You might be thinking that Athens is not one of the most well-known shopping cities in the world but let us stop you right there and set you straight! Athens has a beautiful market that can accommodate different tastes from all around. What we mean by that?
Athens has a side where you can buy brands from best of the best and a side where you can find handmade crafted knickknacks from clothes to dress yourself with, all the way to chairs (yes there are stores downtown that solely sell chairs).
So here are the places that make Athens a special place to do some shopping (to the best of our knowledge):
Ermou Street
Ermou street is the street that connects Syntagma square (where the Greek Parliament is located) to Monastiraki square. Out of all the places we will be mentioning, Ermou street is the place where all franchises are and is 1,5 kilometers long which makes dragging a suitcase with you somewhat difficult.
Ermou street has perfume stores, jewelry stores, clothing stores, shoe stores and whatever else you can imagine when it comes to apparel. Also, a huge cosmetics store. It’s known among Athenians that in the small streets located around Ermou, one can find small districts that specialize on different objects such as the knitting district, the lighting district and even the hat district.
Carrying a suitcase with you while carrying your purchases as well won’t work! That’s why you need to call Baggagement (internal hyperlink here).
Monastiraki Flea Market
The Monastiraki Flea Market is built right next to the Ancient Agora of Athens. The flea market is one of the principal shopping districts in Athens and it attracts a massive amount of tourism every day, all year round (because of the touristy shops).
The largest differentiation between Ermou street and the Monastiraki flea market is the pricing. Even though Monastiraki has some stores that do have classic pricing, if one looks a little closer they can discover some treasures under some very low prices. Monastiraki Flea Market provides buyers from apparel down to musical instruments for sale, vintage record shops, vintage antique stores and we’ve seen a handmade backgammon store as well. Now if you don’t know how to play backgammon you should get yourself acquainted fast! All Greeks do during the summer is drink frappe and play backgammon!
Thissio’s handmade bazaar
This place pops up all year long, whenever it’s nice outside. People set up their jewelry booths on both sides of the street that takes you upwards from Monastiraki to Thissio. All the stuff they display, are 90% handmade, from handmade rings up to handmade candles for Greek Easter.
Their prices are low and they are open to bargaining if done correctly. The better the weather gets, the more people this bazaar attracts! The booths are set up and ready around 11 o’clock in the morning and they start leaving just before night falls. This happens in the winter.
In the summer because the heat is a little more tolerable than the cold, the booths can stay there until midnight. The Thissio bazaar is well-known for its tobacco cases where the people who sell them make them themselves using all sorts of materials.
Plaka
Finally, aside from Monastiraki having touristy shops there’s also Plaka. Plaka is where the most beautiful houses are located and even though it is in the middle of Athens, you cannot hear traffic of the city’s constant buzz.
Also, Plaka is well known to have a great market when it comes to Greek products. Greek soup made from olive oil, olive oil bottles, leather handmade sandals and Greece themed souvenirs are all around. Store owners will be outside their door urging you to come in and check out the store, while in ever crossroad you come up to there will be a tavern with local food for you to make a stop.
Also, Plaka is the place where you will find Greek liqueur such as ouzo, tsipouro and such.
All this shopping exploring that you want to endure, you won’t be able to if you don’t find somewhere to leave your luggage. So, leave it with Baggagement and we promise you will have a wonderful time not worrying about it. Or as we say, baggage free!
