15 Best Places to Shop in Kolonaki, Athens

The airy museum shop has excellent copies of Greek icons, jewelry, and folk art—at fair prices. You will also find embroideries, ceramics, stationery, art books, small reliefs, and sculpture pieces. The new Benaki Museum Annex on Pireos Street has its own shop with an interesting collection of modern Greek jewelry. The gift shop is also open on Monday (even though the museum is closed).

Original gold masterpieces can be had at these shops, where Athenian masters, prompted by jewelry designer Lina Fanouraki, use gold almost like a fabric—creasing, scoring, and fluting it. There's another branch at Panagitsas 6 (210/623–2334) in the Kifissia neighborhood.

From real amber, or pinhead-size "evil eyes," to 2-inch-diameter wood, sugarcane, or shell beads, you'll find a dizzying selection of beads and styles here to string your own komboloi (worry beads). You'll admire the variety of this unique Greek version of a rosary, which can be made from traditional amber, but also from coral root, camel bone, semiprecious stones, and many more materials.

Antiques collectors should head here to look for items such as exquisite dowry chests, old swords, precious fabrics, and Venetian glass. You will certainly discover something you like in the four floors of this renovated antiques shop that has been an Athens landmark for the past 100 years. There's another branch in Monastiraki, at Pandrossou 50.

Elena Votsi designed jewelry for Gucci and Ralph Lauren before opening her own boutiques, where she sells exquisite, larger-than-life creations in coral, amethyst, aquamarine, and turquoise. In 2003 she designed the Athens 2004 Olympic Games gold medal; in 2009 her handmade 18-karat gold ring with diamonds won a Couture Design Award in the Best in Haute Couture category in Las Vegas. Brava!

Urban design hipsters will love this T-shirt shop. It has a collection humorously and lovingly "commemorating" living in Athens in the years of the economic crisis, with such classic print logos as "Ich bin ein Athener, Athens needs love" and "eat more feta to reduce greek debt."

Exceptional modern versions of ancient jewelry designs are available in the gift shop of this museum, where you can also find museum replicas and inspired ceramics.

Fashion designer Dimitris Parthenis opened his first boutique in 1970. Today his daughter Orsalia continues the family tradition of creating urban chic fashion with a Bohemian hint. Natural fibers such as wool, silk, and cotton are used to create relaxed, body-hugging silhouettes. There is an eyewear line and a wedding collection, too.

Browse among the classic designs in gold, diamond, and gemstones but, happily, there are less expensive trinkets, like silver worry beads that can be personalized with cubed letters in Greek or Latin and with the stone of your choice.

Shop for perfect pearls, rare diamonds and bright rubies set into unique jewelry pieces.

Since it opened in 1895, this jewelry boutique has been favored by Athens's crème de la crème, visiting dignitaries, and grateful receivers of magnificent gold gifts. Designs inspired by ancient Greece and Byzantium are as stunning as the modern ones.

The art shop of this respected private art gallery stocks some beautiful objets d'art, including candlesticks and other decor, in addition to gifts like limited-edition silkscreens by famous Greek painters Yiannis Moralis, Nikos Xatzikyriakos-Gikas, Yiannis Tsarouchis, and many more.