Visit Athens Guide
Acropolis Tickets: The Official Shop, and What It Costs
Acropolis tickets come from one seller and a crowd of resellers. The seller is the culture ministry's own platform; the resellers add an audio guide, a live guide or a bundle of other sites. This page prints what each charges as checked in Q3 2026, and the three rules — a declared entry hour, no refund, two changes — that decide which one suits your trip. What is on the rock and how long it takes is on the Acropolis page; every other ticket the city sells is compared on the Athens city guide homepage.
Quick answer Which shop is official, what €30 buys, and what you cannot undo
The official Acropolis ticket is €30 full and €15 reduced, sold by the culture ministry through Hellenic Heritage at hh.gr. It carries a declared entry hour, includes the Digital Guide app, and cannot be refunded.
Key takeaways
- Start at hh.gr, not hhticket.gr — typed on its own, that second address returned an error page when we checked, and the official-shop section shows why the name still circulates.
- Non-refundable is the term the shop itself uses. What you do get is two changes per ticket, up to two hours before your slot; the rules section has the wording.
- Want a guide or an audio track? The reseller comparison sets the €30 official price against what each card adds, starting with the entry ticket with audio.
- The rock and its museum are sold separately and always have been — Acropolis Museum tickets are a different shop at a different price.
- Travelling in winter? Entry is free on two Sundays a month from November to March; the free-entry days lists them and says which are worth the queue.
Key facts
Opening hours
| 1 April – 31 August, daily | 08:00–20:00 |
|---|---|
| 1 November – 31 March, daily | 08:00–17:00 |
| Last admission | —–20 minutes before closing |
Closed 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Orthodox Easter Sunday, 25 and 26 December
Admission
- Adult
- €30
- Reduced
- €15
- Free
- 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September, 28 October, and the first and third Sunday of each month from 1 November to 31 March
Planning it
- Time needed
- Not stated by the shop; the ticket is valid for one entry in the declared hour
- Book ahead
- Essential — weeks ahead
- Address
- Acropolis of Athens, 105 58 Athens (south entrance on Dionysiou Areopagitou)
What the official shop sells
Everything Hellenic Heritage lists for the Acropolis, read on hh.gr and tickets.hh.gr on 1 September 2026. The catalogue is short: one entry ticket, one reduced rate, and a private out-of-hours experience. There is no package, and no separate booking fee.
| Ticket | Price | Covers | Rules | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visit the Acropolis, full | €30 | The whole site above and on the slopes, plus the Digital Guide app | Declared entry hour; single entry; non-refundable | Official site |
| Reduced | €15 | The same site | Documents shown at the gate; same slot rules | Official site |
| Free-entry days | €0 | The same site | Six fixed dates plus two Sundays a month in winter — the full list | Official site |
| The Acropolis Experience | €5,000 per group, maximum five guests | Private two-hour visit at 06:00 or 20:00, guide optional, a licensed replica as a gift | Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, 1 April to 31 October; changes up to five days before | Official site |
Two things are missing from that table on purpose, because they are missing from the shop. There is no multi-site package — the €30 five-day combination ticket that once covered seven Athens sites is gone, and what replaced it costs €105. And there is no separate presale or booking fee: €30 is what the checkout charges.
Where to buy: one address, and one that looks like it
The single most common wrong turn on an Athens trip starts in a search result.
hh.gr is the front door
Hellenic Heritage is the official platform of the Ministry of Culture and ODAP, the organisation that runs the state's archaeological sites and museums. The destination page for the rock is hh.gr/en/destinations/acropolis-of-athens, and the ticket itself is at tickets.hh.gr. The footer of that checkout names ODAP, Eleftheriou Venizelou 57, Athens, and the service is funded through the Greece 2.0 recovery plan — useful confirmation that you are on the right page and not a lookalike.
hhticket.gr on its own is an error page
Guide after guide, and several of the pages that rank for this search, print hhticket.gr as the official address. Typed on its own on 1 September 2026, it returned an HTTP 403 error page. The name is not invented: once you reach the checkout from hh.gr, the payment step runs on a URL under hhticket.gr.
