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Getting from Athens Eleftherios Venezelos Airport to Athens

For those of you who haven't been to Athens since the early 90's(or before), you're in for a surprise when you come in for a landing. No longer do you fly along the coast of Attica and swoop down for a landing with the streets and buildings right below you..... and longer can you just clear customs, grab your bag and hop in a cab to be in the center of Athens or Glyfada(or Pireaus to catch your ferry) in less than 15 minutes.

In 2003 the new airport opened it's runways on the plains of Spata, to the northeast of Athens, but luckily, with the airport came a new highway that no longer meandered through the olive groves, but whisks you straight to Athens along the foot of Mt Hymattus.

So, you've gotten off the plane and you look around you bewildered as you realize you're out of the safety of the plane(no decisions to make- they're all made for you) and have successfully navigated the immigration dept, grabbed your bags, passed through customs and now you are in a long hallway filled with shops and people walking down the corridors with purpose(with the exception of yourself and the others who have also gotten off the plane and are somewhat lost!)

Among the various shops in this corridor are banks, which you'll need in order to change your money to euros. Each bank has the daily rate and the fee that they charge to convert. I would only convert a little more than you need to get to Athens and then convert more as you need it once you get into Athens(and can compare the rates of different banks and exchanges). Remember- exchanging euros to dollars is like playing the stock market- it goes up and down daily and you want to buy when the dollar is strong.(There's nothing worse than changing $1000 and finding that had you waited a day you would have gotten 25 euro more!)

Now... you've got your euros in hand and are ready to tackle the trip to Athens. The first thing you have to do is find the exit and walk out. At this point you have 4 options(3 of which I have taken).