Last Minute Sprint for Olympic Bargains
This follows the special offers already being advertised by hotels on popular vacation islands including Rhodes, Corfu and Crete which have seen bookings down by as much as 10%. Hoteliers in the Aegean are reportedly dropping their rates and offering special deals in an attempt to recoup on a season which they had expected to be particularly good as a result of the Olympics boost.
Meanwhile workers are scrambling to finish renovating public squares, paving some 100 kilometers of roads, and discreetly covering over what they cannot finish.
There are many, including me, who tend to give Olympic cities a wide berth during the period immediately preceding and during the Games. For those of us who intend to visit this thrilling city in September after the Olympics are over however, Athens will have much to offer.
The organisers of the four month Hellenic Festival 2004 appear to have scheduled the most interesting events for last with concerts by orchestras from Prague and Vienna, ballet from San Francisco, opera from Vienna and Beijing and of, course, classical Greek theatre of Euripides and Aristophanes.
The Festival events are held in the open air Odeon of Herod Atticus, built on the southern slope of the Acropolis in 161 AD during the period of Roman occupation. It was given to the city by a noted Greek orator and philanthropist Herod Atticus, and once held considerably more spectators than the 5,000 who fill the lower tier of seats that still remain.
Athens is not noted by disabled travellers for its accessibility and I wonder just how the many visitors with disabilities who are attending the Paralympics there will fare. Wheelchair users however will at least be able to visit the Acropolis now for the first time ever as the authorities have finally installed a lift to the top.
Post Olympics visitors to Athens will find a city proud of its $3 billion overhaul that has given it a much needed new international airport, a metro system that makes London look chaotic and tatty, a new tram system and a refurbished classical museum. Above all the visitor will relish the significant reduction in traffic, the clean air and absence of city smog which made Athens so unpleasant in high summer.
Travelsleuth's Travel Tips
Date: Olympics close on 29 August.
Getting There: Direct flights from USA NY, UK and all major European hubs. Cheap Flights offers
Accommodation: Best in town
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