Arion or Nafsika? And where do the bungalows fit?

Nafsika holds the big pool, the sea-view rooms and the life of the place, and it is the one I would take with children. Arion is quieter and has the spa, the adults-only infinity pool and Pelagos in its lobby, which makes it the one for a couple. The bungalows sit apart among the pines above Astir beach, five minutes on foot from Arion, with a buggy running all night. Decide the building before you decide anything else, because the three of them give you different holidays at the same address.

How far is it from Athens airport and from the Acropolis?

Thirty minutes from each, in opposite directions. That is the reason I use it to open or close a Greek trip: you land, swim before dinner, see the Acropolis the following morning and take a ferry or a flight to the islands the day after, with none of the usual compromise of a city hotel.

Is it open in winter, and is there any point going?

It is open all year. I have been in high summer and in December, and December is the stay most people never consider. The peninsula out of season is quiet, a degree or two milder than central Athens, and the light over the gulf at four in the afternoon beats anything August manages. The decorations go up at the end of November on a scale that is close to absurd, the restaurants keep their full menus, and the room costs a fraction of the July rate. The swimming is for the brave.

Which of the pools should I actually use?

There are three and they do different jobs. The Olympic-size pool below Nafsika is open to all ages and is where the day happens. The infinity pool on Arion's spa level is adults only and faces open water, and it is the better place to spend an afternoon reading. The third is the indoor lap pool inside the spa. If your room is low in Nafsika you will hear the first one, which is the argument for a high floor.

Do I have to eat in the hotel every night?

No, and you should not. Pelagos has the Michelin star and is worth one evening, Mercato is the trattoria and the setting of the Sunday brunch that half of Athens books weeks ahead. Then, five minutes outside the gate and still on the peninsula, there are Matsuhisa Athens and Beefbar. Neither belongs to the hotel and both are worth an evening if you are staying a week.

Inspection · Vouliagmeni, Athens Riviera, Greece

Four Seasons Astir Palace

A pine peninsula half an hour from the Acropolis, where the city stops and the sea begins.

Nafsika Sea-View Room Four Seasons Preferred Partner

Book Astir Palace with me, through Classic Travel Register first, free of charge, and the rates and partner benefits open up, with the account linked to Wheresnik. Tell me your dates before you book and I will say which room to ask for here, and which week I would avoid.

Athens ends and does not announce it. You leave the centre, follow the coast south for half an hour, and at some point the traffic thins, pines appear on the right, and a gate takes you onto a peninsula that the city has agreed to leave alone. Astir has been that place since the early sixties, when the first bungalows were built for a clientele that wanted the sea without the islands. Four Seasons reopened it in 2019 after a renovation that cost around seven hundred million dollars, and the number is visible in the parts you do not notice: the drainage, the lighting, the way the gardens were replanted so that the pines look as though nobody had ever touched them.

The whole thing runs to 295 rooms across three separate worlds, which is a number that should feel industrial and does not. Arion holds 101 rooms and the quiet, Nafsika 133 and the life, and 61 bungalows sit on the hillside above Astir beach in their own pine enclave. Choosing between them is the first real decision, and the website will not make it for you.

I have stayed here more than once and in more than one season, which is why the photographs below run from the beach in high summer to the Christmas lights going up in the lobby. The peninsula is a different proposition in each, and knowing that is most of what this piece is for.

The Nafsika building lit at night and reflected in the entrance pool — Nafsika at night, reflected in the pool at the entrance.

The room

I was in a Nafsika Sea-View Room. It faces west across the Saronic Gulf, and the view does most of the work: water, the curve of the bay, Athens somewhere behind you and out of mind. The room itself is calm and slightly anonymous in the way Four Seasons rooms often are, warm woods, soft greys, a bed that is exactly right, a bathroom with a double vanity and a tub that gets used more than I expected.

A Nafsika Sea-View Room in daylight with the bed and a table by the window — The room in the morning, before the light turns white.

The bathroom of a Nafsika room, twin round mirrors above a stone vanity — Two round mirrors, a stone vanity and a tub by the window.

The bed in a Nafsika room in the evening, the bathroom lit beyond — The same room in the evening, which is when it is best.

A Nafsika Sea-View Room with the glazing open onto the bay — The whole room, and the reason to pay for the sea side.

