It’s easy to forget that Athens is a coastal city. Walk through the Greek capital, and nearly every step leads you through millennia of history, past the 2,000-year-old Tower of the Winds and the marble columns of the Ancient Agora, with the hilltop Acropolis a constant presence towering above it all. But 10 miles south of the center, the dense streets and ancient stones give way to something entirely different: the sparkling coastline, which is quietly staging a comeback.
I’ve been a regular visitor to the Athens Riviera in recent years, and I’m starting to see why it takes up such a large space in the Athenian psyche. There’s a languid joy in spending summer days sipping freddo cappuccinos and listening to the electric buzz of cicadas in the sunny suburb of Glyfada, home to the new Ace Hotel & Swim Club and One&Only Aesthesis. While I’m naturally drawn to the energy of downtown, jumping into cool, clear waters in the chichi suburb of Vouliagmeni, home to the glamorous Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel, and gazing at the 700 B.C.E. Temple of Poseidon in Cape Sounion over plates of crispy calamari and cold Mythos beers have lured me away from the city center to spend more time soaking up the vacation vibe on the coast.
The Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel
Photo courtesy of the Four Seasons Astir Palace
This stretch of coast was an integral part of childhood summers for many Athenians, including Dimitris Karampatakis, cofounder of K-Studio, a company of architects and interior designers whose projects have included the Manna and Dexamenes hotels in the Peloponnese, as well as parts of the Four Seasons Astir Palace and One&Only Aesthesis, both local landmarks. “There’s an eternal summer feeling in the Athens Riviera,” he tells me. “It can be a bit moody in January, but the minute the sun comes out, it feels like everyone’s on holiday again.”
In recent years, new hotels have popped up along the coastline, embracing the sense of nostalgia that proliferates here. This is a place where celebrities, ship owners, and politicians would spend summers in the 1950s and ‘60s, with Frank Sinatra, Brigitte Bardot, Aristotle Onassis, and Jackie O all known to have had a penchant for its golden sands and shimmering waters. In the 1970s, investment in Greece’s coastal tourism shifted to the islands, and less attention fell on the Athens Riviera. While the world’s eyes were turning to the Cyclades and Ionian archipelagos, some of the mainland areas fell out of fashion. In the years leading up to Greece’s financial crisis, many of the Riviera’s coastal properties lost their sheen, becoming relics rather than icons. But after years of austerity, a new international interest emerged, resulting in investments of capital, eased building and permitting restrictions, and a renewed focus on the potential of Athens Riviera to draw high-end tourism.
When it opened in March 2019 on a pine-clad peninsula in Vouliagmeni, the Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel breathed new life into two seafront brutalist buildings and a collection of bungalows dating back to the 1960s, paving the way for others to follow. The hotel exudes a mix of jet-set glamour and family-friendliness, as children leap into the sea and adults lie sprawled around the pool, peering through oversize sunglasses to survey the scene and order another cocktail.
The Roc Club is the latest property from the Grecotel group.
Photos courtesy of The Roc Club
Across the bay from the Four Seasons is the recently opened The Roc Club, the latest property from 50-year-old Greek hotel group Grecotel. A reimagining of the decades-old Vouliagmeni Suites, the 34-room Roc Club leans into the mood of the moment, with light-filled spaces boasting midcentury furniture and an extraordinary collection of works by visionary Greek artist Angelos Goulandris. For third-generation Grecotel hotelier Odyssia Sifounaki Daskalantonaki, The Roc Club captures the spirit that has long drawn city residents down the coastal road. “Vouliagmeni is the chicest suburb of Athens, and the laid-back spirit automatically makes you feel relaxed,” she says. “It’s the ideal coastal living escape for Athenians, even if just for a few hours.”
