Piraeus

Half a day in Piraeus between boats

With half a day to fill before a ferry, Piraeus repays a short loop. Leave bags with your ferry agency, take trolleybus 20 to Pasalimani, see the bronze Apollo, Athena and Artemis in the Archaeological Museum on Charilaou Trikoupi Street, then walk on to Mikrolimano for a waterside fish lunch.

Late morning: leave your bags at the hotel or the left-luggage at your ferry agency and take trolleybus 20 from the port towards Pasalimani. Get off by the marina and spend an hour at the Archaeological Museum on Charilaou Trikoupi Street. The bronze Apollo, Athena and Artemis, found by chance during roadworks in the city, are the reason to come, along with the carved grave stelae.

Midday: walk on to the Hellenic Maritime Museum on the edge of Pasalimani, then climb Kastella hill through its stepped residential lanes. From the top you can see all three harbours at once and across to Salamina.

Lunch: drop down the far side to Mikrolimano and take a table on the quay for a long fish lunch. Order whatever the taverna has fresh that day.

Afternoon: if you still have time, follow the Peiraiki shore road west past fragments of the ancient walls and swim off the rocks at Freatida. Trolleybus 20 or a taxi gets you back to the gates. Aim to be there an hour before departure in summer.

Fish by weight at Mikrolimano and Pasalimani

Fish is what Piraeus does best, and the best tables are on its two eastern bays, away from the ferry port. Mikrolimano is a tight horseshoe of tavernas with chairs almost in the water, busiest on weekend evenings, while Pasalimani (Zea) has more choice and a plainer feel. Fish is priced by the kilo.

Mikrolimano is the classic: a tight horseshoe of tavernas with chairs almost in the water, busiest on weekend evenings when Athenians drive down for dinner. In both, order by weight from the display of the day, and add simple sides such as horta (boiled wild greens with lemon), fried kalamarakia and a plate of taramosalata.

For a change from fish, the city's grills keep alive the Anatolian cooking brought by refugees from Asia Minor in the 1920s: look for giaourtlou (kebab over yoghurt and bread), pastourmas and soutzouki sausage.

For a drink with a view, the cafe terraces along the Peiraiki shore look straight out over the open sea; you pay for the setting, but it is the nicest place to wait for a late boat. Around the gates themselves, choices are poor and good coffee is hard to find, so stock up before you reach the port.

Day trips from Piraeus, winter gales and the 15 August crush

Aegina is the easiest island day out from Piraeus: boats from the Saronic gates run all year, so you can lunch among its pistachio stalls and be back for dinner, with Hydra and Poros as longer trips. Winter gales can cancel sailings, and around 15 August the port is packed with holiday crowds.

Aegina is the obvious island day trip. Boats from the Saronic gates reach it quickly and run all year, so you can be eating pistachios on its harbour front before lunch and back in Piraeus for dinner. Hydra and Poros make longer days on the same side of the port. Central Athens is just as easy: Metro Line 1 runs straight to Thissio and Monastiraki for the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora.

Timing changes everything here. From April to June, highs climb from about 20C to 30C and rain all but vanishes after May; this is when the islands are fully served but not yet packed. July and August bring highs around 33C, almost no rain and the year's biggest crowds, peaking in the days around 15 August, when Greeks head home to the islands and sailings sell out days ahead. September and October cool to 29C and then 24C and remain an easy time to travel.

From November to March, highs fall to 14-19C and the wettest months bring about 60 mm of rain. Many island routes are trimmed, and strong winds can cancel smaller boats, so leave slack in any winter itinerary.