What I would tell a friend is to go high. The Olympic-size pool sits directly below Nafsika and it is a family pool, open to all ages, which is lovely at eleven in the morning and less lovely if your room is on the second floor and you are reading. Two floors up and the same view arrives with silence attached.

Eating

Pelagos is the serious one: one Michelin star, Luca Piscazzi cooking, a short walk away in the Arion lobby. The food leans on the Greek coast without doing the taverna routine, and the fish arrives looking like it was handled by someone who respected it. It is the dining room Athenians book for anniversaries, which tells you more than any review.

Mercato, in Nafsika, is the Italian trattoria and the setting of the Sunday brunch, which is a local event in its own right and needs booking well in advance. Taverna 37 sits at the water below Arion and runs in season only, and Helios does Latin American by the pool. Avra is the bar, next to Mercato, done by Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, and it is the place on the property that most wants to be looked at. Have one drink there at sunset and then go somewhere else for the second.

The dining room at Mercato laid for service, the gulf along one wall — Mercato before service, with the gulf along one wall.

A fish carpaccio with shaved fennel and radish at Mercato — The carpaccio at Mercato, which holds its own against the room.

Prawns and calamari on a plate beside a bed of ice and lemons at the Sunday brunch — The prawns at Sunday brunch, which is most of the argument for booking it.

The Avra bar seen from above, the island counter and the sea beyond — Avra from the floor above, which is the angle Brudnizki designed for.

A negroni on the bar at Avra beside a Four Seasons card — The drink to have there, once, at sunset.

The pool at Four Seasons Astir Palace among olive trees, the beach beyond — The pool among the olives, with the beach behind it.

Just outside the gate, still on the peninsula, are Matsuhisa Athens and Beefbar. Neither belongs to the hotel. Both are five minutes away and both are worth one evening if you are staying a week.

The water

There are three pools and three beaches, and the useful fact is that they do different jobs. The big pool in front of Nafsika is where the day happens. The infinity pool on Arion's spa level is adults only and faces the open water, and it is the better place to spend an afternoon reading. The indoor lap pool belongs to the spa, which runs ten treatment rooms and a hydrotherapy area with a hammam and a steam grotto.

The infinity pool at sunset, olive trees reflected in still water — The same water at seven, with the trees upside down in it.

Loungers and folded parasols by the pool with the sun low over the sea — The loungers empty out as soon as the sun drops.

The colonnade at Four Seasons Astir Palace at dusk with its columns wrapped in lights — The colonnade at dusk in December, with the gulf still visible at the end of it.

Floating daybeds on the infinity pool at sunset, the gulf beyond — The floating beds on the infinity pool, which is where the afternoon goes.

The beaches are small and golden and the sea is clean, which in the Aegean is ordinary and on the edge of a capital city is worth saying. The boardwalk between Arion and Nafsika runs three hundred metres along the water, and walking it at seven in the evening, with the light flattening out over the gulf and the swimmers gone, is the thing I remember most clearly from the stay.

In winter

The address reads as a summer one and the hotel is open all year, which is the part people get wrong. On the December stay the peninsula was quiet, a degree or two milder than the centre of Athens, and the light over the gulf at four in the afternoon beat anything I have seen here in August. The decorations go up at the end of November on a scale that is close to absurd: silver by the kilo in the Nafsika lobby, a tree in the Arion lounge that takes days to assemble, light columns down the colonnade that turn the arrival into a stage set. Athenians drive out simply to look at them. Rooms cost a fraction of the July rate, the restaurants keep their full menus, and the sea is there to be looked at, with the swimming left to the brave.

A wall of silver baubles and a neon sign reading hashtag fsathens in the Nafsika lobby — The Nafsika lobby in December. Restraint goes out of the window.

The Arion lounge with a decorated tree, chandeliers and the sea beyond the glass — The Arion lounge, where the tree takes days to put up.

A timber deck with chairs set over the rocks above the water — A deck over the rocks, with the chairs facing the gulf.

Two parasols and a lounger at the water's edge — Two parasols, and nothing else to do all afternoon.

Rosemary in flower below the terraces of the hillside bungalows — Rosemary in flower under the terraces of the bungalows.

The interior of a bungalow looking out to the beach through open glazing — A bungalow looks straight out at the beach, and little else.

