Athens, Greece

Perianth Hotel

Price per night from$203.93

Price information

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

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR188.50), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

New-gen Hellenic

Setting

Bustling Byzantine square

In the same way each of the Grecian gods had their thing (Dionysus, wine; Artemis, hunting; Zeus…umm), each of Perianth Hotel’s three sibling owners brings something new to this thoroughly modern, design-led stay in Athens. The arts advocate ensures contemporary culture is represented throughout this Art Moderne building, and the finger-on-the-pulse DJ has refined the service and well-informed the concierge. After all, you’re on one of Athens’ liveliest squares. And, one of Athens’ most-wanted design studios have taken the reins on Bauhaus-leaning interiors in rooms and suites, many of which overlook the Acropolis but signpost to a blazing future in Greek hospitality.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

Two-course meal (excluding drinks) and a bottle of wine in your room on arrival for stays of two nights or more; a bottle of wine and 15 per cent off at the restaurant for one-night stays

Facilities

Photos Perianth Hotel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

38, including three suites.

Check–Out

11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £182.52 (€213), including tax at 13 per cent.

More details

Rates usually include a hearty buffet breakfast with pastries, granola, breads, Greek yoghurt, eggs every way, avo on toast, cookies, pancakes with various toppings and more.

Also

The hotel is on a mission to introduce guests to contemporary Greek culture, and its Athenian-modernist design by in-demand native interiors experts K-Studios is just the start of it. The art displayed throughout (Rallou Panagiotou’s sculptural topologies, Aliki Panagiotopoulou’s mixed-media installations, Juliano Kaglis’ mysterious oils and more) has all been sourced locally. The concierge is an oracle of the most on-trend local hang-outs too – and may have a premonition about where you’ll be spending your evening. Make an early start of it by requesting that your minibar be filled with pre-mixed cocktails from famed Athens drinkery the Clumsies. And, even the staff are a walking advert for Greece’s mod mindset, with their svelte Sophia Kokosalaki-designed uniforms.

At the hotel

Lobby lounge, concierge, laundry service, porterage. In rooms: TV, Nespresso coffee machine, workspace, bathrobes and slippers, minibar, free WiFi. The Penthouse Suite also has a private pool, Jacuzzi and bar.

Our favourite rooms

Not to cast shade on the other rooms and suites in the hotel – all of which are model-beautiful as far as four walls go – but the Penthouse has a huge terrace, with a private pool, Jacuzzi, bar and a god’s-eye view of the Acropolis. Olympic-level hosting, in our humble opinion. But, K-Studio’s considered design has bestowed something special on all rooms, be it styling with black and grey terrazzo; stormy marbles; custom walnut-wood cabinetry; curved brass and metal piping for an industrial feel; and velvet sofas in powder-puff pink, coral, olive and mustard – hell, even the plants look grown-to-order – or higher ceilings in lower-floor rooms to compensate for less space. And, you needn’t get the top suite for iconic city views – the Superior Acropolis has a balcony overlooking the skyline.

Packing tips

Something resembling a ‘himation’ (the Grecian version of a toga) may come in handy, with all the street-food stops you’ll likely be making – for all their cultural gifts, comfort dressing might be the best thing the ancients devised.

Also

The hotel has one accessible room with a large bathroom, and there’s a lift to all floors.

Pet‐friendly

Four-legged friends are very welcome in all rooms; they stay for free, and treats and a water bowl are offered on arrival. See more pet-friendly hotels in Athens.

Children

Children can stay here, and staff will make a fuss over them, but this is more for the Aphrodites and Adonises.

Sustainability efforts

This is a Green Key hotel.

Food and Drink

Photos Perianth Hotel food and drink

Top Table

Park yourself by the café’s windows to pick up street-style tips and watch Athenian daily life unfold.

Dress Code

Bauhaus geometry translated to your body.

Hotel restaurant

The hotel’s casual diner, Perianth Café, is best suited to breakfasting, brunching and lunching, but window walls overlooking the hive of activity in Agias Eirinis Square ups the energy levels and allows guests to be discreetly nosy. The menu takes the Mediterranean’s ‘our sun-blessed produce speaks for itself, so we don’t need to shout about it’ attitude with simple pastas, salads, sandwiches and pizzas – say a spinach, prosciutto and pear salad with a honey-lime dressing, linguine Amatriciana, or a chicken club sandwich gooey with gruyère.

