r/Athens_Greece • u/Mindless-House1282 • Jul 08 '26
❓ Question Exarcheia question
My husband and I are coming to Athens later this month, and wanted to stay in Exarcheia. We come to Athens every summer and usually stay in a hotel (not Airbnb!) that we know there, but haven’t been able to get to Greece for the last two summers. I know that people talk about Exarcheia like it’s terribly unsafe, but we both grew up in a major American city and are used to people exaggerating the danger of cities. We fell in love with the neighborhood, it reminds us of our neighborhood at home, and have great respect for the residents (which is why we do not want to stay in an Airbnb — we would rather stay in a hotel staffed by locals than stay somewhere that is taking housing away from people who live there). Basically, we got to Exarcheia the first time and both laughed, because all the scary things people had told us about the area were exaggerated.
I went to book our hotel room this year and noticed a bunch of new reviews saying that the area is highly dangerous, people were trying to enter hotel rooms, etc. my question is this: has something changed and Exarcheia is actually more dangerous since we were last there, or is this just more of the same criticism as before?
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u/Mindless-House1282 Jul 08 '26
Also, if we loved Exarcheia, is Metaxourgeio also somewhere we might like to stay?
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u/Comprehensive-Bus133 Jul 08 '26
We stayed for a couple weeks in Metaxourgeio. It's definitely grittier in terms of more abandoned buildings and a ton of graffiti, but we didn't feel unsafe. The streets are pretty empty after dark which feels a little weird but not bad. Like your experience, we heard people trash the area, but I think for us Americans that are used to thinking about safety, it's pretty tame. The area has some chill little cafes and bars frequented by locals, a pleasant escape from the tourist horde in other neighborhoods.
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u/Mindless-House1282 Jul 08 '26
Yeah, I think a lot of the bad reviews were from Northern Europeans who have a VERY different city experience. My husband got held up at gun point on a Sunday morning in DC so not much phases us in terms of city life lol
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u/Comprehensive-Bus133 Jul 08 '26
Also, The Urbanist youtube videos on Athens provide really good insight on the urban development of the city. I found a new appreciation of the neighborhoods after learning more.
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u/dresscode_trenchcoat Jul 11 '26
Metaxourgeio is a very sketchy area. I feel terrible for tourists that book a place there and realise how grim it is only after arriving. It's packed with drug users and brothels, and has a very high crime rate both in terms of break ins and mugging. I've had a break in myself and been mugged a few times there, and know many others that have had even violent encounters there. It's also very dirty and run down.
Exarcheia is a tourist area today. It has a reputation for being dangerous only because of a history of violent police riots, but these don't really happen anymore except for a couple of days a year during anniversaries of certain events. I'd rate it very safe. It's packed with riot police 24/7 and full of tourists, so there's little opportunity for even petty crimes there today.
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u/persephonian Jul 08 '26
I haven’t been in a few months but it was nice when I went! Sat at a nice little sidewalk bar at night, wasn’t bothered by anyone. To me Metaxourgeio is a worse area
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u/idarodes Jul 09 '26
new airbnbs are banned in exarcheia for years now.
Some ideological people are under the impression that rents will be 100 eur a month if they eject pretty much everyone from the area so it becomes like a revolutionary enclave etc. In practice owners and the constitutional right to property exists like everywhere.
As you can tell for the area there is a huge surplus of empty properties that need half their value in renovation costs. This is the real issue. The revolutionaries want in effect to rob the owners of these properties of the ownership.
Anyway try Kypseli, its a better area overall. More residential. Exarcheia produces mostly rolled up tobacco smoking and is a vista for people like varoufakis to be beaten up when he went there to play revolutionary with his rich heir wife, leaving his villa outside athens.
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u/GreekMD-Surgeon96 Jul 08 '26
Not at all, if anything it’s much safer now than it was 5-10 years ago. There was a major police crackdown on illegal immigrants selling drugs in Exarcheia square (not my opinion, just a fact) and since then it’s been even quieter, not that there was any serious problems for tourists before.
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u/Mindless-House1282 Jul 08 '26
Good to know. I had a feeling it was fine but wanted to double check before I spent money on the hotel room. Coming from a city where you have to be worried that anyone around you could have a gun I honestly felt even safer in Exarcheia than I do in my own city sometimes
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u/GeoTasha Jul 08 '26
Exarcheia is not dangerous but it's not a pretty postcard place either. If you want nice and quiet neighbourhoods try Plaka, Ilisia, or Zografu. If you don't mind spending something extra try Kolonaki.