From Wikitravel

Kolonaki is in Athens near Lykavittos Hill. The district's borders are not very sharply defined; it covers the south and southeast slopes of Lykavettos Hill north of Sofias Street. Kolonaki is the posh area of central Athens. Traditionally the home of the in-town rich, it's the location of a number of foreign embassies and several prominent archaeological schools, including The American School [1] and The British School [2]. It also has the city's greatest concentration of trendy fashion boutiques, and many, mostly upscale, cafes, bars, and restaurants.

[edit] Get in

[edit][add listing] See

• Benaki Museum [3] - visit the beautiful neoclassical main building which houses collections of Greek art, from ancient times through the Byzantine period and the modern state. Open late and for free on Thursday evenings. The museum shop is a good place to buy souvenirs: small selection and high prices but excellent quality.

• Museum of Cycladic Art [4] - small but gem-like. Good shop.

[edit][add listing] Do

Kolonaki used to be one of the nicest areas of Athens to just walk around in, but in recent years the auto traffic on its narrow lanes has gotten congested literally beyond belief, especially on its lower slopes, making crossing the street anywhere in the district an unpleasant and even dangerous experience. Still, if you can choose a relatively low traffic period, a walk through the district might be worth whiile. It could take in Plateia Kolonaki and Plateia Dexameni, the main shopping street of Patriarchou Ioakim, the parallel streets up from it, such as Haritos, with its mixture of old neoclassical houses, upscale modern flats, and art galleries, and Speusippou, which turns into quiet Souidias, home of the Gennadius Library. Still farther up the streets climb steeply to the Lycavettos funicular station. If you're ambitious and energetic, you can climb to the top streets which to your left circle the rim of Lykavettos, which are successively Aristippou, then Il. Rogkaku; on this path from cross streets and some spaces where there are no buildings, you can glimpse spectacular views of Athens, some of them including the Acropolis. If you keep going around you'll reach Sarantapichou Street, but by this time you've left Kolonaki and are looking down on the student district of Exarcheia.

[edit][add listing] Buy

Kolonaki offers the range of shops you would expect from an upscale neighborhood: art galleries, hip clothing boutiques, and antique stores are thick on the ground. Since the area is small, and the boutiques, especially, tend to come and go, rather than make a list of promising shops the traveler interested in such shopping may find it preferable to just walk around, especially around Plateia Kolonaki and the small streets north of it, including Skoufa, Anagnostopoulo, and the pedestrianized Tsakaloff, and along Patriarchou Ioakim and Haritos streets and their cross streets, where no lack of such establishments will be found.

[edit][add listing] Eat

• Filippou, 19 Xenokratous, tel 210 72 16 390, is a very long-established taverna whose simplicity disguises some of the best and most authentic food you can get in Athens. Seating indoors and outdoors, though it's hard to find a seat in the latter during pleasant weather.

• To Kioupi on Platía Kolonakíou, tel, 210 36 14 033, known among some American expatriates as "the hole in the ground," is a basement taverna which has also been around forever, serving authentic, inexpensive traditional Greek fare, and is a good place to know about if you just want a simple meal in this neighborhood.

[edit][add listing] Drink

[edit][add listing] Sleep

[edit] Moderate

• Periscope Hotel[5] 22 Charitos Street, 10675 Athens Greece is an upscale (with prices to match) hip boutique hotel with an excellent Kolonaki location. The glossy, minimalist decor will please people who like that style. [Note: this hotel was formerly The Athenian Inn, and that name may still be found in some Athens hotel listings in guidebooks, but the former hotel has been so completely refurbished that it is now a totally different establishment.]

[edit] Contact

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