Hotel bar

Hop onto a stool at the swoop of black marble counter in the café to watch the world go by, or nestle into the crook of one of the lobby’s mustard velvet sofas to sip as you read a book. There’s a short and sweet (dry, fruity, oaky…) edit of Grecian wines and some local brews, or fresh juices, milkshakes and all shades and sorts of coffee.

Last orders

Breakfast runs from 7am to 11am, brunch from 11am to 2pm, and lunch from 12 noon to 4pm. Dinner is from 6pm to 10.30pm.

Room service

Yes, the menu can be privately enjoyed 24 hours a day (breakfast from 7–11am and a night menu from 10pm–7am). Our choices for curling up on the sofa with: linguine with smoked salmon and mascarpone and the turkey, asiago and pepper brioche.

Location

Photos Perianth Hotel location
Address
Perianth Hotel
2 Limpona
Athens
105 60
Greece

Perianth is luckily located in the rarely-a-dull-moment hotspot of Agias Eirinis Square, which buzzes with the comings and goings of shoppers, diners and bar-hoppers. The Acropolis is just a 15-minute walk away.

Planes

Athens International is the closest airport, a 50-minute drive from the hotel. Flights arrive here direct from most major European cities and a few further afield. The hotel can arrange taxi transfers on request (from €42 to €62 one-way, depending on the time of travel).

Trains

Less than 10 minutes’ walk away, Monastiraki Metro station will open up the city for you. And handily, it’s on blue line three, which ferries people between the city and the airport. It’s worth splurging on the ‘tourist ticket’, which lasts for three days and includes all public transport around Athens, plus a return trip to the airport.

Automobiles

Attempting to drive in Athens will give you the disconsolate look of a Greek tragedy mask, and the related drama. Motorcyclists bob and weave through the fray, many seem colourblind to traffic lights and you run the risk of being rear-ended by impatient drivers at a yellow light. Metro links are good and the city is made for walking, so you’ll get along fine without a car, but if you do need to hire wheels, you can do so at the airport; parking is 400 metres from the hotel and costs €27 for 24 hours (the car park closes in the early hours).

Other

If you’ve been island hopping, your ferry will likely drift back into Athens’ main port at Piraeus, which is a 30-minute drive from the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

Even one of the world’s oldest cities can learn a few new tricks, and Athens has been defibrillated by a cultural and social scene that’s still gaining momentum. Agias Eirinis Square is where you can see this in action, as groups gather for coffee, wine or cocktails, hop from shop to shop, compare notes about souvlaki joints, or simply stroll by grand neoclassical buildings in the sunshine. But, even in the midst of gentrified glamourisation, there are vestiges of the past left: a few flower stalls hungover from its time as the floral market, a quaint as-it-was haberdashery store to the north side, and the Byzantine Church which once acted as Athens cathedral. And, each Sunday, you can dig around for first-edition books, vintage vinyl and antique religious icons – alongside modern pieces from local artisans and items of more dubious origin – at the Monastiraki flea market. Ermou Street (two blocks from the hotel) runs from Syntagma Square to Thission – an expensive walk due to the many high-street and indie shops along that stretch, plus the Hondos Centre, a paean to all things beauty. Head blindly any which way south and you’ll hit something historic: the ancient Agora, Roman Forum, and the Acropolis citadel. To reach the latter you’ll cross through the charmingly cobbled Plaka neighbourhood, which is home to the romantically named Tower of the Winds, and the Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments (any tsampouna players in the house?), and Athens’ oldest still-standing residence: Benizelos Mansion, which was built in the 18th century. And, the tiny community of Anafiotika – a ‘secret’ neighbourhood built illegally by Cycladic immigrants – which is notable for its island-style cubic architecture and bougainvillea-lined alleys. After worshipping at the altars of the various gods represented in the Acropolis, stop by the workshop of Stavros Mellissinos – the late poet-shoemaker of Athens – his son has since taken over, but Stavros’ legacy lives on in beautifully crafted footwear and silver-tongued words. Within 20 minutes’ walk east of the hotel lies the Benaki Museum and Museum of Cycladic Art – both of which show the richness of Greece’s cultural heritage, while the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) shows its ongoing legacy. Come evening, roll up at one of Athens’ many outdoor cinemas: Thision or Cine Paris, both of which have the Acropolis in the background; or Zephyros (35 Troon), which has a less formal, arthouse café feel. Or seek out a truly spectacular sundowner with a drive out to Cape Sounion (around an hour’s journey); the Aegean panorama from the headland is made all the dreamier with the ruins of a temple to Poseidon.

