The Ancient City of Athens
June 25th, 2009TravellingThe capital of Greece is an icon of European tourism, but it is not a long time since they braved the traffic, crowds and uneatable food.
Connections
For visitors to Athens the agony used to start at airport, but the new Athens International Airport which was built in preparation for the Olympic Games in 2004, has transformed the experience of visiting Greece. It has excellent passenger connections to the city, modern trains get you to the citycentre in just 40 minutes, and it doesn’t matter that the new airport is in the hills 30 kilometres east of Athens, which is much farther than the old coastal airport.
Because the airport was designed for larger numbers of passengers than it generally sees, there is plenty of room. The competition for tarmac space at most other major airports experience does not exist. Landing fees are high, but most users feel they are worth it.
The traffic jams are as bad as ever and Athens taxi drivers are no more honest than before, but the new underground railway means that visitors don’t need to use them. Public transport is cheap (10 euros for a week’s ticket) as well as fast and astonishingly clean. Below the surface, it is easy to forget you are in Greece at all.
Accommodation
The granddaddy of Athens hotels is the Grande Bretagne or “GB”, on Syntagma (Constitution) Square. Built in a 126-year-old palace, it is more impressive than the parliament building next door. Its doormen are less colorful than the Greek guards of parliament, dressed in their traditional uniforms, but are more helpful. Trying to get the sentries of smile is still a favorite pursuit of tourists; success is as rare as ever.
Also on Syntagma Square is another of the town’s best hotels, the King George Palace, which has recently been refurbished. The Elektra Palace is in the same area and the Athens Hilton about a kilometer away. Apart form luxury, the main reason to stay in a 4-5 star hotel is that Athens is a very noisy city, not surprising when you consider that a third of the population of Greece lives there. It’s worth asking in advance about sound insulation, although the quietest rooms 
sometimes have the poorest views. Generally higher is better.
For travelers with more restricted budgets, or less sensitive ears, the good news from Athens is that 3-star hotels outside the centre and outside the holiday season can be surprisingly pleasant. In the old days they were often dirty. They were also hard to reach, but the modern metro railway has made them safely accessible. The Apollo on Karaiskaki Square is a good example. It was previously surrounded by districts best avoided at night, but is now just two metro stops from the centre.
Seasons
Summer is the time to avoid Athens. The weather is not generally comfortable after April or before October, and it is not merely a matter of temperature. The city lies in a basin between mountains and, on hot still days, the centre is often blanketed with petrochemical smog. It can be seriously bad for your health. Athens is a place to come in winter, when there are no crowds and hardly any visitors. Most of the shops and restaurants still operate, so service improves remarkably. An exciting time to visit is during the Apokreas festival season in late February and early March. While it’s still cold and dark in northern Europe, the Greeks dance in the street.
If you are in Athens when it’s hot, head for the port, Piraeus, on the Saronic Gulf. Fast hydrofoils reach the islands of Poros, Hydra and Spetses in 60 – 120 minutes. 
There is not a lot to do when you arrive, but the day slips by quickly. You can spend the time on the quay, Greek-style, watching others work, or tourist-style, exploring the hills and tiny beaches on a rented bike. Hydra has several luxury hotels so you may be tempted to stay longer. If not, there are boats, fast or slow, to take you back to Athens in the evening. The only time this can’t be recommended is in August, the Greek holiday month, when half of the people of Athens will be doing it.
Ambience
Athenians like old-fashioned shop and even the very centre has hundreds of tiny, dusty premises with windows full of faded boxes. Department stores are equally strange. Attica, just behind Syntagma Square, claims to be Greece’s largest but has only fashion clothes on six of its floors, with everything else crammed onto the seventh. The Kolonaki district, on the edge of Lykavittos Hill, is where to go for modern boutiques.
Monastiraki is famous for its antique stalls on Sundays. Compared with the famous markets of London, Paris or Brussels, Athens has genuinely low prices and the opportunity of obtaining truly strange and rare items. Nearby is the Plaka, a district famous for its cheap restaurants. Simple food is what the Athens area excels in. The restaurants on waterfront in Rafina have been unchanged for fifty years. The paint is faded but the fish could not be fresher.
High cuisine is available for a price, of course. The finest dining premises are those of the Yacht Club of Greece. The building was commissioned by a former King and overlooks Athens and the Saronic Gulf. It’s not easy to get and invitation and, compared with the rest of relaxed Greece, dress standards are exacting.
by Private InFlight
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