Great Hotels and Flights

For most visitors the highlight of a visit to a hotel ATHENS is the brilliant glimmers of the ancient, the classical Greek city, most famously epitomized by the Acropolis and its enclosing archeological sites. Even on a brief site-seeing to one of the exquisite hotels, however, it is a shame to see Athens purely as the location of ancient sites and museums. Although the neighbourhoods may lack the style and monuments of most European capitals, they are worth at least some study. The old nineteenth-century quarter of Pláka, to be exact, is a delight, with its mix of Turkish, Neoclassical and Greek-island architecture, and an array of arousing little museums devoted to traditional arts, ceramics and music. Just to its north, the bazaar area, around Athinás and Eólou, enjoys an almost Middle Eastern atmosphere in its life and trade, while the National Gardens, elegant Kolonáki and the hill of Lykavitós offer a break from the maelstrom. Further afield, but still well within the limits of Greater Athens, are the monasteries of Kessarianí and Dhafní, the aftermost with Byzantine mosaics the equal of any in Greece.

Another popular hotel resort, and a place where you need to find cheap flights to is Paris, France. Some times, Paris can feel inhumanly brilliant, the arrogance of its monuments encompassing the chilly pomp of the Panthéon, the industrial dashing of the Eiffel Tower and the almost spiritual glasswork of the Louvre pyramid. Yet it also operates on a very civilized scale, with exquisite, backstairs little nooks tucked away from the Grands Boulevards and very bold little communities revolving around games of boules and the local boulangerie and café. And even as Paris's culture is transformed by its large immigrant and gay populations, even as extravagant new buildings are commissioned and erected, many of the city's streets, cafés and restaurants remain remarkably, defiantly unchanged.