National Archaeological Museum Tickets

National Archaeological Museum tickets give entry to the largest archaeological museum in Greece, on Patission Street in central Athens, sold as standard entry, as entry with an audio guide, or as part of a guided small-group or private tour of the galleries. Tours across the rest of the country are listed on Greece Tours.

The sections below cover the ticket types, where to buy them, free and reduced entry, opening hours, audio guides, guided tours, the length of a visit, queues, the combined ticket, getting there, the rules inside, other museum tickets and booking, with links into the Athens pages. The tickets and tours shown are checked on GetYourGuide.

What are National Archaeological Museum tickets?

National Archaeological Museum tickets are timed admission passes to the largest archaeological museum in Greece, at 44, 28th of October (Patission) Street in central Athens. They come from the Ministry of Culture e-ticketing system, the museum reception desk or tour operators.

The museum runs under the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, and the ministry fixes the admission rules for every visitor. National Archaeological Museum tickets are valid for the date and the entry time printed on them, and the museum admits its last visitors 30 minutes before closing. The gate accepts a printed ticket, a digital ticket on a phone screen or a physical ticket from the desk, so a visitor needs no printer to get in.

One ticket opens the permanent collections: Prehistoric, Sculpture, Vases and Minor Objects, Santorini, Metallurgy, and Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities. The Mask of Agamemnon and the Antikythera Mechanism sit among them. The history of the building, the collections and the full list of highlights appear on the National Archaeological Museum page. Read it before the visit to decide which rooms to see first.

The museum café is open to anyone, since its entrance needs no ticket. Adult groups visit in parties of 10 to 30 people plus one escort, and schools arrange their visits by telephone ahead of the day. National Archaeological Museum tickets for a single traveller, a couple or a family need no such arrangement: the buyer picks a date and an entry time, online or at the desk, and walks in.

Which National Archaeological Museum tickets can you book?

Five formats of National Archaeological Museum tickets are on sale: the standard entry ticket, a ticket with an audio guide, a ticket with an optional audio guide, a two-hour small-group guided tour and a two-hour expert-led private tour.

The standard entry ticket comes from the official e-ticketing system or the reception desk and covers admission alone. The other four National Archaeological Museum tickets are partner products: each one adds an audio option or a licensed guide to the visit, and each listing states its format, its length and the age bands it sells. The five formats line up as follows:

• Standard entry ticket: admission for one date and one entry time.
• Ticket and audio guide: an e-ticket with a self-guided audio tour on your phone.
• Ticket with optional audio: an e-ticket with an audio track to add on request.
• Small-group guided tour: a licensed guide for a small group across 2 hours.
• Expert-led private tour: admission and an expert guide for one party across 2 hours.

The two audio formats leave the pace to the visitor. The audio guide listing gives a visit length from 45 minutes to 4 hours and carries a certified partner badge. The optional-audio listing has the holder scan the e-ticket at the gate, keeps the ticket valid for 1 day and is marked wheelchair accessible. It sells places for ages 18 to 99 and bars ages 17 and younger, while the reception desk and the official system issue National Archaeological Museum tickets for visitors of every age.

The two guided formats both run for 2 hours, and both listings are marked wheelchair accessible. The small-group tour follows a licensed guide through the masterpieces of ancient Greece, carries a skip-the-line tag and splits its places at age 25: an adult band from 25 to 99 and a child band for 24 and under, the same line the museum draws for free EU entry. The private tour keeps its expert guide for one party alone and includes museum admission in the booking.

Where do you buy National Archaeological Museum tickets?

You buy National Archaeological Museum tickets in three places: the official e-ticketing system of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, the reception desk at the museum on Patission Street, and tour operators that add an audio track or a licensed guide.

The official e-ticketing system of the ministry runs at hhticket.gr, and tickets.hh.gr carries a venue page for the museum. National Archaeological Museum tickets bought there carry a date and an entry time, and they reach the buyer in digital form. The gate accepts the ticket on a phone screen or as a printout, which leaves the buyer free to book from a hotel room, an airport lounge or a ferry deck before reaching Athens.

