Fish Exfoliation in Athen’s Lake Vouliagmeni

It’s actually pretty hard to research and I’m not quite sure if the fish are naturally abundant or frequently replenished from outside sources. At least they get more space to swim around than your average pedicure fish.

Ethical considerations aside, this was a fun trip out of town for a few hours if you’re tired of looking at ruins in Athens.

Getting There:

From downtown Athens you can easily take the metro to the Elliniko station, and then take a nearby bus to the lake. We used our regular Athena metro ticket (you can get these at any metro station) for the bus, although we’re not 100% sure if it actually worked and no one checked so that seems to be an open question. Other online resources do seem to indicate this ticket works though.

We left around 9:00 and this was probably a mistake. The bus was very hot and crowded and unpleasant. There were people sweating and shouting and being annoyed and some road construction slowed us down.

After about an hour on the bus we finally made it though and all our inconveniences were forgotten as we found a place to relax by the lake.

General admissions gets you a lounge chair, and when we arrived around 10:15, there were plenty of options.

Admissions cost 16 EUR per adult. You could also buy extras like food and spa treatments. The food was definitely overpriced, so we didn't bother with that.

The spa treatment website was very hard to navigate. I would recommend trying to book something the day before if you want a massage or anything like that. I would've done it that day but the mobile website just was not working.

The Lake:

Lake Vouliagmeni is advertised as a “thermal lake” but I did not find it particularly warm. Nevertheless I slowly made my way in and was pleased to be almost immediately swarmed by fish.

Dozens of fish covered my feet and ankles and it felt very weird and ticklish. This might be TMI but my ankles are often dry and flakey so I guess it wasn’t too surprising the fish focused their attacks there.

I spent a half hour walking around in the chest-deep water while the fish followed me around chewing my feet. I wish I got a picture of it but I didn’t want to bring my phone into the water. My feet were completely covered.

The water itself was sort of gross near the edge of the lake where most of the fish were. I could see some of the fish swimming by while pooping and I saw a couple dead fish bodies.

I didn’t really want to swim too much and get it in my hair, but there are showers you could use as well nearby after a swim.

While I was doing this Sev was swimming around the lake. He didn’t really like the fish nibbles but did enjoy the swim. If you move even a little the fish will disperse pretty fast.

Going Back:

We stayed for a couple hours before heading back to Athens. You could also continue on to the Temple of Poseidon if you want to see more stuff, but we decided not to.

We took the same bus back and it was a lot faster and less crowded. We stopped by a frozen yogurt place (Yoplay) at the bus stop by the metro station. It was a really nice treat to cap off our afternoon adventure.

Conclusion:

This was a fun and different experience and I’m glad we went! If I had to do it over again I would:

1. Try to arrive earlier to avoid overcrowded buses

2. Be more prepared for the colder temperatures

3. Look into booking spa treatments a day or two in advance for something extra to do between swims

4. This was our last full day in Greece after a month and we were pretty tired of traveling at that point, but we could’ve made more of a day trip out of it and added on other sites nearby

My feet were super smooth afterwards for a long time, so the fish did a great job!