# Is Gazi & Rouf a Good Area to Stay in Athens? Map & Verdict Verdict: Mixed. Fine for some travellers, wrong for others. Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/gazi-rouf Every Athens district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens.md The old gasworks turned club district, and the industrial blocks behind it. Loud on Friday, dead on Tuesday, and half of it closes when the nightlife moves to the coast in summer. Facts: 20 min walk to Monastiraki Square; 45 min to the airport; 50 min to the beach; price €€; best for nightlife, solo travellers, budget; lines M3. Safety: Mixed after dark. The club blocks are busy and policed until 04:00; the industrial streets between Pireos and Iera Odos are not, and they empty completely once the bars close. Walk back on Ermou or Pireos rather than cutting through them. Gazi is the few blocks around the Technopolis gasworks and Kerameikos station on M3, which is what created the district: the station opened in 2007 and the clubs followed it into the abandoned factories. It is the centre of Athens's gay nightlife, and the rest of the bars, live-music halls and small theatres sit in the same industrial shells around Pireos and Iera Odos. Rouf is the working end behind it, still mostly warehouses. For a visitor the geography works better than it looks. Kerameikos runs direct to the airport, Monastiraki is twenty minutes on foot along Ermou past the Kerameikos site, and the rooms cost roughly what Koukaki charges. The trade is what the streets do the rest of the time. There are very few shops, the blocks are long with no through traffic, and by day it is warehouses. Club noise runs to 04:00 at the weekend and it happens on the street below the window rather than inside the building. In July and August the whole scene relocates to the beach clubs on the coast, and what is left is the industrial part. What works: - Kerameikos on M3 runs direct to the airport - Twenty minutes to Monastiraki on foot, along Ermou past the Kerameikos site - The centre of Athens's gay nightlife, concentrated in a few blocks - Technopolis puts concerts and markets inside the old gasworks What does not: - Club noise until 04:00 at weekends, on the street rather than indoors - Dead by day: warehouses, workshops and almost no shops - In July and August the nightlife moves to the coast and this empties - Long blocks with no through traffic, so it reads as deserted late on Hotels in Gazi & Rouf: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D1968%26dest_type%3Ddistrict%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1 ## Other districts in Athens - [Plaka & Monastiraki](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/plaka-monastiraki): Recommended. The lanes under the north face of the Acropolis, and the flea-market square below them. Every ancient site in Athens is a walk from here, and the rates say so. - [Psyri](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/psyri): Mixed. Old workshop streets turned bar district, five minutes north of Monastiraki. The liveliest nights in the centre, and the noise that comes with them. - [Omonia & Vathis Square](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/omonia): Mixed. The hotel blocks north-west of Omonia Square: the cheapest central beds in Athens, both main metro lines, and the streets Athenians tell you to stay out of after dark. - [Syntagma & the Commercial Triangle](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/syntagma): Recommended. The old commercial centre between Syntagma, Monastiraki and Omonia: Parliament, Ermou and the grand hotels. Everything is walkable and three metro lines meet here, at a price. - [Victoria & Attiki](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/victoria): Avoid. The dense residential blocks around Victoria and Attiki squares, north of Omonia. Cheap hotels two metro stops from the centre, and every evening walk home runs through Omonia. - [Kypseli](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/kypseli): Mixed. 1930s apartment blocks around Fokionos Negri, above Pedion tou Areos. The neighbourhood Athenians moved back to, and the cheapest flats in this guide, with no metro yet. - [Makrygianni](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/makrygianni): Recommended. The few streets behind the Acropolis Museum, on the south slope. Akropoli station is at one corner and the pedestrian promenade to the Acropolis entrance starts at the other. - [Koukaki](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/koukaki): Recommended. A residential grid ten minutes below the Acropolis Museum. The cheapest rooms that are still inside walking distance, plus Syngrou-Fix on M2 and the tram to the coast. - [Kolonaki](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/kolonaki): Recommended. The expensive quarter on the slope of Lycabettus, above Syntagma. Embassies, boutiques and the cafes Athenians go to be seen in. Nothing ancient is within ten minutes. - [Pagkrati](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/pagkrati): Recommended. The residential district behind the Panathenaic Stadium that Athenians moved to and visitors are still catching up with. Half an hour's walk from the Acropolis. - [Mets](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/mets): Recommended. A few quiet streets on the hill between the Panathenaic Stadium and the First Cemetery. The calmest place you can sleep this close to the Acropolis. - [Exarcheia](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/exarcheia): Mixed. The polytechnic district: rock bars, second-hand bookshops, political graffiti and no metro station. Cheap, twenty minutes from the Acropolis, and not a soft landing. - [Thiseio & Ano Petralona](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/thiseio-ano-petralona): Recommended. West of the Acropolis, along the pedestrian street with the best view of it. Thiseio for the cafes and the sites, Ano Petralona above it for rooms at half the price. - [Neos Kosmos & Syngrou](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/neos-kosmos): Avoid. The chain hotels on the road to the coast. Modern rooms, a pool, an M2 station and a tram - and a thirty-minute commute to everything you came to Athens for.