The reception desk inside the museum sells National Archaeological Museum tickets in person on the day, until last admission. A desk purchase needs no account, no email address and no phone, and the buyer leaves with a physical ticket in hand. Teachers who lead an unpaid educational visit follow a separate route: they need a teacher’s certificate, a list of participants, identity documents and an electronic ticket from the official system.

Tour operators sell National Archaeological Museum tickets inside packages, and each partner listing sets its own booking cut-off. The audio guide ticket closes 5 hours before the chosen slot, and both guided tours close 10 hours before theirs. For a plan that covers more than one collection, the guide to Athens museums sets this museum beside the other major collections of the city, with each one on its own line.

Who gets free or reduced National Archaeological Museum tickets?

Free National Archaeological Museum tickets go to EU citizens under 25, non-EU children under 18, people with a disability and one escort, and named professional groups. Reduced National Archaeological Museum tickets go to Greek and EU visitors over 65 from October until late spring.

The free categories mix age groups, welfare groups and job groups. Every holder of free or reduced National Archaeological Museum tickets still needs a ticket to pass the gate, since the museum admits visitors only on a printed, digital or physical ticket. Carry the passport, identity card or professional card that matches the category, and show it when collecting the ticket. The free categories break down as follows:

• Age: EU citizens under 25 and children under 18 from non-EU countries.
• School and study: eligible EU secondary and vocational school students, their escorting teachers, educators at every level and students of non-EU institutions on educational visits.
• Welfare: Social Solidarity Income recipients, unemployed Greek citizens, large families and refugees.
• Disability: people with a disability rate of 67% or more, together with one escort.
• Service and sport: people doing their military service and Olympic winners.
• Profession: licensed tour guides, journalists, ICOM and ICOMOS members, museum friends’ society members, Ministry of Culture staff and Chamber of Fine Arts members.

Reduced National Archaeological Museum tickets cover a shorter list. Greek and EU citizens over 65 qualify from the start of October until late spring. Parents who accompany primary school groups from the EU qualify on those school visits, and the escorting teachers of schools from outside the EU qualify as well. Every other adult visitor outside the free and reduced lists buys the full ticket at the desk or online.

Free status covers museum admission and nothing more. A partner bundle still charges for its audio track or its guide, whatever the age or job of the guest. The small-group listing shows this split: it keeps a separate rate band for guests aged 24 and under, which mirrors the museum’s under-25 rule for EU citizens, while the audio guide ticket sells one adult band for every age up to 99.

Which days and hours do National Archaeological Museum tickets cover?

National Archaeological Museum tickets cover one visit on the date printed on them. Summer hours run from 08:00 to 20:00, winter hours from 08:30 to 15:30, and every Tuesday opens at 13:00. The museum closes on six holidays a year.

The summer timetable starts in late spring and runs until 15 November. From Wednesday to Monday the doors open at 08:00 and close at 20:00, with last admission at 19:30. Tuesday is the late-start day in every season: the museum opens at 13:00 and closes at 20:00, again with last admission at 19:30. Visitors keep to the date, and to any time slot, shown on their National Archaeological Museum tickets, so no entry exists on a Tuesday morning.

The winter timetable runs from 16 November until the summer hours return in late spring. From Wednesday to Monday the museum opens at 08:30 and closes at 15:30, with last admission at 15:00. Tuesday keeps its 13:00 to 20:00 window, which makes it the only winter day with evening entry. The box office stops selling National Archaeological Museum tickets 30 minutes before closing, and guards start clearing the galleries 20 minutes before closing time.

The museum stays shut on 25 and 26 December, 1 January, 25 March, Labour Day and Orthodox Easter Sunday, so no National Archaeological Museum tickets are valid on those dates. On the dates below, admission to the museum is free of charge for every visitor, whatever their age or country. The free dates follow the Hellenic Ministry of Culture calendar for state museums and archaeological sites:

• 6 March: Melina Mercouri memorial day
• 18 April: International Day for Monuments and Sites
• Late spring: International Museum Day
• Last weekend of September: European Heritage Days
• 28 October: national holiday
• First and third Sunday, 1 November to 31 March: winter free Sundays

Do National Archaeological Museum tickets include an audio guide?

