Thessaloniki is Greece’s second city: less-visited than Athens, more immediate in its pleasures, and genuinely excellent for food. The city sits at the head of the Thermaic Gulf, its waterfront promenade running from the White Tower to the old port. Behind the promenade, the upper city holds the best concentration of Byzantine monuments in Greece - 15 UNESCO-listed sites, most still functioning churches. An hour and a half southwest, Mount Olympus rises to 2,917m. Here is how to spend your time, with specific tours, prices, and honest assessments. All prices are approximate as of 2026.
Top Tours at a Glance
| Tour | Duration | Price (from) | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thessaloniki Open Market Food Tour with Tasting | 3.5 hrs | from approx. €38 | Foodies, solo travellers |
| Thessaloniki Food Tastings and Drinks Tour with a Chef | 3 hrs | from approx. €55 | Serious foodies, culture seekers |
| Traditional Greek Food Tour With a Local | 3 hrs | from approx. €45 | Budget travellers, solo travellers |
| Thessaloniki Guided Walking and Food Tour with Drinks | 3 hrs | from approx. €42 | Families, first-timers |
| Thessaloniki City Tour and Archaeological Museum | 4 hrs | from approx. €35 | First-timers, families |
| Thessaloniki Historic Private Walking Tour | 3 hrs | from approx. €45 | History lovers, solo travellers |
| Thessaloniki Byzantine Mosaic Journey: Walk, Discover, Create | 5 hrs | from approx. €75 | Culture seekers, families |
| From Thessaloniki: Day Trip to Dion and Mount Olympus Park | 10 hrs | from approx. €55 | Adventure lovers, nature seekers |
| Private Day Trip to Pella and Vergina | 8-9 hrs | from approx. €80 | Luxury travellers, families |
| Day Trip to Pella and Vergina from Thessaloniki | 9 hrs | from approx. €55 | Budget travellers, culture seekers |
Browse all Thessaloniki tours on GetYourGuide
For Families and First-Timers
Families visiting Thessaloniki for the first time benefit from a tour that combines orientation with engagement. The city’s waterfront landmarks - the White Tower, the Galerius Arc, the Rotunda - are spread along a walkable corridor, but understanding what connects them requires historical context that is not well-signed on the street.
Thessaloniki City Tour and Archaeological Museum
This 4-hour orientation tour is the most practical first booking for families in Thessaloniki. The guide covers the White Tower (entry included, its museum provides a clear overview of the city’s Ottoman and Byzantine layers), the Galerius Arc and Rotunda (the 4th-century Roman mausoleum with the best surviving Early Christian mosaics in Greece, still intact on the ceiling above you as you stand inside), and the Archaeological Museum’s Macedonian gold collection. For families with older children engaged by ancient history, the Rotunda alone is worth a morning: the ceiling mosaics date to around 390 CE and depict martyred saints with a naturalism that the later Byzantine tradition abandoned. From approximately €35 per person as of 2026.
The Thessaloniki Guided Walking and Food Tour with Drinks is the alternative for families who want to combine cultural orientation with food sampling in a single 3-hour format. Stops cover the market district, traditional bougatsa (custard pastry) at a historic shop, and a selection of Thessaloniki street food. From approximately €42 per person.
One detail worth knowing: the Hagia Sophia Metro station was built around a Byzantine church discovered during excavation - the church is now preserved under glass at platform level, visible as you wait for the train. It is an unexpected highlight that most visitors miss entirely.
Duration: 3-4 hours. Difficulty: Easy (flat waterfront walking). Best time: Morning. Best season: Year-round - Thessaloniki stays active through winter.
For Solo Travellers and Foodies
Thessaloniki’s food identity is a product of history. The 1922 Lausanne Convention expelled approximately 1.2 million Greeks from Asia Minor, and a large proportion settled in Thessaloniki, bringing a cooking tradition shaped by the spice routes of the eastern Mediterranean: cumin in the meatballs, cinnamon in the beef stews, sesame in everything. The Modiano Market and the streets around it preserve that tradition in a form that is still commercially active rather than preserved for tourists.
Thessaloniki’s Sephardic Jewish community, which numbered 56,000 before the Holocaust and represented one of the largest such communities in the world, shaped the food culture of the city over five centuries in ways that are still traceable in specific dishes and the rhythm of the market week. A food tour pulls this layered history together with the later Asia Minor Greek influence into a coherent picture.
