Overall we enjoyed our stay very much and would come back here. The value for the price we paid was excellent. There were some definate strong points and a couple of issues, so I've set them out below:

The good: The restaurant! It is very reasonably priced for Athens and for a hotel and the food we had was excellent! The first night I had a grilled vegetable salad and my daughter had a chicken sandwich and we had a fruit platter and icecream for desert. The servings were very generous and the presentation lovely. When my daughter could barely keep her eyes open for desert, the waiter brought our deserts to our room. The second night I had bass fish, which was very good. The restaurant was very empty in the evenings, which is a shame. Generally I don’t like eating at hotel restaurants either, but this place was really worth a visit.

The breakfast (included in our rate) was also excellent – a pretty wide variety and fresh and tasty. We didn’t need lunch after our late breakfast – they serve till 10.30 am (starting at 7am which is great). The wait staff are also delightful – super helpful! We got there earlier the second morning and tried the hot breakfast and the eggs (some sort of omelet?) were excellent!

The location is pretty good – it’s a nice safe area close to the American Embassy (much better than Ormonia, where I have also stayed). And you can walk for maybe 15 minutes to syntagma square. You could walk to the Acropolis and plaka area quite comfortably. I didn’t, as my four year old daughter proclaimed she was tired after our tour to Cape Sounious (worth a visit to Poseidon’s temple). Its maybe five or ten minutes from the train station, but I got the front desk to get me cabs to go into town and it is a very cheap cab fare. I probably preferred staying at the Magna Grecia for the best “Athens” experience in terms of location (Monasteraki) but this was still good, just different. Its not quiet since its close to a busy street, but the room was nice and quiet – in fact it was quite surprising how noisy it was when I opened the door to the balcony.

The bad:
First bad: Cigarette Smoke: The first room smelled badly of cigarette smoke and had ashtrays in it (I had asked for nonsmoking when booking and again when checking in). So I was shown another room that also smelled of smoke and when I asked whether it was nonsmoking, the bellman said yes of course. So I asked why there was an ashtray and matches and it smelled of smoke, and he said “well its smoking if the guests smoke and non smoking if you don’t smoke”. Huh?? I don’t think Greeks know the meaning of non smoking LOL. So I went back down to the front desk and explained that my daughter gets ashma and I need a nonsmoking room. I produced her inhaler and thankfully, they “found” a non smoking room on the fifth floor. It was a much nicer, remodeled room too, which was an added bonus, although it was exactly the same size and layout. However, when we returned to our room on the second day, it smelled very strongly of cigarette smoke, so I think the air conditioning circulates air from one room to the other, meaning all the rooms are smoking. I have not had this problem at the other hotels I have stayed at in Athens, so don’t know if it’s a problem with the system at the Alexandros. Since this stay was at the end of a month in Greece, the smell probably bothered me less than if I had first arrived from the US. I did keep the door open and the AC off for most of our stay, so my daughter was fine.

Second bad: Given the very positive reviews on TripAdvisor, I expected the rooms to be a bit nicer. There seems to be a range. The lobby is quite nice but the first two rooms we were shown, on the second floor, were pretty motel 6. The third room we saw was on the fifth floor, which appears to have been remodeled and is nicer, but the beds were very hard. It is a smaller room by US standards, but for Europe our room was a pretty decent size. Keep in mind that two beds in Europe means two singles (twins), not doubles.

I think I was expecting the rooms to be a bit nicer given how highly it was ranked at tripadvisor. I also may have been biased in my review since my sister stayed at the Marriott Ledra and her room was lovely – big king size bed with super linens, big TV (the TVs at Alexandros are teeny), but the Marriot is twice the price plus the food at the Marriot was extremely expensive, so given the price the Alexandros is good value. I think given the choice I'd save my money and stay at the Alexandros again. Although it doesnt have the pool, it was much nicer than the Novetel, where I stayed last year and is a similar class/price.

Third bad: The wireless internet did not work and I just kept getting given the password over and over. There were other guests who could not connect either. Since the wifi was one of the reasons I chose the Alexandros, this was a bit of a bummer. However, they did give me a card for a free hour’s access at the business center’s computer (really a very small corner of the lobby beside the elevator with only one computer). Since I get my email on my blackberry it was OK, but a couple of guests were pretty antsy.

Hints around Athens: Don’t forget how close Athens beaches are – you can catch the tram for 60 cents from Syntagma, 24 hours a day, and be at beautiful beaches in 15 minutes! Some of the beaches are private and those closest to Athens can be expensive – up to 10 euro in the weekend per person, but during the week the public beaches are not too crowded.

Second hint: The Taxis – when we got off the Highspeed 4 from Syros, there were cab drivers and cabs milling about as usual. Some of them were ordered, some of them only want to take you to the airport, but some of them are just scam artists. One guy said he’d take us, then as we are walking to the cab, says, “I’ll give you a special price, just 40 euro.” 40 Euro! It should be like 7! I said, “On the meter” and he goes “No No” And walks off. Another couple of cabs said they wouldn’t take us but the fourth or fifth one said sure – I asked nicely and said please (Parikalo (sp?)) and I think that helps! It cost 6.50 on the meter plus one euro for our luggage (we actually had three pieces). So always make sure the cabbies take you on the meter and that the meter is on the number 1, unless its midnight.