When it came to booking lodging for Italy and Greece, the planner in me started looking immediately after we had our flights booked. I did this for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to get a better feel of what it would cost in case we needed to budget more money, and next, I figured if we found a good deal, we should snag it before it was gone!
Our front door - Room 110 |
Sunrise from our patio |
Be prepared with Residence Suites, there is no formal front desk, you have to check in at the bus stop. This did not bother us, but I read several complaints online prior, mainly because people weren't aware. As long as you know, then no worries. If you stay at this hotel and book online with them directly, you can also get a complimentary shuttle from the airport. To get our room, ask for room 110 - you won't regret it!
Would we stay here again? Absolutely! But to mix things up we would probably try somewhere new. This was our take on it: By staying in Oia, we could explore in the morning without the crazy crowds and enjoy it. Plus, we had easy access to Ammoudi Bay, beautiful sunsets, the domes, etc. Now that we've been, we would probably stay in a neighborhood like Imergovli where we can enjoy sunsets from our hotel room, and ATV over to Oia. As long as you prepare yourself for crowds, you can't go wrong!
In Athens, we just felt like AirBnb was the way to go. When looking online, I found the cutest place that had a private rooftop patio (yes, please!), called island in the sky. When I showed it to Bryan, he fell in love and started looking at the neighborhood, Koukaki. Turns out, AirBnb named this neighborhood as one of the top five in the world! Well, this just sold us on it and the price was great! What was interesting about this place is that it was the only room on the 6th floor, which is why we had a private rooftop patio. We would take the elevator up five floors, and walk up one (small) flight of stairs to the top. The apartment as a whole was fairly small, but again, we're not there to stay in the room! Our hosts were also incredibly accommodating and were quick to answer any questions we had! Such a peaceful way to end our trip! Would we stay in Koukaki again? Maybe. While the neighborhood was adorable and had incredible food, we weren't exactly close to anything in Athens. Not that it takes long to walk, but sometimes it's nice to just pop out to where you need to go!
One last thing to note about Greece lodging - you can't flush the toilet paper! This one threw us off big time. The plumbing is not great, so everywhere we stayed, you had to put the toilet paper in the trash can, not the toilet. I forgot a few times myself, but did my best. Not something you're used to in America!
To search for lodging in Italy, we started with Rome. We went back and forth on what and where to stay here since we knew it would be a very short stay. After some time, we decided to spend a tad more money than we normally would and get a hotel since it would be our first stop after a long day of travelling. The hotel was called Hotel Raffaello. We read through our Frommer's book and the various neighborhoods and landed on Monti. This neighborhood in Rome is a trendy spot in the city, with a lot of great restaurants and night clubs and it just sounded fun to us. It also helped that it was only about a ten minute walk from both the Colosseum (which was our only tour in Rome) and the train station. The hotel offered a car service for a fee, which we happily reserved. They also had a lot of great amenities we could use - including having a bottle of prosecco waiting for us when we arrived. The hotel even had breakfast (for a small cost) which was a great way to start our day! Would we stay here again? Absolutely! And we would definitely go back to that neighborhood!
Breakfast nook at the hotel |
The entrance to the hotel |
Street view in Turin |
Gotta keep the power on! |