Review: NEW Hotel, Athens – putting the old city in the frame

Legend has it that Athena became the patron goddess of Athens when its citizens chose her gift of an olive tree over the sea god Poseidon’s offering of a spring (which, unhelpfully, spouted salty water).

Athenians then raised a temple to the goddess of reason on their Acropolis. Imperiously overlooking the city that gave birth to Western civilisation, it has survived wars and conquests.

Climbing the roughly 200 steps under the glow of the early morning sunshine to reach the Parthenon at the top feels at times like the missing 13th labour of Heracles. With its wide columns and white marble, the temple once demonstrated the city’s might.

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Today, it is teeming with tourists, guides and school children. “You know the Romans stole everything from us Greeks,” one guide tells a group of American tourists, while another hastily passes out bottles of water.

Yet undertaking the climb before the sun gets too hot, with a guide navigating the curves and inclines, is no chore. Surely the goddess of victory, Nike (a moniker this time stolen by the Americans), can lead us to triumph over this rocky outcrop.

It’s easy to be awed by Athens’s ancient history. But looking out from the top of the Acropolis at the neoclassical architecture and low-rise concrete buildings, I saw a city asserting its identity as a thoroughly modern, European metropolis.

A new hotel built on art

The NEW Hotel in the heart of Athens is a testament to this. Designed by Fernando and Humberto Campana and the brainchild of avid contemporary art collector and owner Dakis Joannou, the NEW Hotel takes design to the next level.

Its walls are adorned with works by artists including Jenny Holzer and Jeff Koons and Athens’ own Aliki Panagiotopoulou, who has exhibited at London’s Whitechapel Gallery. The hotel is vibrant with unbridled creativity, eager to shed the conformity exhibited by traditional tourist dwellings.

Immediately upon entering the lobby, I was struck by an entire wall covered with pieces of reclaimed wood. Table legs were randomly stuck over other pieces of chair legs, with pieces sticking out, giving the impression that we were amid the ruins of a shipwreck (without the horror).

I stayed in a junior suite with views of the city and a local Russian Orthodox church, whose bells to summon the faithful to services added to the ambience. A chair doubled as a large ladder, and a light installation of blue and white “evil eye” amulets, a mainstay of Greek culture, was dotted on the wall.

With a cocktail in hand, I took in the gorgeous views of the Acropolis illuminated at night from the Art Lounge restaurant on the seventh floor.

The NEW Hotel is more than a place where travellers can rest their heads. It’s an immersive experience akin to an art gallery. As I explored the hotel, I felt like Alice in Wonderland, not knowing what inanimate object would take what form

and what each new area would look like. On the way to the spa, an interactive installation of a public telephone voiced sweet nothings to me.

Museums and restaurants to visit

At the end of a short walk from the hotel, we found ourselves in the city centre and within reach of Athens’ many museums, including the Museum of Cycladic Art – home to 3,000 artefacts from the Cycladic archipelago, ancient Greece and Cyprus.

Further afield, there is a more modern affair – the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Foundation in Kallithea, which houses Greece’s national library and opera house.

If you’re willing to get your hands dirty, a workshop making ceramics at Yi Art may appeal. Although trying to get it right was frustrating at times, the process was therapeutic. Embrace the mess.

I was eager to shed the airs of a tourist seeking the traditional sights and to embrace contemporary, metropolitan Athens. The new Koumkan restaurant at the Semiramis, NEW’s sister hotel, proved to be a pleasant and fun diversion.

With its moody vibes, pink velvet interior, green marble tables and grand chandeliers, I was transported to the heady days of social clubs in London and Paris of years gone by.

Its name was borrowed from the Koum Kan rummy card game, which was played in the salons of old Athens. Locals on romantic dates and business travellers sipped wine and cocktails, enraptured by the glamour – a NEW Hotel and a new restaurant for a new, metropolitan Athens.

Maryam was a guest of NEW Hotel and Aegean Airlines. Fly direct to Athens from the UK with Aegean, Greece’s national airline. You can also gret a snack and a coffee at the comfortable Aegean airport lounge in Athens. Visit aegeanair.com for details.

Rates at NEW Hotel, Athens, start from €280 a night, based on two people sharing.

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