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As the first hip hotel in Kolonaki, the most exclusive neighbourhood in Athens, Periscope was long overdue. An award-winning team
of international architects have turned the awful Athenian Inn, a 1970s relic, into a cheeky homage to 21st-century minimalism. The location, among the upscale boutiques, restaurants and bars of Haritos Street, is a coup. It's especially fortuitous that Ratka, the dining choice of Athenian high society, is next door, because there's no restaurant and a surprisingly limited room-service menu. This doesn't seem to bother the expense-account city slickers in the compact, black bar, fitted with Ferrari-red lacquer tables and revamped leather Mini Cooper seats. When the barflies tire of the surreal videos of giant crustaceans invading Athens, they can zoom in on their unsuspecting neighbours using a joystick linked to a rooftop periscope. The urban surveillance theme carries through to the 12 soundproofed 'torpedo' rooms and junior suites decorated in shades of grey, where ergonomic design meets macho gadgetry (free broadband, built-in sound systems, swivelling LCD TVs, and electric blinds). Resolutely urban, Periscope plays on its downtown location ceilings are plastered with aerial photographs of the surrounding concrete jungle, adjustable light boxes feature panoramas of Athens by day and night, and a trompe l'oeil mural covering the exterior wall captures the shifting shadows cast by the surrounding blocks of flats.
WHEN TO GO
Spring, for a pre-summer fix of sunshine, shopping, and late-night partying.
ROOM TO BOOK
The split-level Penthouse Suite, with its balcony bar and glass-walled Jacuzzi at eye-level with the Acropolis, is made for memorable one-night stands.
CONTACT
22 Haritos Street, Athens, Greece (00 30 210 7297200; www.periscope.gr).
COST
Doubles from 150 euros; suites from 260 euros
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