SofitelAthens Airport Hotel is a luxury complex located less than 100 meters away from the departure and arrival terminals at Athens International Airport. This also means the hotel is conveniently located just 35 minutes from downtown Athens. Other nearby points of interest include the Trade Center, the Olympic Stadium, the Attiki Odos, and the main highway.
There are several different options that guests have when booking a room at the Sofitel. The hotel features suites like The Prestige and Club Sofitel. There are Junior suites, a Luxury Club Room, the New Luxury Club and the Superior Room. Many of these suites have different configurations depending on where they are in the building and most of them can be booked in either one- or two-bed configurations.
The primary dining facility in the airport is Karavi, a restaurant serving delicious international cuisine. The word Kavari means "ship" and so the interior is filled with subtle nautical decor. Visitors are welcome to place a reservation ahead of time if desired. Karavi is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
For guests on business trips, Sofiel has several different meeting facilities that can be reserved. In all, there are 11 conference rooms with the largest being able to hold as many as 600 people. Sofitel also provides catering services for meetings. The Sofitel has been a choice for travelers looking for a comfortable place to stay within walking distance to the Athens Airport.
I guess I had booked a room without a specific bed type confirmed. They assigned us a room with two beds, and I asked if they had any rooms with one queen or king bed. After checking the associate said that the only option for that would be if we upgraded to a club room.
He really tried to sell it, and explained that the room we would be assigned was renovated just a month ago, and would be much nicer than the other rooms. He also said that this would entitle us to breakfast in the lounge from 6AM until 11AM, and to drinks and snacks in the evening from 7PM until 11PM.
The Sofitel is a great option for anyone looking for the most convenient place to stay before or after a flight from Athens Airport. Our renovated room was nice, though I found the club lounge to be disappointing.
Nothing like no competition. My wife and I will most likely be staying here only because we have an 08:00 flight the next day (boarding starts at 7:30), check-in, security, on and on. We're coming in from Santorini, late afternoon the day before departure and will skip the trip back into Athens, where we would have stayed when we first entered the country three weeks earlier. The room reviewed here compares to the one we...
Nothing like no competition. My wife and I will most likely be staying here only because we have an 08:00 flight the next day (boarding starts at 7:30), check-in, security, on and on. We're coming in from Santorini, late afternoon the day before departure and will skip the trip back into Athens, where we would have stayed when we first entered the country three weeks earlier. The room reviewed here compares to the one we had last week, when we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express at Dubai airport, the difference being about 100 euros (less for the HIE). We'll walk over to the departure hall around 6 AM and and hang at a Priority Pass lounge for an hour, pickup up some light breakfast maybe and move on. Thirty bucks for a burger? As an Accor member, I'm appalled by the greed and the lounge? What a rip.
With just half an hour metro run you could be in the city center. The metro stations are just in front of the marvelous Hilton and Great Bretagne hotels. This hotel is very basic and so expensive for Athens. The club room is very sad... Service room is so overpriced. A full greek meal in Athens costs 20 euro... 14 euro for a defrost pizza.....
I have to say, that for me, fresh fruit at a hotel breakfast is a good marker of quality!
I will, however, disagree that getting into Athens is a slog! The metro makes it really easy and as others said, you can arrive directly at Syntagma Square. Aside from the King George and Grande Bretagne, the New Hotel is only a 5 minute stroll from there. Fresh hotel is one stop further on a different line while a number of other SPG properties are dotted around the centre.
As a Greek who lives abroad, while I agree with Michalis' comment above regarding the prices and the quality of the Athens Sofitel, I am totally against the practices of "negotiating a better price" with cash. This is a blatant suggestion to support tax evading businesses who despite being the most (only?) profitable part of the Greek economy, want to avoid paying their (un)fair share of taxes like everyone else in the country. These businesses...
As a Greek who lives abroad, while I agree with Michalis' comment above regarding the prices and the quality of the Athens Sofitel, I am totally against the practices of "negotiating a better price" with cash. This is a blatant suggestion to support tax evading businesses who despite being the most (only?) profitable part of the Greek economy, want to avoid paying their (un)fair share of taxes like everyone else in the country. These businesses often don't pay their employees benefits and they make them work 7 days a week for the whole "season" as they call it in Greece (summer season). Thus, I would stick to paying with a credit card as per usual and asking for a receipt.
As an owner of a small hotel business in Cyclades i have to say that the rates of the hotel are terrible both for stay and food.
This is due to the fact that leftist government had increased vat from 5% to 13%, and from 16 to 24% on dinning, plus 4 euros per night tourist tax plus upcoming property tax.
You can use train for 10-12 euros roundtrip and book a place...
As an owner of a small hotel business in Cyclades i have to say that the rates of the hotel are terrible both for stay and food.
This is due to the fact that leftist government had increased vat from 5% to 13%, and from 16 to 24% on dinning, plus 4 euros per night tourist tax plus upcoming property tax.
You can use train for 10-12 euros roundtrip and book a place nearby Syntagma square or other central area at a fraction of a cost. Airbnb is fine too. When in Greece, always use cash so you can negotiate a better price.
Lucky,
I love your reviews, but I gotta say, in this one you seem picky. The breakfast looks perfectly fine to me. No fresh sliced fruit? Honestly not the end of the world. I can't speak to taste/quality, but base don the pictures at least, I'd be more than happy with a free breakfast as above.
We had a similar stay to Mark Martin in that we got a non-renovated room and my biggest gripe was the shabby nature of the furnishings and the quality of the bed and pillows as well. Service in the ground floor restaurant was not great and they seemed confused about everything. As most have stated, the only reason to stay at the hotel is due to an early morning departure. Sadly they get away with...
We had a similar stay to Mark Martin in that we got a non-renovated room and my biggest gripe was the shabby nature of the furnishings and the quality of the bed and pillows as well. Service in the ground floor restaurant was not great and they seemed confused about everything. As most have stated, the only reason to stay at the hotel is due to an early morning departure. Sadly they get away with high rates, mediocre service and dated rooms since they are the only hotel right at the airport. On our last trip we stayed at the HIX "Airport" but it is about a 10-15 minute ride away down the highway on the way to central Athens. It was ok but also somewhat outdated and over priced. Not sure why they don't build anything else at the airport or close by since they definitely need it.
It's not really that far to Athens central: the train takes you right to Syntagma Square , ie 20 metres to the K.George and the other SPG next door. I'd rather go into the city, although for a very short overnight perhaps the Sofitel makes sense. But for 16 or 18 hours or more, I'd go downtown.
I stayed last year for one night about a year ago. My room was nice and no complaints. Also, it was pretty cheap to go into Athens itself from the hotel. And the convenience of the hotel to the airport is the best thing about it.
I've stayed there many times. But not really by choice. It's not horrible. The restaurants are OK and the bar is "airport bar plus" but I would never choose to stay there if I had the option of going into Athens.
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