Thessaloniki is Greece’s second city and one of the country’s most rewarding destinations for anyone willing to look past the headline attractions. It has more intact Byzantine monuments than any other Greek city outside Constantinople, a food scene that Athenians quietly admit is the country’s best, and a compact old town where 15th-century Ottoman architecture stands alongside Roman ruins and early Christian basilicas. These are the tours worth booking, with prices as of 2026.
Top Tours at a Glance
| Tour | Duration | Price (from) | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walking Tour with a Local Guide | 3 hrs | from $56 | First-timers |
| City Tour & Archaeological Museum | 3.5 hrs | from $51 | History-focused visitors |
| Historic Private Walking Tour | 2 hrs | from $55 | Couples, small groups |
| Day Trip to Dion & Mount Olympus Park | 10 hrs | from $58 | Day trippers |
| Mount Olympus & Dion Day Trip by Train | Full day | from $105 | Scenic travel enthusiasts |
| Thessaloniki Food Tour: Open Market & Tasting | 3 hrs | from $51 | Foodies |
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Walking Tours of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki is walkable but disorienting on first arrival. The Byzantine walls, the Roman road network, the Ottoman-era mosques (now mostly converted or repurposed), and the Art Deco buildings constructed after the 1917 fire all occupy the same streets without obvious visual separation. A walking guide makes the chronology legible.
Walking Tour with a Local Guide
This 3-hour tour covers the core monuments in sequence. The Arch of Galerius is a triumphal arch built in 298 AD to celebrate a Roman victory over the Persians — the carved relief panels depicting the battle survive in unusually good condition and the guide points out the specific narrative scenes. The Rotunda of Galerius, built as a Roman mausoleum, was converted to a church in the 4th century, then to a mosque under Ottoman rule (the minaret is still attached), and is now a UNESCO monument and occasional concert venue. Ano Poli, the upper neighbourhood above the Roman grid, survived the 1917 fire that destroyed much of the lower city and retains its Ottoman-era timber houses, narrow lanes, and neighbourhood scale. The Hagia Sophia Metro station — built around a Byzantine church discovered during excavation, now preserved under glass at platform level — is a further stop worth seeing on the way. From approximately $56 per person as of 2026.
Historic Private Walking Tour
A 2-hour private tour led by a licensed archaeologist. The private format allows you to go at your own pace and pursue whatever questions interest you most — useful if the administrative history of the Roman province, the Byzantine iconoclasm controversy, or the Ottoman period is genuinely interesting rather than just backdrop. Covers the same core monuments as the group tour with more depth at each stop. From approximately $55 per person; typically priced per group rather than per head, which makes it good value for two people travelling together. Book at least a week ahead in summer.
Byzantine Tour: Mosaics and UNESCO Monuments
Thessaloniki has more UNESCO World Heritage Byzantine monuments than any Greek city other than Constantinople itself. The 4th-century Rotunda, the Acheiropoietos basilica (5th century), the Church of Saint Demetrius, and the Hagia Sophia Thessaloniki are all within a 20-minute walk of each other. The church of Saint Demetrius, patron saint of the city, has been a place of continuous Christian worship since the 5th century — it was converted to a mosque in 1493 and reconverted to a church in 1912. The crypt beneath it holds Late Antique mosaic panels that are among the best-preserved in the Balkans.
City Tour & Archaeological Museum
This half-day tour moves from the Arch of Galerius and Rotunda to the White Tower on the waterfront — a 15th-century Ottoman defensive tower that is now the city’s most recognised landmark and houses an excellent local history museum with four floors of exhibits — before finishing at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. The museum is the reason this tour sits in the guide. It holds the gold burial artefacts from the Royal Tombs at Vergina: the gold larnax (casket) of Philip II of Macedon, Alexander the Great’s father, the golden funeral wreath found with it, and bronze and ivory grave goods that represent the highest level of Macedonian craftsmanship from the 4th century BC. The Philip II larnax is widely considered one of the finest surviving examples of ancient goldwork in the world. From approximately $51 per person.
Day Trips from Thessaloniki
Day Trip to Dion & Mount Olympus Park
Dion was the sacred city at the base of Olympus where Macedonian kings performed religious rites before military campaigns. Alexander the Great passed through it in 334 BC before setting out on his Persian campaign. The archaeological site includes intact Roman-era baths with functioning hypocaust heating visible in section, a sanctuary to Isis with floor mosaics in good condition, and a small site museum. After Dion, the tour continues into the Olympus National Park for a walk through the lower gorges where the Enipeas river runs cold even in August. The peaks — Mytikas (2,918m) and the Throne of Zeus — are visible above but the summit is not part of this tour. From approximately $58 per person, transport and guide included, free cancellation to 24 hours.
Mount Olympus & Dion Day Trip by Train
The train version of the same route adds Platamon Castle — a Crusader-era fortress on a rocky promontory above the sea, visible from the train as it rounds the headland — and uses the intercity rail line between Thessaloniki and Larissa, which runs along the coast and through the Tempi valley. The journey through Tempi, where the Peneios river cuts through a narrow gorge between Olympus and Mount Ossa, is one of the most scenic short rail stretches in Greece. This tour covers more sites than the coach version but time at each stop is shorter. From approximately $105 per person.
Thessaloniki Food Tours
Thessaloniki’s claim to Greece’s best food city rests on a few concrete things. Bougatsa — a custard or cheese pastry eaten at breakfast, with distinct regional variations between Thessaloniki and Chania — is an institution here: there are shops that have done nothing else since 1910. Tahinopita (sesame paste pie) is a Thessaloniki street food not found in this form elsewhere in Greece. The city’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 all of this together.
Thessaloniki Open Market Food Tour with Tasting
A 3-hour walking tour through the covered market stalls near Aristotelous Square, the bougatsa shops, a traditional pastry bakery, and a neighbourhood taverna for a meze spread at the end. The guide contextualises each food historically: the specific sausage tradition connected to Greek refugee communities who arrived from Anatolia in the 1920s, the sesame ring bread that vendors have sold from street carts continuously since Byzantine times, the coffee house culture that reflects the city’s Ottoman-era commercial importance. From approximately $51 per person as of 2026.
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Practical Booking Notes
Thessaloniki’s tour season runs year-round. Walking tours don’t face the heat limitations of Athens — the city is consistently 3-4°C cooler in summer and the Byzantine monuments are mostly indoors or shaded. Book walking tours 2-3 days ahead; food tours 3-5 days ahead in summer. Day trips to Mount Olympus are weather-dependent: afternoon thunderstorms are common in August and September and can close the national park access roads. Morning departures are more reliable, and the coach operators generally monitor conditions and notify you of any changes 24 hours ahead.
The Vergina Royal Tombs — where the Philip II tomb is located — are 70km west of Thessaloniki and can be combined with a Thessaloniki tour as an extension. Ask your guide operator about combined Vergina and city tours if you have a full day free.