But as a starting point it sends you nowhere. If a booking page will not load, go back to hh.gr rather than assuming the system is down.
What a reseller is, and is not
A reseller buys the same state entry and sells it with something attached — an audio guide, a live guide, a bundle of other sites, a cancellation policy the state does not offer. That is a legitimate business and often a sensible purchase; it is not a way to skip anything the official ticket does not also skip, because there is only one gate and one queue for scanned tickets. Anyone promising to get you onto the rock outside opening hours for less than €5,000 a group is not selling the ministry's own out-of-hours experience.
The €30 official ticket against what resellers charge
The official price set beside the cards on sale for the same entrance, as listed on 1 September 2026. Cancellation terms come from each listing. Card prices move with the date and the exchange rate; the number at checkout is the one you pay.
| Option | Price | Includes | Cancel | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Official ticket, hh.gr | €30 | Timed entry, Digital Guide app | No refund; two changes to 2h before | Official site |
| Entry ticket with audio options | Listed at €36 | Timed entry, choice of audio guide or live guide | Per listing | Check Availability |
| Entry ticket, flexible | Listed at €36 | Timed entry, optional add-ons for the museum and other sites | Free cancellation per listing | Check Availability |
| Entry plus up to five more sites | Listed at €36 | Acropolis slot, both Agoras, Olympieion and more, audio | Per listing | Check Availability |
| First-access guided tour | From €27 | Early entry with a licensed guide, south slope | Free up to 24 hours before | Check Availability |
| Small group, maximum eight | From €32 | Two hours on the rock with a local guide | Per listing | Check Availability |
Read the middle column, not the price column. Three of these cards list within a euro or two of each other and differ entirely in what arrives: one is the bare slot, one adds a cancellation policy the state does not give you, and one bundles the sites the abolished combination ticket used to cover. The guided options cost less than the official entry because the tour price excludes the entrance you still pay for — always check whether admission is included before comparing a guide against a ticket.
Acropolis tickets and tours on sale now
Everything above, as cards, with the operator's own rating and review count.
from €36
Athens: Acropolis Ticket with Optional Audio or Live Guide
Pre-booked Acropolis entry sent to your phone, with two audio-guide options and no fixed guide to keep up with. The official price is €30; this is the reseller version of the same timed slot.
Check Availability
from €36
Athens: Acropolis Ticket & Audio Guide + Free Cancellation
Acropolis e-ticket with free cancellation and optional add-ons for the Acropolis Museum, the two Agoras, Kerameikos, the Temple of Zeus or the National Archaeological Museum.
Check Availability
from €36
Athens: Acropolis Ticket & Heritage Sites + Acropolis Audio
The bundle the official shop does not sell: the Acropolis slot plus entry to up to five more archaeological sites, including both Agoras and the Temple of Olympian Zeus.
Check Availability
from €27
Athens: First Access Acropolis and Parthenon Guided Tour
An early-morning guided walk that goes to the Parthenon before the coach groups, then the Theatre of Dionysus on the south slope. Two to four hours depending on the option.
Check Availability
from €32.03
Athens: Acropolis Small Group (max: 8) Guided Tour
Maximum eight people with a licensed local guide across the Acropolis and the Parthenon, about two hours on the rock.
Check AvailabilityPrices, ratings and details are the platform's own, checked in Q3 2026; euro figures are the listed prices — the platform bills in your account's currency.
The three rules the ticket commits you to
All three are printed on the checkout page, and all three surprise people.
You declare an hour, not a day
Entry is by visit zone: you pick a date and an hour, and the ticket is valid for a single entry in that window. Last admission is twenty minutes before closing whatever hour you hold. In June, July and August the early hours go first, because the rock has no shade and the marble is unpleasant by eleven.