The museum’s own National Archaeological Museum tickets cover admission, and its visit page lists no audio guide. Two GetYourGuide listings add audio: the Ticket and Audio Guide includes a self-guided phone tour, and the Ticket with Optional Audio offers commentary as an option.

The Athens: National Archaeological Museum Ticket and Audio Guide listing joins an e-ticket to a self-guided audio tour that plays on the visitor’s own phone. The commentary comes in six languages: English, French, Italian, Greek, Spanish and German. The listing sets the visit at 45 minutes to 4 hours, so each listener picks the pace and the order of the rooms. These National Archaeological Museum tickets close for booking 5 hours before the chosen entry, which still allows a morning booking for an afternoon visit.

The Athens: National Archaeological Museum Ticket with Optional Audio listing sells an entry e-ticket that visitors scan at the gate before they explore the rooms at their own pace. Audio is optional on this listing, which runs in nine languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese and Polish. These National Archaeological Museum tickets stay valid for 1 day and carry a wheelchair-accessible label. The listing sells adult places for ages 18 to 99, and ages 17 and younger cannot book it.

Two items make phone audio work inside the building: headphones and a charged battery. The museum runs a shared WiFi network across its areas, and its visit regulation asks guests to keep phones on silent mode in the galleries. Headphones keep the commentary private and inside that rule. The museum website also offers a downloadable map of the interior and brochures in English, German and French. Travellers who like the self-paced format can carry it on outdoors with an Athens audio tour after leaving Patission Street.

What does a guided tour with National Archaeological Museum tickets cover?

A guided tour with National Archaeological Museum tickets lasts 2 hours on both GetYourGuide listings. The small-group tour covers the masterpieces of ancient Greece with a licensed guide, and the private tour names the Mask of Agamemnon, the Mycenaean gold hoard and the Antikythera Mechanism.

The Top-Rated National Archaeological Museum Tour, Small Group, puts a licensed guide in charge of a shared group for 2 hours inside the galleries. The listing runs in nine languages, among them English, Japanese, Chinese and Russian. It sells two age bands on its National Archaeological Museum tickets: adults from 25 to 99, and young people aged 24 and under.

The National Archaeological Museum Expert-Led Private Tour gives one party its own guide for 2 hours, in English, German or Italian. Its listing names three stops on the route. The Mask of Agamemnon is the gold funerary mask from Grave Circle A at Mycenae, named in error after the king. The Mycenaean gold hoard holds the gold cups, seals, rings and jewellery from the Mycenae graves. The Antikythera Mechanism is the geared bronze device raised from the Antikythera shipwreck.

• Group: a shared small group, or one private party
• Queue: a skip-the-line label on the small-group listing only
• Access: a wheelchair-accessible label on both listings
• Cancellation: free cancellation on both listings
• Booking cut-off: 10 hours before the start on both listings

How long does a visit on National Archaeological Museum tickets last?

A visit on National Archaeological Museum tickets lasts 45 minutes to 4 hours on the audio-guide listing and 2 hours on both guided tours. Self-guided visitors set their own pace until guards clear the galleries 20 minutes before closing.

Opening hours set the ceiling for every visit. A summer day from Wednesday to Monday, 08:00 to 20:00, gives 12 hours inside. A winter day on the same weekdays, 08:30 to 15:30, gives 7 hours, and a Tuesday from 13:00 to 20:00 gives 7 hours in both seasons. National Archaeological Museum tickets used at last admission leave the shortest visit: a winter entry at 15:00 leaves 10 minutes before the guards start clearing the rooms.

