Where to Stay in Kolonaki: Picking the Right Side of the Hill

The upper side of Kolonaki at Dexameni Square. Photo: George E. Koronaios, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The short answer: Kolonaki is a slope, not a square, and the side you sleep on matters more than the name. The lower side, around Ipsilantou Street and Vasilissis Sofias Avenue, is almost flat, has Evangelismos metro station (line 3, direct to the airport) and Evangelismos hospital, and suits anyone with an appointment to keep. The middle, around Kolonaki Square, has everything downstairs and stays busy late at weekends. The upper side, towards Deinokratous, Kleomenous and Dexameni Square below Lycabettus, is the quietest and greenest, but every walk home is uphill. Hotels are few, and apartments are common.

I have lived in Kolonaki for more than ten years and host guests in two apartments here, one on Ipsilantou and one on Deinokratous, so one on each side of the hill. If you are still deciding between neighbourhoods, start with where to stay in Athens or the head to head Kolonaki vs Plaka vs Koukaki. This page is for people who have settled on Kolonaki and want to know which street. It goes in this order: how the hill is laid out, which side suits which reason for coming, the hotels and apartments on each side, getting in and around, and the cases where Kolonaki, or our apartments, are the wrong choice.

Facts in this guide were checked on 11 October 2026 unless a different date is given.

How the hill is laid out

On a map the neighbourhood looks small and flat. On foot it climbs towards Lycabettus, and you feel it the first time you drag a suitcase from the metro up to Kleomenous Street. It helps to think of it as three bands. (For the history behind the street names and an interactive map, see the story of Kolonaki.)

Walking times from Kolonaki Square are OpenStreetMap pedestrian routes measured for our where to stay in Athens guide on 10 October 2026; the upper band time is the funicular station to Evangelismos, from our Lycabettus guide. The noise row is my own observation from years of living here, not a measurement.

The lower band

Ipsilantou, Vasilissis Sofias and the blocks between them. Level walking, Evangelismos station on the blue metro line, the hospital, the Byzantine and Christian Museum, several embassies. The Benaki Museum and the Museum of Cycladic Art are along the avenue towards Syntagma. This is the side for visitors who need to be somewhere on time.

The middle band

Kolonaki Square and the streets around it: Tsakalof, Skoufa, Charitos. This is the lively part, which cuts both ways: everything is downstairs, and you hear everything through the window. One more thing the listings rarely mention: the square itself is a fenced worksite for the new metro line 4 station, about 35 metres underground (Skai, October 2024), and Hellenic Metro now targets September 2032 for the line (Powergame, April 2026). The cafés around its edge are open, and the life of the neighbourhood has moved a street or two in.

The upper band

Deinokratous, Kleomenous, Dexameni Square and the streets below the Lycabettus funicular. This part is generally the quietest, with pine trees and views, and Lycabettus is on your doorstep. The price is the walk home. If your knees complain or you are pushing a buggy, take that seriously.

For a sense of scale, two distances we give for our own apartments: from our Ipsilantou apartment to Kolonaki Square is about 550 metres, around seven minutes on foot. From our Deinokratous apartment to the square is about 500 metres, five minutes downhill on the way there and uphill on the way back.

Which side suits your trip

Visiting someone at Evangelismos hospital

Evangelismos General Hospital is at 45-47 Ipsilantou Street, on the lower side of Kolonaki. Its switchboard is +30 213 204 1000, according to the hospital's own website. If you are coming from abroad, or from elsewhere in Greece, to be near someone being treated there, look at the lower band first.

If you are accompanying a patient, the question that matters is not how far you are from the Acropolis. It is whether you can walk back at midday, lie down for two hours and return, without a journey that costs you time and patience. The lower band makes that easiest. Our two-bedroom apartment on Ipsilantou is a few doors before the hospital: about 100 metres to the hospital, 130 metres to Evangelismos metro and 220 metres to the taxi rank.

A few practical points for anyone staying near someone in hospital:

• Visiting hours. The hospital's website gives weekdays 17:00 to 20:00, and weekends and public holidays 11:00 to 12:30 and 16:00 to 20:00 (checked 11 October 2026). Intensive care units and some wards may set their own rules, so check with the ward.
• Cleaning during your stay. In the Ipsilantou apartment it can be arranged mid-stay, not only at checkout. If you are staying a while, ask for it when you book.
• Long stays. Both our apartments accept stays of more than 28 nights, which matters when treatment has no fixed end date.
• Lifts. Both our buildings have one. In older Athens apartment blocks that is not a given, and it counts when you come back tired at eleven at night.

