Athens is a gritty city. It is full of history and is unpretentious. It is one of my favorite world cities and I always look forward to returning. During my recent visit I stayed two nights at the InterContinental Athenaeum Athen. The large hotel outside the main tourist area and a block over from the Grand Hyatt. The 543 room hotel, which originally opened in 1982, is currently undergoing a huge renovation that will add a rooftop pool and updates to all guest rooms.
For my two night stay, I booked through Chase Sapphire Reserve’s The Edit. When booking with The Edit, you still get hotel loyalty benefits, plus you get a $100 food & beverage credit, daily breakfast for two, and a 4pm late check out. You are also supposed to get an upgraded room, which I did not get. I probably could have made a fuss about it, but I didn’t really care.
Chase Sapphire Reserve offers two $250 credits per year for hotels in The Edit collection when booking two nights. I was able to stack this $250 credit with an additional $250 one time credit for select hotels. The total for my two night stay (including taxes/fees) was $595. The two Chase credits brought the total down to $95. I was then able to use 5,600 Chase Ultimate Rewards with points boost (1.65 cents per point) to cover the remaining balance.
As an IHG Platinum elite, I earned 6,864 IHG points for the stay, along with an additional 2,000 points from an IHG summer promotion for a total of 8,864 IHG points. I value IHG points at about 0.6 cents each; which translates to $53 in value.
Location
The InterContinental in Athens is located about 2.5 km (1.5 miles) southwest of Syntagma, the heart to Athens. It is about 1 mile from the Acropolis Museum and Parthenon.
While you could walk to the main sites of Athens, it is better to take the #6 streetcar that has a stop (Κασομούλη) just one block from the hotel. You can hop on the streetcar and Syntagma is just 4 stops away where you can transfer to the M2 or M3 metro lines. The M3 takes you to the airport. Ride shares are also pretty cheap in Athens for getting around the city. Note that the airport is quite a distance outside the city so it will take at least an hour by metro or car.
It isn’t a very nice part of Athens and nothing to see/do right around the hotel, so be prepared to travel a bit.
Check In
I arrived at the hotel from the airport around 9pm. There was no line to get checked in. The front desk staff was very professional and explained the benefits as an IHG Platinum elite along with the benefits from The Edit.
I would describe the lobby as a reverse atrium in that you enter on ground level and there is a large open space that goes down three floors of conference room space. The architecture is slightly brutalist but they have added some art to break up the cold stone. For some reason it reminded me a bit of The Land pavilion at EPCOT (both built in the early 1980s).
I was assigned room 318, a Classic King room. The guest room hallways have all received modern updates.
Room
For a hotel room built in the 80s, I was surprised by how spacious the room is. As you enter, the bathroom is on the right and closets are on the left.
They’ve done a good job of making the room feel larger by visually dividing it from the bed area and the “living” area. The bed area has a wood type flooring while the living room has a marble floor with area rug. The ceiling also changes between the living area and the portion over the bed.
The bed is against a textured wall that looks like a curtain but is solid. On either side of the bed is a hanging light, reading light, and bedside table with controls for the lights, a power outlet, and both USB-A and USB-C outlets. Directly in front of the bed is a built in luggage shelf.
The living room portion has a couch and chair along with the TV mounted above the desk. A safe is in one of the desk drawers.
A welcome gift of something like Turkish Delight was on the table.
Being on the third floor, my room looked out over the roof of the lobby and entrance.
My biggest complaint about the room was that it was a connecting room and for whatever reason, whenever someone walked on the solid floor in the neighboring room, it amplified the sound of it into my room. I couldn’t hear voices but anytime anyone walked it was strangely loud. A very good reason to ask for a non-connecting room.
Back towards the entrance and bathroom is the coffee set up. Above it is an empty mini fridge that kept things cold. Two bottles of water were provided each day.
Next to that is a large closet.
Bathroom
The bathroom was also significantly updated in the renovations. There is a lot of different colors of marble.
The shower is nice with both a rain shower and a hand held shower head.
The shower is separated from the rest of the room by a glass wall but half of it is open with no door, so you are likely to splash water onto the floor.
The single sink has plenty of counter space. It would be nice if there was a nightlight, though the makeup mirror had a blue button that glowed and provided some light.
The bath products are all Byredo branded and a bit too perfumed for me. Also the hand lotion had been swapped with the hair conditioner. Oops.
Pool & Fitness Center
Currently there is one pool at the hotel; though I was told they are adding a second pool to the 6th floor rooftop which will be a major upgrade. The pool is located on the ground floor. It seemed a bit small for such a large property.
Just downstairs from the pool is the gym.
Dining
A breakfast buffet is served in Cafe Zoe next to the pool (but inside). It was included with my reservation and I found it to be decent quality, though I mostly try to avoid buffets. They do have a made to order egg station. The fresh squeezed orange juice was a highlight.
I ate lunch twice at Artbistro, located in the lobby. The prices were insane. A small bottle of Coke (smaller than a can) was €9 or over $10. The food was good but about 5x what you would pay outside of the hotel. I only ate there because I had the $100 credit.
There is also a rooftop bar and restaurant called Premiere. It is currently being renovated but you can dine outside or get a drink on the terrace with amazing views of the Acropolis. As a welcome amenity I was given a drink voucher that I used at the bar on the roof. In addition to a glass of wine, they provided complimentary chips and nut mix.
After my two nights at the InterContinental, I spent two nights at the Grand Hyatt just a block away. I am typically a Hyatt loyalist, but the InterContinental ended up being a better property in my opinion. You can read my review of the Grand Hyatt from 2021 here and updated review from 2026 here.
Athens is not really a place for chain hotels. I would recommend finding a smaller boutique hotel. But if you want to stay on points or with a deal, the InterContinental Athens is not a bad option.