The size of the collections explains the wide range. The museum shows prehistoric finds from the Neolithic era, Cycladic marble figurines, Mycenaean art, a sculpture collection, an Egyptian collection with over a thousand objects on show, and the Stathatos collection of jewellery and metalwork. Elevators serve the basement and the first floor. A guided tour on National Archaeological Museum tickets followed by a solo walk through the remaining rooms fits inside a winter day with time to spare.

The museum café sits in the garden courtyard, and entry to the café is free without a ticket, so a coffee before or after the galleries adds nothing to the cost of National Archaeological Museum tickets. Essential work can close single galleries without notice, which shortens a visit on the day. Arriving at opening time on a summer weekday gives the longest window, with 11 and a half hours before the last admission at 19:30.

Can National Archaeological Museum tickets skip the queue?

National Archaeological Museum tickets bought online skip the box office queue, because the e-ticket is scanned straight at the gate. Only the small-group tour listing carries a formal “Skip the line” label, with a licensed guide leading the group inside.

The two entry-only National Archaeological Museum tickets work as e-tickets on a phone. The Ticket with Optional Audio listing tells holders to scan the e-ticket at the gate and explore the rooms at their own pace, and the ticket stays valid for one day. The Ticket and Audio Guide product adds a self-guided audio tour on the phone, and its bookings close five hours before the visit. Neither listing names a separate fast lane past the entrance check.

The Top-Rated National Archaeological Museum Tour for a small group is the one product in this set labelled “Skip the line”. A licensed guide leads the two-hour visit, the listing marks the tour as wheelchair accessible, and free cancellation applies. Bookings close 10 hours before the start. Visitors who want National Archaeological Museum tickets and a guide in one booking pass the ticket desk without stopping and walk in with their group.

The Expert-Led Private Tour includes admission and lasts two hours, with the guide working for one private group only. Its listing shows no skip-the-line label, so these National Archaeological Museum tickets count as a private guided visit rather than a fast-track product. The private format also requires booking 10 hours ahead, offers free cancellation and carries the wheelchair accessible mark. An e-ticket from the official e-ticket site of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture replaces the box office stop in the same way as an operator’s e-ticket.

Are National Archaeological Museum tickets part of the Athens combined ticket?

No. National Archaeological Museum tickets sat outside the Athens combined ticket, which covered the Acropolis and six other ancient sites. The Ministry of Culture has since discontinued that combined ticket, and the museum sells its own separate entry.

The combined ticket gave one entry to each of seven archaeological sites in the historic centre of Athens, valid for five days from purchase. It covered open-air sites and the small museums attached to them, not the large city museums that stand on their own streets, so National Archaeological Museum tickets never formed part of it. Six of the seven sites appear below, and Aristotle’s Lyceum completed the set:

• The Acropolis and its slopes
• The Ancient Agora and its museum
• The Roman Agora and the Tower of the Winds
• Hadrian’s Library
• The Temple of Olympian Zeus
• Kerameikos and its archaeological museum

The Acropolis Museum also sat outside the pass and sells its own entry, just as National Archaeological Museum tickets do. The museum also runs on its own footing. Greek law turned it into a legal entity under public law with its own governing board, alongside the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens, the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki and the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.

With the combined ticket gone, each Athens site now sells its own entry. Official joint tickets remain only where a site and its museum form one unit, as at Delphi and Ancient Olympia. For the current options around the Acropolis, the Acropolis multi-site pass and combo tickets page lists what is on sale. Visitors planning the ancient sites and the museum on one trip buy National Archaeological Museum tickets on their own, alongside a separate entry for each site they want to see.

How do you reach the museum with your National Archaeological Museum tickets?

Holders of National Archaeological Museum tickets head to 44 Patission Street in Exarcheia, beside the historic Polytechnic building. The nearest metro stations are Victoria on Line 1 and Omonia on Lines 1 and 2, each within a 15-minute walk of the gate.

