Tales Like These
Photographer & Content writer
Your Athens home away from home
We had to do a lot of research to figure out where to live in Athens. The city of Athens caters to an incredible amount of tourists every year due to the historical importance of the city and the beautiful remains of the ancient Greek culture. The point is that there are a lot of hotels around the city centre that don’t have a lot of soul and just thrive on tourists.
We wanted to find something different, well designed and with character that could make our stay in Athens memorable. We started doing research. Sure, there are a lot of fancy hotels in Athens, but most of the really nice hotels are a bit too decadent and too classic for our taste. We like hotels with a bit more personality and unique style. We found the New Hotel and were sold.
The 79 room boutique hotel was closed for four years for complete renovations, and re-opened in July 2011. An immense project, with fantastic results! It had everything we wished for: perfect location, a luxurious spa, a rooftop bar/restaurant overlooking Athens, stylish rooms and a breakfast named one of the best in Athens. As an added bonus, New Hotel is right next to all of the main attractions in Athens with less than 1 km to Acropolis, Parliament, Syntagma Square and many other interesting places. From Athen’s airport we took the underground (8€) straight to Syntagma square, which was only a 3 minute walk from New Hotel. The ride on the underground took about 30 minutes, which is approximately the same length as a cab ride, but cheaper.
When we arrived and entered the reception, a lovely scent of perfume swept over us from the reception. This place smells nice, really nice. The reception walls were covered in parts old wooden furniture, which made the place look very artsy, and cactuses adorned the entrance. To the left when you come in, New Taste restaurant is located. A cosy and stylish place famous for it's delicious breakfast and recommended as the best place to get your Sunday Brunch and Saturday pizzas. We will describe it further below.
We were greeted by the very friendly staff and took the elevator to our room. Going out of the elevator we walked down a dimly lit hallway that looked like something from a movie set.
The Room
We stepped in, big eyed and fascinated, and studied the uniquely designed room. Clean, stylish and colorful. The contrast of the bright, pink wall against wood panel, crisp white sheets that covered the large, comfy bed and a concrete colored headboard was striking. From the spacious balcony, a fantastic view of the mountains surrounding Athens revealed itself, and the huge windows let in a lot of beautiful, natural light. When we saw the bathroom, the whole experience suddenly went from extremely good to impeccable! A gold covered sink and shower assembly, beautifully folded hand towels and a frosted large window letting in a calming blue light. Needless to say, we loved our room and hope the pictures below will give you a good idea of what it actually looked like.
These beautiful (and very tasty) macaroons were waiting for us in our room together with a welcome note and a beautiful Matiasma amulet. Amazing!
The view from our balcony
The Breakfast
The New Hotel is known to have one of the best breakfasts in Athens, and is the only hotel in town with its own in-house bakery! We were lucky to enjoy their breakfasts just 6 floors down from our room. Every morning we would have eggs (scrambled, fried or omelette), as well as freshly brewed, organic coffee and an absolutely fantastic creamy Greek yoghurt with fresh figs, organic homemade granola and Greek honey. You have to try this yoghurt, it will change your idea of what yoghurt should taste like! Not to mention their granola, which Oliver especially cannot stop raving about. The selection is varied and delicious, without being too much and overwhelming. You can easily tell how much thought they put into their food. It's organic and very high quality, and their selection of bread and pastries is of course freshly baked daily.
The infamous Greek yoghurt with homemade granola, fresh figs and Greek honey. As good as it gets.
The Rooftop: Art Lounge restaurant and bar
At the top floor of New Hotel you'll find the Art Lounge restaurant and bar, which you can read more about in our review of Art Lounge here. The Art Lounge gives guests of New Hotel a spectacular view of the city where you can enjoy a drink, lunch or a romantic dinner.
If you’re planning a trip to Athens and you want to stay at a stylish hotel with real character then New Hotel should be at the top of your list. We really enjoyed their hospitality and the cool design of this lovely boutique hotel. The hotel is smack in the middle of Athens so you'll be able to walk to pretty much anywhere from the hotel. We were also lucky to get to try a treatment at their beautiful spa which was superb. Elin got a Dermalogica facial and Oliver a full body massage, and we both fell in a kind of meditative state. We agree it was the best treatments we've experienced. The breakfast was the best we had in Athens and the dinner at the hotel's rooftop restaurant, Art Lounge, is one of the finest restaurants in the city. You'll be in safe hands booking a room at New Hotel, you have our word!
You can read more about New Hotel at their website here. We've also documented our visit to Art Lounge, New Hotel's rooftop restaurant, which you can read here.
