Is Koukaki a good area to stay in Athens?

Koukaki starts where Makrygianni stops and runs down to Syngrou. It is a normal Athenian grid - five-storey blocks, balconies, a bakery on every second corner - and the reason to book it is arithmetic: the same room costs about half what it does the other side of the museum, and the Acropolis Museum is still a ten-minute walk.

Drakou street is the centre of it, pedestrianised, with tavernas and cafes that fill with people who live here rather than with the promenade crowd. Syngrou-Fix and Akropoli are both on M2, and the T6 tram from Fix runs down to the coast. Philopappou Hill, which gives the best free view of the Acropolis in the city, is at the top of the street.

The honest downsides are distance and stock. Monastiraki is twenty minutes on foot and the return leg is uphill in whatever the August temperature is. Nearly everything for rent here is a short-let flat rather than a hotel, so there is no desk, no early check-in and nobody to hold a bag. And there is nothing to see in the district itself, so every day starts with the same walk.