ajnaro

They are on the same grounds, near to one another but not overlapping. I have no experience at the Westin, but the LC Astir has always been very forthcoming and gracious with suite upgrades. The view is absolutely fantastic and the accommodation is outstanding. Breakfast is wonderful. The club lounge, on the other hand, is not so great. The complex is about 20 min drive from the airport. There is a Sofitel right at the airport.

banzani

Take the LC and you can still use the Westin pool. A 5 min stroll along the water on resort grounds.

thaliajen

Thanks for the info. We are arriving back from Crete, driving to Astir Palace, spending one night, then going back to airport. Maybe Sofitel is cheaper. I'll look into it as the rates for Westin and Astir Palace are pretty high. I hate losing the points but this is getting to be an expensive free trip! Hopefully they'll drop the rates, because I'd love to see it!

CIT85

Westin Astir is going down from Cat 6 to Cat 5 on Mar. 1, that'll save you some points.

Grande Bretagne is going up from Cat 5 to Cat 6, so you got your reservation in before points go up.

thaliajen

Yes- I saw that! I'm hoping that Westin or Arion will drop rates. As we're returning from Crete to spend our last night there, it seems silly to pay $300 a night for a simple room. I ended up having to use the rest of my points for Crete. At 20K a night for Blue Palace, it added up quickly! Hotel Grand Bretagne was only 12K a night, with a 5th night free! I should be adding points to my account before May, but 20K for one night, and our last night, to boot? No way. I'm seriously thinking of just staying out by the airport the last night, even though there are no Starwood hotels there.

As much as I'd love to enjoy a day at one of these resorts, I have to figure in the drive from the airport after visiting Crete, and then the drive back to the airport the next day. If one of them doesn't drop in price, it just isn't worth it, no matter how much I'd love to see the area. So, we'll see. I'm truly hoping to find a deal. I've got 57 days until I leave, plenty of time for a rate drop.

pewpew

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BB10; Touch) AppleWebKit/537.35+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/10.3.1.2576 Mobile Safari/537.35+)

FWIW, I got this hotel for ~100 eur last March after a price drop at T-7

EuropeanPete

Having stayed at the Arion slightly off-season and having given it a lukewarm review, last weekend I stayed at the Westin property and had an amazing time.

I managed to get a Deluxe Room on points (just 18K) which was great value when the lowest available room was going for €800 at time of booking (more normally they would be at €400-500, so still a good deal). Perhaps because it was my birthday, I was upgraded to the Ambassador Suite, one of 2-3 telephone-only reservation Luxury suites. Thanks Starwood.

While both the Arion and Westin appear focused at the Greek upper class, I found the Westin had younger, more energetic friendly staff and were much nicer to be around. The building itself is very 70s in quite a kitsch way, but the overall property is beautiful. The Westin and Arion share facilities so you can wander between the restaurants, bars and pools as you'd like.

The Westin has the slightly louder pool with an in-pool bar on weekends, a chilled out DJ and definitely a bit of a Greek luxury scene (imagine men in their 50s with young girlfriends, bottles of Belvedere and shaved chests). The Arion infinity pool remained almost empty and was a nice place to relax and sober up from too many in-pool daiquiris. There was a wide range of restaurants, including Greece's Nobu and an in-season Greek taverna which seemed pretty authentic.

Given the proximity to Athens and therefore easy flights from anywhere in Europe, I would recommend this place for a weekend summer break and I think the Westin has a chance of being the very best in the world.

kippax

Staying here right now and access to the Club Lounge is no longer available for Plats unless you're staying on the 4th floor of course. Couldn't find any information on SPG/Arion websites about this but apparently it's a new policy introduced this year.

James Luckard

Both the Westin and the Arion again say on their websites that they're leaving Starwood, this time on 10/31/16.

EuropeanPete

Went for one last break over the last couple of days.

The Westin is no more - it closed last Sunday, with me arriving just in time to order the final drink from the pool bar.

The Arion is expected to be open until the 11th of November, but that date is subject to change. Another good stay in a beautiful location, though the Arion staff were as odd as ever. The Nobu (Matuhisa) is apparently remaining open.

I wouldn't be surprised if we end up seeing a St Regis alongside another luxury hotel (A Four Seasons or perhaps an Aman) when redeveloped. I'll be keeping an eye on developments, but I'm assuming that it's going to lose much of its charm.

christianj

You would think Starwood would make this more clear when you pull up both properties pages. It's ridiculous that you have to search under "announcements" to actual find the details of the deflagging. I realize these two properties have been rumored to be in or out of the system for a while but this is kind of annoying. When I search dates for June of next year in Athens they still show up but with no availability. IMHO they shouldn't even show up past Oct. 31, 2016!

slocouple

We had a one-night stay scheduled at Astir Palace for October 19. About a week in advance, we received a letter that Astir Palace was closed for renovation and our reservation would be transferred to Arion. No mention of deflagging. We found that out only here at FT and on the website. We enjoyed our stay and received a lovely corner room, but the vibe was a bit weird with the closed property next door. Staff were fine but not at the levels we'd experienced at GB or King George in Athens. Had to drag information out of them; wait for two staff members to stop their conversation to get concierge help, etc.
Staff, when asked said that the whole property, including the marina, had been sold and the rumor was Four Seasons.

m0hamed

The Arion Astir Palace is reflagging as a FS http://press.fourseasons.com/news-re...ons-in-athens/

James Luckard

I'm not clear from the press release if just the former Westin is reflagging, or if both the old Westin and the adjacent Arion are both going to be the FS.

The new hotel will have 300 rooms, and the old Westin only had 162 and the Arion had 123 from what I can find online, so it seems like the FS will be a combination of both buildings.

khabah

Agreed - the release said "approximately 300 rooms" so 285 isn't terribly far off; they might also be adding a few more here and there. I read elsewhere that the former three-star Aphrodite Hotel, part of the Astir Palace compound and what was to become the W Athens, will be torn down to make way for the new villas as part of the redevelopment program.

Shame to lose this property but hopefully it'll have a fabulous new life as a Four Seasons... which seems to be on a big expansion spree.

khabah