On 9/27/2014 GraceCO said: I have never been to Greece and it's on my "bucket list" to do soon! I have a Pinterest board devoted to Greece + the Greek Islands. Something I must see and experience while I can travel, which I hope is for another decade or more! Hearing your descriptions just makes me realize all I've been missing while spending most of my lifetime working and raising a family. I've been to France many times and the UK, Mexico, Germany...but, I have a LOT of catching up to do! Time to have adventures and fun, before more time slips away.
Goldie/Sheesh--do you have favorite hotels you'd like to share?
Grace, I have not visited Greece since 2003, when I went in July and again in October. That was the first time I stayed at a hotel upon arrival because it was my first visit following my second husband's death and the death of our best man, who had an apartment in Athens where we always stayed. In previous years, I stayed with my cousins in Piraeus (before marriage to my first and second husbands) or with the best man from my second marriage.
The Hotel Athos, where I stayed both times in 2003, had only two things to commend it: (1) a view of the Acropolis from my room and (2) it was researched and settled on by my first husband's student, who was the granddaughter of Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis. To my weird way of thinking, that made it special, I guess. (My ex is a Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Religion in Athens.) My first husband and I enjoyed a lovely hotel in Athens on our honeymoon (it, too, had a view of the Acropolis -- many, if not most, hotels do) but I do not remember its name at all. I do recall it was located near Omonia Square, which, sadly, I've heard is no longer a safe place to be. So stay away from that location.
Anyway, the Hotel Athos was reasonable in price, but it was situated up a very narrow stony street that my cousins from Piraeus would not dare navigate for fear of harming their automobile's tires. (And I sensed they felt it was a very poor choice for a hotel. I stayed there a second time because our cousin has shops in nearby Plaka, and I visited him daily, plus the ex taught nearby and we met up for lunch). Even my cousin with the shops in Plaka raised his eyebrows at the place. He suggested the Hotel Metropolis (with the thought that I do not like to spend a lot on hotels, I guess). Keep in mind that he told me this in 2003.
I'll never forget the couple (foreign, don't know if Greek or not) who, whenever they saw me alone leaving or returning to the Hotel Athos, shouted at me, trying to get friendly. I figured out that they were looking for a free ticket for a night on the town. It was not the sort of place to be alone at night.
This response was not of much help, but that is the extent of my Greek hotel experience. When my sons and I went to my late husband's family on Crete, my brother-in-law put us up up at an apartment, which he paid for. My sister-in-law was ill and unable to take care of visitors full-time. When we went to Mytilene, my sister-in-law from my first marriage found us a hotel whose name I also do not remember.
Both the hotel in Athens and on Mytilene were spartan in appearance. Nothing fancy but clean. Typically, what I look for are convenience, cleanliness and safety.
This was a lot of information but not that helpful, I'm afraid, for a good place to stay. A woman at church told me of a nice place in Athens that was reasonably priced, and I could ask her again, if I see her. I had complained about my stay at the Athos and she gave me the recommended hotel's card, which I have since lost.
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