Great Hotel in Athens, Greece

The Electra Palace is in most respects a marvelous hotel in Athens, Greece, surely the luxury hotel with the absolutely best location. Nearly all the rooms have a balcony with a view of the gigantic, nearby Acropolis which is marvelous to behold both during the day and at night when it is well lighted. The lobby is one of the best in world, which like so much in the hotel is visually stunning. Sadly the room was not anywhere as spacious as the lobby. The free American style breakfast is simply terrific in terms of diverse items and food quality, about the best I have ever had at any hotel around the world. The breads, cakes, eggs, fruits, nuts and many other items were consistently impressive. Considering the high prices in Greece it is worth a lot of money and so large that you can skip lunch, especially if you take some things to save for later. Even better you can sit outside in the wonderful garden area and have breakfast there.

On the downside, the room air conditioning was not all that effective and beds were rather hard, and you had to have ice sent up by room service; there was also no clock in the room.

The hotel has a terrific pool and hot tub on the rooftop with a wonderful view of the city, and another excellent pool in the lower level. But the most striking advantage of this hotel is that you can walk out the door and get to nearly all the major city attractions within about 20 minutes of less, so there is no need to use taxis, buses or the local rail options. There are a huge number of restaurants and shops within just a few minutes of the hotel, as well as major cultural attractions. We met a lot of tourists who were staying at expensive hotels with no easy walking access to city attractions. The staff was friendly but not always the most helpful. They can do much better in catering to guests.

If you want a great hotel in Athens consider staying at the Electra Palace, though not cheap it is less pricey than a number of other luxury hotels in Athens, which in general is a pretty expensive place these days, but the food, shopping and attractions in this city are well above average for Europe.