I won't pretend the neighbourhood will lift your mood. But not having to ride the metro twice a day with your mind elsewhere is a real relief. Our companion's guide to staying near Athens hospitals covers the hospital's rules, the paperwork and the other large hospitals in the city.

A wedding, a christening or an event

The slope matters again, for a different reason. Dressed up, in May or September heat, you do not want to climb Ploutarchou Street in your good shoes. Two options: sleep in the lower band and leave by taxi from a level street, or sleep higher up and save the climb for the way home, when you no longer care about the shirt.

If the ceremony has a fixed start time, book a taxi in advance rather than hunting for one at the last minute, especially on a Saturday afternoon. The apps and phone numbers are in the taxi section below.

Business, embassies and paperwork

Vasilissis Sofias Avenue is why Kolonaki makes sense for work trips. Along it, or a block behind it, are embassies and ministries, with the Hellenic Parliament at one end and the Megaron concert hall at the other. The lower band puts you on the avenue; the middle band is a short walk down to it.

A first visit, or a few days of sightseeing

Kolonaki is not the closest base to the Acropolis: the main gate is about 26 minutes on foot from Kolonaki Square, or two metro stops with a change. What you get in return is a residential neighbourhood with good food, quiet evenings and two metro stations. The middle band is the easiest for a short stay; the upper band is better if you want Lycabettus at sunset and do not mind the climb. For how to fill the days, see our two to three day Athens itinerary and our local's guide to Kolonaki.

A month or longer, or working remotely

For a month of remote work or sightseeing, consider the upper band; for treatment at Evangelismos, choose the lower band. The upper band is the quietest, and on a long stay the climb becomes part of the routine rather than a chore. Ask any place you consider about a proper desk, the internet connection and the washing machine, which matter more over four weeks than the view. Our guide to a month in Kolonaki covers how a month is priced, what a long stay needs that a weekend does not, and daily life in the neighbourhood.

Hotels and apartments, side by side

The hotels

Kolonaki has few hotels. In the Google Hotels sample we took for our where to stay in Athens guide (two adults, checked 10 October 2026), only 10 hotels and serviced apartments within 500 metres of the square had rooms for 12 to 14 November 2026, and 15 for 20 to 22 May 2027. The median nightly price was €131 in November and €172 in May, among the highest in central Athens. Four that show how the hotels spread across the hill:

Prices are what Google Hotels showed for two adults on 10 October 2026 and will move; they are there to compare the hotels with each other, not as a quote. Book with the hotel or your usual site.

Choose a hotel if you want a reception desk at three in the morning, breakfast downstairs, daily housekeeping or a pool. Those are good reasons, and the four above are all well placed. Along the western edge towards Syntagma there are also larger hotels; our where to stay in Athens guide covers Syntagma separately.

Apartments

Apartments are common in Kolonaki, simply because that is what the neighbourhood is made of. A few things to check on any listing, ours included:

• The licence. Every legal short-stay listing in Greece displays a registration number: an AMA number for a short-term rental, or a ΣΗΜΑ ΕΟΤ number for licensed tourist apartments such as ours. No number is a warning sign.
• Which band it is really in. Listings say "Kolonaki" for anything from Syntagma to the Lycabettus pines. Put the address into a map and look at the contour, not just the distance.
• The floor and the lift. Many post-war blocks have small lifts or none.
• Air conditioning in every bedroom, not only the living room, from June to September.
• Who answers the phone. A host who lives nearby fixes a broken boiler the same day.

What a "luxury apartment" in Kolonaki actually means

The word sells more than it describes, so here is a straight answer. Most homes in Kolonaki are in post-war apartment blocks, not new buildings. Our one-bedroom, for example, is in a 1970s block and was renovated from top to bottom in 2021. Luxury here rarely means a new building. It means a good renovation, a lift, quiet, a proper bed, air conditioning that works, and a neighbourhood where everything is on foot.

What it does not mean: a reception desk, a concierge, room service. In ours you let yourself in with a lockbox from 15:00 and check out by 11:00. If you want someone at a front desk at three in the morning, you want a hotel, and that is a perfectly good choice.

One more thing worth knowing about Athens apartment blocks: quiet hours are taken seriously, in the afternoon as well as at night. In our buildings they are 15:00 to 17:30 and 23:00 to 07:00 from April to September, and 15:30 to 17:30 and 22:00 to 07:30 from October to March.

