For all its beauty—sparkling waters dotted with kaiki boats, wild beaches, and a bougainvillea coastline that soaks up 300 days of sunshine a year—it’s shocking how under-the-radar the Athens Riviera has remained in this aesthetic-obsessed age. (On Instagram, the hashtag #athensriviera has a modest 114,000 posts; compare that with Santorini’s 8.1 million and Mykonos’s 5.6 million.)
A former holiday hotspot for stars and royalty, the area faded from popularity in the early aughts following Greece’s debt crisis and the closure of a nearby US airbase. But 2025 is the Riviera’s year of revival, with new developments set to elevate the nearly 40-mile stretch just 30 minutes from Athens’ city center.
The most Goliath of these is The Ellinikon, an ambitious $8 billion undertaking on the former Ellinikon International Airport site that will be completed in phases from 2025 onwards and is projected to create 70,000 jobs. A host of big-name residential, cultural, and hospitality projects dominate its masterplan, including a surf-inspired Kengo Kuma–designed waterfront mall, a Mandarin Oriental resort, and a Hard Rock hotel and casino due for completion in 2027. The real jewel, however, is a lushly landscaped coastal park—Europe’s largest—that will open by the end of 2025, doubling the green space in a capital notorious for its lack of it.
In anticipation of a tourism boom, a clutch of new hotels is gathering in the Riviera—the first time that major brands have set up here since Four Seasons Astir Palace’s 2019 opening. In July 2024, One&Only launched its first Greece outpost in the Glyfada suburb, the ultra-swish One&Only Aesthesis, where outsize bungalows and suites hug the shore and sprawl amidst olive trees. Close by, at the 120-room coastal-cool Ace Hotel & Swim Club, travelers can stay for a night or just a dip (day passes are available for the club’s two pools). Even more restoration awaits at 91 Athens Riviera in the Voula district, a fresh wellness haven where 30 chic glamping tents surround a spa, gym, and tennis and beach clubs. Supporting these are more direct flights to Athens than ever, including first-time connections to Shanghai, Sharjah, and Brest from 2024. —Audrey Phoon
County Clare, Ireland
Go for: eco-conscious stays and a celebration of traditional crafts
