New Hotel

The New Hotel is boldly designed with a funky style in the heart of Athens. It is owned by the Yes Hotels and Restaurant Group, which runs five equally eclectic properties in Athens.An unassuming building from the outside, as soon as guests enter the New Hotel its style confronts. The interior walls are made up of intricate pieces of criss-crossed wood, seemingly pulled from chair legs, music equipment, and banisters. Along the back wall, a couch made up of bulbous beige and brown cushions appears rock-like. At the intimate reception desks, guests sit in seafoam-colored chairs that are excessively draped in leather, which hangs off the frame. Just to enforce the point, design books are scattered around coffee tables and side tables.Beyond a glass divider oddly populated with sconces and wall lamps is the hotel's restaurant, New Taste. A well-regarded Mediterranean restaurant that serves breakfast (buffet), lunch, and dinner, New Taste maintains the same loud, eclectic style of the rest of the hotel with wooden chairs whose legs look assembled from Linkin Logs, draped fabric chairs, and wood-piece walls. The collection of wood pieces also surround two large columns in the middle of the restaurant, which rise up like the bases of two large trees. Upstairs on the top floor, Art Lounge has a slightly softer aesthetic, more focused on bringing in the light and showing off the view (from parts of the lounge, you can see the Acropolis), but keeps up the hotel's distinctiveness with leather wrapped lamps, star-like lights on the ceiling, and huge bell-shaped gold lamps hanging above the bar. The back of the bar is a modular bookshelf and cabinet made up of a rectangles and squares. It has a softening, homey effect, stacked with books around the liquor and glassware. Beyond the air Art Lounge, the hotel is darkly lit with limited natural light, which can be dreary, particularly when located in such a bright, warm locale.  

The New Hotel is well located near Syntagma Square in downtown Athens. Main tourist attractions, such as the Acropolis, Parthenon, and the Plaka -- great for shopping -- are within a 10-minute walk, with the Jewish Museum of Greece and the Museum of Greek Folk Art along the way. There are plenty of restaurants in the area, and with the Syntagma metro stop within a three-minute walk, it's easy to get around the rest of the city, and to catch a train from Syntagma to the Athens International Airport (a 45-minute trip), otherwise a 35-minute drive, from the hotel.

Rooms at the New Hotel, while fun and well-styled, are on the small side, and there's little difference in size among Standard, Superior, and Superior Plus accommodations. Rooms are designed in clusters, with thematic elements that carry through the different room categories. Evil Eye Rooms have light-up "evil eye" sculptures, a classic Greek artistic symbol, while Postcard Rooms are decorated with different-size postcard images mounted on the wall as if blowing in a breeze. Standard, Superior, and Superior Plus rooms come with plain, white beds (queen or two singles) and long narrow workspace counters. In addition to desk chairs are small wooden chairs with ladder-like backs. Cushier seating comes with Junior Suites. A jagged-edge mirror, which has a sink behind it, separates the bathroom  from the rest of room. The bathroom, behind glass doors, is small and wood-lined, giving it the look of a sauna. Most rooms come with small, furnished balconies. The large Penthouse Suite has a guitar-body-shaped blue table that seats eight, and a large L-shaped couch and two draped-leather chairs. With a huge terrace that gets plenty of sun, this suite offers several views of the cityscape and the Acropolis. 

Design is the overarching feature here, but the hotel also offers two bar/restaurants, the top-floor Art Lounge and the lobby-level New Taste, which serves three meals a day. A buffet breakfast is included in some rate packages. The small spa offers massages and facials, and also has a sauna and whirlpool. The attached 24-hour fitness center, while not huge, has cardio machines, weight machines, and free weights. The hotel also has a two-computer business center and several meeting rooms -- a nice perk for business travelers. Wi-Fi is available throughout the hotel, but the signal can be shaky at times.