Local restaurants

Hippocrates – the father of modern medicine – said ‘Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food’; we say, ‘no’. Live in the now for Athens’ dining scene, which is reliably good, from the most unassuming hole in the wall to Michelin-starred heavyweights. Start off with a traditional feast at Taverna Saita (21 Kidathineon), a surprisingly authentic eatery in Plaka, where decent eats can be harder to hunt down. Here, classics such as pastitsio, aubergine with feta and lemony lamb chops are served in old-school surrounds – in summer tables set outside let you admire Plaka’s picturesqueness. A more modern option in the neighbourhood – albeit only open at lunchtime – is Nolan, a stripped-back eatery with Japanese-Greek fusion fare. Mash-ups such as prawn and bonito in rice paper with yuzu, a cod bao burger, or octopus salad spiked with rice vinegar. And, yes, it is named after the Inception director. Botrini’s bridges the gap between Athens’ back-in-the-day dining and fast-forward culinary thinking; its menu and methods may be modern, but dishes are heavily inspired by chef Ettore Botrini’s Corfiot childhood and use generation-to-generation ingredients. So, you’ll try wild-mushroom macarons with five-spice, milk-fed lamb with a miso-fig pie, and peach and hibiscus pastries.

Local cafés

Sure, the Greeks gave the world democracy, geometry, philosophy and a bunch of other stuff – but, they also brought us Kostas souvlaki (2 Agias Irinis). This hole in the wall only operates from 8am to 3.30pm and only peddles cartons of pita-wrapped meat and vegetables, but it’s flavourful, grilled to juicy perfection and only costs €2; Kostas is the sole employee manning the grill for quality management and works to his grandfather’s recipe. Follow that with an equally hand-holdable koulouri (a sort of savoury, sesame-covered doughnut) from carb-master Koulouri of Psirri (23 Karaiskaki), or dessert of sticky-sweet loukoumades (honey- and-cinnamon-dipped dough balls) at Krinos (87 Aiolou), a café set in a beautiful antique building that was Athens’ first pharmacy.

Local bars

As with eateries, nightlife ranges from the ‘have an ouzo with a handful of old-timers’ to ‘design-led drinking with Athens’ young and beautiful’ – both have their appeal. For the former, try Diporto (9 Socratous), one of Athens’ oldest taverns, where the entrance is a bit of a misdirect (there’s no sign), full wine barrels line the walls, and you may be encouraged to share your table with strangers. And on the other end of the spectrum is 6 D.o.g.s, a cultural centre, bar and nightclub whose secret bohemian garden has swing chairs, sandy floors and candles in mason jars. 

Reviews

Photos Perianth Hotel reviews
Laura Snapes

Anonymous review

By Laura Snapes, Cultured critic

There’s nothing like the sound of someone calling your name in an unfamiliar place. On a spring Saturday night in Athens, I emerge from Monastiraki metro station after a delayed flight and am thrust into a city so bustling it makes Barcelona look like a retirement village. I drag my suitcase over cobbles and around the ankles of the city’s many oblivious revellers in search of my hotel. 

As I duck out of a thronging square and up a quieter street, a cheerful man stands up and says my name – a sign of the attentive kindness that I soon realise is standard at the Perianth. 

The cool, grey lobby has a calm grandeur and a soothing water feature, and the staff are keen to offer recommendations for my stay. But having already missed a few hours of my evening – and with only one full day in the city before moving on – I know where I’m headed, and bolt upstairs to drop my bags before heading out to join the throng.

It’s a slight wrench to run out on my room so fast. I pop out on my floor and see intriguing artworks – a blue double-headed figure that seems to riff on Greek mythology, a giant Basquiat-style canvas that echoes the melee outside – and room numbers cast in brutalist concrete, then enter a room that’s at least half the size of my flat. 

