5 New or Noteworthy Hotels for Your Next Athens Trip
From Pagrati to Piraeus, many of the most inviting openings are in less expected areas
**UPDATED**
There is a boutique hotel boom going on in Athens — you maybe just haven’t heard about it yet. This is despite the slow-motion global trainwreck that is Airbnb and the post-covid international strong-arming by some of our banal American hotel chains which, like Hilton, are addicted to spawning cutesy new micro-brands & all under the same corporate umbrella without, as you savvy travelers know, actually offering anything new: too bad for them!
Also, we’re going to call it: whether they are in New York, Athens or wherever, we are not big fans of those sort of overpriced, oh-so meticulously renovated historical properties that seasoned purveyors of puffery like the aging scribes over at CN Traveler (who in their September issue actually conflated the Cycladic islands with the Dodecanese) fawn over with weird, AI-esque ersatz zeal and where the sofas are so vintage or prettified you feel you might need to get the upholstery’s permission just to sit down. Not in the real Greek spirit at all, and no thank you! As for branded residences? Thank u, next.
So let’s get to it. We reserve some addresses and special tips (as well, as in case you missed it, first dibs on our limited edition, made-in-Athens T-shirts) for our loyal paid subscribers.
1. The Real Boutique Hotels of Neos Kosmos
The hottest new boutique hotels in Athens are the ones that haven’t opened yet — but trust us, they’ll be up and running before the Easter Bunny starts making his rounds. In terms of where the action, the unlikely, decreasingly scruffy neighborhood of Neos Kosmos is heartbeat city. On a recent perambulation in those quarters we spotted people gawking at the new build pictured above, which is set to be a boutique hotel with an unusual Acropolis
view (see above). Neos Kosmos is a neighborhood south of the Acropolis, sandwiched between Pagrati/Mets and the better known (and very touristy) Koukaki. It has some light industrial heritage but is otherwise quite
nondescript; it’s the killer location that has everybody from Israeli investors to Athenian cool hunters and yes, hotel developers zeroing in on it.
On a recent evening we sampled Trader Vic’s-style libations and Thai cuisine in the area at one of the trendiest restaurants in Athens right now, Groovy Mango. Other hot tables beckoned. Check out this not-so-secret hotel:
Actually, those are two hotels right next to each other. Thea Acropolis Suites & Apartments looks particularly enticing. Again, the neighborhood is not Plaka-pretty, but then, you don’t come to cities like Athens and New York because for surface looks. Neos Kosmos is a fine place to hang your hat and go exploring — you’ll feel a million miles away from the tourist din of downtown or, say, Psyrri (where lots of those gentrified properties so beloved by Conde Nast Traveler are), and also impress any Greeks you happen to meet along the way. Many will doubt there are even hotels here. But like other great cities Athens will never reveal its secrets all at once — there’s Frankfurt or wherever for that.
2. A Secret Elegant Hotel Just a Whisper from Syntagma Square
We got wind of this one from a Greek friend who recently defected to the hotel project that’s rising above this place, and it’s hidden in plain view: I’m talking about the Athens Capital Suites - MGallery Collection which is a new adjunct to the nearby Athens Capital Hotel. Say they, this is “a modernist haven of luxury accommodation where light dances through time. Within our landmark 1939 building, 19 luxury rooms and suites blend graceful lines of interwar architecture with contemporary refinement.” That’s pretty accurate. While we haven’t been inside, we have inspected the façade from narrow Zalokosta Street, which is a haven of calm tucked between the roar of Syntagma and the bustle of Kolonaki. Ask about access to the rooftop pool at the larger Athens Capital Hotel around the corner.
3. For the Love of a Really Good Hotel Restaurant
The Divani Caravel is not new, but as we said up front, new or noteworthy hotels. From the outside, this vintage 1970s concrete hulk of a building would appear to be devoid of all charm, but don’t be fooled — could you imagine Charles de Gaulle airport with the circular concrete beast of its 1974 Terminal 1? The Tel Aviv beachfront with the gray fortress of the Carlton? Or LAX without the immutable dreariness of West Century Boulevard? Of course not. You want pretty and pastel all the time? Try Disneyland. Let us remind you that not only was the Divani Caravel the setting for key scenes from 1977’s For the Love of Benji — a film no less culturally significant than Casablanca — but it is the setting for some of the city’s most important events, be they commercial, political, or what have you. Stuff happens here.
But what validates its inclusion in this story is not the reliability of the hotel’s roster of contemporary rooms and suites, or good location between Pagrati and Kolonaki or classic rooftop atrium pool but the fact that its lobby-level restaurant, JuJu, has finally reopened. This is anything but your ordinary hotel restaurant, but a swish place where they serve the best salad in Athens: the Spinach pie salad featuring spinach, spring onions, dill, traditional puff pastry and grated feta cheese.
Also it is nice to stay in a hotel where there’s a real, dress-to-impress restaurant that is totally separate from the breakfast area. There’s rooftop bar and grazing area, too, but JuJu…very Athenian, very insider. And not cheap!
4. A Nifty Boutique Hotel in Piraeus
Did you honestly think you were going to make it this far in without us taking another potshot at Conde Nast Traveler? Well, here you go: what is it with these so-called trustworthy travel magazines that take a press release, change three adjectives and present its subject as worthy of your time and money? Parroted information means compromised information. A “One&Only” hotel property will never qualify as a great hotel — it might have something to do with the company being based in perma-dubious Dubai — nothing with its genesis in a Marriott corporate boardroom should pass muster outside our own glorious borders and alright, getting back to our story, the Mitsis N’U Piraeus Port hotel is your best bet before catching the ferry to Mykonos. We popped into the hotel’s bright, quiet lobby recently and spotted a mural by the artist Konstantin Kakanias (pictured above). Mitsis is a well-known, family-owned Greek hospitality brand.Even closer to the port, The Port Square Hotel is also a fine choice for an overnight before an early morning island ferry from Piraeus’s busy port.
5. Because It’s Got the Hottest New Lobby Bar in Town…
Why, it’s the one and only King George Athens…cheers!
