2 great Athens hotels: 1 with big views, 1 with boutique charm

I spoke to the desk manager while I was there to ask about the hotel itself. It dates to the mid-20th century and was one of the first purpose-built hotels in the neighborhood. The area today is a mix of residences, businesses – many catering to tourists – and hotels. Besides the Acropolis, the new Acropolis museum is only about 100 meters away.

The hotel is just a few blocks from the base of the Acropolis’ hill, but only a few of the rooms have a view of the Acropolis. To see the view, like at most hotels in the area, you have to go up to the roof, and it’s amazing.

A wonderful view

The two top floors of the hotel are both public spaces. Starting at the top, the elegant Point A Restaurant and its bar offer views in all directions, though of course it’s the Acropolis that gets all the attention. We – my sister and I – ate there one evening, and the food is excellent. It’s not traditional Greek food, but rather imaginative twists inspired by local traditional dishes. It’s not cheap though!

We were unlucky that it started raining before our dessert. We ended up running inside and having dessert in their ground-floor restaurant. (There are umbrellas, but it was raining so hard that we were getting wet anyway.)

A note: The Point A is only open from May to October, and requires reservations.

The best view – or rather the most enjoyable view – is one floor down from the restaurant. There, two hot tubs also have a view of the Acropolis, which is dramatically lit up at night. It was wonderful to soak in a hot tub taking in that view after a day of walking around Athens.

I should add that both these two levels include garden elements using local plants like olive trees. They’re very attractive spaces.

Public spaces

Downstairs on the ground floor are more shared spaces, decorated in a tasteful and inviting way. The lobby has the kinds of armchairs that make you reluctant to ever move again. Further back from the street is a lounge and bar area with, again, comfy chairs, real art on the walls, and indirect atmospheric lighting.

Behind the bar, under a huge glass roof, is the hotel’s second restaurant, called the Atrium. It’s an inviting space, planted all around with greenery that blocks the fact that the restaurant pretty much fills all the remaining space behind the hotel. Two tree trunks – one alive and one just a stump, pierce the ceiling. The live one filled the view from our room upstairs. While we only had dessert in the Atrium, the menu looks just as interesting as at the Point A upstairs. It’s less expensive too.

Our room and breakfast at the Herodion

As for the rooms, I only saw ours: a “classic twin/double room” with a courtyard view. In our room, that meant looking out on the glass roof of the restaurant below and the leafy treetop poking through it. The room décor is rather plain and classic, but all good quality, with fabric wall coverings and designer chairs. And it was spotless. The room, though quite small, was sufficient for our needs, with very comfortable beds.

The hotel offers generous amenities: things like bathrobes, slippers, very large towels, and even a choice of pillows. The toiletries in the marble-tiled bathroom are high quality too. And I appreciated the easy-to-reach outlets on both sides of the bed.

The breakfast room at the front of the hotel on the ground floor is a light and pleasant space. Breakfast is served buffet-style, with plenty to choose from: hot and cold dishes, cold cuts, cheeses, pastries and juices of all sorts. I especially enjoyed the fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Athens Retro Hotel

Located on the opposite side of the Acropolis, in the Monastiriki neighborhood, the Retro fits the “boutique” image more closely than the Herodion. A 3-star property, it only has 16 rooms, and each one looks a bit different. It has a rating as of this writing of 9.1 on Booking.com.

Our room at the Athens Retro Hotel

We had, I think, one half of the hotel’s “family suite.” Normally, it’s two connected rooms, but the door between was locked when we stayed so they could be used as separate rooms. It was quite small for my sister and me to share – I think it’s the equivalent size to their other rooms that they list as “compact.” (And I appreciate their honesty in using that name!)

For us this wasn’t much of a problem. We had both traveled with a carry-on bag and small underseat bag only – see my minimalist packing tips – so my sister took the wardrobe for her things, and I cleared the desk so it could hold my bag. I only like to open my bag on the floor if the room is big enough so I won’t trip over it. This room isn’t.

Nevertheless, the room felt upscale, partly because of the décor – marble detailing, bright wall coverings, chic lamps – and partly because of the extra amenities – a coffee machine, a mini-fridge, bathrobes and slippers, a choice of pillows, and the quality toiletries in the marble bathroom. It all looks quite elegant, spotlessly clean, and, like the Herodion, it has outlets by the bed. We had a small balcony, and I enjoyed taking a look at the street below whenever I was at the hotel. And the windows were good enough that any street noise didn’t penetrate.

History of the Athens Retro Hotel

This hotel doesn’t have a view, except of the street and neighboring buildings. On the other hand, it has a much more interesting history. I was fortunate to get the whole story straight from the woman responsible for its recent redesign, Nancy Popazoi.

Kiprianos Biris was the pre-war architect and “pioneer of Greek Modernism” who designed the building, which dates to about 1940. It was meant to hold apartments, with retail space below. This was a new thing in this neighborhood at the time. Most of the surrounding buildings were more traditional houses with pitched roofs in those days, a few of which you’ll still see here and there. In general, architects of the period were still using elements of classical Greek architecture in their designs. Modernism was, as the name indicates, quite groundbreaking, with its simple lines and flat roofs.