Thessaloniki Open Market Food Tour with Tasting
This 3.5-hour morning walk through the Modiano Market and surrounding streets is the most practical entry point for anyone wanting to understand Thessaloniki’s food culture. Stops typically cover a tsoureki bakery (the traditional sweet bread scented with mahlab and mastic, distinctive to this city), a bougatsa shop, olive and cheese dealers along Komninon Street, and a mezedhopoleio finish with ouzo and a tasting plate. Groups cap at 10, creating a social dynamic that works particularly well for solo travellers: you are sharing food with strangers within the first stop. From approximately €38 per person as of 2026.
Traditional Greek Food Tour With a Local
This 3-hour walking tour samples 11-12 Greek foods at the best spots in Thessaloniki with an English-speaking local guide who shares the story behind each stop. The Old Market section and the local architecture add cultural context to the eating. For solo travellers who want genuine conversation with a knowledgeable local rather than a scripted tour experience, this format tends to deliver. From approximately €45 per person.
Duration: 3-3.5 hours. Difficulty: Easy. Best time: Morning (8-11am) when the markets are at full activity. Best season: Year-round.
For Budget Travellers
Thessaloniki is one of the most affordable cities in Greece for independent exploration. The main Byzantine monuments charge modest entry fees, and the market district is free to wander. The value of guided tours here is primarily in interpretation rather than access - a good guide makes the Rotunda mosaics comprehensible and the Vergina tombs genuinely moving.
Traditional Greek Food Tour With a Local
At approximately €45, this food tour includes sampling 11-12 dishes at genuine local spots - effectively covering the cost of lunch while providing guided interpretation of the market culture. Budget travellers should note that the food provided across a 3-hour morning tour replaces a sit-down restaurant meal, making the effective additional cost modest.
Day Trip to Pella and Vergina from Thessaloniki
This group coach tour covers both Pella (Alexander the Great’s birthplace, with an outstanding mosaic floor collection in the site museum) and Vergina (the royal Macedonian tombs with Philip II’s burial artefacts) in a single 9-hour day. From approximately €55 per person. The Vergina underground museum holds the gold larnax burial chest and the gold oak wreath crown of Philip II - among the finest surviving gold objects from antiquity. Getting to both sites independently is possible by KTEL bus but requires coordination; the tour fee covers transport, guide, and both entry tickets, representing straightforward value.
Duration: 3-9 hours. Difficulty: Easy. Best season: Year-round.
For Culture Seekers and History Lovers
Thessaloniki’s 15 UNESCO-listed Byzantine monuments form the largest such concentration in Greece. A guided tour connects the theological and political history behind each site into a coherent narrative: why the Rotunda was built as a mausoleum, why it was converted to a church, why the Ottomans then converted it to a mosque (the minaret is still attached to the exterior), and why it is now a heritage site again. None of this is obvious from a guidebook.
Thessaloniki Historic Private Walking Tour
This tour is led by a licensed archaeologist and covers the Byzantine monuments in greater depth than general city tours allow, including the Hagios Demetrios basilica (the largest church in Greece, built over the crypt of the city’s patron saint, with 5th-century mosaics in the colonnades) and the Hagia Sophia (a 7th-century church modelled on the Constantinople original). Entry fees are included in most versions. The private format allows the guide to spend time on the iconographic programmes that reward extended looking: the Rotunda ceiling mosaics, in particular, are among the earliest surviving large-scale Christian mosaic programmes anywhere in the world. From approximately €45 per person as of 2026.
Thessaloniki Byzantine Mosaic Journey: Walk, Discover, Create
This 5-hour experience combines guided visits to St. Demetrius and the Latomos Monastery (both UNESCO-listed, with significant surviving mosaic programmes) with a hands-on workshop where participants create their own glass mosaic piece using traditional Byzantine techniques. Groups are deliberately small at 6 people, allowing real engagement with both the historical sites and the craft process. For culture-focused travellers who want active participation rather than passive observation, this is the most distinctive half-day available in Thessaloniki. From approximately €75 per person.
Duration: 3-5 hours. Difficulty: Easy. Best time: Morning before midday heat. Best season: Year-round.
For Adventure and Nature Lovers
Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece at 2,917m and the mythological home of the twelve Olympian gods. It sits 90km southwest of Thessaloniki, above the coastal town of Litochoro. The most accessible organised day trip from Thessaloniki combines the ancient sanctuary of Dion with hiking in the Olympus National Park — a format that pairs myth and landscape in a genuinely satisfying way.
