The King Jason Hotel is a decent choice if you only need to stay for a few nights: I don’t see it as a hotel where you live a week and actually enjoy it. Although the location is not the best of what Athens has to provide, if you’re on a tight budget you will see that many of the less expensive hotels are located in this area and with that said, this street is not as bad as some of the others. If possible, go as up as possible, the 6th floor has a nice view and you even see Akropolis, but everything underneath it probably hasn’t.

Internet: On the top floor (6th) the wireless internet doesn’t work, you can manage to find a very weak signal only on the balcony, but if you can get your computer to connect you’ll realize it’s way too slow to be enjoyable. So if you really need internet during your stay, use the computer in the lobby or perhaps the signal is better on the lower floors.

Bathroom: The toilet in our room was pretty outdated. It was completely the same system as in all other toilets I used in Athens, but the flush is so weak that you’re lucky if you even manage to get one small piece of paper down. And it takes around 10 minutes of constant pressing the flush button to succeed in that: I tried. With that said, if you get one of the retired toilets, use the public toilet on the restaurant floor whenever you need to do something requiring more than one small piece of paper. Otherwise the bathroom was fine, obviously old but at least quite fresh.

Room: In the standard rooms you have a tiny TV (12 inches or so), a minibar / small fridge, a phone and a useful security box. In the bathroom there’s a blowdryer, not the most effective for long hair, but better than nothing. The balconies do not have any chairs, but there are two stools inside (one at the desk, one in the bathroom) that you can loan. From the 6th floor balcony you can see Akropolis and also enjoy the sunshine and sunset over the hills, so the views are nice.

Sleep: The beds are fine, the only thing that first bothered me that the blankets were just a felt and a sheet. Then one morning I got the point: you want to use both during the chilly nights, but in the morning you’re more likely to throw the felt away and just sleep with the sheet. Double function. The felts are a little stuffy, though.

Breakfast: Basic buffet breakfast from 6 am to 10 am. Bread, cereals, fried egg, bacon, sausage, coffee, tea, cookies, juice.. the lack of some fresh fruits was the only negative thing, otherwise it was an OK breakfast for a three star hotel.

Location: When I called to a travel agency to book a hotel, the woman in the phone told me she would not recommend the area near Omonia as it has a really bad reputation. The sad fact is though that this is the area of most budget friendly hotels. The better hotels are closer to Sygmae, Akropolis or Piraeus but the price difference was so big that I didn’t even consider any of them. The good thing is that it’s a short walking distance to the more tourist friendly areas from King Jason, and you have two metro stations nearby. If you avoid the suspicious streets, then it’s not that bad. Sure, there are some stripper clubs on the same street as the hotel. The building on the other side of the street is a popular “ladies house”. You can see drug addicts with their heroin needles, if you walk closer to Omonia you’re likely to see polices arresting people and dealers offering you drugs on the street, you will see prostitutes in the evenings and you must always look after yourself, and your bags. As a woman I would not walk on those streets alone during the nights without male companion (and even with male companion it’s quite intimidating), over 90% of the people you see are guys. Sokratous is one of the worst streets, we actually walked it one day but if it’s that crazy at 17 pm, then I would not want to know what they’re up to at 22 pm.

+ OK basic buffet breakfast
+ Close to metro stations (Omonia and Syntagma)
+ Although old, the rooms are fairly clean
+ Nice view from top balconies (Akropolis, sunset etc)

- No WLAN on the top floors (poor connection)
– Located in a drug / hooker district, not very safe at nights
– Bathroom toilet flush didn’t function very well

We paid: Double – Buffet B’Fast (2x Adults) – €125
3rd April to 6th April, 3 nights
Booked through Area.fi