Athens, Greece

La Divina

Price per night from$195.42

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR185.50), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Historic high note

Setting

Heart-of-things Thissio

Once a theatre with stellar operatic pedigree, La Divina’s latest role is that of an neoclassical guesthouse in Athens’ ancient heart – and the results are pitch-perfect. After days immersed in Hellenic high drama – the Agora is moments away, and staff can orchestrate visits to other cultural highlights – a glass of assyrtiko in the frond-framed courtyard makes a fitting coda. Retreat to your spacious room (which might spy the Acropolis) and you’ll be ready for your encore before you can say ‘bravissima’.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A welcome drink each, chocolates and loukoumia

Facilities

Photos La Divina facilities

Need to know

Rooms

12, including seven suites.

Check–Out

11am. Check-in is at 3pm, but both are flexible, subject to availability.

More details

Rates include access to Athens Tennis Club and à la carte breakfast at Oh! Dio.

Also

Unfortunately, the historic building’s listed status means there is no lift and no adapted rooms, making La Divina unsuitable for guests with limited mobility.

At the hotel

Courtyard and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, air-conditioning, tea- and coffee-making kit, minibar, free bottled water, bathrobes and Olive Era bath products.

Our favourite rooms

After sun-baked days exploring Athens, the Spa Suite is an alluring prospect, with a double-size shower and garden-gazing Jacuzzi in its super-size bathroom. Opt for the Suite with Outdoor Jacuzzi and you might struggle to shift from the private terrace, where you can soak in bubbly bliss with cityscape views.

Packing tips

You may not be quite ready to give your Tosca, but take inspiration from La Divina’s namesake diva with an operatic playlist and your best primadonna jewels.

Also

No excuse needed to a celebrate a woman who could nail Donizetti and a dramatic cat-eye…but in case you were wondering, the mansion that La Divina calls home was once the Odeon Athenaeum, famed for its competitions in honour of Maria Callas’ career.

Pet‐friendly

Small pets (weighing up to 10 kilogrammes) can stay on request for a fee of €25 each. Your city-slicking pooch will have a bed and bowls provided. There’s a limit of one dog a room, and you’ll need to show a vaccination certificate at check-in. See more pet-friendly hotels in Athens.

Children

Welcome, but not especially catered to. Baby cots can be added free to all rooms; one child, aged three to 12, can sleep on a sofa-bed for free in Junior Suites, Suite Athens and Suite Adrianou.

Food and Drink

Photos La Divina food and drink

Hotel restaurant

There’s no restaurant, but breakfast is included for La Divina guests at Oh! Dio, the modern taverna and wine bar next door, between 8.30am and 11.30am.

Hotel bar

La Divina doesn’t have a bar, but just downstairs, Oh! Dio’s sommelier-picked selection of bottles from small Greek producers will soften the blow.

Location

Photos La Divina location
Address
La Divina
Adrianou 3
Athens
10555
Greece

La Divina is on Adrianou Street, a thrumming pedestrianised thoroughfare in the Thissio neighbourhood with the Ancient Agora of Athens nearby and Monastiraki, Plaka and the Acropolis all in easy reach.

Planes

It’s around a 45-minute drive from Athens International Airport. The hotel can arrange transfers for €55 each way.

Trains

It’s a 10-minute drive from Athens Railway Station, which has links to Thessaloniki and Kalambaka. Thissio and Monastiraki stations are your local metro stops, with Line 1 linking you to Piraeus.

Automobiles

You’re in a privileged downtown position, with many of the city’s historic highlights in strolling distance, so you can leave the challenging Athens traffic to the locals. There’s no car park at the hotel, but paid public parking is available at the Sarri 30 garage, a five-minute walk away.

Other

Ferries sail in from the Saronic and Cycladic islands to Piraeus. From there, it’s around a half-hour drive to the hotel; the hotel can arrange transfers from the port for €40 each way, or you can hop on Metro Line 1 to head straight to Thissio.

Worth getting out of bed for

It’s just a skip down the street to the Ancient Agora of Athens, once the heart of Greek society – fast forward a millennium or two and it’s a staggering array of ancient ruins, crowned by the Temple of Hephaestus and the Byzantine Church of the Holy Apostles. The Acropolis and Plaka’s charming cobblestone streets are within walking distance, too – or ask the hotel about booking a bike tour of the city’s headline sights. For a breather from the city-centre hubbub, make for Mikrolimano marina in Piraeus, where yacht-spotting strolls end with calamari at a waterfront café. Golden sands and scene-y bars await at Glyfada, Vouliagmeni and Varkiza beaches; or ditch mainland life altogether on a day cruise around the Saronic islands. The hotel can also arrange trips further afield – take in archaeological marvels at Delphi and Cape Sounion, or mosey around Nafplio, a swoon-worthy coastal town where neoclassical architecture meets the shocking blue of the Aegean.

Local restaurants

Dinner plans are a doddle with Callas on the hotel’s doorstep. Pop downstairs to the glamorous, vintage-accented restaurant, where specialities include souvlaki, moussaka and vibrant salads piled with fresh Athenian produce.

And if you’re looking to mix things up one lunchtime, try Tanpopo for Greek-Japanese chef Sotiris Contizas’ umami-packed ramen.

Local cafés

12oz is a staple of the Italian coffee scene, and you’ll find one of the chain’s first Greek spots just next door to La Divina; swing by for a caffeine hit and a candy-pink doughnut. For an indie café with fresh-baked cakes and a killer cortado, take a stroll to Myller Coffee Shop.

Local bars

Oenophiles need look no further than Oh! Dio. But it’s worth branching out to hole-in-the-wall bar Norman Athens, where the façade is a canvas for kaleidoscopic street art and the craft cocktails are things of beauty, too – our head’s been turned by the ginger basil smash and house-brewed espresso martini.

Reviews

Photos La Divina reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this history-steeped hotel in Thissio and unpacked their assyrtiko and cobble-proof sandals, a full account of their city-centre break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside La Divina in Athens…

Few do glamour like Maria Callas did glamour: globe-conquering primadonna, ever draped in pearls and fur, soon to be played on the silver screen by Angelina Jolie…it’s less a bio, more a blueprint for it-girls everywhere – and for boutique Athens stay La Divina, which is set in a former theatre and draws its name from the soprano’s sobriquet.

The hotel doesn’t try to out-glitz its namesake. There are opulent touches, of course – rooms are luxuriously spacious for a city-centre stay, and some have Jacuzzis and private terraces. But a pared-back palette and prime downtown postcode put Athens firmly in the spotlight. Adrianou Street is the boutique-thronged pulse point of the Thissio neighbourhood; just beyond, the Ancient Agora and the Acropolis beckon. If you want to drop the tempo, staff can sort a seaside jaunt or an island cruise. But really, this is a place to take a leaf out of Maria’s book and cast yourself, with élan, at the heart of the action.

Book now

Price per night from $193.84