L'Avventura Athens — Hotel in Athens

This was a very odd experience. It was a decent location (though cab drivers refused to get us closer than two blocks away due to heavy traffic) and the rooms themselves were clean, so it was a good value. The lobby is an unrelated spa and the actual reception was on the third floor. The elevator was so small that it can only fit two people intimately with no bags, or one person with a bag, so it took multiple trips to get up to reception and then back to our room.

The room was spacious. The shower had textured glass walls into the living area (so you're slightly obscured but can still definitely be seen) and clear glass open to the vanity area, so there's no shower privacy from your companion and I felt very on-display.

I booked through the website so we got breakfast with our room at the hotel cafe. It's an odd situation where you order a main dish and then have access to a buffet of bread and cereal. We ate there three mornings. The first day, the cafe was so packed that they turned away several guests, saying just "try again later." And the cook yelled at a waitress until she cried in the open kitchen format. Each day, it took about 45-60 minutes to receive an omelette after ordering (which took 10-15 minutes to begin with), even on the day we were the only ones there. On two of the days, the manager set up all her stuff on the bar with loud laptop notifications, and then popped in and out of service in a way that obviously disrupted and confused the waiters. I would have preferred a regular hotel buffet like other Athens hotels offer so that it didn't take 90 minutes for breakfast.

Overall, at budget prices, it was fine. It was an experience that was a bit rough around the edges. It wouldn't be my first...

This review is specifically for the economy basic room. At the time all the reviews said the hotel is quiet and that is why we picked it. The website now says the economy basic rooms may have noise and newer reviews reflect this. I always bring earplugs so the noise was not a problem for us but the smell was- there is a lively late night fish restaurant directly below that is not only noisy but wafts cigarette smoke and fish odor into the room. We had to ask housekeeping to stop opening the window. The room smelled like stale smoke even when the window remains closed.

Pros: location is fantastic to walk around Athens and to the Metro, so close to everything. Staff at breakfast was friendly, food was great. Bedroom was clean, nice hot shower.

For the price, the economy basic was a good deal. Personally, I would not want to stay at this level again and would probably look for a different hotel if I come back to Athens. Also good to be aware that if you are not close with who you are traveling with, the barely frosted shower (and mirror on the wall) might make you uncomfortable due to lack of privacy. At least the toilet room has a door.

Lastly, when I checked in I asked for a quiet room and he said “all the rooms are quiet” then put us in the absolutely worst room (closest to the restaurant). The hotel was no where near full. My husband works in the hotel industry and says that is not the way to treat guests. That is why I am writing this truthful critical review.

Update: as expected, when I got home all of my belongings smelled like I had stayed in a “smoking allowed” room. So be aware if you are sensitive to this...

This was a really disappointing hotel stay for us. We booked a double room so two separate twin beds, and they gave us a room with no door or wall to the shower, just some slightly frosted glass dividing the rest of the room. Why would we want that if we’re booking twin beds? They didn’t have anything else available so whenever one of us wanted to shower the other had to leave the room?! Very modern amenities but it felt like lipstick on a pig, the lights kept flickering and going out, you had to slam the door to the toilet to get it to shut, there was stains on one of our towels, and there was no double lock on the door, it was just the electronic one (so scary for single female travellers, would never want to stay here alone). It was also incredibly hard to find and get to, we had to park very far away to get to it but I think that’s just the nature of the city. However, when we parked we passed by so many other hotels in better locations. Once we did find it, it was a good location for walking around, but the hassle of trying to get there at the start wasn’t worth the good walking...