The Best Luxury Hotels in Athens
Athens' luxury hotels carry an unusual weight of history for a city this size — a Syntagma Square landmark that survived Nazi occupation and a wartime bomb plot, a private peninsula that once hosted Jackie O and Aristotle Onassis, and a 1920s mansion reborn as a rooftop-pool hotel facing the Parthenon.
Hotel Grande Bretagne
Built as a private residence in 1842 and reopened as a hotel in 1874 by Efstathios Lampsas, the Grande Bretagne became Greece's first fully electrified hotel by 1888. It has hosted a defining stretch of modern Greek history: Greek General Headquarters during the 1940–41 Greco-Italian War, Nazi occupation headquarters after the Axis takeover, and British headquarters after the 1944 liberation. On Christmas Day 1944, resistance fighters planted dynamite in the hotel's sewers to target a British general, only to call off the attack on learning that Winston Churchill himself had arrived to negotiate between Greek factions — a meeting room is now named for him. Maria Callas rehearsed at its piano in 1960, and a €112 million renovation completed in 2003 brought the hotel to its current 320 rooms overlooking Syntagma Square.
King George, a Luxury Collection Hotel
Standing beside the Grande Bretagne on Syntagma Square, the King George pairs the same Acropolis-facing position with a more intimate, jewel-box scale, its rooftop Tudor Hall restaurant — one of Athens' Michelin-starred dining rooms, detailed in our restaurants guide — framing the Parthenon directly above the dinner table.
Four Seasons Astir Palace
Spread across a private 74-acre peninsula in Vouliagmeni with three private beaches, the Astir Palace estate began with its Bungalows section in 1961 and spent the following decade as the glamour capital of the Athens Riviera, drawing Jackie O, Brigitte Bardot, and Aristotle Onassis to its brutalist-era Arion building. A $250 million renovation brought Four Seasons into Greece for the first time when the property reopened under the brand in 2019, restoring the resort's golden-age reputation with contemporary infrastructure.
The Dolli at Acropolis
Originally built in the 1920s as magnate Dimitrios Kallimasiotis's mansion by architect Andreas Kriezis, the building spent decades as a fabric emporium before falling into disrepair. Grecotel's seven-year restoration unveiled it as The Dolli on 1 January 2023, its rooftop infinity pool — redesigned by architect Stelios Kois and voted among the world's most beautiful by Condé Nast Traveller — facing the Acropolis and Parthenon directly.
Choosing Where to Stay
The Grande Bretagne and King George put Syntagma Square and the historic center on the doorstep; the Astir Palace trades the city for a private Riviera peninsula best suited to travellers wanting beach days alongside their Athens itinerary; and the Dolli offers the single best rooftop Acropolis view among the city's hotels. For dining across all of these locations, see our Michelin-starred restaurants guide.