The museum fills a whole block framed by Patission, Ipirou, Bouboulinas and Tositsa streets, and its main entrance faces Patission Street. Its neighbour to the south is the National Technical University of Athens, known locally as the Polytechnic. The block sits on the western edge of Exarcheia, a district north of Omonia Square and the commercial centre, so National Archaeological Museum tickets lead visitors a short way beyond the main sightseeing streets around Syntagma and Plaka. The options from the centre compare as follows:

• Victoria station, Line 1: a 5 to 10 minute walk to the gate
• Omonia station, Lines 1 and 2: a 10 to 15 minute walk north
• Politechnio stop, bus line 224: named after the Polytechnic next door
• Athens Tram and Proastiakos railway: no stop, so riders switch to the metro

The walk from Omonia Square runs straight north up Patission Street. The Polytechnic’s neoclassical building comes first on the right, and the museum’s front garden opens on the next block after Tositsa Street. From Victoria the walk is shorter, through the grid of residential blocks around Victoria Square to Patission Street. Tram riders change to metro Line 2 at Syntagma and ride two stops to Omonia before setting off on foot with their National Archaeological Museum tickets.

Bus and trolleybus lines stop in front of the museum or close to it along Patission Street. Visitors who join the museum with the city’s other sights on the same day can check routes and stops on the Athens hop-on hop-off bus page. A new Line 4 metro station named Exarcheia–Archaiologiko Mouseio is under construction, and once it opens, holders of National Archaeological Museum tickets get a metro stop in the museum’s own district.

What rules apply inside on National Archaeological Museum tickets?

National Archaeological Museum tickets let you photograph antiquities with a handheld camera, without flash and free of charge. Bags above 30 x 30 x 15 cm go to the cloakroom in the reception lobby, and food, drink and pets stay out of the galleries.

Article 11 of the museum’s visitor regulation sets the camera rules for every holder of National Archaeological Museum tickets. A portable camera without flash is free to use, and flash photography is not allowed. Objects that carry a no-photography plate stay off limits. Tripods, filming and videotaping need permission from the Directorate of the Museum. Photos of people are allowed while they respect the character of the monuments and do not obstruct the work of the museum.

Article 8 sends luggage, rucksacks, large bags and sports gear such as rackets to the cloakroom. The cloakroom does not accept cash, bank cards, ID cards, passports or valuables such as jewellery, cameras, computers and phones, and the museum takes no responsibility for loss, theft or damage there. Pets stay outside, except guide dogs with visitors with disabilities. Phones go on silent, and smoking and e-cigarettes are banned in all exhibition areas.

Visitors with disabilities have a separate entrance on the Vas. Herakleiou Street side of the building. The museum is fully wheelchair accessible and offers facilities for hearing-impaired visitors. Its archaeologists also run tactile thematic tours and workshops for blind and partially sighted groups, plus programmes for deaf visitors, on demand around special anniversaries. The access facilities inside are:

• A ramp from the main front, or direct access from the Vas. Herakleiou pavement.
• Lifts to the basement level and the first floor.
• An accessible WC on the basement level.
• A wheelchair on request at the information desk.
• A list of 20 accessible sculptures for blind and partially sighted visitors.
• Priority access for pregnant women and people with reduced mobility.

Which other Athens museum tickets pair with National Archaeological Museum tickets?

National Archaeological Museum tickets pair with entry to the Acropolis Museum, the Benaki Museum and the Museum of Cycladic Art. Each of the three sells its own tickets, so a combined museum day means one separate booking per museum.

The Acropolis Museum stands at Dionysiou Areopagitou 15, 280 metres from the Parthenon, near Akropoli station. Metro Line 2 runs direct from Omonia to Akropoli in three stops, so the two museums link without a change of train. The Acropolis Museum sells entry on its own e-ticket site, apart from the Ministry system that issues National Archaeological Museum tickets. Its entry types, opening hours and queue options sit on the Acropolis Museum tickets and skip-the-line page.

The Benaki Museum fills the Benakis family mansion on Vasilissis Sofias Avenue, opposite the National Garden. Antonis Benakis founded it in memory of his father, Emmanuel Benakis, and the main building shows Greek art from prehistoric to modern times. The Benaki runs its own online ticket shop, and its branches include the Pireos Street annex and the Museum of Islamic Art in Kerameikos. Visiting details sit on the Benaki Museum Athens page.

