When I only have a short amount of time in a city or it’s my first trip, I’m usually an advocate for a Hop On-Hop Off bus tour. However, on a trip to Athens with my teen and tween queens, Miss P and Miss V, in an effort to minimize the eye rolling, sighing and overall whining, I aimed to find a tour that would engage them more than a basic HO-HO, and came across Scooterise.
Scooterise takes visitors around Athens on a Trikke, a standing 3-wheel vehicle that is not only safe and eco-friendly, but very fun to ride. We met our guide, Nikos, at the Scooterise headquarters, where he gave us a brief tutorial on how to use the Trikke.
The vehicle was electric, so it was pretty easy to handle, much more so than the Segway a took around Barcelona, which I don’t think the lovely ladies would have been able to guide. We strapped on our helmets, and after we got comfortable steering the vehicles and working the gears, started rolling along on our “Scooterise Experience*”.
The 2-hour tour, which took us through the historical center of Athens, riding along pedestrian roads that were not accessible to cars or tour buses, was just the right amount of time to prevent adolescent apathy from setting in.
Some of the sites we passed included the Acropolis (we didn’t actually pass it, but got great views of it throughout the tour); the Temple of Zeus, the ruins of which stand next to Hadrian’s Gate, the 2,000 year old triumphal arch built in honor of the Roman emperor of the same name; the old historical neighborhood, Pláka; the fun and funky shopping district, Monastiraki, and Panathenaic Stadium (also known as Kallimarmaro), which hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and is the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble. Kallimarmaro is also where participants of the Athens Marathon cross the finish line. I have not yet conquered Athens on my quest to run the world, but it is definitely in my sights and on my running bucket list.
2 hours was only enough time to “see” what Athens had to offer, and was a great way for us to get our bearings and decide what we wanted to explore more extensively on our own later, like the Acropolis and Monastiraki. There are other Scooterise experiences, some of which are longer in duration than our quick zip around town, and may include entrance to some of the attractions. Prices for the tours range from € 39 to € 98. Check out the Scooterise website for more info.
*My daughters and I were provided a complimentary Scooterise Experience. I was not asked to express any particular point of view, and as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
