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Athens Municipality and the National Confederation of Hellenic Commerce offer the residents of Athens and its visitors six shopping routes, which are also six options for a walk around the city that will enable them to see its beautiful places and visit its shops.

Each route has a separate theme, as most of the shops offer the same categories of goods. In all of them, however, you can discover the beauty of Athens, cultural spaces and places for entertainment.

Route 1: Walk in Kolonaki for luxury purchases

Located in the centre of Athens, Kolonaki is certainly not the only shopping destination, but it is the most distinguished one. However, when it comes to buying luxury and branded clothes and shoes, the first place that comes to mind is Kolonaki. The neighbourhood differs for the fact that even today the majority of customers of boutiques and restaurants are residents of Athens, not visitors to the city and tourists.

Route 2: Walk among tastes - from Omonia to the central market

While walking from the central Omonia Square to the central Athens Varvakios market, along Athinas Street but also along the surrounding streets, the aromas of spices, dishes in small restaurants, cheese, meat and of food in general are becoming more tangible. In the past Athenian housewives used to buy the products necessary for cooking at home precisely from these bigger and smaller shops. Nowadays the most resourceful professional and amateur chefs are shopping there, because they can find the most unconventional and rare products only in these shops.

Route 3: Walk in Plaka for gifts and traditional products
 
A variety of goods suitable for gifts are sold everywhere in Athens. But if you want to buy something traditional, handmade in the typical Greek style, the right place is the shops and studios in Plaka.

Located at the foot of the Acropolis, the neighbourhood is a popular tourist destination. In recent years it has become even more attractive for both visitors to the city and its inhabitants. Although it is situated in the centre of Athens, a walk in the streets of Plaka leaves the visitor with the impression that he or she is on a quiet island, far from the busy city, and not metres away from its busy avenues.

Route 4: Walk in Exarcheia for music and books

Like all cities, Athens is also a living organism that is changing. An example is the Exarcheia neighbourhood, where many of the bookshops in the city are located. The proposal here is a kind of a spiritual route, starting from the square with the same name and taking you very close to Kolonaki Square. Two squares which are associated with both the history of the Greek capital and the modern life in it.

Route 5: Walk in the historic shopping triangle for footwear and leather goods

This is the”classic" walk in Athens. The first shops opened in this region in the 19th century, aiming to attract the bourgeois class emerging at the time. Today the largest number of shops is concentrated in the area that encircles the streets Ermou, Perikleous, Evangelistrias and Agiou Markou and down to Monastiraki Square. You can buy everything from them, but the greatest variety is in the shoes and leather goods. Therefore, the specific categories of goods determine that route.

Route 6: Walk along Patission street for clothes and shoes at bargain prices

Patission street starts from Omonia Square and arrives at Patissia neighbourhood and the adjacent Kypseli neighbourhood. Walking along the street a visitor feels as if he or she is meeting the old Athens, especially that of the period between 1950-1980 where the middle class of the city emerged and modern Athens with the enhanced presence of various migrant groups. The result of this meeting is still looking for its balance to become more attractive by this synthesis, as well as by the affordable prices in shops.

The development of the "shopping routes" is the work of the Institute for Trade and Services of the National Confederation of Hellenic Commerce and is financed with national and European funds. A map of the routes is to be issued that will be distributed to visitors to Athens in travel agencies, hotels, etc. More information is available on the website of the project www.agora-athina.gr.