Grand Hyatt Athens Review

My family and I recently spent 2 nights at the Grand Hyatt Athens (June 2024) before flying back home after a wonderful Greece vacation.

Grand Hyatt Athens – Bookable with points

Grand Hyatt Athens is a Hyatt category 3 hotel. Meaning that the rooms range from 9K points/night (off peak) – 12K points/night (standard) – 15K points/night (peak). During our vacation, being the height of the summer, it was 15K points/night. Since this is a category 3 hotel, you could also use a category 1 – 4 free night certificate to book nights here also.

You can earn points to book this property with spend on The World of Hyatt Credit Card. Or.. my favorite option… earn Chase Ultimate Reward points and transfer those to Hyatt when you are ready to book. This is my favorite option because I find Chase Ultimate Reward points easier to rack up.

Getting to Grand Hyatt Athens from a Ferry

The ferry situation in Greece can be chaotic and overwhelming. But being prepared will remove a lot of that stress. We had booked a car from George Transfer Services. The thing with taxis is Athens.. it’s really easy to get ripped off. And I knew getting off a 4 hour ferry, I didn’t want to deal with that. The transfer from the port to the hotel was $30. The car was clean and no residual smoke smell (yes, many taxis stink). Also, it took forever to disembark the ferry and the service did not abandon us! 🙂

It was about a 15 minute drive from the ferry to the Grand Hyatt Athens. When we arrived at 3:45 PM the lobby was very very busy. They had 4 people checking in and the lines seemed long. Yet, it only took about 5 minutes to get to the check in person.

Check in took about 10 minutes. My Globalist benefits were explained and all the details I needed were given (breakfast hours, pool hours, spa usage, etc).

Our Upgraded Room

In my Hyatt app, I had seen that our room had been upgraded. Traveling as a family of 3, it is always so nice to have that little bit of extra space. But I wasn’t prepared for how GRAND this upgrade was. We were upgraded to the “Corner Suite with 1 King Bed”. Little did I know… this was massive with a bedroom + living room, TWO full bathrooms, a wrap around porch, and this view…

When we returned from our 1st night out, there was a treat left with a small bottle or alcohol and chocolates + new water bottles left on the bedside.

Globalist Benefits

Hyatt’s top tier status is called Globalist. Here’s how you earn it & more info.

The biggest Globalist benefit for my family is usually included breakfast. And the breakfast at Grand Hyatt was bananas! A huge table just filled with the most incredible breakfast pastries. A yogurt parfait area. And nearly anything else you could want. Even a true Greek coffee station (where you heat the coffee in the sand!). And yes, self serve champagne. It’s vacation, don’t mind if I do. On top of of it all, the service was fantastic.

My other favorite Globalist benefit is lounge access. The lounge did have snacks (mini sandwiches) all day and then some hot food options at night – to be honest… I tried 0 of this. It didn’t look amazing. And being in Athens, we went out to lunch/dinner to try all the amazing Greek food. But what I love about a lounge is stopping by when we get back from dinner and having a glass of champagne or a bit of dessert. This lounge is not large for the size of the hotel, but somehow we got lucky and it was never crowded.

Amazing Pools – But where’s the shade?

It is HOT in Athens in June. It doesn’t have those island breezes like Mykonos and Naxos! The Grand Hyatt Athens has amazing pools. 2 rooftop ones with views of the acropolis. And then a shallow one on the ground floor better suites for small kids.

So we get on our swimsuits, plan to spend an hour at one the rooftop pool that overlooks the Acropolis. Get to the pool. No shade. No umbrellas for shade. Anywhere. There are about 4 cabanas with shade that are all taken. And some dining style tables that have shade but not great for hanging at the pool. And during our visit, the pool closed at 7pm, so going later wasn’t an option either.

Location

I will go out of my way to stay at a Hyatt. The benefits are worth the effort. And I 100% feel that way about the Grand Hyatt Athens. But it’s important to know, it’s 8 – 10 minutes from the city center. Catching a cab outside of the Hyatt is super easy. They are always available and all have meters. We never had any issues with those cabs. Fare was generally $6 + $1 per person so just under $10 for a trip into the center.

It’s the cabs on the way back you need to be cautious of. Do NOT get in a cab until you ask if they have a meter/run the meter. If they try to give you a flat rate (which will likely be $25+) you don’t want to find out once you are already IN the cab. YES, we found out the hard way. Happened once. After that, I had no issue asking. And yep, another day a guy tried to quote me $25. I said no thanks, went to the next guy. Total fare back was less than $10.

My Take

I read many mixed reviews about this hotel. My experience here was excellent across the board. Beds were super comfortable. House keeping was great. Elevators were fairly quick. Breakfast was extensive and made for a wonderfully relaxing morning. There isn’t anything I can fault – except not being walkable to main sites. I wouldn’t hesitate to stay here again.

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Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.