If your dates are fixed and your hour is not, book the hour anyway — an early slot you can move beats a late slot you cannot get.
There is no refund, in any circumstance the shop names
The listing says it plainly: tickets are valid for single entry on the selected date and time, and the price is not returned. That matters more in Athens than in most capitals, because a public-sector strike can close the site at a few days' notice and the staff are ministry employees — how strikes are announced explains what to watch. Some reseller cards do carry free cancellation, which is most of what you are paying the extra few euro for.
You get two changes, up to two hours before
Changes are allowed up to two hours before the visit, a maximum of twice per ticket. This is the useful escape hatch: if the forecast turns to forty degrees or a strike is called for the morning, move the slot rather than write the ticket off. Manage Tickets on tickets.hh.gr is where that is done.
What you may not bring
Large luggage, food, and professional photography or filming are all refused at the gate. There is no cloakroom on the rock. Water is allowed and necessary; there is a fountain near the entrance and none on the summit.
Reduced, free, and who actually qualifies
The €15 rate and the free days are separate systems with separate rules.
The €15 reduced ticket
The reduced rate is half the full price, and the document that earns it has to be shown at entry, not at purchase — the shop's own instruction is that visitors with reduced or free tickets must present valid identification or documentation at the gate. Buy the wrong category and you are turned back to the ticket office, which on a summer morning costs an hour.
The free days are dates, not categories
Admission costs nothing on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September, 28 October, and the first and third Sunday of each month from 1 November to 31 March. Note first and third — a great deal of the web still prints "first Sunday only". Whether a free day is worth having is a separate question, and the free-entry page answers it month by month.
Closed days, when nothing is on sale
The site is shut on 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Orthodox Easter Sunday, and 25 and 26 December. Orthodox Easter moves and is usually not the Western date — a trip booked around one can land on the other. The opening-hours table carries the year's closures for every site in the city.
Acropolis ticket questions people ask before buying
What is the official ticket site for the Acropolis?
Hellenic Heritage — hh.gr, with the checkout at tickets.hh.gr — run by the Ministry of Culture and ODAP. The address hhticket.gr, printed by many guides, returned an error page on its own when we checked; it only appears legitimately as the payment step you are handed after starting at hh.gr. Where to buy goes through both.
Is it worth buying Acropolis tickets in advance?
In June, July and August, yes, and specifically for the early hours — the site opens at 08:00 and the shade is gone by mid-morning. From November to March you can usually buy the same day. Either way the ticket carries a declared hour, so "advance" here means choosing your hour, not skipping a line. The entry ticket with audio options is the reseller version of the same slot.
Does the site ticket cover the temple at the top?
Yes. The Parthenon, the Erechtheion with its Caryatid porch, the Temple of Athena Nike and the Propylaea are all inside the fence, and so are the Theatre of Dionysus and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus on the south slope. One ticket covers all of it — there is no separate Parthenon ticket. What each of those buildings is, is on the Acropolis page and the Parthenon page.
Can I get a refund if I cannot go?
No. The shop states that tickets are non-refundable. You may change the date and time twice, up to two hours before the slot, through Manage Tickets on tickets.hh.gr. If a refundable option matters to you, that is what some of the reseller cards in the comparison are selling.
Is there a ticket that covers the Acropolis and the museum?
Not from either official shop. They are separate organisations: the site is sold by Hellenic Heritage, the museum sells its own tickets, and neither covers the other. Resellers bundle them — the Acropolis and museum combo is one — and the combined-ticket page explains what happened to the official package that used to exist.
How early should I arrive for my slot?
Ten to fifteen minutes for the 08:00 hour, more if you are coming to the south entrance by Akropoli metro, which is a twelve-minute walk. Last admission is twenty minutes before closing, so a late-afternoon slot in winter leaves less time on the rock than it looks. Seasonal closing times are on the opening-hours table.
Reviewed Q3 2026 (July–September 2026); next review Q4 2026. Prices, hours and terms are set by the venue or operator and confirmed at checkout.
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