Hotel St. George Lycabettus, Athens

Very good hotel

the best view i ever had to see Athens panorama and the Acropolis

Lovely hotel, stylish design. However, the location, whilst exclusive and peaceful, isn't great for sightseeing and to get to the top of Lycabettus Hill one must climb a long way or take the funicular. Also, the hotel's shuttle service to Syntagma Square wasn't working during our stay. Hotel staff were friendly but we had to queue for both check in & out, we weren't offered help with our luggage (there are steps in the corridors and I had a huge suitcase) and we nearly missed our bus transfer to the airport because the taxi which we asked the hotel to call well in advance arrived late. We had booked a twin room, this was a room with a king size bed and a single bed rather than the usual two queen-size beds. When we arrived it was raining so unfortunately the roof-top pool was closed. We were advised that it would open at 8am the next morning but when we went up in our dressing gowns we saw a sign with opening times saying we were an hour early. The pool itself and the sun lounger area is lovely. We asked the hotel for recommendations for nearby restaurants for dinner on Saturday night - they recommended a 'Greek' restaurant nearby and we were told that the prices would be 'reasonable'. Food at the upmarket Greek/international restaurant was lovely, but the concept was odd - a tasting menu which set us back €100 for two people, with two glasses of wine in total. There was an a la carte option but the restaurant staff did their best to discourage us from it, also the a la carte option would have included a 'compulsory' presentation of all the tasting menu dishes (for example, some bread arrived at the table - then, a few minutes later, a waiter came and asked 'would you like to keep the bread?'. This would have been the case with all the other dishes too, we would have sent back the ones we didn't want to taste and chosen just one starter, main & dessert = a la carte. It seemed a totally silly idea so, unsurprisingly, we went for the expensive set menu). Breakfast buffet at the hotel was good and the views from the breakfast room balcony are spectacular. One small complaint about the breakfast - there was no brewed tea available, just hot water and tea bags which we had to ask for twice. This wasn't a major issue obviously but we paid €150 for the room (special offer, including breakfast) and this is a 5-star property. Overall though, we had a very pleasant stay.