It’s chic and minimal, with dove-grey walls: there’s a huge bed (with what I later discover are, to me, perfect pillows) and a desk with a Bluetooth speaker. Open the balcony doors and the sound of the street floods up; look to the left and there’s the Acropolis, lit as dusk falls. The room is effectively divided by a raised oak wardrobe; on the other side is a luxurious bathroom with a huge cubicle and rainfall shower head.

But escape I do, headed for Ouzeri Lesvos in the anarchist quarter for what my friend described as ‘exceptional seafood with really good signage’. The signage is beautiful – hand-painted crustaceans and fish. 

Outside, people are eating what looks like spectacular seafood – a sundial of sardines, skeletons picked bare, bread to mop up garlicky anchovy oil. But I am too late: at 9pm, I’ve just missed last service, the owner shrugs. 

Onwards, then, to Avli, for more traditional fare accessed through what feels like a secret archway: whitewashed walls, scraggly cats acting like they own the place. 

There are students smoking and families at ease; folk music on the speakers and paper tablecloths smoothed out and scrunched up: it’s whatever you need it to be, and I need Greek salad, hot fries, omelette (with more chips inside) and courgette fritters straight from the fryer.

I walk off my hearty dinner by ambling up to the Acropolis in the dark. You can’t get in among the ruins at night, but it’s worth the walk for the spectacular lighting, giving a taste of what I’ll explore tomorrow morning. Travelling alone, I feel at ease walking up the hill late at night – there are still plenty of people around. As I make it back to bed around midnight, I get the sense that the city is only just getting started, and I’m thankful that I’ve brought my earplugs: it really is a riot outside.

Sunday, then, is my one full day to see as much as possible before taking the boat to an island tomorrow. I set the alarm and start my day in the Perianth’s opulent yet understated breakfast room, the only person up at 7am. (The hotel seems quiet, which may explain why all the staff seem to know who I am.) 

I’d love to dig into the full made-to-order menu – the kagiana, scrambled eggs with tomato sauce, basil and bruschetta with feta; porridge with local tahini – but I have a big eating agenda for the day and need to start simple: Greek yoghurt as thick and sharply defined as the Alps I flew over to get here, daubed with tahini; orange-scented rice pudding, a sweet pastry, a slice of spinach and feta pie… OK, relatively simple.

It sets me up for what turns out to be a 30,000-step day. I walk to the Acropolis and feel pleasingly insignificant among these ancient ruins, then down to trendy Neos Cosmos for a wander; back to the national gardens, where I realise that it’s the orange trees in blossom that make the city smell so good I find myself gulping it down. 

I hike up the steps of the original Olympic stadium, then make it back to Ouzeri Lesvos for fried red mullet and marinated sardines so fresh they might as well have slapped me in the face with their fins. (I’m probably embarrassingly early by Greek dining standards – evidently a tourist – but who cares.) 

From there, I stomp up Lycabettus Hill, the highest point in Athens at 277 metres above sea level, then permit myself to take a break from my self-inflicted hiking schedule by reading at a hillside café with an otherworldly view, from which I can trace just how far I’ve already walked.

I manage the whole day without having to take public transport. I wander down through chic Kolonaki (though everything that isn’t a bar or restaurant is shut, being Sunday) and make a beeline for Kokkion ice cream and get a tub of mascarpone cheese with bergamot and grape molasses and gianduja hazelnut. 

As I eat the sweet creamy relief, I feel like my muscles could do with a similar favour, and email the hotel to see if there are any massage appointments: they write back immediately, I am in luck. 

First, though, a trip to the Acropolis museum to see in person the marble works at stake in the current restitution conversation between Greece and the British Museum, among other foreign institutions. The storytelling and fine detail in the frescos is staggering – as is the idea that Britain has any legitimate claim over these parts of another country’s national identity.

Back at my hotel, Violet the masseuse comes to my room and kneads the day out of me. When she asks how old I am, she responds: ‘Life is for you!’ Then she finds the knots in my back and says, with grave humour, ‘but you have problems’. (Problems she then proceeds to eradicate.) 

It’s just one more way that I come to feel known by the hotel’s kind staff, my back apparently as much a map of my identity as the path from Greek’s past to present that I’ve walked today.

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Price per night from $203.93