AthensWas Design Hotel, Athens

There is hardly a hotel in Athens with a better address than AthensWas: right on Dionysiou Areopagitou, the boulevard that runs straight to the Acropolis. It earns that address, too.

AthensWas Athens brings together three types of Greek marble, warm walnut, and Le Corbusier furniture, and puts a Michelin-recognized rooftop restaurant at the top, the Parthenon filling the view.

This 21-room Design Hotels member occupies a converted 1960s apartment block, handled by architect Stavros Papagiannis of STAGEDESIGNOFFICE with real restraint. Interiors read clean and uncluttered — marble floors, walnut paneling, designer pieces that reward closer inspection. Forty-five photographs by Stefanos Samios, shot in close-up at the National Archaeological Museum and distributed across the floors, serve as quiet, recurring reminders of the context just outside. 

Book AthensWas Design Hotel via
Tablet Hotels | Expedia | Mr & Mrs Smith, or check Tripadvisor.

All 21 rooms open onto private verandas, but they are not equal. The eight Classic Rooms are comfortable and well-appointed, but they face an inner courtyard. The step up to a Deluxe or Residence Suite brings the plane trees of Areopagitou into frame; higher still, the Hellenic Suite faces the Acropolis directly, with a broad furnished terrace that makes full use of the aspect. At the top, the Hellenic Grand Suite — 110 square meters across the entire sixth floor — is among the most exceptional hotel rooms in Athens, if not Greece. 

The rooftop SENSE, on the seventh floor, is what lifts AthensWas above its category. Chef Alexandros Charalambopoulos runs a five- or seven-course tasting menu of modern Greek cuisine: assured, inventive, and Michelin Guide-recognized. Breakfast occupies the same terrace in the mornings — it’s à la carte, with sheep’s yogurt, house-baked pastries — and the Acropolis hill dominating the view. On the ground floor, MODERN serves comfort food and Greek wines directly onto the boulevard. Ideal before or after the Acropolis Museum, a mere three-minute walk away.

Walk out onto Areopagitou and the ancient city reasserts itself immediately: the Acropolis ahead, the Museum to the right, Plaka just across the road.. After a few days at AthensWas, it starts to feel less like context and more like home.

in our opinion

The combination of a Michelin-recognized restaurant, genuine design conviction, and one of the great urban addresses in Europe makes AthensWas an easy recommendation. 

*This review contains affiliate links at no extra cost to you.

What we love

• The address on Dionysiou Areopagitou is incomparable — a pedestrian boulevard that leads on foot to the Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, and the Plaka neighborhood directly across the street.
• SENSE Restaurant deserves a dedicated evening. The tasting menu is serious, considered cooking, and the rooftop terrace places the Parthenon opposite at eye level — a combination no other restaurant in the city can match.
• Breakfast on the same rooftop is one of the better morning meals in Athens: seasonal, à la carte, and accompanied by a view that still lingers on the last morning of a stay.
• The design pedigree holds together as a considered whole rather than a furniture catalog — Le Corbusier, Rietveld, Grcic, Bouroullec — grounded by the Greek marble and walnut that run through every space.
• The concierge team handles transfers, dining, and Herodion theatre bookings with quiet efficiency; this is the natural base for Athens’ summer performance season.

What you should know

• The hotel is on a pedestrian street — taxis drop off nearby, and the walk to the entrance is under a minute, but hotel-arranged transfers handle this neatly.
• Room selection matters more here than at most small hotels. Classic Rooms are pleasant but represent a different proposition to the view-facing suites; take that into consideration when booking.
• Front-facing lower-floor rooms are prone to noise from the lively boulevard into the late evening; light sleepers should ask for an upper floor or the inner courtyard side.
• There is no pool, no spa, and no bar outside restaurant hours — the hotel outsources leisure to one of the world’s great ancient neighborhoods.
• The hotel is not wheelchair accessible.