw plaka, Monastriraki, Psiri and some other cute places , we walk for about 2 hour 45 min. We would never discover these little places without the help for a local!

We couldn’t have asked for a warmer welcome to Athens that Danai gave to our family of six. She engaged beautifully with our teenagers, shared stories that were interesting, and showed us parts of the city we never would have found on our own. Truly, this was a wonderful experience and we are grateful for the opportunity we had to spend time with Danai. We paid money for other tours and activities in Athens, but our walk with Danai was the highlight of our three days in the city.

I really enjoyed walking around the Ambelokipi neighbourhood with Katerina and seeing the city from the top of Lycabettus Hill. It gave me a new perspective on the city and Greek culture, while also getting to know a neighbourhood with its own personality.

We were impressed by the opportunity to join with a local to walk primarily the plaka neighborhood and learn about it’s culture, history, architectural variety, and the reasons buildings took the form they are today.

The walk was a very good introduction to Athens and the neighborhoods. We scheduled the tour on our first day in Athens, so it was a good orientation to the city. We also asked for tips o how to navigate the city.

Fantastic way to see the real Athens. Can highly recommend.

As it was the first day of my visit to Athens this walk was just like a quick overview of Athens :)

everything

I enjoyed not only the different aspects of each area we visited but particularly the insights to life in Athens (past and present) Vivi was kind enough to share. There are so many hidden gems still to discover, but this walk certainly showed me parts of Athens I never knew existed and each quite beautiful in its own way. Certainly an insightful walk and I would recommend to anyone who comes to visit!

Danai showed us around Plaka and all around the Acropolis. Later in the week, as we walked the city, we realized that Danai had walked us to the most important sites and showed us the popular and fun areas of Athens. We almost felt like locals ourselves!
Thanks very much.

Great experiance to visit places that the locals know and hear intresting stories about the city and culture.

Our walk with Danai was one of the highlights of our time in Athens! We toured a variety of charming neighborhoods we wouldn’t have visited otherwise and learned much about the city’s past and present. Waking with Danai, we discovered many hidden gems and insights beyond what you can find in a guidebook or blog. There’s no match for seeing the city through the eyes of a local!

unusual and pleasant places, well explained rour. excellent

Total unforgettable local experience with Evi!
We had a nice walk around the neighborhood where she lived as a child, and a wonderful square full of typical, delicious and cheap restaurants. The best and cheapest meal I had in 10 days in Greece! Then, we went to a nice and original bar.
Another day, she showed me Kolonaki, the old and the new Parliament, Syntagma Square and the Guards, and then we walked around the Acropolis and Plaka District.

It was intriguing and original, I would definitely recommend it.

Mein Spaziergang mit Athanasios war super. Er hat das Auge für´s Detail und hat spannende Zusammenhänge erklärt. Ich habe wieder etwas mehr über Griechenland, "die Griechen" und Athen erfahren. Bravo!

The 'walk' that I took with Danai left an lasting impression on me. I was lucky enough to meet with her more than once. Please see the 'rate the local' section for my full review.

The best way to visit a city is to do so with a local. And I really appreciated the walk proposed by Kagkas. He was very friendly and showed me different parts of the city in a casual way. Something I truly love.
Thanks for everything

We love the walk. It was really beyond our expectation and showed us an amazing part of Athens which is hard to know for tourists. We explored some local food (Dolma, Mydia, Baklava, Lukumades, Tzatziki, and of course, Moussaka) and streets with George and had a beautiful night view near the Acropolis. We had dinner together at a very stylish restaurant (lots of old vintage ads decorations on the wall) and the food was good there. The walk started from evening and lasted into late night, and it was a great time. Btw, the good thing of 'Athens with a local' is that the entire program is volunteered by local people who love Athens and like to share the beauty of Athens with tourists and is not at all commercialized as walks in other places.

We had a great time!

It was a cold breezy day, a perfect weather for a tour around the neighbourhood. We went to central Athens and were introduced to the sights (museums and architecture of the buildings), the delicacies (food, drinkks, sweets and desserts) as well as the culture of the community in Athens (education, politics, free canvas for grafitti etc). My husband and I truly enjoyed the walk as Danai shared with us the rich knowledge of Athens.

It was a great walk!

We started our walk at Acropolis metro station, went to Anafiotika, then to Plaka (Agora, library of Hadrian), Monastiriaki square, Central Market and ended at the Academia. It was close to a 2 hours walk.