With a travel companion obsessed with pretty doors as much as you are – in fact Arianna kickstarted my new passion with her just-launched Instagram account @prettydoortraits – it only made sense that we’d seek them out far and near on our recent to trip to Athens with Discover Greece…

Every city has them, you just have to look round the unexpected corners and see past the urban posturing. Our first morning in Athens we threaded through the tourist friendly streets surrounding our hotel (the super central art-inspired New Hotel) before headed up to super scenic winding hilly alleyways of Anafiotika, part of the historical Plaka area – the place to head for sweet little cafes and restaurants. We fell in love with the delightful Yiasemi-Bistrot with its pretty bartop tiles, gorgeous crockery (see my Insta & new account @todaymycoffee for pics!) and seats on stone steps – Google map pin.

The following day, we walked through the National Gardens before looping round through the museums district before up and past the Old Athens Cemetery where we discovered some gorgeous streets – including Fotiadou (Google map pin) where the above was taken – before approaching the Acropolis for an incredible sunset visit. Our final day morning we city toured with Urban Adventures and saw some incredible shop frontages and doors – could have spent at least another couple hours with them winding through the back streets full of old leather shops, art cafes and record shops.

Photographing doors well takes a bit of practice and I went wrong with so many shots! The key is to photograph absolutely straight on. This can be impossible to do in narrow alleyways or if there are parked cars in the way. If you are waiting for traffic to pass, just be aware of pedestrians trying to get past too!

Hope you enjoyed this post! If this is your thing, do join in with Arianna’s #prettydoortraits tag on Instagram and stay tuned for my next post on Athens coming soon!

Shot on the new Olympus Pen F with adjusted in-camera colour settings. For more on Greece, vist Discover Greece and Aegean Airlines – who have regular daily flights from London to Athens – for making this trip possible.