# Is Pagkrati a Good Area to Stay in Athens? Map & Verdict

Verdict: Recommended. Book here without thinking about it.

Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/pagkrati
Every Athens district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens.md

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.

Facts: 25 min walk to Monastiraki Square; 45 min to the airport; price €€; best for food, couples, longer stays, quiet; lines M3.

Pangrati sits east of the Panathenaic Stadium and south of Kolonaki: a grid of 1960s apartment blocks around Plateia Plastira and Plateia Varnava, the First Cemetery on its western edge, and the Ilissos valley running through it. Ten years ago nobody suggested staying here. Now it has the best concentration of ordinary good restaurants in central Athens.

It works as a base because it is a real neighbourhood that happens to be close in. Syntagma is a twenty-minute walk, the Acropolis about thirty, and the squares fill with Athenians rather than tour groups every evening. Prices for a flat sit well below Plaka or Kolonaki for more space and a quieter night.

The two costs are transport and sights. There is no metro station inside Pangrati - Evangelismos on M3 is a ten-minute walk from the northern edge and further from everywhere else - so you walk or take a bus. And apart from the stadium, nothing here is old: this is a twentieth-century district, and the classical Athens you came for is all to the west.

What works:
- The best density of everyday good restaurants in central Athens
- About 20 minutes on foot to Syntagma, 30 to the Acropolis
- Real neighbourhood squares - Plastira and Varnava - used by residents
- Flats cost well below Kolonaki or Plaka for noticeably more space

What does not:
- No metro station inside the district; Evangelismos is a walk away
- Nothing ancient here apart from the Panathenaic Stadium at the edge
- Mostly 1960s apartment blocks, which is not what you flew here to see
- Uphill going east, and further out than the listings suggest

Hotels in Pagkrati: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D1977%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.
- [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.
- [Gazi & Rouf](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-athens/gazi-rouf): Mixed. 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.
- [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.