Athens Zafolia Hotel

Our stay was very nice. The staff was helpful and the breakfast was nice

The hotel was pleasant but nothing special. The room (set up as a triple for our young daughter) was on the small side and had a lingering smell of smoke. The rooftop pool was only open from 11 until 7:30 so we never managed to make use of it - it would have been great to take a dip after sunset. The breakfast buffet was good but not the best, for example there was an orange "drink" but not fresh juice, and coffee came from a machine. The hotel is a few kilometers away from the center of town, and not right near a metro station, so we needed taxis to get around. We took a couple of yellow cabs that didn't run the meter, and charged us 15 euro to get to the Acropolis area. After that, we used Uber and paid 5 or 6 euro for the same ride. Uber is not very widespread in Athens, so it took 10 or 12 minutes to get a ride. We paid substantially more per night than we did for nicer hotels in other locations in Greece, which made the hotel's deficiencies all the more disappointing. Next time we would choose a more central location and would not have paid extra to have access to a pool that didn't turn out to be useful.

Very courteous staff, clean large rooms and large American style bathrooms. We rented a car and having u deerhound parking was a plus. It's a 15-20 min taxi ride to the Acropolis and in summer too far to walk due to the heat. Breakfast buffet was plentiful with many options to accommodate any palate. Rooftop has a great view of Athens and St. George on the top of Mt. Lycebetus.

* Just tried to leave my review, in which I said "there's a 20% chance this review will upload correctly, because the wifi is ABYSMAL" - and sure enough, it failed, and I lost everything I typed in. Seriously, the WIFI IS AWFUL. * The shower is equally atrocious, a fat dribble with almost arbitrary temperature control * I'm in Greece during a heatwave, it's so bright outside, and yet I have to put the lights on during the day because the room is so dark (the window overlooks a courtyard with very high sides) * There's some kind of generator buzzing 24 hours a day, which is annoying if you wake up at 3am, stops you getting back to sleep * The pool and roof bar are nice, but there are only about 20 loungers, and 4 umbrellas, so if you're not up there at 7am then you're out of luck. I've been up a few times on different days and there's never a space. One time I sat down inside and figured I'd have a drink while I waited, read my book - but after 15 minutes the waitress still hadn't come over to take my order, so I left * Tonight I figured it would be nice to sit out there in the warm evening, read my book - not to worry about the service or expensive hotel prices, I'll take a couple of cans from the supermarket. However I got chased away, apparently it's "illegal" to take your own drinks into the "restaurant". * If you don't like hard beds, then this isn't for you. I do, and this is verging on too much, even for me. Like lying on a block of wood.

Hotel was nice, but not exceptional. Mattresses were rock hard.