Last updated: 19 April 2025
Writing about an indoor entertainment center feels wrong in Greece, where natural, outdoor playgrounds are the highlight. Yet, my daughter never showed more excitement about returning to a beach than she did with XPLORE. I’ve also found myself enjoying its creativity, conveniences (its located in Golden Hall, the snazziest mall in Athens with an outdoor playground as well) and comforts enough to cast off purist ideas about true Greek experiences and ideal learning environments.
Possibly the best plan for escaping a summer heatwave aside from the Acropolis Museum, here’s a brief introduction to help with quick decisions on whether to include XPLORE in your Athens itinerary:
Who is it for?
There are 3 zones: “Ocean” is small, but impressive. The only aquarium in Athens with tunnels and viewing pods built into tanks, a diverse population of marine life include sharks, stingrays, jelly fish, seahorses, and more. The play zone (“Adventure”) is for kids from 4 to 12, while a STEAM discovery center (“Science”) is for children from 5 to 12 years old.
At 4 years old, Little D was in a sweet spot where she could enjoy all zones, including Science. With adult help, the interactive exhibits are fun to fiddle with even if you’re too young to understand the principles at work.
At 18 months, Adventure was still enjoyable for Baby A, including an Enchanted Garden with a treehouse and slide. She also enjoyed the race car ride (kids under 5 require adult company), and tumbling around climbing structures in the construction-themed playground.
Is it just another indoor playground?
I’ve been to a few in Chicago and in Singapore where we lived with children. XPLORE is a step up. The play spaces are inventive, technically sophisticated, subtly educational, expansive, and well staffed. In Adventure, use a child-sized excavator to move balls around a ball pit in the construction area. There’s also a 3-level obstacle course that’s more than just tunnels and slides – work with others to load bricks up a manually operated conveyor belt, then send them back down a rubble chute.
Science encourages learning through play. A water play center allows you to experience fluid dynamics by creating your own aqueducts, watch water wheels at work, construct fountains with pipes, and throw balls into swirling vortexes. The ball run labyrinth gets them thinking about transport systems and how to move things along a specific course you can manipulate. Then watch the power of wind push flying scarves through a convoluted maze of air pipes, and catch them as they fall to the ground.
Lastly, every parent convenience has been thought of, including a café for snacks, child-sized toilets, baby changing facilities complete with pampers, and lockers.
How much time can we spend there?
The ticket gives you access for 3 hours. Which is really the maximum amount of time I can spend in there anyways. That said, considering younger kids enjoy repetition, 2 to 3 hours is enough time to discover each zone, apart from the aquarium which you can get through in 30 minutes.
And so we returned for another 5 days to keep exploring.
Quick Tips:
- Each zone costs €7.50 per person (kids under 2 enter for free) for a 3-hour entry period. Buy tickets online for a 10% discount.
- Apart from the Aquarium, there’s a lot going on in each zone, so be selective. I’d match the aquarium experience with one other for a full day’s outing.
- Avoid weekends. Weekdays are typically quiet and lovely.
