Sights of Athens: is it reliable, and is it worth it?
Yes. Sights of Athens is a licensed Greek tour company that runs its own blue buses, and its cancellation rule is clear: free up to 24 hours before. The city loop is frequent, while the Piraeus and beach lines run only six times a day.
Average of the ratings on Civitatis for the cities below, weighted by the number of reviews.
Is Sights of Athens reliable?
Who is behind it
The legal entity is Open Top Bus Hellas M.E.P.E., a Greek single-member limited company with tourism licence MHTE 0207E60000757400 and VAT number EL800327858.
It is not part of an international group.
The company lists ISO certifications for quality, environment and road safety, and membership of the Greek travel agencies association.
Its office, phone and WhatsApp numbers are published on the site.
Refunds and cancellation
Tickets can be cancelled or moved to another date only if you ask at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure.
Inside 24 hours there is no refund or change, and a no-show is not refunded.
If the company cancels a service, the terms offer another date, an equivalent service or a full refund.
Requests go to info@sightsofathens.gr.
When something goes wrong
Central Athens closes for demonstrations and public events, and the terms say the company is not responsible for delays caused by traffic, road closures, weather or demonstrations.
It may also change routes and timetables for operational reasons.
Liability for proven negligence is limited to the value of the ticket.
The lines to Piraeus and the beaches run six times a day, so a missed bus there means a long wait.
What to expect on the day
On the Athens city loop a bus comes every 15 minutes in the summer timetable, and the full loop takes about 90 minutes.
The first bus leaves at 08:30 and the last at 18:00.
The Piraeus and beach lines leave six times a day.
Commentary is recorded, in 16 languages, and there is no app showing where the buses are.
The table below shows how travellers rate it in each city.
Good at
Free cancellation or a date change up to 24 hours before departure.
One ticket covers four lines: Athens, Piraeus, Glyfada and Vouliagmeni.
A bus every 15 minutes on the city loop in the summer timetable.
Drivers sell tickets on board by card or cash.
Watch out for
No one-day ticket. The cheapest ticket is for two days.
Validity counts calendar days from first use, not hours.
The Piraeus and beach lines leave only six times a day.
The timetable is published as an image and changes with the season.
Sights of Athens, city by city
The same company can be worth the ticket in one city and a poor deal in the next. These are the cities we have checked.
Sights of Athens is the trading name of Open Top Bus Hellas M.E.P.E., a company based at Akti Miaouli in Piraeus.
It is owner-managed: the company profile names Athanasios Georgopoulos as owner and general manager.
We could not confirm the year it was founded.
It runs its own fleet of open-top double-deckers, mini tourist trains, coaches and vans.
The company says it was the first to run a hop-on hop-off mini train at the Piraeus cruise terminal, and a large share of its business comes from cruise passengers.
Its buses carry the Gray Line logo.
Besides Athens and Piraeus it works in Nafplio, Katakolon for Ancient Olympia, Heraklion on Crete and Kalamata, and says it carries more than 500,000 passengers a year.
Two other tour bus brands run in Athens, Big Bus and City Sightseeing.
They are separate companies with their own stops and tickets.
How Sights of Athens tickets work
The basic ticket is sold as one day plus one day free and is valid for two calendar days from the first ride. A three-day ticket is also sold. Both cover all four lines with recorded commentary in 16 languages. Child and family tickets are available, and entry to the Acropolis and museums is not included.
Tickets bought online are tied to the date you choose, and an electronic ticket on a phone is accepted. You can also pay the driver. The company's own site sometimes discounts the three-day ticket to the price of the two-day one.
There is no app for live bus positions. Combined tickets with Acropolis entry are sold separately, and the 24-hour cancellation rule applies to them too unless the product page says otherwise.
Sights of Athens: quick answers
Is Sights of Athens a legitimate company?
Yes. It is the trading name of Open Top Bus Hellas M.E.P.E., a licensed Greek tour company based in Piraeus that runs its own blue buses.
Can I cancel a Sights of Athens ticket?
Yes, if you ask at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure. After that the sale is final, and no-shows are not refunded.
How long is the ticket valid?
The basic ticket is valid for two calendar days from the first ride. It is not a 48-hour clock.
Is Sights of Athens the same as the red or Big Bus buses?
No. City Sightseeing and Big Bus are separate companies in Athens. Each accepts only its own tickets.
Does the ticket include the Piraeus cruise port?
Yes. The Blue Line to the Piraeus cruise terminals is included, with six departures a day from the Acropolis stop.
Sources
Read on 5 October 2026. Timetables and prices change with the season, so check the operator's page before you travel.
Yes. Barcelona Bus Turístic is run by TMB, the public company behind the city's metro and buses, and it is the most frequent tour bus we cover in Spain. The catch is a strict rule: once you buy a ticket there is no refund.
Yes, Big Bus Tours is a real and long-established company, and the bus you paid for will be there. How good it is depends on the city: the service is frequent in Edinburgh and London and thin in New York and Dublin, and getting money back after you activate a ticket is hard.
The brand is genuine and has been around since 1999, but City Sightseeing does not run your bus. A local company does, so quality, refund rules and the place to complain change from city to city.
Yes. Madrid City Tour is the city's official tour bus, run by two of Spain's largest coach and tour companies, and its cancellation terms are better than most. Route 1 is frequent, while Routes 2 and 3 can leave you waiting 35 minutes.
Yes. Münchener Stadtrundfahrten is an old Munich company that runs the buses itself, and the same buses are sold under the Gray Line and Big Bus names. Check the cancellation terms before you book, because its published terms charge a fee that rises as the date gets closer.
Yes. Tootbus belongs to RATP Dev, part of the group that runs the Paris metro, and its refund rule is one of the clearer ones: free up to 24 hours before the tour date. In Brussels the weak point is frequency, above all on the Atomium shuttle.
Yes. Yellow Bus belongs to Carris, the public company that runs Lisbon's buses and trams, so you are dealing with a transport operator and not a reseller. The weak point is frequency: in Lisbon a bus comes every 40 minutes.