I’ve been visiting Open House Athens events since 2017. I have a loose way of organizing which places I want to visit and in which order. My goal is to see as many buildings as possible in one day, with the least amount of queueing. The inspiration for putting my strategy in writing was a lady I met at last year’s Open House Athens. She was behind me in the queue for the Italian Embassy and holding the Open House map. The map had many notes on it and even information on which buses to take. I found it interesting because that’s the level of organizing I do too. Mentally.

Start Planning your visit to Open House Athens

First things first. Start with a map. A few days before the event you can find the map with the featured buildings. I got that one last year too. But in previous years I mentally made a list in my mind. This year I’m creating a Google map with the places I want to visit. Open House Athens does have one on their website. I want to narrow down the buildings that interest me and see how far they are from each other. This brings us to our next planning step.

On this map add the visiting hours for each building. Then determine the sequence you’re going to visit those places. I have preferences of course, but I try to choose buildings that do not have the same viewing hours. I want to get to each building early to be in the first groups. That’s why I usually choose buildings that are close to each other.

You need to plan how to get from one place to another. For me, it’s either walking or taking the metro. On rare occasions, I might use a bus. But the buildings I choose to visit are in downtown Athens. If you are using the bus, get the OASA telematics app. Some bus stops do have a screen with arrival times, but not all of them do.

If you want to visit a popular spot, you have to get there early. By early I mean 20-30 min before opening. That’s what I did last year when I visited the Italian Embassy. I went on the second day, so I knew it would be busy. I got there 20’ before opening and there were already 15 people in the queue.

To get the most out of your day I suggest you pick a niche. Or buildings close to each other. I usually visit hotels because I want to have content for hotels in Athens on my blog. I also visit buildings that are hard to get inside. One of those buildings is the Italian Embassy that I visited last year. 

Which Buildings I’m visiting this year

After following all the steps outlined above there are 6 (and possibly 7 buildings) I plan to visit this year. There are of course some hotels on my list: Neoma and L’Avventura.

Next on my list is the Loverdos – Ziller museum. I wanted to visit this museum last year as well. Ernst Ziller designed and lived in this house. Banker Dionysion Loverdos bought this house in 1912. Loverdos had a collection of post Byzantine art. His heirs donated the collection to the Greek state. The house was abandoned for years, but it was recently restored. In 2021 it opened to the public as an annex to the Byzantine & Christian Museum.

Related: 5 must visit museums in Athens

Next up I chose 2 buildings in Kolonaki because I’m curious to see them up close. The first one is Gagosian gallery and the other one is Rodokanaki residence. Last but not least I’m planning to see the Onassis library because it falls in the “hard to get in otherwise” category. If time permits I’d like to visit Zappeio again. I’ve been inside many times in the past, so it’s not a new to me building. 

I made a nice little map in Google maps as well.

Let me know in the comments, which buildings are you visiting this year?