Our two apartments, plainly described

Both are licensed tourist accommodation registered with the Greek National Tourism Organisation (ΣΗΜΑ ΕΟΤ), one in each of the two quiet bands.

The Ipsilantou apartment has a balcony over the street. Its second bedroom is smaller, with no air conditioning of its own and no balcony, and a small window onto the building's light well. I mention it because it is exactly the kind of detail that spoils a stay when you find it out on arrival. The Deinokratous building has two entrances: the upper one on Deinokratous faces Lycabettus, the lower one on Kleomenous heads towards Dexameni.

Both have a free cot on request, and pets are welcome. I don't list prices here because they change with the season; you can see availability and the final price for your dates on our booking page.

Getting in and around

By metro

• Evangelismos is on line 3, the blue line, and Syntagma is the next station.
• To reach Akropoli station, for the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum, it is two stops: change at Syntagma to line 2. Not one stop, whatever you may read elsewhere.
• Line 3 runs direct to the airport in about 40 minutes, but not every train goes that far. Many terminate at Doukissis Plakentias, so check the destination on the platform display or the STASY line 3 timetable.
• Line 3 also reaches Piraeus port without a change.
• According to the OASA fare list, a standard 90-minute ticket costs €1.20 (it does not cover the airport), and the airport metro ticket €9, or €16 return.

Our guide to getting around Athens covers tickets, cards and the airport in more detail.

By taxi

Taxis in Athens are yellow and licensed, and the easiest way to get one is through a ride app that takes your card:

To phone for one instead: Parthenon +30 210 532 3300 or Kosmos +30 210 411 8300 (both can be called from a foreign phone). Kosmos also has the short number 18300, from a Greek mobile. Between the airport and the city centre taxis charge a flat fare per car of €50 by day and €65 at night (00:00 to 05:00), since 18 September 2026. Taxis are required by law to accept cards, but ask before you get in.

By car

Most visitors should not bring one. If you are driving down from elsewhere in Greece, though, this is the section that will save you the most trouble.

Kolonaki, together with Evangelismos, is in Zone 2 of the City of Athens controlled parking scheme, and Ipsilantou, Deinokratous, Kleomenous and Ploutarchou are all inside it. Kerbside bays come in two kinds: blue bays are for residents with a permit, at all hours; white bays are for visitors and are paid. You pay for a white bay through the city's free AthensWay app, which replaced myAthensPass on 21 September 2026, in blocks of 30 to 180 minutes, and the app can remind you before your time runs out. The scheme runs Monday to Friday 09:00 to 21:00 and Saturday 09:00 to 16:00 (City of Athens, 17 September 2026).

In practice white bays are scarce and you pay three hours at most at a time, so the street is no place for a car that will sit still for days. There are private garages in the neighbourhood; ask us before you arrive and we will tell you which is nearest to your apartment. My own view: for two or three nights with business in the centre, put the car in a garage on day one and leave it there until you go.

When Kolonaki is the wrong choice

• You have a ferry from Rafina before 7am, or any sailing from Lavrio. Those are worth sleeping outside the centre for. For Piraeus, Kolonaki works well, because line 3 runs there with no change, though for a sailing before 7am you want a taxi booked the night before. Our guide on where to stay before an early ferry goes through each port.
• Price is your only criterion. In Kolonaki you pay for the location; in our price sample Exarchia and Piraeus were far cheaper. If nothing brings you to this part of town, look elsewhere.
• You want to walk out of the door into the ancient sites. Plaka and Koukaki are closer; Kolonaki vs Plaka vs Koukaki sets out the trade.
• You are six people and want bathroom comfort. Our Ipsilantou apartment sleeps six with one bathroom; a hotel with two rooms may suit you better.
• You need a car for every journey. See the parking section above.

Where to go next

• Eating and drinking: where to eat like a local in Kolonaki, our favourite cafés in Kolonaki and drinks in Kolonaki, with where each place sits on the hill.
• Planning the trip: the best time to visit Athens and is Athens safe?, an honest answer on pickpockets, scams and walking at night.
• The hill itself: Lycabettus Hill, with funicular hours and sunset times by month.
• Ready to book: see both apartments or book direct. Tell me why you are coming to Athens and I will tell you honestly which side of the hill suits you, even if the answer is a hotel.

Last updated 11 October 2026.

Frequently asked questions