Athens Cheap Hotels and 5-Star Too

Athens, Greece, is now a great city break destination and can offer top quality luxury and chic boutique hotels but also good budget hotels too

I first went to Athens in my backpacker days, and stayed at a campsite in the northern suburb of Kifissia before taking a ferry to Hydra and some of the other islands. I saw John Cleese on Hydra, an unmistakable figure which caused a Dutch girl in our group to point and squeal: 'Ah, Monty Peethon!' With impeccable timing we'd arrived on a big Greek feast day, but hadn't booked any accommodation. After queuing at the tourist police, who made a few phone calls, we were sent round to a house somewhere behind the Hydra clock tower where the lady owner dragged bed frames and mattresses out of mysterious rooms and we all ended up sleeping on the balcony.

Since then I've visited Athens lots of times and it's become one of my favorite cities. It's like an old friend with lots of faults who drives you mad at times, but you still like them. However, unlike people who just tend to get older, fatter, balder and grumpier, this old friend has grown more beautiful as time has gone by, and is a very changed city from when I first went there in what now seems like the 19th century.

My first lengthy visit to Athens was back in 1993, when I was researching one of the first guidebooks I wrote, the AA's Essential Mainland Greece guide. It was a wonderful week or so of exploration, seeing every sight that Athens had to offer, and eating out all over the city – always my favorite part of researching a guidebook. I'd already spent a few weeks driving several thousand miles all over the Greek mainland, from the eastern border with Turkey to the northern border with Albania, and down to the very southern tip of the Peloponnese. The worst part was driving across Athens from Piraeus to the old airport, and anyone who has ever been to Athens will know what a driving nightmare that would have been.

So after a day lying down in a darkened room to recover from the worst drive I have ever had in my life (and that includes accidentally having to drive through the middle of a street market in Volos), I was able to explore Athens. My base then was the Adonis Hotel on Kodrou, on the edge of the Plaka. It's still there, still cheap, and from what I hear from other travelers it's just as good and friendly as it was to me back then.

My current budget favorite is the Attalos, where I stayed while working on my National Geographic Traveler Guide to Greece, and where I'll be staying again soon on my next visit when I return to update my Essential Athens guide for the AA.You can see the Adonis, the Attalos and some other cheap Athens hotels I recommend by clicking here. To contrast with that, I've also listed a few of the best hotels that Athens has to offer these days – the new chic Greek boutique hotels, and the 5-star places with spas, pools and designer bars. Read that by clicking here.

Athens can now offer Michelin-starred restaurants and other fine gourmet dining, as well as the cheap hole-in-the-wall budget places where you can still get good food and great atmosphere for a few euros. It's been wonderful to watch the transformation, and I can't wait for my next visit. At least I know I won't be sleeping on someone's balcony.