Use the underground
Lycabettus funicular
to reach the top

Athens has a couple of vantage points besides the Acropolis, from which you can get superb views of the city. Lycabettus Hill is really a limestone rock reaching almost 300 metres feet into the once-crystalline Athenian sky. In the evening, the top half is floodlit, and from the Acropolis it looks something like a giant souffle.

By day, it's a green-and-white hill toppoed by a tiny, flaringly white church, Agios Georgios. It's a nagging challenge, and sooner or later you're to want to climb it. Take the two-minute funicular up the southeast flank. To get there, follow the 'telepherique signs to the corner of Kleomenous and Ploutarchou Streets, between Kolonaki Square and the Athens Hilton. The panorama from the top is priceless, all the way to Mount Parnes in the north, west to Piraeus and the Saronic Gulf, with the Acropolis siiting like a ruminative lion half way to the sea. There's also a cafe/restaurant up there.