Consider this a brief, visual guide to help you locate various Athens neighborhoods and easily navigate the city. Although Google Maps now makes mention of most of these neighborhoods, you have to zoom in or zoom out at the right level to spot them. And you may also confuse them with municipalities neighboring Athens since there is no concrete barrier from one municipality to the other.
In the map, I've included a few brief comments for each neighborhood. The central ones (around the Acropolis) are those holding the most interest for tourists and visitors to the city and together with some southern, coastal municipalities they host the majority of hotels.
Of course, the limits of each neighborhood are approximate since they are just unofficial, customary subdivisions of the city. Their names often come from the past and/or may be related to some local landmark that may or may not carry the same significance currently as it did in the past. Occasionally, neighbourhood names may overlap or some large neighbourhood may be -unofficially- divided into smaller ones. In this map I just stuck with the larger ones, as my goal is to give you a general feel of direction if you're wondering about where to stay, where to go or what to do.
With the expansion of the Metro system, areas are now often named after Metro Stations, while it is also not uncommon for people to refer to an area by the name of the main avenues that cross it (Patission St./ Liossion St. / Iera Odos / Syngrou Ave. etc.). In this latter case, the average Athenian usually has in mind certain connotations that accompany each avenue. To stick to the above examples these connotations would be: retail shops / car & taxi workshops / bouzouki clubs & car dealerships / frequented by transvestites and other night people... So, if you discern a smile in people when you say you'll be staying at Syngrou Ave. you now know why...
Making a big generalization, I would say that the southern, eastern and northern parts of the city are the safer ones, while those extending west of center are less so (west of Patission St. / at Omonia Sq, Metaxourgeio, Victoria, Aghios Nikolaos, Kato Patissia and part of the "Historic Triangle"). I have walked almost everywhere during the day without anything happening to me but this is not the case for everybody.
Click on the link: Athens Walker - Athens neighborhoods to see a larger map with explanations
Here are the main neighborhoods by name. Ease of access depends mostly on transit availability and not so much on the nominal distance from city center. I tried listing them all from the center on outwards but it just wouldn't make any sense, so the first list is the more central neighborhoods and the 2nd list are all the rest.
City Center a.k.a. Istoriko Trigono (Historic Triangle) (Syntagma Sq, Omonia Sq, etc.)
Plaka
Monastiraki
Thission (a.k.a. Thissio)
National Garden / Syntagma / Zappeio
Markygianni / Acropolis
Neapoli / Pefkakia / Exarcheia
Kolonaki
Lykavittos (a.k.a. Lycabettus)
Ambelokipoi (a.k.a. Ampelokipi)
Gazi (a.k.a. Kerameikos)
Akademia Platonos
Aghios Nikolaos
Agios Panteleimonas
Colonus (a.k.a. Kolonos) / Liossion / Lenormant
Goudi
Gyzi
Ilissia
Kaisariani
Kolokynthou
Koukaki
Kypseli / Nea Kypseli / Ano Kypseli
Metaxourgeio
Neos Kosmos
Pagrati (a.k.a. Pangrati)
Patissia / Ano Patissia / Kato Patissia
Petralona (Ano Petralona / Kato Petralona)
Polygono
Rizoupoli / Promponas
Sepolia / Skouze Hill (Lofos Skouze)
Victoria Sq.
Votanikos
Zografou
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