The Museum of Cycladic Art sits at 4 Neofytou Douka Street in Kolonaki, near Evangelismos station. From Omonia, holders of National Archaeological Museum tickets take Line 2 to Syntagma and change to Line 3 for one stop. Nikolaos and Dolly Goulandris founded it to house their private collection, and the permanent collection now counts over 3,000 Cycladic and ancient Greek objects. The Stathatos Mansion on Vasilissis Sofias Avenue hosts its temporary exhibitions. Entry details sit on the Museum of Cycladic Art page.

How do you book and cancel National Archaeological Museum tickets?

Book National Archaeological Museum tickets on the Ministry of Culture e-ticket site, at the museum box office, or through a tour listing. Each ticket carries a fixed date, and only the small-group and private tour listings show free cancellation in their booking details.

The official online seller is the e-ticket service of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the Hellenic Organization of Cultural Resources Development, linked from the museum’s website. It issues National Archaeological Museum tickets for a chosen date, and visitors keep to that date and any time slot shown on the ticket. Box office sales end 30 minutes before closing time. If an e-ticket fails to issue, the same Ministry ticketing service handles the problem.

• Choose the format: standard entry, ticket with audio guide, small-group tour or private tour.
• Pick the date, and the time slot where the listing shows one.
• Enter the number of visitors in each age category.
• Keep the e-ticket ready for the entrance check.
• Carry ID and the documents behind any free or reduced ticket.

Tour listings set their own booking cut-offs for National Archaeological Museum tickets. The ticket with audio guide must be booked at least 5 hours before the visit, and the ticket with optional audio stays valid for 1 day. The small-group tour and the expert-led private tour both last 2 hours and close bookings 10 hours ahead. Both tours list free cancellation and wheelchair access, and the small-group tour sells separate adult and child places.

The two ticket-and-audio listings carry no free-cancellation label in their booking details, so read their terms before paying. The museum regulation names one case where National Archaeological Museum tickets lose their value outright: a visitor expelled for breaking the rules gets no refund. Adult groups of 10 to 30 people plus an escort count as a group visit, and school groups visit from Monday to Friday.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need to print National Archaeological Museum tickets?

No. The museum regulation accepts National Archaeological Museum tickets bought online in printed or digital form, so a phone screen works at the entrance. Tickets bought at the reception desk show the valid date and visiting hours. A reduced or free ticket is valid only together with the documents or ID that prove the right to it.

Can you enter the museum café without National Archaeological Museum tickets?

Yes. Entry to the museum café is free and needs no National Archaeological Museum tickets. The café sits in the garden patio, which the museum replanted with 700 new kinds of plants, and it hosts art shows by artists from Greece and abroad. Musical performances fill the garden during annual events such as Museums Day and the August Full Moon.

What happens to National Archaeological Museum tickets if a gallery is closed?

The ticket stays valid for the open parts of the building. The museum can close individual exhibition areas without prior notice for essential work, and its regulation states that such a closure brings no full or partial refund of National Archaeological Museum tickets. Ask at the information desk on arrival which rooms are open, so the route skips any closed hall.

Can you sketch the exhibits on National Archaeological Museum tickets?

Yes. Holders of National Archaeological Museum tickets need no permission for freehand sketching as long as it causes no disturbance to other visitors. The drawing pad, painting board or drawing folder must not exceed 50 x 40 cm, and the permitted materials are pencil, charcoal and pen. Larger boards and other materials such as paint fall outside this rule.

Can a teacher lead a class on National Archaeological Museum tickets without a licensed guide?

Yes. Greek law lets teachers give guided tours without payment for educational purposes. At the entrance the teacher shows a certificate of teaching status signed by the school director, an authorised list of participants, an ID card or passport, and the National Archaeological Museum tickets issued electronically for the educational visit. No application is needed, and the museum issues no special tour permits.