Advisor's perspective

This is the property I use to open or close a Greek itinerary. Thirty minutes from the airport and thirty from the centre, which means a guest can land, swim before dinner, see the Acropolis the next morning and be on a ferry or a flight to the islands the day after, without the usual Athens hotel compromise of concrete and a rooftop view.

It also works on its own for a week, with the caveat that it is a resort with a city attached and the city is very good. For a couple I would take Arion or a bungalow and the quiet. For a family I would take Nafsika and be glad of the pool noise. Anyone travelling on business who can add two days should know that the meeting rooms are in Arion and the sea is four minutes from them.

A navy cap embroidered Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens — The cap came home. It usually does.

The five

What I would tell a friend before they left.

Choose the building first, then the floorNafsika has the big pool, the lobby with people passing through and the sea-view rooms. Arion is quieter and holds Pelagos, the spa and the adults-only infinity pool. The bungalows sit apart among the pines, five minutes on foot from Arion with a buggy running all night. Once you have chosen, ask for a high floor: the sea-view rooms look west over the gulf, and the lower ones come with the sound of the pool underneath.
Book Pelagos when you book the roomOne Michelin star, Luca Piscazzi in the kitchen, and a dining room that fills with Athenians as well as guests. Tables go weeks ahead in summer, and the kitchen keeps its full menu out of season.
Sunday brunch at Mercato, and book it earlyThe brunch is open to anyone, so half of Athens comes out for it and the room is spoken for long before the weekend. Guests get no special claim on a table, which is the part people discover too late. Reserve it when you reserve the room.
Walk the boardwalk once in each lightThree hundred metres of timber connect Arion and Nafsika along the water. Early morning it belongs to swimmers, at seven in the evening it is the best part of the property, and at night it is empty.
Treat it as the hinge of a Greek tripThirty minutes from the centre of Athens, thirty from the airport. A night here before the islands and a night after works better than two nights in the city, and the Acropolis is still an easy morning.

The list goes on. Guests who book with me receive the rest before departure.

Before you book

The questions people send me about Astir Palace.

Arion or Nafsika? And where do the bungalows fit?: Nafsika holds the big pool, the sea-view rooms and the life of the place, and it is the one I would take with children. Arion is quieter and has the spa, the adults-only infinity pool and Pelagos in its lobby, which makes it the one for a couple. The bungalows sit apart among the pines above Astir beach, five minutes on foot from Arion, with a buggy running all night. Decide the building before you decide anything else, because the three of them give you different holidays at the same address.
How far is it from Athens airport and from the Acropolis?: Thirty minutes from each, in opposite directions. That is the reason I use it to open or close a Greek trip: you land, swim before dinner, see the Acropolis the following morning and take a ferry or a flight to the islands the day after, with none of the usual compromise of a city hotel.
Is it open in winter, and is there any point going?: It is open all year. I have been in high summer and in December, and December is the stay most people never consider. The peninsula out of season is quiet, a degree or two milder than central Athens, and the light over the gulf at four in the afternoon beats anything August manages. The decorations go up at the end of November on a scale that is close to absurd, the restaurants keep their full menus, and the room costs a fraction of the July rate. The swimming is for the brave.
Which of the pools should I actually use?: There are three and they do different jobs. The Olympic-size pool below Nafsika is open to all ages and is where the day happens. The infinity pool on Arion's spa level is adults only and faces open water, and it is the better place to spend an afternoon reading. The third is the indoor lap pool inside the spa. If your room is low in Nafsika you will hear the first one, which is the argument for a high floor.
Do I have to eat in the hotel every night?: No, and you should not. Pelagos has the Michelin star and is worth one evening, Mercato is the trattoria and the setting of the Sunday brunch that half of Athens books weeks ahead. Then, five minutes outside the gate and still on the peninsula, there are Matsuhisa Athens and Beefbar. Neither belongs to the hotel and both are worth an evening if you are staying a week.

Something else you want to know? Write to me and I will answer it here.

The terraces and the pool at Four Seasons Astir Palace seen from above at sunset

The Nafsika building reflected in the entrance pool at dusk

The Avra bar seen from the floor above, with the gulf beyond the glass

A beach bag with water bottles and sun cream on a folded towel

A Four Seasons Astir Palace notepad on the desk beside a charging cable

The Astron lounge in the Arion building with its chandeliers

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