Over the years, the building was neglected until it was in very poor shape, and the upper floors abandoned. The ground floor and the one above it housed a store selling fittings for builders: things like doorknobs, handles, and such. To this day, the adjacent streets still have a number of these shops selling hardware.

Designing a hotel restoration

According to Ms. Popazoi, little of the interior could be restored. Instead, the entire building was gutted, but she kept the original stairway, with its elegant modernist curves, to connect the private spaces where the apartments once were. She then redrew the room layouts and did all the interior design to fit the “retro” theme. Not vintage – except for the outside shell and that stairway – but retro. The hotel opened in 2025.

When I remarked to Ms. Popazoi that the mid-century desk I’d noticed in our room fit the retro vibe really well, she told me it wasn’t Danish Modern. She’d designed it herself! She didn’t design all of the hotel’s furniture, though; I commented on a mirror I liked in the lobby and she told me it was from Seletti, an Italian producer of design furniture. So the décor is a mix, but all of it supports the retro 1930s design theme.

I have to emphasize how impressive this woman is. She’s an architect, but also an interior designer and engineer, and what she’s done here is remarkable.

Each floor has one dominant color, but the wall patterns, colors and furniture vary within that. While we had a “compact” room, they have other rooms that are larger. The largest is the only room on the fourth floor, called the Sky Suite. It has a spacious patio and a retractable roof.

The lobby of the Retro

The art-deco metal detail on the front door – also used on the elevator and designed by Ms. Popazoi – introduces the retro theme right away when you enter the hotel. The lobby is essentially a corner storefront, with big glass windows on two sides and café tables, chairs and a sofa filling the space.

However, while it looks like a corner café, it’s not. The door is kept locked and the lobby is exclusively for the hotel’s guests, starting with their continental breakfast. With only 16 rooms’ worth of guests to feed, the included breakfast has less variety than at the Herodion, and no hot food, but it’s all good quality, with some fresh local Greek pastries too. I also found the lobby to be a very pleasant place to sit and work after breakfast, and I could refill my tea as much as I wanted.

A basement surprise

The Athens Retro includes one other thing that surprised me: a bomb shelter. Ms. Popazoi told me that this was a requirement for all buildings in Athens in the 1930s and 40s. While it’s still a dark, concrete-walled and rather creepy place, Ms. Popazoi has created a usable space from it. With a large table and dramatic lighting, it looks like it would work for a private party or a board meeting. Apparently, the hotel plans to make part of the space into a wine cellar.

Other boutique hotels to come

The owner of the Retro has done the same thing – buying abandoned industrial buildings and restoring them – to create two other boutique hotels nearby. One occupies a former textile factory (Athens4) and the other (18 Micon Street) was once a warehouse and tool trader’s workshop. The former textile factory’s décor is inspired by the textiles that were manufactured there. The former warehouse – redesigned by Ms. Popazoi – emphasizes construction materials like brick, cement and wood in its interior design. I haven’t been to either hotel, but apparently 18 Micon Street has a view of the Acropolis like the Herodion does.

Which hotel in Athens would you choose?

Both the Herodion and the Retro are hotels I would not hesitate to recommend. They’re in different neighborhoods, but both are convenient for sightseeing. The Retro’s neighborhood is a bit grittier, but it’s clear that it’s gentrifying quickly, with a mix of tourist-oriented hotels and restaurants interspersed with hardware supply stores.

In both hotels we had very small rooms at the least expensive end of their price range. If you have a lot of luggage, the Herodion’s basic room is a bit bigger, but in either hotel you’d need to upgrade to a bigger (and more expensive) room if you need more space.

The Herodion Hotel is a 4-star and offers the sorts of amenities you’d expect from a 4-star hotel. The Athens Retro does too, at least in terms of in-room amenities, despite being a 3-star hotel.

The Herodion’s big advantages, of course, are the view and the hot tubs upstairs. On the other hand, the Retro is distinctly cheaper – though not cheap – and the rooms have brighter, more lively designs. Both offer pleasant public spaces. They also both have excellent service, with comfortable, elegant and clean rooms, and good breakfasts. The Herodian has two very good restaurants and two bars as well, but they’re expensive. And there are plenty of places to eat and drink near both hotels.

Book the Herodian Hotel or the Athens Retro.

Neither hotel has a pool. If you feel that a pool is necessary, you’ll have to spend far more, or else stay much further away from the historic center of Athens. When I took a luxury bespoke tour with Audley Travel, they put me in the 5-star Capital Center Hotel MGallery. It’s very luxurious and much more expensive, but has a delightful pool on the roof with a view of the Acropolis.

I guess if you were choosing between these two more moderately-priced options, it would mostly be a matter of which style you prefer. If you want a unique and stylish room in an interesting neighborhood and you don’t need a view or hot tub, go for the cheaper Retro Hotel. If you want to marvel at a wonderful view – with or without soaking in a hot tub – or sink into comfy chairs in a lounge after a chic meal on the roof, the Herodion is the better choice.

So which would you choose? Add a comment below!