Ace Hotel & Swim Club in the Athens Riviera
Photo courtesy of Ace Hotel & Swim Club
The trend continues in Glyfada, where the Ace Hotel & Swim Club has recently opened. When I check in on a sunny October day, the structure’s sleek lines and angular balconies are practically luminescent against a cloudless sky. Formerly the Fenix Hotel, the building’s reincarnation comes courtesy of Athens-based Georges Batzios Architects and French studio ciguë. “What struck me first about the building was its geometric purity,” says Alphonse Sarthout, cofounder of ciguë. “Instead of erasing its history, we aimed to amplify it.” The building’s concrete skeleton is softened by materials like Greek marble, terrazzo, and travertine, complemented by vintage furniture sourced by Athens-based stylists Back to the Future and works by emerging Greece-based artists. The result is a sense of timeless modernity. At the heart of the hotel is the pool, flanked by lemon-and-white parasols and sage sunbeds where I eat a silky taramosalata and sip a glass of chilled Malagouzia. It’s a dreamy setting, part David Hockney painting, part Slim Aarons photograph. “We want guests to leave feeling as if they were part of something, as if they belonged even if just for a moment,” says Sarthout. I sense this during my stay, and when I check out, I’m already planning to come back to the new rooftop restaurant and bar when it opens this summer.
The Athens Riviera: A Brief History and a Glimpse at the Future
All of this architectural buzz along the Athens Riviera hasn’t happened overnight. Karampatakis tells me that the development can be traced back to the 1950s, when the National Bank of Greece and the national tourism organization revealed grand plans to rebrand the country. “Instead of relying only on the heritage, history, and culture, they wanted to promote Greece as a country with a huge coastline, amazing weather, beautiful beaches, and a lifestyle that was also modern,” he says. Architects were hired to create modern hotels with a brutalist bent that merged the boundaries between indoors, outdoors, and nature, including many of the reimagined “new” arrivals that are making the Athens Riviera such an exciting place to stay today.
There’s one additional—and somewhat contentious—project that’s about to change the coastline around Glyfada considerably. The 67 million-square-foot Ellinikon is Europe’s largest urban development, sitting on the site of Athens’s former Ellinikon International Airport. The control tower and a couple of airplanes are still visible behind the construction fences and will be kept as part of the site’s aviation heritage, along with a terminal designed in 1960 by Eero Saarinen, famed for the sweeping lines and futuristic form of the TWA Terminal at New York’s JFK International Airport. When completed in 2037, The Ellinikon will include residential, commercial, and leisure areas, including Greece’s tallest building, the Riviera Tower. I try to make sense of the scale of the development at the Ellinikon Experience Centre, housed in a former Hellenic Air Force hangar. As I look at the maquette and mock-ups of expensive smart homes, part of the masterplan by Foster + Partners, I wonder who it’s for, having heard grumblings from local friends that the coast is becoming increasingly cut off from the public, with lines of beach clubs, hotels, and restaurants fencing off areas. The Ellinikon plans to open up large areas of previously abandoned space, creating a vast park, 31 miles of walkways and cycle tracks, and more than half a mile of newly landscaped public beach. The first areas, including public spaces and a new Mandarin Oriental hotel, are set to open in 2027.
Karampatakis, whose studio is working on some of the project’s residential and commercial components, sees The Ellinikon as an opportunity to develop areas that have long been in ruin and to bring economic benefits and employment. “Being part of The Ellinikon has given us an insight into how the coastline has been well considered,” he says. “It’s not just one big sweeping singular vision, it’s complex and layered. A lot of local architects, developers, and professionals are putting a lot of heart into it because it’s our city. I can’t speak for everyone, but the prism I’m looking through is an emotional one.”
There’s a lot of focus on the Athenian Riviera right now, and the success of its evolution will lie in its ability to maintain its spirit—that sense of eternal summer, of warm friendliness, and of a casual, welcoming vibe that’s as synonymous with the area as its warm sun and sparkling sea. I ask my friend Connie Zikou, a film producer and director who works between Greece and Japan and lives in Glyfada, how she feels about the riviera’s current renaissance. “I love that the Athens Riviera has a completely different vibe from the city center,” she says. And, like everyone in the area, she’s hopeful that the changes are positive. “With all the new projects under construction, it’s becoming interesting. I hope it continues to be an exciting place to live,” she says with a wry smile. “But ask me again in 5 to 10 years.”
Ace Hotel & Swim Club from $230; One&Only Aesthesis from $1,060; Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel from $1,254; The Roc Club from $710
