Divani Caravel - Athens, Greece 

We recently stayed here and it was nice but over rated. They hyped themselves as "one of the world's leading hotels". Not so. The room was nice but a bit small--but that is standard for Europe. The bathroom was very nice. However a "leading hotel" provides some nice things and this was not the case. No coffee pot to make coffee or tea, no bathrobes, no special toiletries n the bathroom (not even conditioner) , no place to hang any wet or drying clothes, or anything special about the room. It was clean and fine but not special as you would expect in a "leading hotel". THe pool area was nice but not a great pool to do laps in. They run a convenient shuttle that takes you to the center of town--thats nice. its walkable but Athens is hot. Breakfast was good--however they wanted to charge me extra since i wanted sparkling water not flat water. The gym was very nice but that was an extra 18 Euros. For my money, i stayed at the Athen Hilton a few years back and I liked the room, breakfast and pool area better. (Hilton had a nice lap pool--though it is on the first floor so you do hear some street noise but it did not bother me.) Plus i got Hilton miles there. This hotel has no milegage program. THe Hilton is right down the street from the Divani.

We were in for a quick overnight before flying out the next morning. Didn't see anything overly impressive in the main area of the hotel. Pool on the top floor was really cool, overlooking the city and the Acropolis. We took the shuttle to the major shopping area and had no problems finding our way back. Hotel staff was very helpful getting us a cab at 4am to the airport - 30E. Would stay again, good experience.