From Thessaloniki: Day Trip to Dion and Mount Olympus Park
This 10-hour guided day trip from Thessaloniki covers two complementary destinations. Ancient Dion was the sacred city of the Macedonians at the foot of Mount Olympus — where Alexander the Great performed sacrifices before his campaigns — and its archaeological park contains unusually well-preserved mosaics, a sanctuary to Isis, and a stunning outdoor setting with the mountain above you as you walk the site. The second half of the day moves into the Olympus National Park itself, trekking through old-growth forest in the Enipeas Gorge or to the Prionia trailhead. The gorge in early June, when snowmelt from the upper slopes keeps the river audible and wildflowers line the path, is genuinely spectacular. The guide covers both the mythological significance of the mountain and the natural ecology of Greece’s largest national park. From approximately €55 per person as of 2026. Hotel pickup from Thessaloniki is included.
An alternative format combines the same Dion and Olympus sites but travels by intercity rail rather than coach. The train line between Thessaloniki and Larissa runs along the coast and through the Tempi valley, where the Peneios river cuts through a narrow gorge between Olympus and Mount Ossa - one of the most scenic short rail stretches in Greece. This version also includes a stop at Platamon Castle, a Crusader-era fortress on a rocky promontory above the sea, visible from the train as it rounds the headland. From approximately $105 per person.
For travellers who want to attempt the summit itself, a full summit expedition takes 2 days with an overnight at Spilios Agapitos Refuge at 2,100m (approximately €35 per person per night). This requires proper mountain boots, weather awareness, and fitness for a 1,800m elevation gain on day 2. Two-day guided summit expeditions with refuge booking typically cost approximately €195 per person (minimum 4 people) through Thessaloniki-based trekking operators.
Duration: Day trip: 10 hours. Summit expedition: 2 days. Difficulty: Day trip gorge walk: moderate. Summit: challenging. Best season: June-September for summit; May-October for the gorge day trip.
For Luxury Travellers
Private touring in Thessaloniki justifies its premium through the quality of explanation available from licensed archaeologist guides and the flexibility to spend longer at Vergina’s underground museum than a group tour schedule allows. The gold artefacts in the Vergina museum reward time: the gold larnax, the diadem, and the gold oak wreath displayed in their original context are among the finest objects from the classical world.
Private Day Trip to Pella and Vergina from Thessaloniki
This private vehicle and guide format covers Pella in the morning - Alexander the Great’s birthplace and the Macedonian administrative capital, with extraordinary 4th-century BCE pebble mosaics depicting mythological scenes on floors that have survived 2,400 years - and Vergina in the afternoon, where the royal tombs were discovered intact in 1977 by archaeologist Manolis Andronikos. The private format allows 90 minutes or more at Vergina rather than the 45-minute window a coach tour typically provides. From approximately €80 per person as of 2026. For groups of 3 or 4 sharing transport, this becomes genuinely cost-competitive with the group option while delivering a significantly better experience.
Duration: 8-9 hours. Difficulty: Easy; both sites are flat. Best season: Year-round, though summer heat at Pella (an exposed site) is significant - spring and autumn visits are more comfortable.
Booking Tips
Food tours should be booked 2-4 days ahead: the best operators cap groups at 8-10 and fill quickly in summer. Byzantine walking tours can often be arranged same-day except in peak summer. The Vergina and Pella day trips need 2-3 days’ notice for the private format; the group tour can usually be booked the day before. The Byzantine mosaic workshop books up quickly due to its 6-person cap - reserve at least a week ahead in summer. Mount Olympus guided trips require at least a week’s notice for trekking companies to coordinate refuge reservations.
Book Thessaloniki tours and excursions with GetYourGuide. Pick up a Greece eSIM before you fly. Compare car hire options in Greece for exploring beyond the main towns.
See Also
- Thessaloniki Travel Guide - full city guide with neighbourhoods and transport
- Best Restaurants in Thessaloniki - where to eat in Greece’s food capital
- Things to Do in Thessaloniki - Byzantine churches, the waterfront, and markets
- Day Trips from Thessaloniki - Vergina, Pella, and Halkidiki options
- Athens vs Thessaloniki - comparing the two main Greek cities
- Greece Hiking Guide - Mount Olympus in depth for serious hikers