KolonakiΚολωνάκι

Suits:

Upmarket shopping, cafés, Lycabettus cable car

In short:

Steep streets below Lycabettus hill; the city's smartest neighbourhood, priced accordingly.

Almost everything a first visit needs sits inside a 2 km box south and west of the Acropolis rock: Plaka and Monastiraki hug the hill, Syntagma and the National Garden are 10–15 minutes east, Koukaki is the quiet sleep base just south. Everything else is a metro or taxi ride.

Lines from the Athens drinking guide that name this district.

• Kolonaki cafés and bars · Coffee by day, cocktails by night · until about midnightPricier than Plaka or Psiri.

Markets and shopping streets from the Athens buying guide that name this district.

• Kolonaki boutiques · Designer clothes, jewellery · Shop hours · haggling: noAthens' most expensive shopping street.
• Books and maps · Solonos street, Kolonaki; Politeia bookstore · Shop hoursEnglish titles in the bigger central stores.