sperkins921

So we are doing a Greek Isles cruise next April (heads up because there'll be another question posted by me today but is not about the hotel) and since it departs on a Sunday from Athens, we are thinking of flying in and spending Fri/Sat and pre-cruise Sunday exploring.

I know NOTHING about Athens in terms of easy access areas to stay in order to visit things. It's still early in my research, so I don't even know about metro stations etc.

Tentatively, I scoured that trip ranking site that lets people review attractions and hotels etc, but there were so many hotels that I eventually just picked a couple. They only ended up being the same brand by coincidence:

• Electra Metropolis is supposedly new with construction being completed in Sept '16. The address 15 Mitropoleos.
  
• Electra Palace Athens is located at 18 N Nikodimou Street and appears to be the original of the three. It's kind of close to the Metropolis and is considered the luxury hotel of the three.
  
• Electra Hotel Athens is located at 5 Ermou, Syntagma Square. This is a 4 star hotel, close to the others. I think it is closest to the Metropolis vs the Palace.

My questions:
Are these okay locations? Will it be easy to get to the sites from any of these three? We prefer to walk or subway but don't mind the occasional cab. Two of the hotel websites suggest being close to a metro station that feeds to the airport. Is this accurate, and more importantly, actually practical? We will be coming from BOS/JFK so by the time we make it to Athens, we'll have been in route for 14-24 hours. It'd be nice to not have too much complication in getting to this area.

Are there different areas I should be looking at for hotels? We will need to transfer from this hotel to the cruise pier, FYI

Thanks in advance!!
-Nikki

ETA: because I know I would ask about budget if I was asked to give advice, all three of these have rooms that are within 60 Euro of each other. Not the same class of room (suite at hotel athens, jr suite at palace, and executive room at metro) but the end cost to me is within 60 Euro. So price alone not enough to help me throw out one/two of the three.

KLouis

All three are between 1 and 5 minutes away from the very centre of the city. So you'll have absolutely no problem walking around. The Acropolis will be a somewhat lengthier walk but taxis are cheap. As for the metro/bus from the airport, again, they leave you 1-5 a minutes walk away to all of them. Finally, when getting to Piraeus to board your cruise ship you can either take the metro to Piraeus and then a cab, or take a cab from the hotel. A little costlier but much more convenient.

sperkins921

Thank you so much!!

That helps me a bit....Now to figure out which of the three I actually want to stay at.

KLouis

The first one is brand-new; it's in the completely re-done ex building of the Ministry of National Education.

The second one is on a side-street at the very beginning of Plaka, the old town area of Athens; should be the quietest one of the three, and the one furthest from Metri/bus to the airport (not much, though, 200 meters max)

The third one is at the very beginning of the busiest shopping street in Athens; extremely busy during shop opening hours, calm after that.